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Posted March 8, 2021 by Mike Tyrkus in News
 
 

Detroit Film Critics Society Names Nomadland Best Picture

The Detroit Film Critics Society (DFCS) is pleased to announce the BEST OF 2020 nominees and winners in thirteen categories. This year, due to the pandemic, the period for which a film could be released was extended through February 28, 2021. Also included this year, and not in the past, are films that streamed because they could not be theatrically released. The DFCS was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of eighteen film critics from Michigan who write or broadcast in the metro-Detroit area as well as other major cities including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Toledo, Ohio.

Nomadland posterEach critic submitted their top 5 picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough in any category, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature, and Best Use of Music/Sound. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top 5 in each category was placed on the final ballot.

Nomadland was the big winner this year receiving 4 nominations and 4 wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Minari MINARI had 7 nominations (the most) and 3 wins for Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Best Original Screenplay. The Trial of the Chicago 7 tied with Sound of Metal with 5 nominations each. Sound of Metal had one win for Best Use of Sound/Music. One Night in Miami received 4 nominations with no wins. The coveted Best Actor award went to Delroy Lindo in Da 5 Bloods. The full list of results can be found below.

Additionally, the DFCS would like to dedicate the awards this year to our longtime member and colleague that passed away in 2020 – Corey Hall.

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The Best of 2020
as picked by the Detroit Film Critics Society
(nominees are listed in alphabetical order)

BEST PICTURE

  • Winner: Nomadland
  • First Cow
  • Minari
  • Sound of Metal
  • The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Winner: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
  • Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
  • Regina King, One Night in Miami
  • Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods
  • Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST ACTOR

  • Winner: Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods
  • Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
  • Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
  • Anthony Hopkins, The Father
  • Steven Yeun, Minari

BEST ACTRESS

  • Winner: Frances McDormand, Nomadland
  • Jessie Buckley, I’m Thinking of Ending Things
  • Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
  • Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
  • Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Winner: Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
  • Christopher Abbott, Possessor
  • Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
  • Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
  • Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Winner: Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari
  • Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
  • Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman
  • Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
  • Olivia Colman, The Father

 BEST ENSEMBLE

  • Winner: Minari
  • Da 5 Bloods
  • Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
  • One Night in Miami
  • The Trial of the Chicago 7

BREAKTHROUGH

  • Winner: Maria Bakalova, Actress (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)
  • Jasmine Batchelor, Actress (The Surrogate)
  • Radha Blank, Actress/Writer/Director/Producer (The Forty Year-Old Version)
  • Orion Lee, Actor (First Cow)
  • Wunmi Mosaku, Actress (His House)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Winner: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
  • Charlie Kaufman, I’m Thinking of Ending Things
  • Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami
  • Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond, First Cow
  • Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Winner: Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
  • Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
  • Shaka King, Will Berson, Judas and the Black Messiah
  • Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, Sound of Metal
  • Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • Winner: Dick Johnson Is Dead
  • All In: Fight for Democracy
  • Boys State
  • The Dissident
  • Time

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

  • Winner: Soul
  • The Croods: A New Age
  • Onward
  • Over the Moon
  • Wolfwalkers

BEST USE OF MUSIC/SOUND

  • Winner: Sound of Metal
  • News of the World
  • Possessor
  • Soul
  • Tenet

The Detroit Film Critics Society members for the 2020-2021 season in alphabetical order are: Nate Adams – The Clinton Local, Paul Arlon – The Downtown Monitor; Kirk Baird – The Toledo Blade; Jonathan Barkan – jonathanbarkan.com, George Elkind – Metro Times; Christopher Giroux – Moviereelist.com; Corey Hall – Metro Times, WDET; Michelle Kisner – spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com; Warren Pierce – WJR Radio; Greg Russell – WDIV-TV Detroit & Movie Show Plus; Tom Santilli – CriticLee Speaking and Movie Show Plus; Debbie Schlussel – Sirius XM Larry the Cable Guy Show; Perry Seibert – WLBY-The Lucy Ann Lance show;  John Serba – johnserbaatlarge.com; MontiLee Stormer – Moviereelist.com;  Lee Thomas – Critic Lee Speaking, Fox 2; Mike Tyrkus – CinemaNerdz.com and VideoHound’s Golden MovieRetriever;  Carl Wheeler – thereelgodfather.com; and Chris Williams – michigansportsandentertainment.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Ruth Daniels at (248) 910-8796 OR ruthfdaniels@gmail.com

More information is available on the website at detroitfilmcritics.com

Mike Tyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.