Washington DC Critics name ‘Belfast’ Best Film; ‘Power of the Dog,’ ‘Dune win three awards

Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Aunjanue Ellis take top acting prizes

Belfast headlined a diverse roster of winners when The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) announced their top honorees for 2021 this morning. A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama from filmmaker Kenneth Branagh centering on a nine-year-old boy and his family during the Troubles in 1969 Northern Ireland, Belfast won Best Film and Branagh took home Best Original Screenplay.

Jane Campion won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Power of the Dog, based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, a provocative western of toxic masculinity and repressed longing set in the big sky country of 1925 Montana. As a college-aged young man with an increasing enigmatic connection to his petulant rancher uncle, Kodi Smit-McPhee was also awarded Best Supporting Actor for the film.

WAFCA awarded Best Actress to Kristen Stewart for her stirring portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales, reaching the life-altering decision to leave her marriage to Prince Charles and the royal family over the 1991 Christmas holiday, in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer. Also superbly playing a late real-life figure, talented composer, lyricist and playwright Jonathan Larson, Andrew Garfield won Best Actor for Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical-drama tick, tick…BOOM! Best Supporting Actress went to Aunjanue Ellis, wonderful as Oracene “Brandy” Price, mother of future tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard.

Best Acting Ensemble accolades were awarded to Fran Kranz’s Mass, an emotionally shattering drama starring Ann Dowd, Reed Birney, Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs, as grieving parents who meet in the wake of a tragic school shooting. For Best Youth Performance, Woody Norman won for Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, as a nine-year-old boy who forms a bond with his uncle while his mother is out of town.

Mike Rianda’s vibrant sci-fi comedy The Mitchells vs. the Machines, about a family road trip that turns into a fight to save the world from a robot uprising, took Best Animated Feature honors, while Best Voice Performance went to Awkwafina for her standout work as excitable dragon Sisu in Raya and the Last Dragon. Best Documentary kudos went to Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Best International/Foreign Language Film was awarded to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese drama Drive My Car.

In technical categories, Denis Villeneuve’s sweeping fantasy epic “Dune” was the major victor, winning Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score, while Best Editing went to “tick, tick…BOOM!”

The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association comprises over 65 DC-VA-MD-based film critics from television, radio, print and the Internet. Voting was conducted from December 3-5, 2021.

Here is the full list of nominees and winners.

Best Film:
Belfast – WINNER
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) – WINNER
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!) – WINNER
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) – WINNER
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) – WINNER

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) – WINNER

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

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

Best Voice Performance:
Awkwafina (Raya and the Last Dragon) – WINNER
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) – WINNER
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) – WINNER
Steven Levenson (tick, tick…BOOM!)
Tony Kushner (West Side Story)

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

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

Best International/
Foreign Language Film:
Drive My Car – WINNER
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) – WINNER
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) – WINNER
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!) – WINNER

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

Photo: Rob Youngson / Focus Features