‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘Dune,’ ‘Spencer’ lead 2021 Discussing Film Critics Awards nominations

Erik Anderson December 7, 2021

Jane Campion’s take on the old school of bravado westerns, The Power of the Dog, led the 3rd Discussing Film Critics nominations announced today with 11, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for Campion and three acting nominations: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Right behind were Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Pablo Larraín’s Spencer with 10 nominations apiece, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director, a total the former achieved without a single acting nod. Fran Kranz’s Mass and Titane earned seven nods apiece, including Best Motion Picture with the latter also grabbing a Best Director nod for Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story was nominated for six awards including Best Motion Picture and Best Director.

Rounding out the Best Motion Picture nominees were C’mon C’mon, The Green Knight, Petite Maman and tick, tick…BOOM!

Ranking low on the nomination totals were films that have had a good start with critics’ groups like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. Both earned a nomination in the Best Debut Performance category (for Alana Haim and Jude Hill, respectively) and Belfast was nominated in the Best Use of Music for Jamie Dornan’s rendition of “Everlasting Love.” The star-studded Don’t Look Up from Adam McKay only received two nominations, for its editing and song but nothing for its actors and two other huge star projects, Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci with Lady Gaga and Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos with Nicole Kidman, were snubbed entirely.

Here is the full list of nominees. Winners will be announced on January 4, 2022.

BEST MOTION PICTURE

C’mon C’mon
Dune
The Green Knight
Mass
Petite Maman
The Power of the Dog
Spencer
tick, tick… BOOM!
Titane
West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR

Denis Villeneuve, Dune
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Pablo Larraín, Spencer
Julia Ducournau, Titane
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

BEST FILM ACTOR

Joaquin Phoenix, C’mon, C’mon
Will Smith, King Richard
Nicolas Cage, Pig
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST FILM ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Kristen Stewart, Spencer
Agathe Rousselle, Titane
Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jason Isaacs, Mass
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Robin de Jesus, tick, tick…BOOM!
Vincent Lindon, Titane

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ann Dowd, Mass
Ruth Negga, Passing
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Drive My Car
Flee
Petite Maman
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

BEST FILM ENSEMBLE

The French Dispatch
The Harder They Fall
Mass
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mike Mills, C’mon C’mon
Zach Baylin, King Richard
Fran Kranz, Mass
Steven Knight, Spencer
Julia Ducournau, Titane

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Sian Heder, CODA
Jon Spaihts & Denis Villeneuve & Eric Roth, Dune
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Rebecca Hall, Passing
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Greig Fraser, Dune
Andrew Doz Palermo, The Green Knight
Ari Wegner, The Power of the Dog
Claire Mathon, Spencer
Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Hans Zimmer, Dune
Alexandre Desplat, The French Dispatch
Daniel Hart, The Green Knight
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
Jonny Greenwood, Spencer

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Jenny Beavan, Cruella
Jacqueline West, Bob Morgan, Dune
Milena Canonero, The French Dispatch
Odile Dicks-Mireaux, Last Night in Soho
Jacqueline Durran, Spencer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Patrice Vermette, Dune
Adam Stockhausen, The French Dispatch
Tamara Deverell, Nightmare Alley
Guy Hendrix Dyas, Spencer
Adam Stockhausen, West Side Story

BEST FILM EDITING

Joe Walker, Dune
Hank Corwin, Don’t Look Up
Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog
Sebastian Sepulveda, Spencer
Myron Kerstein, Andrew Weisblum, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST SOUND

A Quiet Place Part II
Dune
The Harder They Fall
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog

BEST USE OF MUSIC

“Everlasting Love”, Belfast
“Downtown”, Last Night in Soho
“Happy House”, Last Night in Soho
“You’re My World”, Last Night in Soho
“All I Need is a Miracle”, Spencer

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“So May We Start,” Annette
“Just Look Up”, Don’t Look Up
“Guns Go Bang”, The Harder They Fall
“Be Alive”, King Richard
“No Time to Die”, No Time to Die

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dune
Eternals
Godzilla vs. Kong
Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings
The Suicide Squad

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Belle
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs the Machines

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM

CODA
C’mon C’mon
The Green Knight
Mass
Shiva Baby

BEST DEBUT FEATURE FILM

Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Fran Kranz, Mass
Rebecca Hall, Passing
Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby
Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick…BOOM!

BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE

Jude Hill, Belfast
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby
Agathe Rousselle, Titane
Rachel Zegler, West Side Story

Photo: Kirsty Griffin/Netflix

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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.