‘Belfast’ tops Las Vegas Film Critics winners, Nicolas Cage takes Best Actor, Jessica Chastain is Best Actress

Erik Anderson December 13, 2021

The Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LVFCS) has name Belfast the best film of 2021, also awarding Kenneth Branagh best original screenplay.

West Side Story was top winner of the day, however, with five. The musical adaptation won director for Steven Spielberg, supporting actress for Ariana DeBose plus film editing, cinematography and art direction.

Nicolas Cage won Best Actor for Pig, his critically acclaimed return to form about a former chef who loses his prize truffle pig to thieves and must retrieve her. Jessica Chastain was named Best Actress for her turn as the wife of disgraced 1980s televangelist Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Troy Kostur (CODA) won the supporting actor award.

Here is the complete list of winners and the group’s top 10 films of the year.

Best Picture: Belfast

2. West Side Story
3. The Power of the Dog
4. Licorice Pizza
5. CODA
6. tick, tick… Boom!
7. King Richard
8. Dune
9. Spencer
10. Mass

Best Director: Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

Best Actor: Nicolas Cage, Pig
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Best Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur, CODA
Best Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

Best Screenplay (Original): Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Best Screenplay (Adapted): Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

Best Animated Film: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Best Documentary: Summer of Soul
Best International Film: Flee

Best Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński, West Side Story
Best Film Editing: Michael Kahn & Sarah Broshar, West Side Story
Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan & Tom Davies, Cruella
Best Score: Jonny Greenwood, Spencer
Best Song: “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die (Billie Eilish & FINNEAS)
Best Art Direction: West Side Story
Best Visual Effects: Dune

Best Action Film: Nobody
Best Comedy: Don’t Look Up
Best Family Film: CODA
Best Horror/Sci-Fi: Dune

Best Ensemble: CODA

Best Breakout Filmmaker: Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter

Best Male Youth in Film: Jude Hill, Belfast
Best Female Youth in Film: Emilia Jones, CODA

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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.