San Diego Film Critics nominations: ‘Sound of Metal’ leads with 8

The San Diego Film Critics Society announced their nominations on Friday and Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal earned a field-best eight mentions, including best picture, best director, best actor for Riz Ahmed, supporting actress for Olivia Cooke and best supporting actor for Paul Raci.

Close behind with seven was Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, which earned double supporting actor nominations (for Sacha Baron Cohen and Frank Langella) and with five apiece came First Cow, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Nomadland.

Here is the full list of nominations. Winners will be announced on January 11.

Best Picture
Black Bear
First Cow
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
Sound of Metal
Promising Young Woman

Best Director
Darius Marder, SOUND OF METAL
Kelly Reichardt, FIRST COW
Aaron Sorkin, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN
Florian Zeller, THE FATHER
Chloe Zhao, NOMADLAND

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, SOUND OF METAL
Chadwick Boseman, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Brian Dennehy, DRIVEWAYS
Anthony Hopkins, THE FATHER
Steven Yeun, MINARI

Best Actress
Viola Davis, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Vanessa Kirby, PIECES OF A WOMAN
Frances McDormand, NOMADLAND
Carey Mulligan, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Aubrey Plaza, BLACK BEAR

Best Supporting Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Frank Langella, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Peter Macdissi, UNCLE FRANK
Bill Murray, ON THE ROCKS
Paul Raci, SOUND OF METAL

Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Ellen Burstyn, PIECES OF A WOMAN
Olivia Cooke, SOUND OF METAL
Amanda Seyfried, MANK
Yuh-jung Youn, MINARI

Best Comedic Performance
Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Sacha Baron Cohen, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Radha Blank, THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Bill Murray, ON THE ROCKS
Andy Samberg, PALM SPRINGS

Best Original Screenplay
Lee Isaac Chung, MINARI
Sofia Coppola, ON THE ROCKS
Emerald Fennell, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, Derek Cianfrance, SOUND OF METAL
Aaron Sorkin, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller, THE FATHER
Charlie Kaufman, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS
Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond, FIRST COW
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Chloé Zhao, NOMADLAND

Best Documentary
ATHLETE A
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER
REWIND
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
TIME

Best Animated Film
ONWARD
OVER THE MOON
SOUL
TROLLS: WORLD TOUR
WOLFWALKERS

Best International Film
ANOTHER ROUND
THE LIFE AHEAD
MARTIN EDEN
THE PLATFORM
SPUTNIK

Best Editing
Alan Baumgarten, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Andy Canny, THE INVISIBLE MAN
Andrew Dickler, Matthew Friedman, PALM SPRINGS
Jennifer Lame, TENET
Matthew L. Weiss, BLACK BEAR

Best Cinematography
Christopher Blauvelt, FIRST COW
Erik Messerschmidt, MANK
Joshua James Richards, NOMADLAND
Hoyte Van Hoytema, TENET
Dariusz Wolski, NEWS OF THE WORLD

Best Production Design
Donald Graham Burt, MANK
Nathan Crowley, TENET
Molly Hughes, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS
Kave Quinn, EMMA
Shane Valentino, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Best Visual Effects
BIRDS OF PREY
GREYHOUND
THE INVISIBLE MAN
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
SPUTNIK
TENET

Best Costumes
Erin Benach, BIRDS OF PREY
Alexandra Byrne, EMMA
April Napier, FIRST COW
Ann Roth, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Trish Summerville, MANK

Best Use of Music
DA 5 BLOODS
DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA
HAMILTON
MA RAINEY’s BLACK BOTTOM
SOUND OF METAL

Best Ensemble
DA 5 BLOODS
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
PALM SPRINGS
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
UNCLE FRANK

Breakthrough Artist
Riz Ahmed, SOUND OF METAL
Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Radha Blank, THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Sidney Flanigan, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Vanessa Kirby, PIECES OF A WOMAN

Sound of Metal image courtesy of Amazon Studios

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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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