IFJA announces 2021 award nominees

The Indiana Film Journalists Association reveals its short list of qualifying nominees. Winners will be announced on Monday, Dec. 20.

The Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) has announced nominees in all categories for its forthcoming 2021 awards — with winners to be determined on Saturday, Dec. 18 and revealed on Monday, Dec. 20.

The Bleecker Street drama Mass leads all films with 10 total nominations. Neon’s Titane and Warner Brothers’ Judas and the Black Messiah each have nine nominations. A24’s The Green Knight, Apple TV+’s CODA and Netflix's The Harder They Fall earned eight nominations.

Olivia Colman and Jonny Greenwood received three nominations as individuals for three different projects. Colman received nominations for Best Actress in The Lost Daughter and for Best Vocal / Motion Capture Performance in both The Mitchells vs. the Machines and Ron’s Gone Wrong. Meanwhile, Greenwood received Best Musical Score nominations for his work in Licorice Pizza, The Power of the Dog and Spencer.

The IFJA considers films on a chronological calendar, determined by when screenings / screeners are made available to its 23 voting members.

The IFJA will determine a winner and a runner-up in all categories other than the Edward Johnson-Ott Hoosier Award, which, as a special award, is bestowed upon a single recipient. Hoosier Award nominees are also not published ahead of the announcement of winners.

In addition to Best Film and Runner-Up, the IFJA also will release an overall Top 10 — with eight other honored films listed alphabetically after the Best Film and Runner-Up.

Nominees are listed below.

BEST FILM
Annette
Belfast
The Card Counter
C’mon C’mon
CODA
Cyrano
Disfluency
Drive My Car
Dune (2021)
Flee
The Green Knight
Halloween Kills
The Harder They Fall
The Humans
In the Heights
Judas and the Black Messiah
The Last Duel
Licorice Pizza
Luca
Mass
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Nightmare Alley (2021)
Ninjababy
Petite Maman
Pig
The Power of the Dog
Red Rocket
Riders of Justice
Spencer
Titane
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story (2021)
 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Drive My Car
Flee
A Hero
Lamb
Ninjababy
Petite Maman
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Riders of Justice
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon
Ron’s Gone Wrong

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Flee
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Mayor Pete
Procession
The Rescue
The Sparks Brothers
Storm Lake
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Val
The Velvet Underground

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Wes Anderson (screenplay / story), Roman Coppola & Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman (story), The French Dispatch
Will Berson and Shaka King (screenwriters / story) and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas (story), Judas and the Black Messiah
Julia Ducournau, Titane
Mia Hansen-Løve, Bergman Island
Anders Thomas Jensen, Riders of Justice
Steven Knight, Spencer
Fran Kranz, Mass
Mike Mills, C’mon C’mon
Jeymes Samuel and Boaz Yakin, The Harder They Fall
Michael Sarnoski (writer) and Vanessa Block (story), Pig
Paul Schrader, The Card Counter
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Siân Heder, CODA
Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car
Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, The Last Duel
Quiara Alegría Hudes & Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights
Stephen Karam, The Humans
Tony Kushner, West Side Story (2021)
David Lowery, The Green Knight
Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve & Eric Roth, Dune (2021)

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Sean Baker, Red Rocket
Anna Baumgarten, Disfluency
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Leos Carax, Annette
Jon M. Chu, In the Heights
Joel Coen, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Julia Ducournau, Titane
Yngvild Sle Flikke, Ninjababy
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Rebecca Hall, Passing
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Siân Heder, CODA
Anders Thomas Jensen, Riders of Justice
Stephen Karam, The Humans
Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah
Fran Kranz, Mass
Pablo Larraín, Spencer
David Lowery, The Green Knight
Mike Mills, C’mon C’mon
Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall
Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Paul Schrader, The Card Counter
Céline Sciamma, Petite Maman
Ridley Scott, The Last Duel
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story (2021)
Denis Villeneuve, Dune (2021)
James Wan, Malignant
Joe Wright, Cyrano

BEST ACTRESS
Libe Barer, Disfluency
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Jodie Comer, The Last Duel
Rebecca Ferguson, Dune (2021)
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones, CODA
Vicky Krieps, Bergman Island
Frances McDormand, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Noomi Rapace, Lamb
Agathe Rousselle, Titane
Millicent Simmonds, A Quiet Place Part II
Kristen Stewart, Spencer
Tessa Thompson, Passing
Kristine Kujath Thorp, Ninjababy

