In 2019, “The Underground Railroad” author Colson Whitehead fictionalized the Dozier School into Nickel Academy for his novel “The Nickel Boys.” It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. Now comes a film version of the book,

With 'Nickel Boys' taking Best Film, the National Society of Film Critics also recognized 'A Real Pain', 'Sing Sing' and 'Hard Truths'.

The organization is voting on its selections for best picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor and actress, screenplay and cinematography.

For the first time in my four-year tenure, several awards were decided in the fourth or fifth round of ballot tallying. We were taking so long that I imagined Pansy, the cranky protagonist of Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” yelling “JUST PICK A WINNER ALREADY! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys, is based on the harrowing true story of a hellish reform school, Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida, at which more than 100 students died from abuse.

Voting for the National Society of Film Critics is now complete and films like “Nickel Boys” and “A Real Pain” took home top honors. NSFC was founded in 1966 and is comprised of over 60 critics hailing from outlets nationally.

RaMell Ross' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel beat out runners-up "Anora" and "All We Imagine as Light," the latter of which did score Best Director and Best Foreign-Language Film.