North Carolina Film Critics go for ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘Dune’
The North Carolina Film Critics Association announced the winners for its 10th annual awards for achievements in film. The Power of the Dog earned six awards, Dune was awarded five, and Mass and Licorice Pizza won two each.
The Power of the Dog led the pack with awards for narrative film, director, actor, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and cinematography.
Ken Hanke Memorial Tar Heel Award went to Jonathan Majors (The Harder They Fall, Loki), who studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Screenwriting: The Coen Brothers (Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Are Thou?, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs).
The NCFCA consists of fifty-five film critics living and/or working in North Carolina.
Here is the full list of nominees and winners.
BEST NARRATIVE FILM
The Power of the Dog – Winner
Drive My Car
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Pig
West Side Story
The Worst Person in the World
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Summer of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Winner
Flee
The Sparks Brothers
Val
The Velvet Underground
BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Mitchells vs. The Machines – Winner
Encanto
Flee
Luca
Raya and the Last Dragon
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Drive My Car – Winner
A Hero
Riders of Justice
Titane
The Worst Person in the World
BEST DIRECTOR
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) – Winner
David Lowery (The Green Knight)
Denis Villeneuve (Dune)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog) – Winner
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog) – Winner
Andrew Garfield (tick, tick… BOOM!)
Dev Patel (The Green Knight)
Nicolas Cage (Pig)
Will Smith (King Richard)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) – Winner
Alex Wolff (Pig)
Jason Isaacs (Mass)
Jeffrey Wright (The French Dispatch)
Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon)
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) – Winner
Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ann Dowd (Mass) – Winner
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Ruth Negga (Passing)
BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE IN ANIMATION OR MIXED MEDIA
Stephanie Beatriz (Encanto) – Winner
Abbi Jacobson (The Mitchells vs. The Machines)
Danny McBride (The Mitchells vs. The Machines)
Jacob Tremblay (Luca)
Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon)
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Mass – Winner
Dune
The French Dispatch
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza) – Winner
C’mon C’mon
The French Dispatch
Mass
Pig
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) – Winner
Drive My Car
Dune
The Green Knight
Passing
BEST EDITING
Andrew Weisblum (The French Dispatch) – Winner
Dune
The Last Duel
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor, and Gerd Nefzer (Dune) – Winner
The Green Knight
The Matrix Resurrections
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Suicide Squad
BEST STUNT COORDINATION
Andy Cheng, Peng Zhang, Bradley James Allan, Christopher Clark Cowan, Mark Ginther, Guillermo Grispo, Isaac Hamon, Lu Junchang, Yasca Sinigaglia, Kyle Woods (Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) – Winner
Black Widow
The Matrix Resurrections
No Time To Die
Spider-Man: No Way Home
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan (Dune) – Winner
Cruella
Last Night in Soho
Nightmare Alley
Spencer
BEST HAIR & MAKE-UP
Nadia Stacey and Carolyn Cousins (Cruella) – Winner
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci
Nightmare Alley
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Patrice Vermette, Richard Roberts, and Zuzsanna Sipos (Dune) – Winner
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
BEST SCORE
Hans Zimmer (Dune) – Winner
Don’t Look Up
No Time To Die
The Power of the Dog
Spencer
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
No Time To Die by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (No Time To Die) – Winner
Every Letter (Cyrano)
Guns Go Bang (The Harder They Fall)
Just Look Up (Don’t Look Up)
So May We Start (Annette)
BEST SOUND DESIGN
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, and Ron Bartlett (Dune) – Winner
Nightmare Alley
No Time To Die
tick, tick… BOOM!
West Side Story
BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
Michael Sarnoski (Pig) – Winner
Fran Kranz (Mass)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (tick, tick… BOOM!)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)
Rebecca Hall (Passing)
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Alana Haim(Licorice Pizza) – Winner
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza)
Emilia Jones(CODA)
Woody Norman (C’Mon C’Mon)
Rachel Zegler(West Side Story)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR SCREENWRITING
The Coen Brothers: Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Are Thou?, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
KEN HANKE MEMORIAL TAR HEEL AWARD
Jonathan Majors (The Harder They Fall, Loki) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts – Winner
Anthony Mackie (Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Synchronic; Outside the Wire; The Woman in the Window) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story; Schmigadoon) – From Raleigh, North Carolina
Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals; The Woman in the Window; Godzilla vs. Kong) – From Fayetteville, North Carolina
Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune; Bruised) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Photos: Kirsty Griffin/Netflix; Warner Bros
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.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
- 2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards - November 21, 2024
- Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives - November 21, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 72 – ‘Three Colours: Blue’ (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993) 
2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards 
Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives