‘First Cow’ was named Best Film of 2020 by New York Film Critics

NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Film Critics Circle voted Friday for Kelly Reichardt’s Western Fable as “First Cow” the best film of 2020, while awarding special honors to Spike Lee and distributor of the art house Kino Lorber for his roles in a year of cinema deeply affected by the pandemic.

Film critics, virtually assembled, gave their top award to “First Cow,” a delicate story of friendship and capitalism in mid-19th-century Oregon Territory.. Reichardt’s film, released in theaters in March a few days before the advent of COVID-19, forced the closure of cinemas across the country, has not been widely seen, but remains one of the films most critically acclaimed films of the year. The Associated Press also named his first film “First Cow”.

Critics also presented awards to “Borat Subsequent Movie Film” co-star Maria Bakalova for Best Supporting Actress and Chadwick Boseman for Best Supporting Actor for her final performance in the August adaptation. Wilson, “My Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman died in August.

Best Actor was for Delroy Lindo for his performance as a Vietnam War veteran and “Da Five Bloods” by Spike Lee. The best actress was given to Sidney Flanigan, who plays a Pennsylvania teenager who travels to New York to have an abortion in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” Eliza Hittman, who wrote and directed “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” won Best Screenplay. Chloe Zhao, the filmmaker of “Nomadland,” took the best director.

Spike Lee released two features in 2020: “Da Five Bloods” and “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” but received a special award for a three-minute short that he launched on Instagram: “New York, New York.” a brief documentary tribute to his hometown, made during the first wave of the pandemic.

The other special appointment of the group was for Kino Lorber for the creation of the virtual cinema service Kino Marquee, which shares the revenue with independent theaters closed by COVID-19. Critics said the honor was for a service “designed to help support cinemas and not destroy them.”

The New York Film Critics Circle Awards are often part of a wave of honors from the group of critics who can occasionally influence the awards season. These awards are usually a drum at this time of year, but little is normal in this year’s awards season.. The Oscars and Golden Globes, along with many other awards, are postponed for about two months.

Other NYFCC options include: “Time” for best non-fiction film; “Bacurau” for best foreign language film; “The Forty-Year-Old Version” for Best First Film; “Wolfwalkers” for Best Animated Film; and the five-film anthology “Small Ax” for Best Cinematography.