Houston Film Critics: ‘The Power of the Dog’ is Best Picture, ‘Mass’ wins Supporting Actress and Ensemble

The Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS) announced their 2021 winners today and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog received the most prizes from the group’s 15th annual awards. Of its nine nominations the film won best picture, director, best actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), supporting actor Kodi Smit-McPhee (supporting actor), screenplay and score.

Dune and No Time to Die were multiple award winners with the sci-fi epic taking cinematography and visual effects and Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing earning wins for original song and stunt coordination. Mass was also a double winner with Ann Dowd awarded supporting actress and the cast as best ensemble, a new category for the group this year. Jessica Chastain was named best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

The Texas Independent Film Award went to Red Rocket and the Cinematic Achievement Award went to indie distributor Well Go USA

The 40 members of the Houston Film Critics Society work in Houston, San Antonio and Southeast Texas in online, print, radio and TV. For more information, go to houstonfilmcritics.com.

Here is the full list of winners.

Best Picture
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Parallel Mothers
The Power of the Dog – WINNER
tick, tick … Boom
The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog – WINNER
Guillermo del Toro, Nightmare Alley
Denis Villeneuve, Dune

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog – WINNER
Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
Andrew Garfield, tick,tick…BOOM!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye – WINNER
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones, CODA
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog – WINNER

Supporting Actress
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Ann Dowd, Mass – WINNER
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

Ensemble Cast
Belfast
CODA
Mass – WINNER
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog

Screenplay
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog – WINNER

Animated Feature
Encanto
Flee
Luca
Raya and the Last Dragon
The Mitchells vs. the Machines – WINNER

Cinematography
Dune – WINNER
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story”

Documentary Feature
Flee
The Rescue
The Sparks Brothers
Summer of Soul – WINNER
Val

Foreign Language Feature
Drive My Car – WINNER
Flee
Parallel Mothers
Riders of Justice
The Worst Person in the World

Original Score
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Harder They Fall
The Power of the Dog – WINNER
Spencer

Original Song
“Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto
“Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall
“Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up
“No Time to Die” from No Time to Die 
“Wherever I Fall – Pt. 1” from Cyrano – WINNER

Visual Effects
Dune – WINNER
The Matrix Resurrections
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Stunt Coordination
Black Widow
The Matrix Resurrections
No Time to Die – WINNER
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 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