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Denver Film Critics Society announces 2024 selections

"Dune: Part Two" was the biggest winner of Denver Film Critics Society's 2024 awards, taking Best Film, Best Sci-Fi, Best Visual Effects and Best Adapted Screenplay.
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Denver Film Critics Society released its list of awards Friday for the best in cinema for the year 2024.

Taking the most honors, including the top award of Best Film, was “Dune: Part Two.”

The continuation of Frank Herbert’s epic science-fiction work — about a desert planet rich in resources in the distant future that serves as a battleground between its native inhabitants and intergalactic imperial forces — also earned Best Adapted Screenplay for screenwriters Denis Villleneuve and Jon Spaihts as well as Best Sci-Fi and Best Visual Effects.



Also winning multiple awards was “Challengers,” a sports-themed romance about a love triangle between young tennis stars. The movie received Best Original Screenplay for Justin Kuritzkes and dual wins in the music categories — Best Original Score for composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and Best Original Song for the duo and director Luca Guadagnino, who teamed on the tune “Compress/Repress.”

Coralie Fargeat took Best Director and Best Horror for “The Substance,” which also earned Demi Moore Best Lead Performance for her portrayal of a faded celebrity whose desperate decision to begin utilizing a mysterious beauty treatment has dire consequences.



Colman Domingo also won Best Lead Performance for “Sing Sing,” the story of a wrongfully incarcerated man who is part of rehabilitation program involving theater with his fellow prisoners.

“Sing Sing” also received Best Ensemble, one of several DFCS award categories introduced this year, including Best Stunts — won by “Monkey Man,” the story of an Indian man seeking vengeance against an unjust society — and Best Non-Live-Action Performance, which went to Lupita Nyong’o as the title character in “The Wild Robot,” which also won Best Animated Film as the story of an automaton that is lost in a natural setting and learns to adapt.

In Supporting Performance, awards went to pop star Ariana Grande for playing Galinda in “Wicked” and Kieran Culkin in the dramedy “A Real Pain” as part of a mismatched pair of cousins traveling through Poland to honor the memory of their Holocaust survivor grandmother.

Robert Eggers’ gothic vampire feature “Nosferatu” won both Best Cinematography and Best Sound, while Best Non-English Language Featurewent to “All We Imagine as Light,” a drama set in India about the lives of two nurses, with dialogue in Malayalam, Hindi, and Marathi.

Winning Best Comedy was “Anora,” about a sex worker whose relationship with the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch goes hilariously awry.

DFCS opted to go lighthearted and local for the Best Documentary category, choosing the Denver-centric “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” focusing on “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their efforts to revamp the beloved Colorado restaurant.

Denver Film Critics Society consists of film critics in multiple media based in and around the Mile High Society and Colorado, including Alexis Gentry, Kimberly Pierce, Leo Rydel and Andy Bockelman.

2024 Denver Film Critics Society award winners

  • Best Film — “Dune: Part Two”
  • Best Director — Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
  • Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Female — Demi Moore, “The Substance”
  • Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Male — Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
  • Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Female — Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
  • Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Male — Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
  • Best Cinematography — Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu”
  • Best Ensemble — “Sing Sing”
  • Best Non-Live-Action Performance — Lupita Nyong’o, “The Wild Robot”
  • Best Stunts — “Monkey Man”
  • Best Sci-Fi — “Dune: Part Two”
  • Best Horror — “The Substance”
  • Best Animated Film — “The Wild Robot”
  • Best Comedy — “Anora”
  • Best Visual Effects — “Dune: Part Two”
  • Best Sound — “Nosferatu”
  • Best Original Screenplay — “Challengers”
  • Best Adapted Screenplay — “Dune: Part Two”
  • Best Documentary Feature — “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”
  • Best Original Song — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross “Compress/Repress”, “Challengers”
  • Best Original Score — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Challengers”
  • Best Non-English Language Feature — “All We Imagine as Light”
2024 Denver Film Critics Society award nominees

Best Film

“Anora”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”

“The Substance”

Best Director

Sean Baker, “Anora”

Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”

Coralie Fergeat, “The Substance”

Luca Guadagnino, “Challengers”

Denis Villeneuve, “Dune: Part Two”

Best Cinematography

Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu”

Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist”

Stéphane Fontane, “Conclave”

Greig Fraser, “Dune: Part Two”

Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys”

Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Female

Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”

Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”

Mikey Madison, “Anora”

Demi Moore, “The Substance”

Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Male

Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”

Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”

Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”

Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”

Sebastian Stan, “A Different Man”

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Female

Ariana Grande, “Wicked”

Katy O’Brian, “Love Lies Bleeding”

Margaret Qualley, “The Substance”

Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”

Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Male

Yura Borisov, “Anora”

Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”

Clarence Maclin, “Sing Sing”

Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”

Denzel Washington, “Gladiator II”

Best Ensemble

“Anora”

“Conclave”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Sing Sing”

“Wicked”

Best Non-Live-Action Performance

Jonno Davies, “Better Man”

Maya Hawke, “Inside Out 2”

Lupita Nyong’o, “The Wild Robot”

Pedro Pascal, “The Wild Robot”

Amy Poehler, “Inside Out 2”

Best Stunts

“Dune: Part Two”

“The Fall Guy”

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

“Gladiator II”

“Monkey Man”

Best Sci-Fi

“Alien: Romulus”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

“The Substance”

Best Horror

“Heretic”

“I Saw the TV Glow”

“Longlegs”

“Nosferatu”

“The Substance”

Best Animated Film

“Flow”

“Inside Out 2”

“Memoir of a Snail”

“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”

“The Wild Robot”

Best Comedy

“Anora”

“Deadpool & Wolverine”

“The Fall Guy”

“Saturday Night”

“Thelma”

Best Visual Effects

“Dune: Part Two”

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

“The Substance”

“Wicked”

Best Sound

“Alien: Romulus”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Nosferatu”

“The Substance”

“Wicked”

Best Original Screenplay

“Anora”

“The Brutalist”

“Challengers”

“A Real Pain”

“The Substance”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Conclave”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”

“Wicked”

Best Documentary Feature

“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”

“No Other Land”

“Sugarcane”

“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story”

“Will & Harper”

Best Original Song

“Compress/Repress,” “Challengers”

“El Mal,” “Emilia Pérez”

“Kiss the Sky,” “The Wild Robot”

“Like a Bird,” “Sing Sing”

“Harper and Will Go West,” “Will & Harper”

Best Original Score

Daniel Blumberg, “The Brutalist”

Volker Bertelmann, “Conclave”

Kris Bowers, “The Wild Robot”

Robin Carolan, “Nosferatu”

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Challengers”

Hans Zimmer, “Dune: Part Two”

Best Non-English Language Feature

“All We Imagine as Light”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Flow”

“Kneecap”

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

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