The North Carolina Film Critics Association announced the winners for the tenth annual awards for achievements in film with The Power of the Dog leading the pack with six awards, including narrative film, director, actor, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and cinematography.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association voted the Western drama The Power of the Dog as the Best Film of 2021, according to the results of its 28th annual critics’ poll. The film also won the award for Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Supporting Actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee, along with Best Director and Best Screenplay for Jane Campion.
The Indiana Film Journalists Association named Mass as Best Film of the Year, along with Best Original Screenplay for Fran Kranz, the first-time writer/director who also was named Breakout of the Year, and Best Ensemble Acting for the cast of Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton.
Rebecca Hall’s Passing was awarded the honor of Best Movie About Women at the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), 2021 awards, along with Best Screen Couple for Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. The film based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 book, Passing, stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson as two light-skinned Black women, one of whom passes for white.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) named Drive My Car directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi as Best Picture of the Year, along with Best Screenplay. Other awards went to Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) for Best Documentary along with Best Editing; and Best Film Not in the English Language went to Petite Maman.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II took the top spots among films released in 2021 on Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey. Of the films that screened at festivals worldwide but have not announced stateside distribution, Claire Simon’s I Want To Talk About Duras, Ted Fendt’s Outside Noise, and Kyoshi Sugita’s Haruhara-san’s Recorder received the top rankings.
The Power of the Dog was named the Best Picture of 2021 by the Southeastern Film Critics Association, along with Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jane Campion, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Supporting Actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee and Best Supporting Actress for Kirsten Dunst. This is the second time a film directed by Jane Campion has won Best Picture and Best Director as SEFCA also recognized her film The Piano in 1993.
Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog lead the nominations for the 79th Annual Golden Globe Awards, with seven nominations each, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director.
The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) announced their top honorees for 2021 with Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” winning Best Film and Best Original Screenplay. The semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama from filmmaker centers on a nine-year-old boy and his family during the troubles in 1969 Northern Ireland.
Licorice Pizza, a coming-of-age drama set in the San Fernando Valley of the Seventies from Paul Thomas Anderson, was named Best Picture of 2021 by Atlanta Film Critics Circle.
The New York Film Critics Circle named Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, the Best Film of 2021, however, the Power of the Dog was the big winner taking the honor of Best Director for Jane Campion, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Sight and Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine, named Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II the Best Film of the Year. Hogg’s glorious follow up to The Souvenir (2019) stars Honor Swinton Byrne, alongside Richard Ayoade, Tilda Swinton, Jaygann Ayeh and Harris Dickinson in this semi-autobiographical portrait of the birth of a filmmaker. This is the second time Joanna Hogg has topped the Sight and Sound annual poll, following The Souvenir coming in first place in 2019 and the first time a woman has topped the Sight and Sound poll twice. This is the third year in a row where the poll has been topped by a British film.