Black Film Critics Circle Awards: ‘Ma Rainey’ is Best Film, Regina King is Best Director

The Black Film Critics Circle have named Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom the best film of 2020, also awarding it Best Actress (Viola Davis), Best Actor (Chadwick Boseman) and Best Adapted Screenplay to Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

Regina King (One Night in Miami) tied in Best Director with Chloé Zhao for Nomadland. This is King’s first best director win of the critics’ season. King’s film also took home the wins for Best Supporting Actor (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and Best Ensemble. Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari was named Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Youn Yuh-jung) and was the #2 film of the year on the group’s ranked top 10 list.

The BFCC is comprised of 25 members who are all “film critics of color from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, radio, television and qualifying online publication.”

Three special awards were given this year: the Pioneer Award to MLK/FBI director Sam Pollard, the Rising Star Award to Radha Blank (The Forty-Year Old Version) and a Special Mention to Steve McQueen and his five-film series Small Axe.

The news was originally first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Here is the full list of winners of the 2020 Black Film Critics Circle Awards.

Best Film: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Top 10:

2. Minari
3. Nomadland
4. One Night in Miami
5. Soul
6. Judas and the Black Messiah
7. Da 5 Bloods
8. The Trial of the Chicago 7
9. Sound of Metal
10. The 40-Year-Old Version and Sylvie’s Love (tie)

Best Director (tie): Regina King, One Night in Miami and Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

Best Actor: Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Best Actress: Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Best Supporting Actor: Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami
Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung, Minari

Best Original Screenplay: Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Best Animated Film: Soul
Best Documentary: Time
Best Foreign Film: Night of the Kings

Best Ensemble: One Night in Miami

Best Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, Tenet

Pioneer Award: Sam Pollard
Rising Star Award: Radha Blank
Special Mention: Steve McQueen, Small Axe

Photo credits: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (David Lee / Netflix), One Night in Miami (Patti Perret/Amazon Studios)

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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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