# Big Four (American film critics awards)

Awards from the four most prestigious American film critics associations, the so-called "Big Four":
* National Board of Review (NBR)
* Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA)
* National Society of Film Critics (NSFC)
* New York Film Critics' Circle (NYFCC)
These achievements serve as an important role that can offer to films per chance of getting a frontrunner to the major awards, most notably the Academy Awards. For example, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List won all four critics awards of Best Film category, securing its wins to the immediate frontrunner of Academy Award for Best Picture.

## Films with all wins from "Big Four"
### Best Film

| Year | Film | Producer(s) |
| 1993 | Schindler's List ≈ | Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Branko Lustig |
| 1997 | L.A. Confidential ≠ | Arnon Milchan, Curtis Hanson, and Michael Nathanson |
| 2010 | The Social Network ≠ | Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Ceán Chaffin |

### Best Director

| Year | Director | Film |
| 1994 | Quentin Tarantino | Pulp Fiction ≠ |
| 1997 | Curtis Hanson | L.A. Confidential ≠ |
| 2000 | Steven Soderbergh | Erin Brockovich ≠ |
| 2000 | Steven Soderbergh | Traffic ≈ |
| 2010 | David Fincher | The Social Network ≠ |
| 2016 | Barry Jenkins | Moonlight ≠ |

### Best Actor

| Year | Actor | Film | Ref/s |
| 1995 | Nicolas Cage | Leaving Las Vegas ≈ | |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | The Last King of Scotland ≈ | |

### Best Actress

| Year | Actress | Film |
| 1979 | Sally Field | Norma Rae ≈ |
| 1980 | Sissy Spacek | Coal Miner's Daughter ≈ |
| 1982 | Meryl Streep | Sophie's Choice ≈ |
| 1989 | Michelle Pfeiffer | The Fabulous Baker Boys ≠ |
| 1992 | Emma Thompson | Howards End ≈ |
| 1993 | Holly Hunter | The Piano ≈ |
| 2006 | Helen Mirren | The Queen ≈ |

### Best Supporting Actor

| Year | Actor | Film |
| 1983 | Jack Nicholson | Terms of Endearment ≈ |
| 2017 | Willem Dafoe | The Florida Project ≠ |
| 2024 | Kieran Culkin | A Real Pain ≈ |

### Best Supporting Actress

| Year | Actress | Film |
| 1979 | Meryl Streep | Kramer vs. Kramer ≈ |
| 1979 | Meryl Streep | The Seduction of Joe Tynan |
| 1985 | Anjelica Huston | Prizzi's Honor ≈ |
| 1986 | Dianne Wiest | Hannah and Her Sisters ≈ |
| 2018 | Regina King | If Beale Street Could Talk ≈ |
| 2023 | Da'Vine Joy Randolph | The Holdovers ≈ |

### Best Screenplay

National Board of Review for Best Screenplay began in 1998.
| Year | Writers | Film | Ref/s |
| 2004 | Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor | Sideways ≈ | |
| 2005 | Noah Baumbach | The Squid and the Whale ≠ | |

### Best Documentary or Non-fiction Film

| Year | Film | Director |
| 1989 | Roger & Me | Michael Moore |
| 1994 | Hoop Dreams | Steve James |
| 1995 | Crumb | Terry Zwigoff |
| 1999 | Buena Vista Social Club ≠ | Wim Wenders |
| 2008 | Man on Wire ≈ | James Marsh |
| 2020 | Time ≠ | Garrett Bradley |

## Other films with three wins from "Big Four"

These films won three out of four awards from the "Big Four" American film critics.

