Nominations for the 94th Academy Awards were announced today, and we decided to take the time and see how the Houston Film Critics Society’s own nominees compared. Leading all Oscar nominees was Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog with twelve, followed by Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi spectacle Dune. It nabbed ten. Here are the categories shared by both the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Houston Film Critics Society. Those in bold and capitalized signify nominees from both organizations. We have added notations as to films and performances nominated in major and technical categories.
BEST PICTURE
BELFAST
CODA
DON’T LOOK UP
Drive My Car
DUNE
KING RICHARD
LICORICE PIZZA
Nightmare Alley
THE POWER OF THE DOG
West Side Story
*The three other films the Houston Film Critics Society nominated for Best Picture were Parallel Mothers, tick, tick… BOOM!, and The Tragedy of Macbeth.
BEST DIRECTOR
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON (Licorice Pizza)
KENNETH BRANAGH (Belfast)
JANE CAMPION (The Power of the Dog)
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
*The HFCS nominated Guillermo del Toro and Villeneuve for their direction of Nightmare Alley and Dune, respectively.
BEST ACTRESS
JESSICA CHASTAIN (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
OLIVIA COLMAN (The Lost Daughter)
PENELOPE CRUZ (Parallel Mothers)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
KRISTEN STEWART (Spencer)
*Due to a tie in nominations, in place of Nicole Kidman’s performance we had both Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza) and Emilia Jones (CODA). Also, unlike like the Best Picture race for the Academy Awards, the Houston Film Critics Society nominated a picture that has a lead female performance (Parallel Mothers).
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH (The Power of the Dog)
ANDREW GARFIELD (Tick, Tick … Boom!)
WILL SMITH (King Richard)
DENZEL WASHINGTON (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
*Peter Dinklage rounded out our Best Actor nominees with his performance of Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
JESSIE BUCKLEY (The Lost Daughter)
ARIANA DEBOSE (West Side Story)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
KIRSTEN DUNST (The Power of the Dog)
AUNJANUE ELLIS (King Richard)
*Dame Dench’s stalwart “Granny” may have been a hit with Academy voters, but our love went to Ann Dowd’s performance as a bereaved mother in Mass.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
CIARAN HINDS (Belfast)
TROY KOTSUR (CODA)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
J.K. SIMMONS (Being the Ricardos)
KODI SMIT-MCPHEE (The Power of the Dog)
*Andrew Garfield was a double acting nominee by the HFCS, picking up a supporting nod for his portrayal as Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell)
DUNE (Hans Zimmer)
Encanto (Germaine Franco)
Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias)
THE POWER OF THE DOG (Jonny Greenwood)
*The musical musings of the Houston-area critics didn’t quite jive with AMPAS voters as we gave nominations to the scoring of The French Dispatch (Alexandre Deplat), The Harder They Fall (Jeymes Samuel), and Spencer (Jonny Greenwood).
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CODA (screenplay by Siân Heder)
Drive My Car (screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa
Oe)
Dune (screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve
and Eric Roth)
The Lost Daughter (written by Maggie Gyllenhaal)
THE POWER OF THE DOG (written by Jane Campion)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BELFAST (written by Kenneth Branagh)
DON’T LOOK UP (screenplay by Adam McKay; story by Adam McKay & David Sirota)
King Richard (written by Zach Baylin)
LICORICE PIZZA (written by Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Worst Person in the World (written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier)
*Note: The Houston Film Critics Society does not separate screenplay into “adapted” and “original” categories. However, the screenplays we did nominate were also nominated by the Academy.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
ENCANTO
FLEE
LUCA
THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Ascension (Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell)
Attica (Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry)
FLEE (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sorensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie)
SUMMER OF SOUL (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein)
Writing With Fire (Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh)
*The HFCS recognized the documentaries The Rescue, The Sparks Brothers, and Val.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Be Alive” — music and lyrics by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (King Richard)
“Dos Oruguitas” — music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (ENCANTO)
“Down to Joy” — music and lyrics by Van Morrison (Belfast)
“No Time to Die” — music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (NO TIME TO DIE)
“Somehow You Do” — music and lyrics by Diane Warren (Four Good Days)
*Songs that had the critics singing along included “Wherever I Fall – Pt. 1” (Cyrano), “Guns Go Bang” (The Harder They Fall), and “Just Look Up” (Don’t Look Up).
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
DUNE
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
THE POWER OF THE DOG
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
WEST SIDE STORY
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
DRIVE MY CAR (Japan)
FLEE (Denmark)
The Hand of God (Italy)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Norway)
*The Houston Film Critics Society recognized Parallel Mothers (Spain) and Riders of Justice (Denmark).
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
DUNE
Free Guy
No Time to Die
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
Spider-Man: No Way Home
*The HFCS nominated three films, including the two in bold plus The Matrix Resurrections.
