New York Film Critics Winners: Updating Live

While the 2022 New York Film Critics Circle Awards were scheduled to take place at Tao Downtown in NYC on January 10, they’ve now been postponed due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases witnessed across the country, with a new date for the ceremony to be unveiled early next year.

The New York Film Critics Circle anointed “Drive My Car” as the Best Film of 2021 and now the West Coast critics have had their say. After almost six hours of overall deliberations, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association also selected “Drive My Car” as their Best Film of the year with “The Power of the Dog” as runner-up.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: New York, its movie awards-season showcase that took place Saturday at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. A total of 23 Oscar-buzzed films were on display across the day of panel presentations, a one-stop shop for Academy and guild voters as they sort out their ballots.

Stillwater director/co-writer Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon joined Deadline’s Contenders New York event today to discuss the film and what they were looking for in the Bill Baker character.

The Many Saints of Newark writer David Chase and stars Ray Liotta and Alessandro Nivola discussed the Sopranos prequel Saturday at Contenders Film: New York. Speaking with Deadline’s Mike Fleming, Chase and Nivola zeroed in on the explosive rage of Nivola’s character, Dickie Moltisanti, while Liotta had a different perspective on his role.

Oscar Isaac had been waiting a long time to work with filmmaker Paul Schrader, and in The Card Counter, he found a much-longed-for opportunity to portray an antihero directly in the mold of the writer-director’s signature works including Taxi Driver, Light Sleeper and First Reformed.

The heroine of Zola – the unique, Twitter-chain inspired pic about a hastily arranged raunchy road trip – was drawn in part from The Wizard of Oz, director Janicza Bravo told a panel at Deadline’s New York Contenders event. It’s a about  girl who craves adventure, leaves a boring pale life “and is transported into this deeply saturated world, and by the end has made three enemies” (Yes, the end is a twist from the classic.)

For her film CODA, filmmaker Siân Heder found that delving deep into the cultural differences between the deaf and hearing communities to be wildly informative in creating a fresh cinematic experience.

Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Venus and Serena Williams’ mother, Oracene, in King Richard, said her character deserves more credit, including from herself.

Actress Olga Merediz stopped by Deadline’s Contenders: New York on Saturday to talk about reprising her role as Abuela Claudia from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Broadway musical In the Heights for Jon M. Chu’s Warner Bros film of the same name.

Being the Ricardos writer-director Aaron Sorkin and stars Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York showcase to discuss the Amazon Studios biopic of sorts about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, played by Kidman and Bardem, respectively.

Sam Heughan and his Outlander co-star Graham McTavish released their second book Clandlands: The Almanac last month, and already it has made the New York Times Best Seller list.

Paolo Sorrentino said the experience of turning 50 two years ago helped encourage him to depict the experiences of his youth onscreen. That led to the Netflix film The Hand of God.

Respect director Liesl Tommy was joined by writer Tracey Scott Wilson, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and production designer Ina Mayhew at Deadline’s Contenders: New York award-season event Saturday to discuss their movie about legendary singer Aretha Franklin.

Academy Awards. It's only the second time in the last four decades that the critics' top honor went to a non English-language film.