‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘Dune,’ ‘Spencer’ lead 2021 Discussing Film Critics Awards nominations

Jane Campion’s take on the old school of bravado westerns, The Power of the Dog, led the 3rd Discussing Film Critics nominations announced today with 11, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for Campion and three acting nominations: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Right behind were Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Pablo Larraín’s Spencer with 10 nominations apiece, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director, a total the former achieved without a single acting nod. Fran Kranz’s Mass and Titane earned seven nods apiece, including Best Motion Picture with the latter also grabbing a Best Director nod for Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story was nominated for six awards including Best Motion Picture and Best Director.

Rounding out the Best Motion Picture nominees were C’mon C’mon, The Green Knight, Petite Maman and tick, tick…BOOM!

Ranking low on the nomination totals were films that have had a good start with critics’ groups like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. Both earned a nomination in the Best Debut Performance category (for Alana Haim and Jude Hill, respectively) and Belfast was nominated in the Best Use of Music for Jamie Dornan’s rendition of “Everlasting Love.” The star-studded Don’t Look Up from Adam McKay only received two nominations, for its editing and song but nothing for its actors and two other huge star projects, Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci with Lady Gaga and Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos with Nicole Kidman, were snubbed entirely.

Here is the full list of nominees. Winners will be announced on January 4, 2022.

BEST MOTION PICTURE 

• C’mon C’mon
• Dune
• The Green Knight
• Mass
• Petite Maman
• The Power of the Dog
• Spencer
• tick, tick… BOOM!
• Titane
• West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR

• Denis Villeneuve, Dune
• Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
• Pablo Larraín, Spencer
• Julia Ducournau, Titane
• Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

BEST FILM ACTOR

• Joaquin Phoenix, C’mon, C’mon
• Will Smith, King Richard
• Nicolas Cage, Pig
• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
• Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST FILM ACTRESS 

• Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
• Kristen Stewart, Spencer
• Agathe Rousselle, Titane
• Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

• Troy Kotsur, CODA
• Jason Isaacs, Mass
• Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
• Robin de Jesus, tick, tick…BOOM!
• Vincent Lindon, Titane

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS  

• Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard 
• Ann Dowd, Mass
• Ruth Negga, Passing
• Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
• Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM  

• Drive My Car
• Flee
• Petite Maman
• Titane
• The Worst Person in the World

BEST FILM ENSEMBLE  

• The French Dispatch
• The Harder They Fall
• Mass
• The Power of the Dog
• West Side Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 

• Mike Mills, C’mon C’mon
• Zach Baylin, King Richard
• Fran Kranz, Mass
• Steven Knight, Spencer
• Julia Ducournau, Titane

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 

• Sian Heder, CODA
• Jon Spaihts & Denis Villeneuve & Eric Roth, Dune
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Rebecca Hall, Passing
• Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 

• Greig Fraser, Dune
• Andrew Doz Palermo, The Green Knight
• Ari Wegner, The Power of the Dog
• Claire Mathon, Spencer
• Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE 

• Hans Zimmer, Dune
• Alexandre Desplat, The French Dispatch
• Daniel Hart, The Green Knight
• Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
• Jonny Greenwood, Spencer

BEST COSTUME DESIGN  

• Jenny Beavan, Cruella
• Jacqueline West, Bob Morgan, Dune
• Milena Canonero, The French Dispatch
• Odile Dicks-Mireaux, Last Night in Soho
• Jacqueline Durran, Spencer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN 

• Patrice Vermette, Dune
• Adam Stockhausen, The French Dispatch
• Tamara Deverell, Nightmare Alley
• Guy Hendrix Dyas, Spencer
• Adam Stockhausen, West Side Story

BEST FILM EDITING 

• Joe Walker, Dune
• Hank Corwin, Don’t Look Up
• Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog
• Sebastian Sepulveda, Spencer
• Myron Kerstein, Andrew Weisblum, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST SOUND 

• A Quiet Place Part II
• Dune
• The Harder They Fall
• No Time to Die
• The Power of the Dog

BEST USE OF MUSIC

• “Everlasting Love”, Belfast
• “Downtown”, Last Night in Soho
• “Happy House”, Last Night in Soho
• “You’re My World”, Last Night in Soho
• “All I Need is a Miracle”, Spencer

BEST ORIGINAL SONG 

• “So May We Start,” Annette
• “Just Look Up”, Don’t Look Up
• “Guns Go Bang”, The Harder They Fall
• “Be Alive”, King Richard
• “No Time to Die”, No Time to Die

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS 

• Dune
• Eternals
• Godzilla vs. Kong
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings
• The Suicide Squad

BEST ANIMATED FILM 

• Belle
• Encanto
• Flee
• Luca
• The Mitchells vs the Machines

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM

• CODA
• C’mon C’mon
• The Green Knight
• Mass
• Shiva Baby

BEST DEBUT FEATURE FILM

• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Fran Kranz, Mass
• Rebecca Hall, Passing
• Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby
• Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE

• Jude Hill, Belfast
• Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
• Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby
• Agathe Rousselle, Titane
• Rachel Zegler, West Side Story

Photo: Kirsty Griffin/Netflix

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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