Founded in 1935, The New York Film Critics Circle has been notorious for honoring world cinema. This year, critics claimed the Martin Scorsese-directed film Killers of The Flower Moon as the best picture of the year. Leading actress Lily Gladstone was also recognized and awarded for best film actress. As an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name, the film is a story based on the Native American murders that occurred in the 1910s to 1930s in Osage County, Oklahoma. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI was written by journalist David Grann as a result of years of interviews with Osage elders. The western crime film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone as Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Burkhart, an interracial married couple in the midst of the murders fueled by greed.
The tale explores both the deaths of Mollie Burkhart and her family as well as the exploits of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Being Native herself, Gladstone was the perfect choice to be cast for the role. According to Variety, Scorsese says in an email, “I saw her in Kelly Reichardt’s picture ‘Certain Women,’ and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Lily’s character was quiet, she spoke very little, but she commanded the screen with her presence, with every move, every gesture.” After making her debut in Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian and independent films such as First Cow, Gladstone rises to fame with a newfound– and well-deserved– validation from critics. Being of Piegan Blackfeet descent, Gladstone is a voice for the Native community. However, many critics of the film wished the story hadn’t been told from Ernest Burkhart’s perspective but instead from that of Mollie Burkhart since this is truly her story. But thankfully, Gladstone’s presence as Burkhart was powerful enough to shine through the screen, resulting in her being fairly awarded by NYFCC critics.
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