Columbus Film Critics awards: ‘The Power of the Dog,’ Alana Haim wins Best Actress, Breakthrough Artist

The Columbus Film Critics Association (COFCA) has announced its winners for the best in film for 2021 and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog has triumphed with seven awards including Best Film, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for Campion, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch (who was also named Actor of the Year for his body of work this year that also includes The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and Spider-Man: No Way Home), Kodi Smi-McPhee as Best Supporting Actor and Best Score for Jonny Greenwood (who was his own runner-up with Spencer.

Licorice Pizza was a triple winner with Paul Thomas Anderson taking Original Screenplay and his star Alana Haim winning both Best Actress and Breakthrough Film Artist. Ruth Negga (Passing) was named Best Supporting Actress and the group’s Most Overlooked Film award went to the Mads Mikkelsen starrer Riders of Justice.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up from the Columbus Film Critics Association.

Best Film
1. The Power of the Dog
2. Licorice Pizza
3. West Side Story
4. Belfast
5. Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
6. Pig
7. C’mon C’mon
8. The Tragedy of Macbeth
9. tick, tick…BOOM!
10. Dune

Best Director
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: Nicolas Cage, Pig

Best Actress
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Runner-up: Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

Best Supporting Actor
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: Troy Kotsur, CODA

Best Supporting Actress
Ruth Negga, Passing
Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and Spider-Man: No Way Home)
Runner-up: Andrew Garfield (tick, tick…BOOM!, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Breakthrough Film Artist
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza – (for acting)
Runner-up: Jude Hill, Belfast – (for acting)

Best Ensemble
The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: The Harder They Fall

Best Cinematography
Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Runner-up: Andrew Droz Palermo, The Power of the Dog

Best Film Editing
Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn, West Side Story
Runner-up: Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: Tony Kushner, West Side Story

Best Original Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Runner-up: Kenneth Branagh, Belfast

Best Score
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
Runner-up: Jonny Greenwood, Spencer

Best Documentary
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Runner-up: Flee

Best Foreign Language Film
Drive My Car (Doraibu mai kâ)
Runner-up: Flee

Best Animated Film
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Runner-up: Flee

Best Overlooked Film
Riders of Justice (Retfærdighedens ryttere)
Runner-up: Nine Days

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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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