### Best Film

| Year | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 1975 | Nashville ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1976 | All the President's Men ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1983 | Terms of Endearment ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1990 | Goodfellas ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1994 | Pulp Fiction ≠ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2021 | Drive My Car ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | Tár ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |

### Best Director

| Year | Director | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 2005 | Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1990 | Martin Scorsese | Goodfellas ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2009 | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | Richard Linklater | Boyhood ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2020 | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1975 | Robert Altman | Nashville ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Actor

| Year | Actor | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 2000 | Russell Crowe | The Insider ≠ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2006 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Capote ≈ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1978 | Jon Voight | Coming Home ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1980 | Robert De Niro | Raging Bull ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1982 | Ben Kingsley | Gandhi ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1976 | Robert De Niro | Taxi Driver ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1979 | Dustin Hoffman | Kramer vs. Kramer ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1981 | Burt Lancaster | Atlantic City ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1986 | Bob Hoskins | Mona Lisa ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1989 | Daniel Day-Lewis | My Left Foot ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2003 | Bill Murray | Lost in Translation ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | Daniel Day-Lewis | There Will Be Blood ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2008 | Sean Penn | Milk ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2018 | Ethan Hawke | First Reformed | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2019 | Antonio Banderas | Pain and Glory ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1975 | Jack Nicholson | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ≈ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Casey Affleck | Manchester by the Sea ≈ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | Colin Farrell | The Banshees of Inisherin ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Actress

| Year | Actress | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 1976 | Liv Ullmann | Face to Face ≠ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1983 | Shirley MacLaine | Terms of Endearment ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1987 | Holly Hunter | Broadcast News ≠ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2004 | Imelda Staunton | Vera Drake ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2008 | Sally Hawkins | Happy-Go-Lucky | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2013 | Cate Blanchett | Blue Jasmine ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Isabelle Huppert | Elle ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | Cate Blanchett | Tár ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | Marianne Jean-Baptiste | Hard Truths | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1975 | Isabelle Adjani | The Story of Adele H. ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1978 | Ingrid Bergman | Autumn Sonata ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | Julie Christie | Away from Her ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Supporting Actor

| Year | Actor | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 2004 | Thomas Haden Church | Sideways ≠ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1987 | Morgan Freeman | Street Smart ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1992 | Gene Hackman | Unforgiven ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1994 | Martin Landau | Ed Wood ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1998 | Bill Murray | Rushmore | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2009 | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | J.K. Simmons | Whiplash ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Mahershala Ali | Moonlight ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | Ke Huy Quan | Everything Everywhere All at Once ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1980 | Joe Pesci | Raging Bull ≠ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Supporting Actress

| Year | Actress | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 1980 | Mary Steenburgen | Melvin and Howard ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1983 | Linda Hunt | The Year of Living Dangerously ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1992 | Judy Davis | Husbands and Wives ≠ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1994 | Dianne Wiest | Bullets Over Broadway ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2004 | Virginia Madsen | Sideways ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | Amy Ryan | Gone Baby Gone ≠ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2008 | Penélope Cruz | Vicky Cristina Barcelona ≈ | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2009 | Mo'Nique | Precious ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Jessica Chastain | Take Shelter | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Jessica Chastain | The Help ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Jessica Chastain | The Tree of Life | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2017 | Laurie Metcalf | Lady Bird ≠ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |

### Best Screenplay

| Year | Writers | Film | LAFCA | NBR (Original and Adapted) | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 2010 | Aaron Sorkin | The Social Network ≈ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2006 | Peter Morgan | The Queen ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea ≈ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Foreign Language Film

| Year | Film | Director(s) | Country | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC | Oscar winner? |
| 1999 | All About My Mother | Pedro Almodóvar | | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1993 | Farewell My Concubine | Chen Kaige | / | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| 2023 | Anatomy of a Fall | Justine Triet | | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2024 | All We Imagine as Light | Payal Kapadia | //// | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 1994 | Wild Reeds | André Téchiné | | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 1994 | Three Colours: Red | Krzysztof Kieślowski | // | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2007 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days | Cristian Mungiu | | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2008 | Summer Hours | Olivier Assayas | | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2010 | Carlos | Olivier Assayas | / | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2013 | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | Abdellatif Kechiche | | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Not nominated |
| 2011 | A Separation | Asghar Farhadi | | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Documentary / Non-fiction Film

| Year | Film | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC |
| 2006 | An Inconvenient Truth ≈ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2015 | Amy ≈ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2013 | Stories We Tell | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1990 | Paris Is Burning | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1996 | When We Were Kings ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1998 | The Farm: Angola, USA ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2001 | The Gleaners and I | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2005 | Grizzly Man | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | No End in Sight | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | Citizenfour ≈ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2017 | Faces Places ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ≠ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2023 | Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | No Other Land | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 1988 | The Thin Blue Line | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1997 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2000 | The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | O.J.: Made in America ≈ | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

### Best Cinematography

The National Board of Review Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography was introduced in 2019, won by Roger Deakins for 1917.
| Year | Film | D.O.P | LAFCA | NBR | NSFC | NYFCC | Ref/s |
| 2019 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Claire Mathon | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 2024 | Nickel Boys | Jomo Fray | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |

## Three critics' awards

Awards in the categories of Best Animated Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay are each only awarded by three of the four groups.

### Best Animated Film

This lists the winners of all three of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film, National Board of Review Award for Best Animated Film, and New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film. In 2000, the National Board of Review Award for Best Animated Film was announced, won that year by Chicken Run from Aardman Animations. National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Animated Film has yet to be introduced.
Spirited Away (2002) and The Incredibles (2004) are the only two animated films to have won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
| Year | Film | Director |
| 2000 | Chicken Run | Peter Lord and Nick Park |
| 2002 | Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) ≈ | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 2004 | The Incredibles ≈ | Brad Bird |
| 2024 | Flow | Gints Zilbalodis |

### Best Cinematography (formerly)

This lists the winners of all three of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography, and New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematography from 1980 to 2018. The National Board of Review Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography was introduced in 2019.
| Year | Film | D.O.P |
| 1984 | The Killing Fields ≈ | Chris Menges |
| 1988 | Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) | Henri Alekan |
| 1991 | Barton Fink | Roger Deakins |
| 1993 | Schindler's List ≈ | Janusz Kamiński |
| 1994 | Ed Wood | Stefan Czapsky |
| 2002 | Far from Heaven ≠ | Edward Lachman |
| 2009 | The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) ≠ | Christian Berger |
| 2011 | The Tree of Life ≠ | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| 2016 | Moonlight ≠ | James Laxton |
| 2018 | Roma ≈ | Alfonso Cuarón |

### Best Screenplay (formerly)

This lists the winners of all three of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, and New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay from 1980 to 2018. The National Board of Review Award for Best Original and Adapted Screenplays were introduced in 2000 and 2002, respectively.
| Year | Film | Type | Writers |
| 1977 | Annie Hall ≈ | Original | Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman |
| 1978 | An Unmarried Woman ≠ | Original | Paul Mazursky |
| 1981 | Atlantic City ≠ | Original | John Guare |
| 1982 | Tootsie ≠ | Original | Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal |
| 1988 | Bull Durham ≠ | Original | Ron Shelton |
| 1989 | Drugstore Cowboy | Original | Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost |
| 1993 | The Piano ≈ | Original | Jane Campion |
| 1994 | Pulp Fiction ≈ | Original | Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary |
| 1997 | L.A. Confidential ≈ | Adapted | Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson |
| 2000 | You Can Count on Me ≠ | Original | Kenneth Lonergan |

## Milestone

Only three films have won all four, all based on novels: Schindler's List, L.A. Confidential, and The Social Network. Schindler's List is the only film also to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, in addition of Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Producers Guild of America Award; all those for Best Picture category except the Critics' Choice.
Only nine people have won all four and of the three most prestigious annual awards (Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA) for a single film: Emma Thompson (1992's Howards End), Holly Hunter (1993's The Piano), Quentin Tarantino (1994's Pulp Fiction), Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (2004's Sideways), Forest Whitaker (2006's The Last King of Scotland), Helen Mirren (2006's The Queen), Da'Vine Joy Randolph (2023's The Holdovers), and Kieran Culkin (2024's A Real Pain); Whitaker, Mirren, Culkin, Randolph, Payne and Taylor are the only people in respective categories to swept all major award ceremonies in each, including Critic's Choice and Guild Awards.
Steven Soderbergh is the only director to have won all four while receiving the Academy Award for Best Director nominations in two films, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, which the latter won.
Man on Wire, for those one of six films have swept the critics' awards, is the only documentary film to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Goodfellas, Schindler's List, L. A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, The Social Network, Drive My Car, and Tár are the seven films in history selected the Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics, named as such from the nation's top critics' groups, the so-called "trifecta". Schindler's List and The Hurt Locker are also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Drive My Car became the first Japanese and non-English-language film to be also selected.