Columbus Film Critics name ‘Promising Young Woman’ in Best Film, Carey Mulligan is Best Actress

Erik Anderson January 7, 2021

The Columbus Film Critics Association (COFCA) surprised on Thursday, naming Emerald Fennell’s debut film Promising Young Woman the best film of 2020. Its star Carey Mulligan was named best actress and Fennell also picked up the group’s original screenplay prize and breakthrough film artist.

Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari had led the nominations with 10 but ended up with just two wins: supporting actress for Youn Yuh-jung and for foreign language film.

Chadwick Boseman was selected for his body of work in 2020 and was runner-up in best actor (for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and supporting actor (for Da 5 Bloods). Sound of Metal took the best actor and supporting actor prizes for Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci, respectively.

Andrew Patterson’s The Vast of Night was chosen as the year’s most overlooked film.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up and the group ranked top 10 films of 2020.

Best Film

Promising Young Woman
Nomadland
Sound of Metal
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Minari
Soul
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The Trial of the Chicago 7
First Cow
Mank

Best Director

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Runner-up: Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Best Actor

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Runner-up: Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Best Actress

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Runner-up: Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Runners-up (tie): Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods and Mark Rylance, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Supporting Actress

Youn Yuh-jung, Minari
Runner-up: Olivia Colman, The Father

Best Ensemble

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Runner-up: Promising Young Woman

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)

Chadwick Boseman (Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
Runner-up: Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man and Shirley)

Breakthrough Film Artist

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) – (for producing, directing, and screenwriting)
Runner-up: Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version – (for producing, directing, screenwriting,
and acting)

Best Cinematography

Joshua James Richards, Nomadland
Runner-up: Eric Messerschmidt, Mank

Best Film Editing

Alan Baumgarten, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Runner-up: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Sound of Metal

Best Adapted Screenplay

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Runner-up: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Best Original Screenplay

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
Runner-up: Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Score

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Soul
Runner-up: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Mank

Best Documentary

Dick Johnson is Dead
Runner-up: Boys State

Best Foreign Language Film

Minari
Runner-up: Martin Eden

Best Animated Film

Wolfwalkers
Runner-up: Soul

Best Overlooked Film

The Vast of Night
Runner-up: Palm Springs

Promising Young Woman image courtesy of 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.