News

DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY announces its Best of 2020* winners

| by Carl Wheeler

Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the Best of 2020* winners in thirteen categories. The Detroit Film Critics Society was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of 18 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.

***The DFCS would like to dedicate the awards this year to our longtime member that passed away in 2020 – Corey Hall.***

Each 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, Breakthrough in any category, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature and Best Use of Music; making for a total of 13 categories. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top 5 in each category were placed on the final ballot. From there, winners have been chosen based on the same point system. Below are the nominees with winners in bold font. Time to see what made the cut in 2020!

*This year, due to the pandemic, the period for which a film could be released was extended through 2/28/21. Also included this year and not in the past are films that streamed because they could not be theatrically released.

THE NOMINATIONS FOR 2020*, WINNERS IN BOLD
(in alphabetical order)

BEST PICTURE

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

BEST DIRECTOR

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

BEST ACTOR

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

BEST ACTRESS

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

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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

BEST ENSEMBLE

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

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

  • 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

  • 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
  • Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • 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

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

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

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

BEST USE OF MUSIC

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