New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ Named Best Picture – Winners List

After 3 1/2 hours of deliberation, the New York Film Critics Circle selected Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird as its best picture. In addition, the pic took best actress for Saoirse Ronan’s turn as a Sacramento high school senior looking to escape the confines of her northern California hometown.

In sum, it marked another big awards day for A24 as the New York-based distributor also saw wins for The Florida Project, with Sean Baker named best director and Willem Dafoe best supporting actor.

One big surprise midway through voting: Tiffany Haddish took best supporting actress for Universal’s Girls Trip. In addition, after taking best screenplay at the National Board of Review two days ago, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread won that category again today with the NYFCC. Impressive given the fact that the film only started previewing late last week for the press.

The NYFCC’s historical bellwether rate for determining Oscar’s best picture is over 40%. Even when they’re off, they’re often spot-on in other categories: two years ago, they gave Mark Rylance best supporting actor for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies when no one saw that win coming at the Oscars..

Last year, the NYFCC voted for what everyone — including Faye Dunaway — thought would win best picture: La La Land. Other categories in which the Oscars lined up with NYFCC in 2016: best actor (Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea), best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali, Moonlight), animated feature film (Zootopia), best screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea) and documentary (O.J.: Made in America).

Awards will be handed out at the NYFCC’s gala dinner January 3 at Tao Downtown.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Film: Lady Bird, dir. Greta Gerwig

Best Director: Sean Baker, The Florida Project

Best First Film: Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele