SS Rajamouli wins Best Director at New York Film Critics Circle

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli won the Best Director Award for RRR at the New York Film Critics Circle on Friday. The group is one of the first critics’ groups to weigh in on the awards season. Rajamouli’s win surprised many as his competitors included Steven Spielberg, Darron Aronofsky, Sarah Polley, and Gina Prince-Blythewood.

At the New York Film Critics Circle, Todd Field’s Tar has won Best Picture of the year, also nabbing Best Actress for Cate Blanchett’s leading performance. Colin Farrell won Best Actor for two of his performances this year — Kogonada’s future-set sci-fi drama After Yang and Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin. Ke Huy Quan has won the Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Keke Palmer won the Best Supporting Actress for Nope.

RRR has received a thunderous welcome in the foreign markets and this encouraged Variance Film to mount a massive campaign for Oscars for the film. Starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR in lead roles, the film is competing to find a nomination spot in all the major categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and more.

After earning more than Rs 1200 crore at the worldwide box office, the film emerged as one of the most successful films at the box office in India and received rave reviews from Indian film critics. However, it was not selected as India’s official entry for Oscars 2023.