Film critics name ‘The Rider’ as best picture of 2018

The National Society of Film Critics on Saturday chose Chloe Zhao’s low-budget debut feature, “The Rider,” as best picture of 2018.

Director Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white “Roma” period piece set in modern Mexico won the most awards — as best picture runner-up, best foreignlanguage film and best cinematography. Cuaron also got the award for best director.

The society of leading movie critics voted for Olivia Colman as best actress in “The Favourite,” and Ethan Hawke as best actor in “First Reformed.” The top accolade for best supporting actor went to Steve Yeun of “Burning,” while Regina King of “If Beale Street Could Talk” nabbed best supporting actress.

Best screenplay went to “The Death of Stalin,” and best nonfiction film to “Minding the Gap,” a documentary directed by Bing Liu about the complex friendship among three skateboarding young men, including himself, in their hometown of Rockford, Ill.

The film critics society was founded in 1966, electing its voting critics from newspapers and other major U.S. media outlets. The 53rd annual awards were hosted by New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Justin Chang, the society’s chairman and the Los Angeles Times’ film critic, said that 2018 yielded “an embarrassment of riches” among new movies, but “The Rider” stood out among them — a contemporary Western drama shot in the badlands of South Dakota. There, a family living in a trailer against the backdrop of the rodeo circuit struggles with autism, brain damage from a bronc riding competition, drinking and gambling, but somehow endures.

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS Brady Jandreau as Brady Blackburn in “The Rider.”