International Cinephile Society (ICS) Awards: ‘The Secret Agent’ Wins Six, Including Acting Prizes for Wagner Moura and Tânia Maria

With a dominating six awards, Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent, writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s tale of fascism and woe under the 1977 military dictatorship, won best picture, director, ensemble cast, original screenplay, and two acting prizes from the International Cinephile Society (ICS) at the 23rd edition of their awards. Wagner Moura was named best lead actor for his soulful portrayal of a researcher hunted down by the elite and their brutal hirelings, while 79-year-old Tânia Maria took home supporting actress honors over a field of younger contenders.

Kathleen Chalfant in Familiar Touch won the group’s lead actress award, for her role as a dementia patient who wants to cook for everybody at the ‘geriatric country club’ where she’s reluctantly trying to fit in. Pedro Pinho’s anti-colonial epic I Only Rest in the Storm earned the runner-up positions in picture, supporting actress and ensemble, while Jonathan Guilherme nabbed the top supporting actor prize. His performance as a gay Brazilian expat navigating the complex prejudices of neocolonial Guinea-Bissau is a stunner. Best adapted screenplay went to Harry Lighton for Pillion, a BDSM ‘dom com’ based on the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones. In a first for the group, father and son Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) and Alexander Skarsgård (Pillion) got to share runner-up honors for supporting actor.

Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling was runner-up in best director and sound design, while taking top honors for its brilliant editing by Evelyn Rack and Billie Mind. Two wins for score and sound design went to Oliver Laxe’s existential road trip Sirāt, with Kangding Ray‘s pulsing electronic rave music and Laia Casanovas‘ desert soundscape combining to propel the characters on their devastating journey across the minefield that spans heaven and hell. Bi Gan’s dreamy visual styles of Resurrection captured two awards, for Dong Jingsong‘s cinematography and for the production design by Liu Qiang and Tu Nan.

Gabriel Azorin‘s film about young soldiers bonding in the Roman baths, Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes, conquered two categories, debut film and breakthrough performance (Santiago Mateus). It ended up tied with A Useful Ghost, the Thai dark comedy debut of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, which also garnered a runner-up mention for him in original screenplay.

Best Picture: The Secret Agent

2. I Only Rest in the Storm
3. Sound of Falling
4. Sirāt
5. Dreams (Sex Love)
6. Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes
7. Dry Leaf
8. One Battle After Another
9. The Mastermind
10. Resurrection
11. Strange River
12. It Was Just an Accident
13. Hamnet
14. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due
15. Weapons
16. Sinners
17. Sentimental Value
18. Nouvelle Vague
19. Marty Supreme
20. Twinless

Best Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent (Runner-up: Mascha Schilinski, Sound of Falling)

Best Actor: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent (Runner-up: Ben Whishaw, Peter Hujar’s Day)

Best Actress: Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch [Runner-up: Ella Øverbye, Dreams (Sex Love)]

Best Supporting Actor: Jonathan Guilherme, I Only Rest in the Storm (Runners-up: Alexander Skarsgård, Pillion and Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value)

Best Supporting Actress: Tânia Maria, The Secret Agent (Runner-up: Cleo Diára, I Only Rest in the Storm)

Best Original Screenplay: Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent (Runner-up: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A Useful Ghost)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Harry Lighton, Pillion (Runner-up: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another)

Best Animated Film: Arco (Runner-up: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain)

Best Documentary: With Hasan in Gaza (Runner-up: Fiume o morte!)

Best Ensemble: The Secret Agent (Runner-up: I Only Rest in the Storm)

Best Cinematography: Dong Jingsong, Resurrection (Runner-up: Lav Diaz and Artur Tort, Magellan)

Best Editing: Evelyn Rack and Billie Mind, Sound of Falling (Runner-up: Matheus Farias and Eduardo Serrano, The Secret Agent)

Best Production Design: Liu Qiang and Tu Nan, Resurrection (Runner-up: Adam Stockhausen, The Phoenician Scheme)

Best Score: Kangding Ray, Sirāt (Runner-up: Giorgi Koberidze, Dry Leaf)

Best Sound Design: Laia Casanovas, Sirāt (Runner-up: Billie Mind and Jürgen Schulz, Sound of Falling)

Best Debut Film (tie): Gabriel Azorín, Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes and Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A Useful Ghost (Runner-up: Jaume Claret Muxart, Strange River)

Best Breakthrough Performance: Santiago Mateus, Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes (Runners-up: Jessica Pennington, Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due and Ubeimar Rios, A Poet)

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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