TheNational Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an Americanfilm critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2024, the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers along with major publications and media outlets.[1]
The society was founded in 1966 in the New York City apartment of theSaturday Review criticHollis Alpert, one of several co-founding film critics who was refused membership to theNew York Film Critics Circle because it preferred critics who worked for mainstream newspapers. His co-founders includedPauline Kael, a writer forThe New Yorker,Joe Morgenstern, then a movie reviewer forNewsweek andRichard Schickel, a film critic forLife magazine. The society was founded to counteract the influence ofNew York Times criticBosley Crowther, who dominated the New York City film critics scene for many years. The original founding film critics, who were overwhelmingly based in New York, called their new group a "national" organization because they wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers with anational circulation.[2]
Past distinguished members includeRichard Corliss, the lateRoger Ebert,David Edelstein,Stanley Kauffmann andDave Kehr. As of November 2023, the 61 current members includeDavid Ansen,Richard Brody,Justin Chang,Steve Erickson,Emanuel Levy,Amy Nicholson,Gerald Peary,Jonathan Rosenbaum,David Sterritt,Peter Travers,Kenneth Turan andStephanie Zacharek.[3]
The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the more prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In past years, many of itsBest Picture winners have been foreign films, and the choices rarely parallel theAcademy Awards. It has agreed with the Oscar in nine instances since 1977:Annie Hall (1977),Unforgiven (1992),Schindler's List (1993),Million Dollar Baby (2004),The Hurt Locker (2009),Spotlight (2015),Moonlight (2016),Parasite (2019), andNomadland (2020).[1][4] Five other winners did receive the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film:Z,The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (French:Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie),Day for Night(French:La Nuit américaine),Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (French:Préparez vos mouchoirs), andAmour.
The NSFC is also the American representative of theInternational Federation of Film Critics, which comprises the national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world.[5]
The society has published an ongoing series of anthologies of articles, including:
The society, which was founded in 1966 and includes principal critics from major papers and outlets, often disagrees with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over their top choices.
