New Mexico Critics: ‘Mank’ wins its first Best Picture prize; Mads Mikkelsen named Best Actor

Mank, David Fincher’s behind the scenes saga of the writing of Citizen Kane, was named the Best Picture of 2020 by the New Mexico Film Critics (NMXFC), the film’s first top critics’ prize. The film also won awards for production design and cinematography.

The group’s acting wins also went outside of the box this season with first wins for Mads Mikkelesen (Another Round) for Best Actor, Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman) for Best Actress and Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah) for Best Supporting Actor. Only Supporting Actress critics’ frontrunner Youn Yuh-jung (Minari) also grabbed a win here.

Other first wins included “Húsavík” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga for Best Original Song and Possessor for Best Original Screenplay.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up.

Best Picture: Mank (RU: Minari)

Best Director: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (RU: Leigh Whannell, The Invisible Man)

Best Actor: Mads Mikkelsen, Another Round (RU: Steven Yeun, Minari)
Best Actress: Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman (RU: Amaia Aberasturi, Coven)
Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah (RU: Frank Langella, The Trial of the Chicago 7)
Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung, Minari (RU: Amanda Seyfried, Mank)

Best Original Screenplay: Possessor (RU: Mank)
Best Adapted Screenplay: First Cow (RU: The Father)

Best Animated Film: Wolfwalkers (RU: Demon Slayer)
Best Documentary: Collective (RU: A Thousand Cuts)
Best Foreign Language Film: Open Door (RU: The Weeping Woman)

Best Ensemble: Minari (RU: Sound of Metal)

Best Young Actor/Actress: Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (RU: Alan Kim, Minari)

Best Cinematography: Mank (RU: Nomadland)
Best Editing: Nomadland (RU: Breasts)
Best Production Design: Mank (RU: First Cow)
Best Music/Score: Soul (RU: Minari)
Best Original Song: “Husavik (My Hometown)” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (RU: “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami)

U.S. Route 66 Honorary Award: Bring Me Home

Glenn Strange Honorary Award: Sophia Loren, Ellen Burstyn, Eva Marie Saint, Catherine Deneuve, and Mirtha Legrand

Albuquerque American Award (to celebrate cinema and its legacy): It Happened One Night (1934)

Image courtesy of Netflix

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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