The Boston Society of Film Critics met Sunday to vote on its annual awards. The big winner was “Drive My Car,” Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s film adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story about a theater director unexpectedly confronting his ongoing grief. The Japanese drama won best picture, best actor, for Hidetoshi Nishijima, best director, for Hamaguchi, and best screenplay for Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe. The film opens here Jan. 14.
When a best-picture winner is a foreign film, the BCSF names an English-language winner. That was the Jane Campion western “The Power of the Dog,” which also took best cinematography, for Ari Wegner.
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Best actress honors went to Alana Haim, in “Licorice Pizza,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age tale set in Southern California in 1973, The film, which opens in Boston Christmas Day, also took the award for best ensemble. Troy Kotsur won best supporting actor, for “CODA,” in which he plays the deaf father of a hearing daughter; and Jessie Buckley won best supporting actress, for “The Lost Daughter,” based on the Elena Ferrante novel, which opens here Dec. 17. The director of that film, Maggie Gyllenhaal, won best new filmmaker. The award is named for the late David Brudnoy, a longtime BSFC member.
Other winners include “Summer of Soul (. . . Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, for best documentary, and, for best animated film, “Flee,” a nonfiction account of a refugee’s odyssey from Afghanistan to Denmark.
Jonny Greenwood won best original score, for the Princess Diana biopic “Spencer,” and Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz won best film editing, for “The Velvet Underground,” Todd Haynes’s documentary about the ‘60s rock group. That award is given in honor of the late Karen Schmeer, best known for her work with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.
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The BSFC also cited several “rediscoveries” this year, all shown at Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre or via the Brattle’s Virtual Screening Room: “Possession” (1981), “The Story of a Three-Day Pass” (1967), “One False Move” (1992), “Hester Street” (1975), and “The Locket” (1946).
The society also offered special commendations to the Goethe-Institut Boston; ReelAbilities Film Festival Boston; Bestor Cram, “for his decades of quality nonfiction filmmaking and his commitment to progressive political, social, and historical documentary work; the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Halloween Horror Marathon; and Tributes to Luther Price and Barbara Hammer, presented by the Revolutions Per Minute Festival and hosted by the Brattle.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.