NSFC Awards 2024: Nickel Boys Named Year’s Best Picture, also Best Cinematography

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS VOTES ON 59th ANNUAL AWARDS

The National Society of Film Critics has chosen Nickel Boys as Best Picture of 2024.

The Society, which is made up of 60 of the country’s most prominent critics, held its 59th annual awards meeting on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. Critics voted at in-person gatherings in L.A. and N.Y., and also virtually from across the country.

“It was a day of very close races in multiple categories, which speaks to the strength and the range of the movies seen and loved,” said Justin Chang, chair of NSFC. “I’m thrilled to see the accolades for Nickel Boys, one of great American films of recent years, as well world-cinema standouts like India’s All We Imagine as Light.

The National Society of Film Critics counts among its members many of the country’s leading film critics. Its purpose is to promote the mutual interests of film criticism and filmmaking. Founded in 1966, the Society differs from other critical associations in a number of significant ways. In the first place, it is truly national. Secondly, membership is by election.

The group represents the best of contemporary American film criticism.  Members include the critics from major outlets in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Its members include critics of the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker, but also Slate, Indiewire, Deadline, and NPR.

The Society represents movie criticism in the US by supplying the official critic delegate to the National Film Registration Board of the Library of Congress and abroad as the official American representative in FIPRESCI, the international federation of members of the film press.

NSFC responds to specific issues, such as imprisoned filmmakers, film preservation, ratings system.

The Society meets early in January to vote on the Society’s awards for the year’s finest film achievements.

AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2024

BEST PICTURE: “Nickel Boys” (49 points)

Runners-up:
“All We Imagine as Light” and “Anora” (34 points)

BEST DIRECTOR: Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light” (49 points)

Runners-up:

RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys” (42 points)

Sean Baker, “Anora” (33 points)

BEST ACTRESS: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths” (79 points)

Runners-up:

Mikey Madison, “Anora” (35 points)

Ilinca Manolache, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (32 points)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Michele Austin, “Hard Truths” (55 points)

Runners-up:

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Nickel Boys,” and Natasha Lyonne, “His Three Daughters” (39 points)

BEST ACTOR: Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing” (60 points)

Runners-up:

Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” (51 points)

Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave” (45 points)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (52 points)

Runners-up:

Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist” (50 points)

Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown,” and Adam Pearson, “A Different Man” (41 points)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” (47 points)

Runners-up:

Radu Jude, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (46 points)
Sean Baker, “Anora” (45 points)

BEST FILM NOT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE: “All We Imagine as Light” (49 points)

Runners-up:

“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (41 points)

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (28 points)

BEST NONFICTION FILM: “No Other Land” (70 points)

Runners-up:

“Dahomey” (51 points)

“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (24 points)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys” (80 points)

Runners-up:
Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist” (38 points)

Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu” (21 points)

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM: “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire”

SPECIAL CITATION FOR FILM AWAITING U.S. DISTRIBUTION: “No Other Land”

FILM HERITAGE AWARDS:

— IndieCollect, since its founding in 2010 by Sandra Schulberg, it has met the challenge of preserving independent films with rare sense of artistic responsibility.

— To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, for more than two decades of restorations and diverse programming, in collaboration with archives, foundations, studios and other organizations.