The UK’s leading film critics today announced the nominations for the 41st annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards. Rose Glass’ dramatic horror Saint Maud was out front with 8 nominations, including Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actress (Morfydd Clark) and Supporting Actress (Jennifer Ehle). In addition, the film is nominated for British/Irish Film of the Year, and Clark is nominated for British/Irish Actress, a body-of-work award that includes her appearance in Eternal Beauty.
Other leading contenders include Sarah Gavron’s London coming-of-age story Rocks with 6 nominations, Chloé Zhao’s improvised American road movie Nomadland with 5, and Emerald Fennell’s provocative blackly comical thriller Promising Young Woman with 4. Also earning 4 nominations were David Fincher’s Hollywood biopic Mank and Steve McQueen’s house-party drama Lovers Rock. McQueen is up for Director of the Year for his five Small Axe films.
Rounding out the 10 nominees for Film of the Year are Roy Andersson’s reflective comedy About Endlessness, Alexander Nanau’s journalism documentary Collective, Charlie Kaufman’s existential black comedy I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Kevin Macdonald’s arresting Guantanamo drama The Mauritanian and Lee Isaac Chung’s Korean-American immigrant saga Minari.
The late Chadwick Boseman received nominations both for his lead role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and his supporting role in Da 5 Bloods. Other multiple acting nominees include Morfydd Clark, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan, Riz Ahmed, Vanessa Kirby, Sacha Baron Cohen and Rocks’ newcomer Bukky Bakray.
The nominations were announced online today by actors Darci Shaw, who played the young Judy Garland alongside Renée Zellweger in Judy, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who appeared opposite Keira Knightley in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina. The two are starring together in Netflix’s upcoming supernatural Sherlock Holmes series The Irregulars, in which Lloyd-Hughes plays the iconic detective.
Due to the pandemic, more films released directly to streaming services were made eligible, and the qualifying release dates were extended into March, as long as films had been screened in 2020 to critics or at festivals. “This additional eligibility has put an extra strain on our members this year, watching more films than usual,” says Rich Cline, chair of the Critics’ Circle Film Section. “And indeed we named 224 features across our ballots, out of which 49 were nominated. As always, there are some surprises that make our shortlists stand out, even in this year’s rather unusual awards season. And it’s great to see such a range of talent recognised, spread across genders, ethnicities and production budgets.”
The 41st London Critics’ Circle Film Awards will be presented virtually on Sunday, 7th February. A physical event will be held later in the year, working with our long-standing sponsor The May Fair Hotel, to celebrate the winners and present this year’s Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Cinema.
