International Cinephile Society Awards: ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains’ is Best Picture, Kelly Reichardt (‘First Cow’) named Best Director

Always the most willing group to step outside the normalcy and rubber stamping of critics’ season, the 18th International Cinephile Society (ICS) has selected Gu Xiaogang’s Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, inspired by a famed 14th-century painting, which drifts through the daily lives of four brothers along the banks of the Yangtze River, as the Best Picture of 2020. The film also won for Deng Xu and Yu Ninghui’s cinematography and as Xiaogang’s debut feature. The film first premiered during Critics’ Week of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. In in the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of ICS.

In second place was Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, who was chosen as Best Director, who also won Adapted Screenplay with co-writer Jonathan Raymond, based on his book.

Brazilian politics/horror/western mash-up Bacurau fought its way to three ICS awards: iconic actress and activist Sônia Braga for her scene-stealing supporting turn as Doctor Domingas; writer-directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles for Original Screenplay; and the terrific international cast for Best Ensemble.

Aditya Modak earned the Best Actor award for his lyrical performance as an Indian classical music vocalist in The Disciple. Best Actress went to Lingua Franca‘s Isabel Sandoval as a Filipino trans woman desperately trying to obtain a green card while she lives in fear of deportation from the US. And the Supporting Actor trophy was snagged by Francisco Barreiro, who pulls off an amazing triple role in the meta-experimental film Fauna, satirizing Mexico’s narco culture.

Here is the full list of winners, runners-up and nominees for the 18th International Cinephile Society (ICS) awards.

PICTURE
01.  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
02.  First Cow
03.  Days
04.  Nomadland
05.  Lingua Franca
06.  Lovers Rock
07.  La virgen de agosto
08.  A Portuguesa
09.  Bacurau
10.  If It Were Love
11.  Never Rarely Sometimes Always
12.  I’m Thinking of Ending Things
13.  The Year of the Discovery
14.  The Wasteland
15.  Fauna
16.  Identifying Features
17.  The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)
18.  Malmkrog
19.  The Disciple
20.  Residue
21.  À l’abordage
22.  DAU. Degeneration
23.  Madre
24.  Undine
25.  Love Affair(s)

DIRECTOR
Winner:  Kelly Reichardt – First Cow
RU:  Isabel Sandoval – Lingua Franca
RU:  Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
•  Rita Azevedo Gomes – A Portuguesa
•  Gu Xiaogang – Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
•  Tsai Ming-liang – Days

ACTOR
Winner:  Aditya Modak – The Disciple
RU:  Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
•  Bartosz Bielenia – Corpus Christi
•  Alfredo Castro – My Tender Matador
•  Delroy Lindo – Da 5 Bloods
•  James Norton – Nowhere Special

ACTRESS
Winner:  Isabel Sandoval – Lingua Franca
RU:  Marta Nieto – Madre
•  Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
•  Frances McDormand – Nomadland
•  Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman
•  Barbara Sukowa – Two of Us

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner:  Francisco Barreiro – Fauna
RU:  Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
•  Anong Houngheuangsy – Days
•  Orion Lee – First Cow
•  Édouard Sulpice – À l’abordage
•  André Wilms – The Salt of Tears

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner:  Sônia Braga – Bacurau
RU:  Youn Yuh-jung – Minari
•  Candice Bergen – Let Them All Talk
•  Lynn Cohen – Lingua Franca
•  Vasilisa Perelygina – Beanpole
•  Talia Ryder – Never Rarely Sometimes Always

ENSEMBLE
Winner:  Bacurau
RU:  Malmkrog
•  À l’abordage
•  Da 5 Bloods
•  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
•  Lovers Rock

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner:  Bacurau – Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles
RU:  Lingua Franca – Isabel Sandoval
•  À l’abordage – Guillaume Brac, Catherine Paillé
•  Fauna – Nicolás Pereda
•  La virgen de agosto – Itsaso Arana, Jonás Trueba
•  Never Rarely Sometimes Always – Eliza Hittman

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner:  First Cow – Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
RU:  Malmkrog – Cristi Puiu
•  Atarrabi & Mikelats – Eugène Green
•  I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Charlie Kaufman
•  Moffie – Oliver Hermanus, Jack Sidey
•  A Portuguesa – Rita Azevedo Gomes

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner:  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – Deng Xu, Yu Ninghui
RU:  The Wild Goose Lake – Dong Jingsong
•  First Cow – Christopher Blauvelt
•  Lovers Rock – Shabier Kirchner
•  Notturno – Gianfranco Rosi
•  A Portuguesa – Acácio de Almeida

EDITING
Winner:  The Wasteland – Sara Yavari
RU:  Residue – Merawi Gerima
•  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – Liu Xinzhu
•  First Cow – Kelly Reichardt
•  Los conductos – Camilo Restrepo
•  Lovers Rock – Chris Dickens, Steve McQueen

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Winner:  A Portuguesa – Nuno Franco
RU:  First Cow – Anthony Gasparro, Lisa Ward, Vanessa Knoll
•  Beanpole – Sergey Ivanov
•  DAU. Degeneration – Denis Shibanov
•  Malmkrog – Dinica Tiberiu
•  The Twentieth Century – Dany Boivin

SCORE
Winner:  Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time – Gábor Keresztes
RU:  First Cow – William Tyler
•  The Disciple – Naren Chandavarkar, Aneesh Pradhan
•  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – Dou Wei
•  Mank – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
•  Soul – Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

SOUND DESIGN
Winner:  Sound of Metal – Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Michelle Couttolenc
RU:  Lovers Rock – Ronald Bailey, Paul Cotterell, James Harrison
•  The Disciple – Anirban Borthakur, Naren Chandavarkar, Anita Kushwaha
•  Residue – Alex J. Bledsoe, Isiah Clarke
•  Tenet – Willie D. Burton, Richard King, Kevin O’Connell, Gary A. Rizzo
•  The Vast of Night – Erik Duemig, Johnny Marshall, David Rosenblad

ANIMATED FILM
Winner:  Josep – Aurel
RU:  The Wolf House – Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León
•  Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary – Rémi Chayé
•  Circumstantial Pleasures – Lewis Klahr
•  Soul – Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
•  Wolfwalkers – Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart

DOCUMENTARY
Winner:  The Year of the Discovery – Luis López Carrasco
RU:  The Metamorphosis of Birds – Catarina Vasconcelos
•  City Hall – Frederick Wiseman
•  Collective – Alexander Nanau
•  My Mexican Bretzel – Nuria Giménez
•  Time – Garrett Bradley

DEBUT FEATURE
Winner:  Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – Gu Xiaogang
RU:  Identifying Features – Fernanda Valadez
•  Residue – Merawi Gerima
•  Sole – Carlo Sironi
•  Swallow – Carlo Mirabella-Davis
•  The Vast of Night – Andrew Patterson