Terence Davies’ ‘Benediction,’ Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ lead 19th International Cinephile Society (ICS) nominations
The nominations for the 19th International Cinephile Society (ICS) were announced today and in usual fashion, it’s a the most diverse and different lineup than you’ll see from any other critics’ group.
Leading the way with eight nods is Benediction, Terence Davies’ gorgeously melancholy reflection on war poet and anti-war activist Siegfried Sassoon, whose personal battle against his own nature as a gay man left him deeply unfulfilled. Also with eight nods, The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s deconstruction of the toxic masculinity prevalent in cowboy culture, as the power struggle between a homophobic rancher and a gay teenager is turned upside down to devastating effect. And again with eight mentions, Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, where director Arthur Harari shows us the beauty and lonely harshness of lives cut off from the world when a Japanese lieutenant and his second-in-command decide they must remain in the Philippines, fighting a secret war long after the real war is over.
Annette, a darkly melodramatic rock opera conceived and written by the Sparks Brothers and directed by Leos Carax, with all his visual inventiveness on brilliant display, garnered seven nods. Also with seven mentions, Happening, Audrey Diwan’s harrowing drama about a young woman seeking a back-alley abortion in 1960s France, while all her dreams for the future fall apart in agonizing close-up. And finally, seven nods went to critics’ darling Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s masterful adaptation of a Murakami short story, in which a director’s car becomes his sanctuary as he‘s haunted by grief after his wife’s death. The woman driver assigned to him has her own secrets, as do the cast members in his theatre group. Every human connection circles back, to illuminate the mysteries of Murakami, Chekhov, life, death, and art.
Lead Actor nominees are Benedict Cumberbatch as the bully with a vulnerable underbelly in The Power of the Dog; Adam Driver as the monstrous husband/father in Annette; Jack Lowden as the impassioned young poet in Benediction; Hidetoshi Nishijima as the haunted director in Drive My Car; Simon Rex as a fading porn star in Red Rocket; and Franz Rogowski as a gay man repeatedly imprisoned in Great Freedom.
Lead Actress nods go to Penélope Cruz as one of two Parallel Mothers; Isabelle Fuhrman as an obsessive rower in The Novice; Lee Hye-yeong as the compelling face of In Front of Your Face; Léa Seydoux as the hilarious France; Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer; and Anamaria Vartolomei as the woman denied any choice in Happening.
We’ve added a new category this year, Best Breakthrough Performance, to honor career-elevating work by several talented artists with great futures ahead of them.
Winners of the 19th ICS Awards will be announced on February 6, 2022.
PICTURE
• Annette
• Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
• Benediction
• Drive My Car
• Happening
• Haruhara-san’s Recorder
• In Front of Your Face
• Licorice Pizza
• Memoria
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
• Petite Maman
• The Power of the Dog
• Red Rocket
• The Souvenir Part II
• Spencer
• Titane
• West Side Story
• What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Who’s Stopping Us
DIRECTOR
• Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
• Terence Davies – Benediction
• Audrey Diwan – Happening
• Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car
• Arthur Harari – Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
• Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Memoria
ACTOR
• Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog
• Adam Driver – Annette
• Jack Lowden – Benediction
• Hidetoshi Nishijima – Drive My Car
• Simon Rex – Red Rocket
• Franz Rogowski – Great Freedom
ACTRESS
• Penélope Cruz – Parallel Mothers
• Isabelle Fuhrman – The Novice
• Lee Hye-yeong – In Front of Your Face
• Léa Seydoux – France
• Kristen Stewart – Spencer
• Anamaria Vartolomei – Happening
SUPPORTING ACTOR
• Yuriy Borisov – Compartment No. 6
• Anders Danielsen Lie – The Worst Person in the World
• Xavier Dolan – Lost Illusions
• Jeremy Irvine – Benediction
• Vincent Lindon – Titane
• Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
• Tôko Miura – Drive My Car
• Anna Mouglalis – Happening
• Ruth Negga – Passing
• Park Yu-rim – Drive My Car
• Fusako Urabe – Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
ENSEMBLE
• Benediction
• Drive My Car
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
• The Power of the Dog
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Who’s Stopping Us
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• Annette – Ron Mael, Russell Mael
• Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn – Radu Jude
• Benediction – Terence Davies
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle – Arthur Harari, Vincent Poymiro
• Petite Maman – Céline Sciamma
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• Drive My Car – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
• Fabian: Going to the Dogs – Dominik Graf, Constantin Lieb
• Happening – Marcia Romano, Audrey Diwan
• I Want to Talk About Duras – Claire Simon
• Passing – Rebecca Hall
• The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion
CINEMATOGRAPHY
• Benediction – Nicola Daley
• The Green Knight – Andrew Droz Palermo
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle – Tom Harari
• The Power of the Dog – Ari Wegner
• Spencer – Claire Mathon
• The Tragedy of Macbeth – Bruno Delbonnel
EDITING
• Annette – Nelly Quettier
• Benediction – Alex Mackie
• Happening – Géraldine Mangenot
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle – Laurent Sénéchal
• The Tsugua Diaries – Pedro Filipe Marques
• What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? – Aleksandre Koberidze
PRODUCTION DESIGN
• After Blue – Thomas Salabert
• Annette – Florian Sanson, Marion Michel
• Dune – Patrice Vermette, Tom Brown, Richard Roberts, Zsuzsanna Sipos
• Fabian: Going to the Dogs – Claus-Jürgen Pfeiffer, Nadja Götze
• The French Dispatch – Adam Stockhausen, Stéphane Cressend, Rena DeAngelo
• The Souvenir Part II – Stéphane Collonge, Byron Broadbent, Polly Davenport
SCORE
• Annette – Ron Mael, Russell Mael (aka Sparks)
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle – Sebastiano De Gennaro, Enrico Gabrielli, Olivier Marguerit, Andrea Poggio, Gak Sato
• Parallel Mothers – Alberto Iglesias
• The Power of the Dog – Jonny Greenwood
• Spencer – Jonny Greenwood
• What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? – Giorgi Koberidze
SOUND DESIGN
• Annette – Erwan Kerzanet
• A Cop Movie – Javier Umpierrez
• Dune – Phil Barrie, Theo Green, Mark A. Mangini, Dave Whitehead
• Memoria – Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Raúl Locatelli, Javier Umpierrez
• Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle – Ivan Dumas, Andreas Hildebrandt
• Out of Sync – Oriol Tarragó, Marc Bech, Dani Fontrodona
ANIMATED FILM
• The Crossing – Florence Miailhe
• Cryptozoo – Dash Shaw
• Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time – Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Mahiro Maeda
• Flee – Jonas Poher Rasmussen
• Luca – Enrico Casarosa
• The Summit of the Gods – Patrick Imbert
DOCUMENTARY
• Flee – Jonas Poher Rasmussen
• Mr. Bachmann and His Class – Maria Speth
• Returning to Reims – Jean-Gabriel Périot
• A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces – Shengze Zhu
• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Questlove
• Three Minutes – A Lengthening – Bianca Stigter
DEBUT FEATURE
• Anatomia – Ola Jankowska
• El Planeta – Amalia Ulman
• The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Passing – Rebecca Hall
• Playground – Laura Wandel
• The Tale of King Crab – Matteo Zoppis, Alessio Rigo de Righi
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
• Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
• Agathe Rousselle – Titane
• Filippo Scotti – The Hand of God
• Maya Vanderbeque – Playground
• Anamaria Vartolomei – Happening
• Lucie Zhang – Paris, 13th District
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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