The new acclaimed epic historical drama, The Brutalist, has been named this year’s Best Film at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. The feature, which was directed and produced by Brady Corbet, also won the prize for Best Actor for Adrien Brody.

NYFCC, which is the oldest critics’ group in the United States, is often viewed as a major predictor for awards season. Often times, its Best Film winner also receives an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Since the Oscars decided to incorporate 10 nominees into the category in 2009, only two NYFCC Best Film winners — 2015’s Carol and 2020’s First Cow — weren’t later included in the category at the season’s biggest ceremony.

Brody’s recognition from NYFCC brings attention his Oscar prospects around his performance in The Brutalist. His recent win comes after he made history in 2002 as the youngest-ever Best Actor Academy Award winner; he was only 29 when he was recognized for his role in The Pianist. If he also wins the Oscar for his new movie, he would become the youngest two-time Best Actor winner at age 51.

However, Brody faces stiff competition from his fellow contenders. They include Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave and Colman Domingo in Sing Sing. The latter won the Outstanding Lead Performance category at the Gotham Awards yesterday.

RaMell Ross, the filmmaker behind the drama Nickel Boys, landed two surprise wins, at both the NYFCC and Gotham Awards, for Best Director. His work on the Amazon MGM movie, which is based of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, has garnered critical acclaim. The screen adaptation was also honored with the cinematography prize for Jomo Fray’s first-person POV work.

Independent films were further honored this year by the critics’ group, as Marianne Jean-Baptiste won Best Actress for her performance in Mike Leigh’s drama Hard Truths. Her portrayal of a woman on the verge of mental collapse has received widespread critical acclaim since it had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Bleecker She film is set to release the movie in limited theaters this Friday, December 6.

Coming off his Emmy-winning role in Succession, Kieran Culkin won the Best Supporting Actor award in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. In the drama, Culkin plays a free-spirited man exploring his Jewish heritage on a trip to Poland with his cousin.

Meanwhile, Carol Kane delivered the NYFCC’s biggest surprise this year. She was named Best Supporting Actress for her role as a music teacher preparing for her Bat Mitzvah in Nathan Silver’s indie dramedy, Between the Temples. The Sony Pictures Classics release debuted at Sundance, after which it garnered critical acclaim.

The complete list of winners from the NYFCC Awards is listed below:

Best Film: The Brutalist (A24)

Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys (Amazon MGM Studios)

Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist (A24)

Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths (Bleecker Street)

Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)

Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, Between the Temples (Sony Pictures Classics)

Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora (Neon)

Animated Film: Flow (Janus Films/Sideshow)