Indiana Film Journalists Association awards: ‘Nomadland’ is the big winner

Erik Anderson December 20, 2020

Nomadland took top honors at the 2020 Indiana Film Journalists Association awards, winning four prizes including Best Film, Best Actress for Frances McDormand, plus Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for Chloé Zhao.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom won the runner-up prize for Best Film as well Best Ensemble Acting. In addition, eight other movies were announced as Finalists, which along with the winners represent the IFJA’s picks for the top 10 films of the year.

Delroy Lindo won Best Actor for his work in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Maria Bakalova was named Best Supporting Actress for her turn as Tutar in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Leslie Odom Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami. Jamie Foxx won for Best Vocal/Motion Capture Performance as the voice of Joe Gardner in Pixar’s latest, Soul.

Indiana University graduate Eliza Hittman took Best Original Screenplay for Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The Danish drama Another Round was named Best Foreign Language Film, Soul won Best Animated Film and Kirsten Johnson’s form-bending Dick Johnson is Dead won Best Documentary Film.

The Hoosier Award was given to the documentary Athlete A, which chronicles the sexual abuse of gymnasts, the attempt to cover it and the heroic journalism that brought it to light. The IFJA issued the following statement along with the award:

“We congratulate The Indianapolis Star investigative team, the filmmakers and especially the survivors for having the bravery and persistence to speak an uncomfortable truth and tell a story that needed to be told. ‘Athlete A’ represents the finest achievement in both journalism and documentary filmmaking.”

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up of the 2020 Indiana Film Journalists Association awards.

BEST FILM
Winner: Nomadland
Runner-Up: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Other Finalists (listed alphabetically):
Da 5 Bloods
Another Round
The Assistant
First Cow
i’m thinking of ending things
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Minari
The Twentieth Century

BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Runner-Up: Regina King, One Night in Miami

BEST ACTRESS
Winner: Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Runner-Up: Jessie Buckley, i’m thinking of ending things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Runner-Up: Youn Yuh-jung, Minari

BEST ACTOR
Winner: Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods
Runner-Up: Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
Runner-Up: Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods

BEST VOCAL / MOTION CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Winner: Jamie Foxx, Soul
Runner-Up: Sean Bean, Wolfwalkers

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Winner: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Runner-Up: One Night in Miami

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Runner-Up: Matthew Rankin, The Twentieth Century

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Runner-Up: Charlie Kaufman, i’m thinking of ending things

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Winner: Ludwig Göransson, Tenet
Runner-Up: Emile Mosseri, Minari

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Winner: Soul
Runner-Up: Wolfwalkers

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: Another Round
Runner-Up: Song Without a Name

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Winner: Dick Johnson is Dead
Runner-Up: Athlete A

BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Runner-Up: Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night

ORIGINAL VISION AWARD
Winner: The Twentieth Century
Runner-Up: Dick Johnson is Dead

HOOSIER AWARD
Winner: Athlete A

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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.