New York Film Critics Circle Awards Winners Include RRR, TÁR, and More.

S.S. Rajamouli, the director of the surprise smash Telugu action hit RRR has walked away with the Best Director award at today’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards. The movie, which has already had a sequel greenlit, tells a fictionalized story about the real-life freedom fighters Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju’s exploits against British colonizers in 1920s India.

The film was surprisingly overlooked as India’s official selection for the Best International Feature category at the Oscars next year, but that hasn’t deterred its distributor Variance Films from pushing the movie very strongly for consideration, including Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. This latest accolade for the film will do it no harm as awards season hits full throttle over the next couple of months.

Other notable winners at the awards include the stunning Aftersun, the debut drama feature from Charlotte Wells, starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, about a young father and his adolescent daughter from Scotland on a dreamy holiday in Turkey during the late 1990s. The film has had incredible reviews, with Mescal’s name now beginning to appear in contention for Oscar recognition. Aftersun was awarded Best First Film by the Critics’ Circle in recognition of Wells’ efforts.

RELATED: S.S. Rajamouli Breaks Down ‘RRR’s Pre-Interval Sequence

There was also acknowledgment for Ke Huy Quan, with his performance in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, his first film role in two decades, garnering him the award for Best Supporting Actor, while in the Best Supporting Actress category, Keke Palmer was triumphant for her scene-stealing turn in Jordan Peele‘s Nope.

And in a sign that may, or may not, mean anything, come the major awards season, the gongs for Best Actor and Best Actress went to Colin Farrell and Cate Blanchett. Farrell was commended for his outstanding turn in Martin McDonagh‘s melancholic comedy The Banshees of Inisherin — which also took home Best Original Screenplay — while Blanchett was the lead in TÁR, which went home with the award for Best Picture. Blanchett is the favorite to take home the Oscar with bookmakers, while Farrell remains the second favorite behind Brendan Fraser for his performance in The Whale.

The full list of 2022 New York Film Critics Circle winners is below.

Best First Film: “Aftersun”

Best Animated Feature: “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”

Best Non-Fiction Feature: “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Supporting Actress: Keke Palmer, “Nope”

Best Cinematography: “Top Gun: Maverick,” Claudio Miranda

Best International Film: “EO,” Jerzy Skolimowski

Best Screenplay: “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh

Best Actor: Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “After Yang”

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “TÁR”

Best Director: S.S. Rajamouli, “RRR”

Best Film: “TÁR”