National Society of Film Critics Award / Best Film
Winner of the National Society of Film Critics in the category Best Film (Best Picture) . The awards are presented every year at the beginning of January for the best film productions and filmmakers of the past calendar year. In 1975 and 1977 there were two awards ceremonies in January and December, after which the National Society of Film Critics Award in 1976 and 1978 was not awarded.
The most successful in this category was the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman , whose films received three awards between 1968 and 1975. American films or co-productions were awarded in 30 out of 51 cases, five of which also received an Oscar . With four prizes won in one year, the most successful were Bergman's Scenes of a Marriage (1975 (1)), Robert Altman's Nashville (1975 (2)), Louis Malles Atlantic City, USA (1982), Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (1983), David Lynchs Blue Velvet (1987), Clint Eastwood's Merciless (1993), Steven Spielberg 's Schindler's List (1994), Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1997), Roman Polański's The Pianist (2003), Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2008) and David Fincher's The Social Network (2011), Ethan and Joel Coens Inside Llewyn Davis (2014) and Barry Jenkins ' Moonlight (2017).
In 2009, with the victory of Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir , an animated film was chosen as the best film of the year for the first time. In 2004, 2010 and 2017 and 2019, filmmakers with Shari Springer Berman (together with Robert Pulcini for American Splendor ), Kathryn Bigelow ( Tödliches Kommando - The Hurt Locker ), Greta Gerwig ( Lady Bird ) and Chloé Zhao ( The Rider ) prevailed. In 2013, Michael Haneke's Love was the first film by a director from German-speaking countries to be recognized.
At the last award ceremony in 2020, the South Korean film and later Oscar winner Parasite prevailed with 17 points over Little Women (27 points) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (22 points).
* = Film productions, later the Oscar as Best Picture of the Year won