Phoenix Film Critics Society winners: ‘Belfast’ tops with Best Picture, ‘Dune’ cleans up techs

 “Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical  take on the troubles in the title city, took Best Picture honors, and  Branagh won for Best Director and Best Screenplay, in the Phoenix Film  Critic’s Society’s 2021 awards. The film also captured awards for Ciaran  Hinds for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and for Jude Hill for Best  Performance by a Youth. With five wins, “Belfast” tied with the sci-fi  epic “Dune” for the most honored film of the year. 

Acting awards went to Kristen Stewart, Best  Actress for “Spencer”; Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Actor for Jane  Campion’s western “The Power of the Dog”; Ariana DeBose, Best Supporting  Actress for Steven Spielberg’s new “West Side Story”; Alana Haim for  Breakthrough Performance for “Licorice Pizza,” and the cast of “Mass”  for Best Ensemble. “The Power of the Dog” won for Best Adapted  Screenplay. 

“The Mitchells vs. the Machines” took the award  for Best Animated Film; Paolo Sorrentino’s Italian coming-of-age drama  “The Hand of God” won for Best Foreign Language Film, and Ahmir  “Questlove” Thompson’s concert movie “Summer of Soul” was honored for  Best Documentary. The title tune from the Bond picture “No Time to Die”  was awarded Best Original Song, and “Nightmare Alley” captured Best  Production Design. “Dune” took the honors for Best Original Score, Best  Cinematography, Best Film editing, Best Costume Design and Best Visual  Effects.  

Every year PFCS honors a film they feel didn’t  get the audiences it deserved with the “Overlooked Film of the Year”  award. This year it went to “Mass.” 

Here is the complete list of winners and the group’s top 10 films of the year.

PFCS TOP TEN (in alphabetical order)

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Nightmare Alley
No Time To Die
Spencer
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

BEST PICTURE
Belfast

BEST DIRECTOR
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ciaran Hinds, Belfast

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Mass

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Belfast

BEST SCREENPLAY ADAPTED FROM OTHER MATERIAL
The Power of the Dog

THE OVERLOOKED FILM OF THE YEAR
Mass

BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Mitchells vs. the Machines

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Hand of God

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Summer of Soul

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
No Time To Die, No Time To Die

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Dune

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dune

BEST FILM EDITING
Dune

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Nightmare Alley

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Dune

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dune

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH
Jude Hill, Belfast

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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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