Austin Film Critics winners: ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Drive My Car’ take top honors

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog has been named Best Film by the Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA), also taking Best Director, Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst) and Original Score (Jonny Greenwood).

Nicolas Cage won Best Actor for Pig, and Original Screenplay for Michael Sarnoski, who also won Best First Film. Ryūsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe won Adapted Screenplay for Drive My Car, also a winner for International Film and Agathe Rousselle won Best Actress for Titane.

Dune, The Green Knight and No Time to Die won technical awards and a special award was given to director Shatara Michelle Ford for Test Pattern, named the Best Film Made in Austin by a Non-Austin Filmmaker.

Best Film: The Power of the Dog
Best Director: Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Best Actress: Agathe Rousselle, Titane
Best Actor: Nicolas Cage, Pig
Best Supporting Actress: Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Best Supporting Actor: Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Best Ensemble: The French Dispatch
Best Original Screenplay: Vanessa Block and Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car
Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo, The Green Knight
Best Editing: Joe Walker, Dune
Best Original Score: Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
Best International Film: Drive My Car
Best Documentary: Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Best Animated Film: The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Best Voice Acting/Animated/Digital Performance: Abbi Jacobson, The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Best Stunts: No Time to Die
Best First Film: Michael Samoski, Pig
The Robert R. “Bobby” McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award: Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza

SPECIAL AWARD: to director Shatara Michelle Ford for Test Pattern, the Best Film Made in Austin by a Non-Austin Filmmaker

As part of the organization’s annual voting, the Austin Film Critics Association awards titles with local ties — works made by directors who live in Austin. This award is distinct to our group of critics.

2021 Austin Film Award Winner: Without Getting Killed or Caught (dirs. Tamara Saviano and Paul Whitfield)

AFCA Top 10 Films of 2021
Pig
The Power of the Dog
Licorice Pizza
Dune
Drive My Car
The Green Knight
Titane
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Parallel Mothers and The Worst Person in the World (tie)

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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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