‘Power of the Dog’ takes bite out of annual award nominations
New Zealand director Jane Campion’s unsettling Western “The Power of the Dog” has the power with area film critics as it received the most nominations in the Houston Film Critics Society’s upcoming 15th annual awards. The movie is up for nine honors, including best picture, director, actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), supporting actress (Kirsten Dunst) and supporting actor (Kodi SmitMcPhee).
Other films with multiple nominations include “Belfast,” “Dune” and “CODA” with five each, “Licorice Pizza” with four and “Nightmare Alley,” “Flee,” “Parallel Mothers,” “King Richard,” “Don’t Look Up” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” with three each.
The HFCS introduced a new category this year honoring the best ensemble, and those nominees include “Belfast,” “CODA,” “Mass,” “Nightmare Alley” and “The Power of the Dog.”
One big surprise is the lack of love for Steven Spielberg’s generally well-reviewed “West Side Story,” a major Oscar hopeful, even though it has stumbled at the box office. In Houston, it is only up for two awards: supporting actress (Ariana DeBose) and cinematography. The year’s huge box-office hit, “SpiderMan: No Way Home,” is up in a single category: stunt coordination.
The previously announced nominees for the Texas Independent Film Award, given to an independent film shot in Texas, are: “12 Mighty Orphans,” Amaraica,” “Playing God,” “Red Rocket” and “Test Pattern.”
Winners will be announced Feb. 19.
The 40 members of the Houston Film Critics Society work in Houston, San Antonio and Southeast Texas in online, print, radio and TV. For more information, go to houstonfilmcritics.com.
Here is the complete list of nominees:
Picture: “Belfast,” “CODA,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Dune,”“King Richard,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Parallel Mothers,” “The Power of the Dog,” “tick, tick ... Boom,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”; Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”; Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”; Guillermo del Toro, “Nightmare Alley”; Denis Villeneuve, “Dune”
Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”; Peter Dinklage, “Cyrano”; Andrew Garfield, “tick,tick ... Boom”; Will Smith, “King Richard”; Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
Actress: Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”; Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter”; Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”; Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza”; Emilia Jones, “CODA”; Kristen Stewart, “Spencer”
Supporting actor: Andrew Garfield, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”; Ciarán Hinds, “Belfast”; Troy Kotsur, “CODA”; J.K. Simmons, “Being the Ricardos”; Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”
Supporting actress: Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”; Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”; Ann Dowd, “Mass”; Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of Dog”; Aunjanue Ellis, “King Richard”
Ensemble cast: “Belfast,” “CODA,” “Mass,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog”
Screenplay: “Belfast,” “CODA,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Licorice Pizza,” “The Power of the Dog”
Animated feature: “Encanto,” “Flee,” “Luca,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
Cinematography: “Dune,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “West Side Story”
Documentary feature: “Flee,” “The Rescue,” “The Sparks Brothers,” “Summer of Soul,” “Val”
Foreign language feature: “Drive My Car,” “Flee,” “Parallel Mothers,” “Riders of Justice,” “The Worst Person in the World”
Original score: “Dune,” “The French Dispatch,” “The Harder They Fall,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Spencer”
Original song: “Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto”; “Guns Go Bang” from “The Harder They Fall”; “Just Look Up” from “Don’t Look Up”; “No Time to Die” from “No Time to Die”; “Wherever I Fall — Part 1” from “Cyrano”
Visual effects: “Dune,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “ShangChi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
Stunt coordination: “Black Widow,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “No Time to Die,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home”