Any Oscar-watcher knows that the week after Thanksgiving is when things tend to start getting exciting—we finally have some winners! As is tradition, the indie-focused Gotham Awards and eclectic New York Film Critics Circle got the season rolling over the past few days by announcing their best of the year. We can surely read too much into what they mean for Oscar—which we will absolutely do—but it’s also worth taking a step back to appreciate how these groups expand the conversation before things inevitably contract.
Indeed, it’s the NYFCC that put Drive My Car on the map last year, naming it best picture before other critics’ groups followed suit, creating a passionate consensus that led to its remarkable Academy breakthrough. This year, the group named Tár best picture, an expected choice given the wide acclaim Todd Field’s rich character study has received. But it also handed best director to Indian maestro S.S. Rajamouli,of RRR, a critical kind of visibility boost to that long shot but deserving campaign.
Cate Blanchett and Colin Farrell won the lead-acting trophies, and we can safely assume they’ll lead the way for the other critics’ awards, even as Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser, respectively, will prove competitive as the industry starts weighing in. And in supporting, Ke Huy Quan is looking just about unstoppable, with both a ton of industry goodwill and a Gotham-NYFCC sweep already in his corner. But both the Gothams and NYFCC lifted the hopes of one actor, particularly, who’s deserving more of a space in the conversation and may have just gotten it. In the former’s case, Till’s Danielle Deadwyler won the combined lead-performance prize over Blanchett, Fraser, Yeoh, and Farrell, while in the latter’s, Nope’s Keke Palmer pulled off a glorious upset in best supporting actress. (Speaking of Palmer: The charismatic star kicks off our Reunited season today with Angela Bassett, which you’ll want to watch immediately if you like good things.)
These wins, to my mind, are what awards season is all about: Balancing that undeniable, Blanchett-level effort with performances and voices that need a bit more support, those shiny reminders of the unsung work that is worth seeking out. The NYFCC didn’t go as bold as they have in other years; Martin McDonagh won screenplay, where I expect the Banshees of Inisherin auteur to repeat at the Oscars, while no one could be too surprised by Laura Poitras’s documentary win for her latest masterpiece, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
As to how the best-picture race is shaping up, these aren’t the groups for whom The Fabelmans will come out on top, exactly—but that doesn’t mean the memoiristic Steven Spielbergfilm has fallen by any means. That said, as we at Awards Insider continue to track the soaring campaign of Everything Everywhere All at Once, seeing A24’s box-office smash taking the top prize at the Gothams gives some weight to the dream that it can go all the way. That’s what these wins are all about.
Things are about to explode as everyone from the National Board of Review to the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice Awards weigh in with their picks in the coming weeks. We’ll get more consensus, more front-runners, more maybe-contenders falling out. At least for now, though, the season remains filled with possibility.
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