National Society of Film Critics names ‘Past Lives’ best picture of 2023
Co-founded by the late film critic Pauline Kael in 1966, the National Society of Film Critics met Saturday to vote in its 58th annual awards ceremony. Why should you care? Because it’s a group comprised of film critics from all over the United States (including Boston). And because I’m a member, of course. It’s my third year voting, and while I can’t always get what I want, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, my picks have earned some victories every year.
The NSFC has been known to make some shocking choices. For example, in 2015 members went for Jean-Luc Godard’s 2014 film, “Goodbye to Language,” instead of Richard Linkater’s “Boyhood,” which won best film from New York and Los Angeles critics groups. The NSFC rarely aligns with the Academy’s choice for best picture; instead, several foreign and independent films have won NSFC’s prestigious award for best film. In my first year as a member, we gave the award to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car.”
NSFC provides the total vote tallies and two runners-up for each category. We also announce the best film award before best director. In a squeaker, my best film of 2023, Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” won over Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” for best film by two points. (Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” was third.) Glazer won best director, beating out runners-up Todd Haynes and Nolan.
Haynes’s film “May December” won best screenplay by three points over “Past Lives” and also won best supporting actor for Charles Melton (it wasn’t close, but Ryan Gosling and Robert Downey Jr. tied there for “Barbenheimer”). Also not close: Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s deserving supporting actress win for “The Holdovers” and a surprise best actor win for Andrew “Hot Priest” Scott in “All of Us Strangers.”
Sandra Hüller narrowly edged out Emma Stone to win best actress for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Zone of Interest.” Lily Gladstone placed third in that category for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which won best cinematography.
Aki Kaurismäki’s bittersweet Finnish romantic comedy, “Fallen Leaves,” took home best film not in the English language. Also not in English, our nonfiction film winner: Frederick Wiseman’s four-hour food-porn documentary about a French resort and restaurant, “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros.”
Even the late Godard showed up this year. His last film, an 18-minute short, “Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars,” received the award for best experimental film. We gave a special citation for a film awaiting US distribution to Víctor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes.” Our film heritage awards went to the Criterion Channel; and, collectively, to Facets, Kim’s Video, Scarecrow Video, and Vidiots “for maintaining widereaching libraries of films on disc and tape and making those libraries available to the general public.”