The coming-of-age comedy drama Lady Bird has been named the top film of 2017 by the National Society of Film Critics. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan in the title role, Lady Bird has undoubtedly been one of this year’s biggest awards darlings, earning several nominations in the Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director categories from the likes of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.


The film is also a huge hit on the critical circuit, not only earning a near-perfect 99 percent “certified fresh” ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, but winning Best Film honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and Chicago Film Critics Association. The New York and Chicago organizations also named Ronan Best Actress.


According to Variety, Lady Bird continued to soar Saturday in New York when it snagged the Top Film prize by the NSFC, while director Jordan Peele’s Get Out and helmer Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread were voted runners-up. Gerwig was named Best Director, with Anderson and Peele nabbing runners-up honors, and in addition, Gerwig won for Best Screenplay, with again, Peele and Anderson being named runners-up. Lady Bird also earned Laurie Metcalf a win for playing Ronan’s exasperated mother, ahead of runners-up Lesley Manville for Phantom Thread and Allison Janney for I, Tonya.


In the other acting categories, Daniel Kaluuya was named Best Actor for Get Out, while runners-up honors went to Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread andTimothée Chalamet for Call Me by Your Name. Sally Hawkins took the Best Actressaward for The Shape of Water, ahead of runners-up Cynthia Nixon for A Quiet Passion and Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In the Best Supporting Actor category, Willem Dafoe won for The Florida Project, with runners-up notices going to Michael Stuhlbarg for his work in Call Me by Your Name, The Shape of Water and The Post; and Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.


There’s no telling how much the domination by Lady Bird at the NFSC awards will help the film’s chances in the upcoming Oscar race, since critic awards don’t necessarily translate into the same sort of result for awards handed out by the motion picture industry. One encouraging sign, however, is that last year’s NFSC award winning-film, Moonlight, also went on to win the Best Picture Oscar (albeit in a very unusual way in an envelope mix-up). Of the group’s 59 members, 44 of them participated in Saturday’s NFSC voting.