Washington DC Critics: ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog’ lead nominations

The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) have announced their 2021 film nominees today and Belfast and The Power of the Dog led the way with 11 mentions apiece including Best Film and Best Director. Both films earned several individual acting nominations as well as ensemble nods.

Dune was next 7 and West Side Story with 6. Interestingly, Dune missed Best Film but got in for Best Director (Denis Villeneuve) whereas WSS made both. The Green Knight and tick, tick…BOOM! rounded out the Best Film nominees.

Winners will be announced on Monday, December 6. Here is the full list of nominees.

Best Film
Belfast
The Green Knight
The Power of the Dog
tick, tick…BOOM!
West Side Story

Best Director
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
David Lowery (The Green Knight)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

Best Actor
Nicolas Cage (Pig)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Garfield (tick, tick…BOOM!)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

Best Actress
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)
Tessa Thompson (Passing)

Best Supporting Actor
Jamie Dornan (Belfast)
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

Best Supporting Actress
Caitríona Balfe (Belfast)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Ann Dowd (Mass)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

Best Acting Ensemble
Belfast
The French Dispatch
The Harder They Fall
Mass
The Power of the Dog

Best Youth Performance
Jude Hill (Belfast)
Emilia Jones (CODA)
Woody Norman (C’mon, C’mon)
Saniyya Sidney (King Richard)
Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)

Best Voice Performance
Awkwafina (Raya and the Last Dragon)
Stephanie Beatriz (Encanto)
Abbi Jacobson (The Mitchells vs. the Machines)
Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon)
Jacob Tremblay (Luca)

Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Mike Mills (C’mon, C’mon)
Zach Baylin (King Richard)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Fran Kranz (Mass)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Siân Heder (CODA)
Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth; Based on the novel ‘Dune’ written by Frank Herbert (Dune)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Steven Levenson (tick, tick…BOOM!)
Tony Kushner (West Side Story)

Best Animated Feature
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Documentary
The First Wave
Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Val

Best International/Foreign Language Film
Drive My Car
A Hero
Lamb
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

Best Production Design
Jim Clay, Production Designer; Claire Nia Richards, Set Decorator (Belfast)
Patrice Vermette, Production Designer; Richard Roberts and Zsuzsanna Sipos, Set Decorators (Dune)
Adam Stockhausen, Production Designer; Rena DeAngelo, Set Decorator (The French Dispatch)
Tamara Deverell, Production Designer; Shane Vieau, Set Decorator (Nightmare Alley)
Adam Stockhausen, Production Designer; Rena DeAngelo, Set Decorator (West Side Story)

Best Cinematography
Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC (Belfast)
Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS (Dune)
Andrew Droz Palermo (The Green Knight)
Ari Wegner, ACS (The Power of the Dog)
Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

Best Editing
Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE, BFE (Belfast)
Joe Walker, ACE (Dune)
Andrew Weisblum, ACE (The French Dispatch)
Peter Sciberras (The Power of the Dog)
Myron Kerstein, ACE; Andrew Weisblum, ACE (tick, tick…BOOM!)

Best Original Score
Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner (Cyrano)
Hans Zimmer (Dune)
Alexandre Desplat (The French Dispatch)
Jonny Greenwood (The Power of the Dog)
Jonny Greenwood (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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