San Diego Film Critics winners: ‘The Power of the Dog’ wins Best Pic, Caitríona Balfe and Penélope Cruz tie for Best Actress

The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) has chosen The Power of the Dog the Best Picture of 2021, also awarding the film Best Director and Adapted Screenplay (Jane Campion) of its eight nominations.

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast had led the nominations with 12 mentions including Best Picture, Best Director and Caitríona Balfe for Best Actress, where she won in a tie with Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers. She has largely competed and been nominated for supporting actress so far this season and this is her first win of any kind. Belfast‘s only other win was for Youth Performance (Jude Hill) but the film laded seven runner-up placements, including Best Picture and Best Director.

For Best Actor, Nicolas Cage (Pig) was named the winner with Andrew Garfield (tick, tick…BOOM! as the runner-up) and Jason Isaacs won Best Supporting Actor for Mass with Ben Affleck in The Tender Bar as runner-up. Ruth Negga (Passing) won Best Supporting Actress (West Side Story‘s Ariana DeBose was the runner-up there).

For the technical awards, wins were spread out among Dune (Cinematography, Sound, Visual Effects), In the Heights (Film Editing), Cruella (Costumes), Nightmare Alley (Production Design) and more.

Composer Jonny Greenwood received a win for his Body of Work in 2021: Licorice Pizza, The Power of the Dog and Spencer.

Here is the complete list of winners and runners-up when they awarded them.

Best Picture

Winner: THE POWER OF THE DOG
Runner–up: BELFAST

Best Director

Winner: Jane Campion, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Runner–up: Kenneth Branagh, BELFAST

Best Actor

Winner: Nicolas Cage, PIG
Runner–up: Andrew Garfield, TICK, TICK…BOOM!

Best Actress (tie)

Winners: Caitríona Balfe, BELFAST and Penélope Cruz, PARALLEL MOTHERS

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Jason Isaacs, MASS
Runner–up: Ben Affleck, THE TENDER BAR

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Ruth Negga, PASSING
Runner–up: Ariana DeBose, WEST SIDE STORY

Best Comedic Performance

Winner: Bradley Cooper, LICORICE PIZZA
Runner–up: David Harbour, BLACK WIDOW

Best Youth Performance (Performers under the age of 16)

Winner: Jude Hill, BELFAST

Runners–up: Mckenna Grace, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE; Saniyya
Sidney, KING RICHARD

Best Original Screenplay

Winner: Fran Kranz, MASS
Runners–up: Kenneth Branagh, BELFAST; Adam McKay, DON’T LOOK UP

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winner: Jane Campion, THE POWER OF THE DOG
Runner–up: Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan, NIGHTMARE ALLEY

Best Documentary

Winner: SUMMER OF SOUL

Runner–up: FLEE

Best Animated Film

Winner: LUCA
Runner–up: FLEE

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: PARALLEL MOTHERS
Runner–up: I’M YOUR MAN

Best Editing

Winner: Myron Kerstein, IN THE HEIGHTS
Runner–up: Úna Ní Dhonghalle, BELFAST

Best Cinematography

Winner: Greig Fraser, DUNE
Runner–up: Bruno Delbonnel, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Best Production Design

Winner: Tamara Deverell, NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Runner–up: Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo, THE FRENCH DISPATCH

Best Visual Effects

Winner: DUNE

Best Costumes

Winner: Jenny Beavan, CRUELLA
Runner–up: Antionette Messam, THE HARDER THEY FALL

Best Sound Design

Winner: Theo Green, Dave Whitehead, DUNE
Runners–up: Simon Chase, James Mather, BELFAST; Malte Bieler, Brandon Jones, A
QUIET PLACE PART II; Dave Whitehead, THE POWER OF THE DOG

Best Use of Music

Winner: LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

Runners–up: BELFAST, IN THE HEIGHTS, WEST SIDE STORY
CRUELLA

Breakthrough Artist

Winner: Emilia Jones, CODA
Runner–up: Jude Hill, BELFAST

Best Ensemble

Winner: DON’T LOOK UP

Body of Work

Jonny Greenwood, Composer (LICORICE PIZZA, THE POWER OF THE DOG, SPENCER)

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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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