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Chelsea Alden, Disfluency
Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Cate Blanchett, Nightmare Alley (2021)
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story (2021)
Ann Dowd, Mass
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Dominique Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah
Gaby Hoffmann, C’mon C’mon
Regina King, The Harder They Fall
Marlee Matlin, CODA
Tôko Miura, Drive My Car
Ruth Negga, Passing
Rita Moreno, West Side Story (2021)
Martha Plimpton, Mass

BEST ACTOR
Nicolas Cage, Pig
Bradley Cooper, Nightmare Alley (2021)
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
Adam Driver, Annette
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick… BOOM!
Oscar Isaac, The Card Counter
Jonathan Majors, The Harder They Fall
Mads Mikkelsen, Riders of Justice
Hidetoshi Nishijima, Drive My Car
Bob Odenkirk, Nobody
Dev Patel, The Green Knight
Joaquin Phoenix, C’mon C’mon
Anthony Ramos, In the Heights
Simon Rex, Red Rocket
Will Smith, King Richard
LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ben Affleck, The Last Duel
Reed Birney, Mass
Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza
Robin de Jesús, tick, tick…BOOM!
Colman Domingo, Zola
Jamie Dornan, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Mike Faist, West Side Story (2021)
Simon Helberg, Annette
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Jason Isaacs, Mass
Richard Jenkins, The Humans
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Riders of Justice
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jared Leto, House of Gucci
Vincent Lindon, Titane
Woody Norman, C’mon C’mon
Masaki Okada, Drive My Car
Al Pacino, House of Gucci
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Jeffrey Wright, The French Dispatch

BEST VOCAL / MOTION-CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Stephanie Beatriz, Encanto
Olivia Colman, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Olivia Colman, Ron’s Gone Wrong
Zach Galifianakis, Ron’s Gone Wrong
Jack Dylan Grazer, Luca
Tom Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Ralph Ineson, The Green Knight
Abbi Jacobson, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Caleb Landry Jones, Finch
Danny McBride, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Herman Tømmeraas, Ninjababy
Jacob Tremblay, Luca
Steven Vlahos, Psycho Goreman

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Belfast
CODA
Dune (2021)
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
The Harder They Fall
The Humans
In the Heights
Judas and the Black Messiah
The Last Duel
The Lost Daughter
Mass
Nightmare Alley (2021)
The Power of the Dog
No Sudden Move
Riders of Justice
The Suicide Squad
The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Robert Levon Been and Giancarlo Vulcano, The Card Counter
Carter Burwell, The Tragedy of Macbeth
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Halloween Kills
Jonny Greenwood, Licorice Pizza
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
Jonny Greenwood, Spencer
Harry Gregson-Williams, The Last Duel
Craig Harris and Mark Isham, Judas and the Black Messiah
Daniel Hart, The Green Knight
Nathan Johnson, Nightmare Alley (2021)
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Candyman (2021)
Ron Mael and Russell Mael, Annette
Dan Romer, Luca
Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall
Jim Williams, Titane
Hans Zimmer, Dune (2021)

BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR
Anna Baumgarten (writer / director), Disfluency
Leslie Grace (actress), In the Heights
Alana Haim (actress), Licorice Pizza
Jude Hill (actor), Belfast
Emilia Jones (actress), CODA
Stephen Karam (writer / director), The Humans
Shaka King (director / co-writer), Judas and the Black Messiah
Fran Kranz (writer / director), Mass
Woody Norman (actor), C’mon C’mon
Michael Rianda (director / co-writer / actor), The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Agathe Rousselle (actress), Titane
Jeymes Samuel (director / co-writer / composer / songwriter), The Harder They Fall
Michael Sarnoski (director / co-writer), Pig
Rachel Zegler (actress), West Side Story (2021)

ORIGINAL VISION AWARD
Annette
The Green Knight
Mass
Pig
Titane

Established in 2009 by a dedicated group of six Indiana journalists, the Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) was established to promote quality film criticism in the Hoosier state and support Indiana’s growing film industry.

For more information, visit:

http://indianafilmjournalists.com