The National Society of Film Critics on Saturday named "The Rider," a cowboy drama directed by Chloe Zhao, the year's best picture.
Blending narrative and documentary techniques, "The Rider" is set on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and follows a Lakota cowboy after an accident derails his rodeo riding dreams. "The Rider" _ only Zhao's second movie _ edged out "Roma."
"Roma," the black-and-white Spanish language picture about a Mexican family and its live-in nanny, won the foreign-language film category. The society also awarded Alfonso Cuaron prizes for director and for cinematography. Inspired by his childhood memories, "Roma" already had taken home best picture honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., among others.
In the national society's honors, Olivia Colman won the actress award for her portrayal of Queen Anne in the British period film "The Favourite," beating Regina Hall in "Support the Girls" and Melissa McCarthy in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"
Ethan Hawke won the actor prize for playing a weary pastor in an upstate New York church in "First Reformed." Runners-up were Willem Dafoe in "At Eternity's Gate," Ben Foster in "Leave No Trace" and John C. Reilly in "The Sisters Brothers" and "Stan & Ollie."
Other winners included Regina King, who won supporting actress for playing a family matriarch in the Barry Jenkins adaptation of James Baldwin's 1974 novel, "If Beale Street Could Talk," and Steven Yeun, who won supporting actor for South Korea's mystery drama "Burning," which also finished third in best-picture voting.
Last year, the society gave best-picture honors to "Lady Bird," which went on to score five Oscar nominations but lost best picture to "The Shape of Water."
Composed of 62 members from across the country, the National Society of Film Critics considered any movie that opened in the U.S. in 2018.
