Nashville Film Critics Pick Best Picture of 2020

The Music City Film Critics Association (of which I am a voting member) has given its awards for 2020 film making. The association has only been a recognized film organization for a few years, but has gained a lot of attention from studios hoping to be honored in one of the earliest awards presentations in the season.

IMHO this was a tough year for movies. Many weren't released because of the pandemic, and the ones that were... aren't exactly big-bucks, crowd-pleasers. The movies in the main contention are more of the kind only critics would like (slow, smaller stories, with not very many happy endings. But there were some great movies among those slow-burning films. Frances McDormand and Nomadland is a perfect example of the slower, beautiful, incredible films. But while it was my pick, it did not win best pic (the winner was my personal runner-up). Here are the winners.

Best Picture: Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell – Director

Tom Ackerley, Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox,

Josey McNamara, Margot Robbie – Producers

Best Director: Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

Best Actor: Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Supporting Actress: Tie

Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Yuh-Jung Youn – Minari

Best Acting Ensemble: Tie

One Night In Miami

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Best Animated Feature: Soul - Pete Doctor and Kemp Powers – Directors

Dana Murray, Jonas Rivera, Jessie Thiele Schroeder – Producers

Best Foreign Language Film: Another Round - Thomas Vinterberg – Director

Jessica Balac, Karen Bentzon, Kasper Dissing, Sisse Graum

Jørgensen, Kristina Kornum – Producers

Best Documentary: The Social Dilemma - Jeff Orlowski – Director

Larissa Rhodes, Shawna Schultz – Producers

Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin - The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Song: “Speak Now” – Sam Ashworth, Leslie Odom, Jr.

One Night In Miami

Best Score: Ludwig Göransson – Tenet

Best Cinematography: Joshua James Richard - Nomadland

Best Editing: Tie

Andy Canny - The Invisible Man

Alan Baumgarten - The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Production Design: Donald Graham Burt – Mank

The Jim Ridley Award: William Tyler – Composer – First Cow

Awards by Film

The Trial of the Chicago 7 - 3

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – 2

Nomadland – 2

One Night In Miami - 2

Promising Young Woman – 2

Another Round - 1

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – 1

First Cow – 1

Mank - 1

Minari – 1

Soul – 1

Tenet – 1

The Invisible Man - 1

The Social Dilemma - 1

Awards by Studio

Netflix – 7

Amazon Prime Studios – 3

A24 – 2

Focus Features – 2

Searchlight Pictures - 2

Pixar – 1

Universal Pictures – 1

Warner Brothers Pictures – 1

Zentropa Entertainments – 1