The NSFC Goes All in for Drive My Car

In the tiny little world of Oscar season and film critics we’ve just seen three major critics groups (who are all basically the same voters) go for the same movie – Drive My Car, which is Japan’s official entry into the International Feature category. It isn’t unheard of for an International Feature/Foreign Language film to get into the Oscar race. It just depends on how that movie translates beyond the insular bubble of film critics. Some do, some don’t. Parasite did. Roma did. Many hope that this film will get in for Best Picture. It would need around 100 people to name it as best film of the year and not critics. So we’ll see if it gets in anywhere else.

Steve Pond says:

While the NSFC is an organization of critics for U.S. outlets, a sizable majority of the wins went to films not in English, including three of the four acting awards. The award for “Drive My Car” made it only the fifth film to sweep the critics awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and National Society of Film Critics.

Here are the winners:

est Picture: “Drive My Car” (48 points)
Runners-up: “Petit Maman” (25), “The Power of the Dog” (23)

Best Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, “Drive My Car” (63)
Runners-up: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” (44); Simon Rex, “Red Rocket” (30)

Best Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers” (55)
Runners-up: Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World” (42); Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza” (32)

Best Supporting Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie, “The Worst Person in the World” (54)
Runners-up: Vincent Lindon, “Titane” (33); Mike Faist, “West Side Story” (26) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog” (26)

Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Negga, “Passing” (46)
Runners-up: Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” (22); Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter” (21)

Best Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (46)
Runners-up: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog” (36), Celine Sciamma, “Petite Maman” (28)

Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car” (46)
Runners-up: Pedro Almodovar, “Parallel Mothers” (22); Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza” (20)

Best Nonfiction Film: “Flee” (41)
Runners-up: “Procession” (28) and “The Velvet Underground” (28)

Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo, “The Green Knight” (52)
Runners-up: Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog” (40); Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Memoria” (35)

Special citation for film awaiting U.S. distribution: “Returning to Reims,” Jean-Gabriel Periot

Film Heritage Award: Bertrand Tavernier and Peter Bogdanovich

Film Heritage Award: Maya Cade for the Black Film Archive