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.)