Seattle, WA – The Seattle Film Critics Society (“SFCS”) announced the winners in 21 categories for the 2022 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards on Tuesday, January 17, 2023.
Directing team DANIELS (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) and their multiverse-spanning family adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once was the year’s big winner, picking up four awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Supporting Actor to Ke Huy Quan for his emotionally resonant performance as family man Waymond Wang. Written by Kwan and Scheinert and populated by a vibrant cast including Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., and Jamie Lee Curtis, the film was distributed by A24 after its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2022.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once has garnered praise from critics, cinephiles, and casual moviegoers the world over and we couldn’t be more excited to honor it with best picture,” said SFCS President Matt Oakes. “The film’s ensemble cast has deservedly been a focal point of the awards season, with Ke Huy Quan’s unforgettable portrayal of Waymond Wang earning him top honors here in Seattle. The zany, prismatic, multiversal comedy-action-drama from DANIELS perfectly distills the reasons why we fell in love with the movies in the first place.”
The SFCS honored Sweetheart Deal with the inaugural Pacific Northwest Award. Directed by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, an award-winning cinematographer who died suddenly in 2019, the clear-eyed documentary tells the heart-wrenching stories of sex workers on Seattle’s Aurora Avenue and a manipulative father figure who abuses their trust.
Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy about a severed friendship on a small Irish island, The Banshees of Inisherin, earned three awards. Colin Farrell was recognized as the Best Leading Actor for his portrayal of kind-yet-simple farmer Pádraic Súilleabháin; Kerry Condon won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as his worldly-minded sister Siobhán. In addition to the acting awards, McDonagh’s sharply funny script was awarded Best Screenplay,
Rounding out the acting categories, Cate Blanchett’s monumental performance as Lydia Tár in TÁR, Todd Field’s precise study of an EGOT conductor’s downfall earned double awards: for Best Lead Actress as well as for Villain of the Year. Frankie Corio’s preternaturally assured turn as Sophie Paterson, an 11-year-old girl on a momentous summer holiday with her father, in Charlotte Wells’s spellbinding Aftersun, was honored as the year’s Best Youth Performance.
Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was recognized as the Best Ensemble Cast. Starring Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Madelyn Cline, Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista, the comedic whodunnit finds Daniel Craig reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc among a pack of self-styled “disruptors” inside a murderous mystery box on a billionaire’s private island.
Written and directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il, the mesmerizing South Korean criminal romance Decision to Leave (South Korea) was chosen as the Best International Film.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s soul-stirring feature-length adaptation of his YouTube short films about a lonely shell, voiced by co-writer Jenny Slate, trying to reunite with his family, won Best Animated Feature.
Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s lyrical account of the work and romance of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft as narrated by Miranda July, was chosen as Best Documentary Feature.
Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s multifaceted period drama set during Hollywood’s tumultuous transition away from the Silent Era, was also recognized for two awards. Justin Hurwitz was awarded Best Original Score for his propulsive jazz-era compositions, and the award for Best Production Design was shared by Florencia Martin (Production Design) and Anthony Carlino (Set Decoration) for their evocation of 1920s film sets, boisterous parties, and everything in between. Catherine Martin’s spectacular craft in recreating decades of rock and roll history in Elvis won the award for Best Costume Design.
The thrilling dance numbers and balletic fight sequences in S. S. Rajamouli’s Indian Telugu epic musical RRR were awarded Best Action Choreography, marking the second consecutive year that SFCS presented this award to a film peppered with joyous dance sequences.
Finally, SFCS honored two blockbuster sequels. Claudio Miranda’s groundbreaking photography in Top Gun: Maverick was awarded Best Cinematography. The eye-popping Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron’s immersive return to Pandora, its indigenous Na’vi population, and human occupiers won the award for Best Visual Effects.
After forming in late 2016, the Seattle Film Critics Society officially became a non-profit organization in 2017, with a membership consisting of 40 film critics, representing print, broadcast, podcasting, and online film criticism. This year’s awards are the seventh to be held under the banner of the SFCS, honoring the best films and performances of the year.
We dedicate our awards to Sheila Benson (The Los Angeles Times) and John Hartl (The Seattle Times), two of the finest film critics to live and work in the Pacific Northwest. After her retirement from The Los Angeles Times in 1991, Benson wrote for several print publications and websites, at both the local and national level, while Hartl was a Seattle icon who spent his entire 52-year career writing for The Seattle Times. We miss their incisive contributions, as well as their warm and wise camaraderie at press screenings and festival events.
The full list of recipients of the 2022 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards:
| Best Picture | Everything Everywhere All At Once (A24) |
| Best Director | DANIELS (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) – Everything Everywhere All At Once |
| Best Actor in a Leading Role | Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role | Cate Blanchett – TÁR |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All At Once |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin |
| Best Ensemble Cast | Glass Onion – Bret Howe and Mary Vernieu (Casting Directors) |
| Best Action Choreography | RRR – Vicky Arora, Ivan Kostadinov, Nick Powell, Raicho Vasilev (Stunt coordinators); Prem Rakshith, Dinesh Krishnan (Choreography) |
| Best Screenplay | The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh |
| Best Animated Feature | Marcel the Shell with Shoes On – Dean Fleischer-Camp, director |
| Best Documentary Feature | Fire of Love – Sara Dosa, director |
| Best International Film | Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook, director |
| Best Cinematography | Top Gun: Maverick – Claudio Miranda |
| Best Costume Design | Elvis – Catherine Martin |
| Best Film Editing | Everything Everywhere All At Once – Paul Rogers |
| Best Original Score | Babylon – Justin Hurwitz |
| Best Production Design | Babylon – Florencia Martin (Production Design), Anthony Carlino (Set Decoration) |
| Best Visual Effects | Avatar: The Way of Water – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett |
| Best Youth Performance | Frankie Corio – Aftersun |
| Villain of the Year | Lydia Tár – as portrayed by Cate Blanchett in TÁR |
| Pacific Northwest Award | Sweetheart Deal – Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, directors |