Boston Society of Film Critics award winners announced; Oscar season is on!

Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Although not the first critics group to announce this awards season, the Boston Society of Film Critics is at least the first major group. They kick things off for Nomadland and First Cow in a big way, showing strong support for both those female-directed titles as well as others, including The Assistant and Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The BSFC also threw a couple of prizes South America's way, after this week's Sight & Sound Top 50 of 2020 showed a dispiritingly US/UK-centric view of the year's cinema. That said, their #1 choice made an appearance here too, with Boston critics undeterred from casting their votes for episodes of Steve McQueen's anthology series Small Axe - Lovers Rock is a deserving runner-up for Cinematography behind Nomadland's deserving win.

Best Film

Nomadland

Runner-up: First Cow

Best Director

Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Runner-up: Kelly Reichardt (First Cow)

Best Actress

Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Runner-up: Julia Garner (The Assistant)

Best Actor

Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Runner-up: Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)

Best Supporting Actress

Youn Yuh Jung (Minari)

Runner-up: Amanda Seyfried (Mank)

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Raci (Sound of Metal)

Runner-up: Brian Dennehy (Driveways)

Best Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Runner-up: Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt (First Cow)

Best Cinematography

Joshua James Richards (Nomadland)

Runner-up: Shabier Kirchner (Lovers Rock)

Best Editing (in memory of Karen Schmeer)

Robert Frazen (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Runner-up: Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Score

Emile Mosseri (Minari)

Runner-up: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Mank)

Best Ensemble Cast

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Runner-up: Minari

Best Animated Film

The Wolf House (Joaquin Cocina and Cristobal Leon)

Runner-up: Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart)

Best Documentary

Collective (Alexander Nanau)

Runner-up: The Painter and the Thief (Benjamin Ree)

Best Non-English Language Film

La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)

Runner-up: The Painted Bird (Vaclav Marhoul)

Best First Film (in honour of David Brudnoy)

Florian Zeller (The Father)

Runner-up: Autumn de Wilde (Emma.)