‘Dune’ leads North Carolina Film Critics (NCFCA) nominations with 13

Denis Villeneueve’s sci-fi epic Dune led the North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA) nominations with 13, including Best Narrative Film, Best Director, Best Acting Ensemble and virtually every below the line category the group has from Best Sound Design to Best Costume Design.

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog was next with 10 then Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story with 9. Other Best Narrative Film nominees were: Drive My Car, The French Dispatch, The Green Knight, Licorice Pizza, Mass, Pig and The Worst Person in the World.

The NCFCA consists of fifty-five film critics living and/or working in North Carolina. Here is the full list of nominations. Winners will be announced on January 5, 2022.

Best Narrative Film

Drive My Car
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Pig
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
The Worst Person in the World

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
David Lowery, The Green Knight
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
Denis Villeneuve, Dune

Best Actor

Nicolas Cage, Pig
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick… BOOM!
Dev Patel, The Green Knight
Will Smith, King Richard

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Best Supporting Actor

Jason Isaacs, Mass
Woody Norman, C’mon C’mon
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Alex Wolff, Pig
Jeffrey Wright, The French Dispatch

Best Supporting Actress

Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Ann Dowd, Mass
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ruth Negga, Passing

Best Vocal Performance in Animation or Mixed Media

Stephanie Beatriz, Encanto
Abbi Jacobson, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Danny McBride, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Kelly Marie Tran, Raya and the Last Dragon
Jacob Tremblay, Luca

Best Acting Ensemble

Dune
The French Dispatch
Licorice Pizza
Mass
The Power of the Dog

Best Original Screenplay

C’mon C’mon
The French Dispatch
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Pig

Best Adapted Screenplay

Drive My Car
Dune
The Green Knight
Passing
The Power of the Dog

Best Animated Film

Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Documentary Film

Flee
The Sparks Brothers
Summer of Soul
Val
The Velvet Underground

Best Foreign Language Film

Drive My Car
A Hero
Riders of Justice
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

Best Cinematography

Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

Best Editing

Dune
The French Dispatch
The Last Duel
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

Best Production Design

Dune
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

Best Costume Design

Cruella
Dune
Last Night in Soho
Nightmare Alley
Spencer

Best Hair & Make-Up

Cruella
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci
Nightmare Alley

Best Score

Don’t Look Up
Dune
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
Spencer

Best Original Song

“Every Letter” from Cyrano
“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
“So May We Start” from Annette

Best Sound Design

Dune
Nightmare Alley
No Time to Die
tick, tick… BOOM!
West Side Story

Best Special Effects

Dune
The Green Knight
The Matrix Resurrections
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Suicide Squad

Best Stunt Coordination

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

Best Directorial Debut

Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Rebecca Hall, Passing
Fran Kranz, Mass
Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick… BOOM!
Michael Sarnoski, Pig

Best Breakthrough Performance

Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Cooper Hoffman, Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones, CODA
Woody Norman, C’mon C’mon
Rachel Zegler, West Side Story

Ken Hanke Memorial Tar Heel Award

Anthony Mackie (Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Synchronic; Outside the Wire; The Woman in the Window) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story; Schmigadoon) – From Raleigh, North Carolina
Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals; The Woman in the Window; Godzilla vs. Kong) – From Fayetteville, North Carolina
Jonathan Majors (The Harder They Fall, Loki) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune; Bruised) – Studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts

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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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