‘Belfast’ leads San Diego Film Critics nominations, Caitríona Balfe nodded in Best Actress

The 2021 San Diego Film Critics Society nominations were announced today and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast led in a big way with 12 mentions including Best Picture, Best Director and, interestingly, Caitríona Balfe for Best Actress. She has largely competed and been nominated for supporting actress so far this season.

Rounding out the Best Picture nominees and their nominations totals are Dune with 9, The Power of the Dog with 8, Mass with 7 and CODA with 6. Nightmare Alley also received seven nominations, including one for Guillermo del Toro in Best Director, but missed Best Picture.

Among the seven nominations for Mass were three individual supporting nods for Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton and Ann Dowd. The film also received an Ensemble nomination.

Here is the full list of nominations. Winners will be announced on January 10.

Best Picture

BELFAST
CODA
DUNE
MASS
THE POWER OF THE DOG

Best Director

Kenneth Branagh, BELFAST
Jane Campion, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Guillermo del Toro, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Maggie Gyllenhaal, THE LOST DAUGHTER
Denis Villeneuve, DUNE

Best Actor

Nicolas Cage, PIG
Benedict Cumberbatch, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Peter Dinklage, CYRANO
Andrew Garfield, TICK, TICK…BOOM!
Jude Hill, BELFAST

Best Actress

Caitríona Balfe, BELFAST
Olivia Colman, THE LOST DAUGHTER
Penelope Cruz, PARALLEL MOTHERS
Emilia Jones, CODA
Kristen Stewart, SPENCER

Best Supporting Actor

Ben Affleck, THE TENDER BAR
Ciarán Hinds, BELFAST
Jason Isaacs, MASS
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Kodi Smit-McPhee, THE POWER OF THE DOG

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Arian DeBose, WEST SIDE STORY
Ann Dowd, MASS
Ruth Negga, PASSING
Martha Plimpton, MASS

Best Comedic Performance

Bradley Cooper, LICORICE PIZZA
Leonardo DiCaprio, DON’T LOOK UP
Jamie Dornan, BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR
David Harbour, BLACK WIDOW
Simon Rex, RED ROCKET

Best Youth Performance (Performers under the age of 16)

Mckenna Grace, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE
Jude Hill, BELFAST
Daniel Ranieri, THE TENDER BAR
Saniyya Sidney, KING RICHARD
Demi Singleton, KING RICHARD

Best Original Screenplay

Pedro Almodovar, PARALLEL MOTHERS
Kenneth Branagh, BELFAST
Fran Kranz, MASS
Adam McKay, DON’T LOOK UP
Michael Sarnoski, PIG

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jane Campion, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Joel Coen, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Rebecca Hall, PASSING
Sian Heder, CODA

Best Documentary

FLEE
MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY
SUMMER OF SOUL
VAL
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Best Animated Film

ENCANTO
FLEE
LUCA
THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON

Best Foreign Language Film

DRIVE MY CAR
I’M YOUR MAN
LAMB
PARALLEL MOTHERS
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

Best Editing

Úna Ní Dhonghalle, BELFAST
Paula Huidobro, CODA
Myron Kerstein, IN THE HEIGHTS
Joshua L. Pearson, SUMMER OF SOUL
Joe Walker, DUNE

Best Cinematography

Alice Brooks, IN THE HEIGHTS
Bruno Delbonnel, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Greig Fraser, DUNE
Dan Laustsen, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Ari Wegner, THE POWER OF THE DOG

Best Production Design

Jim Clay, BELFAST
Tamara Deverell, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Grant Major, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo, THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Patrice Vermette, Richard Roberts, Zsuzsanna Sipos, DUNE

Best Visual Effects

DUNE
THE GREEN KNIGHT
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME

Best Costumes

Jenny Beavan, CRUELLA
Odile Dicks-Mireaux, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
Antionette Messam, THE HARDER THEY FALL
Jacqueline West, Bob Morgan, DUNE
Janty Yates, HOUSE OF GUCCI

Best Sound Design

Malte Bieler, Brandon Jones, A QUIET PLACE PART II
Simon Chase, James Mather, BELFAST
Theo Green, Dave Whitehead, DUNE
Nathan Robitaille, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Dave Whitehead, THE POWER OF THE DOG

Best Use of Music

BELFAST
CRUELLA
IN THE HEIGHTS
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
WEST SIDE STORY

Breakthrough Artist

Alana Haim, LICORICE PIZZA
Jude Hill, BELFAST
Emilia Jones, CODA
Fran Kranz, MASS
Anthony Ramos, IN THE HEIGHTS

Best Ensemble

DON’T LOOK UP
DUNE
THE HARDER THEY FALL
IN THE HEIGHTS
MASS

Photo: Rob Youngson / Focus Features

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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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