Cate Blanchett's Tár wins best film award; scores hattrick at major critics awards

Todd Field's Tár won best film in all the three major critics circle awards, including National Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle. 

Cate Blanchett and Ke Huy Quan won all three lead actress and supporting actor awards, respectively.

This win makes Blanchett the strongest frontrunner in the Best Actress category.

Ahead of the Academy Awards, these critics circle awards play a major role in establishing the frontrunners in some of the major categories. 

Additionally, the film won Best Screenplay for Todd Field, whereas star Cate Blanchett won the Lead Actress Award and Nina Hoss came as the runner-up in the Supporting Actress category.

In recent years, some of the previous films that have achieved this feat of winning Best Film in all the three critics awards are 'Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car' (2021), David Fincher's 'The Social Network' (2010) and Kathryn Bigelow's 'The Hurt Locker' (2009). 

All these films went on to score big at the Academy Awards, being nominated for both Best Picture and Best Director. The Hurt Locker is the only film to have won both the Oscars.