Three Billboards continues to dominate as London Critics reveal awards nominations

Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson are both individually nominated for the front-runner, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Martin McDonagh’s American crime thriller Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is continuing to make a strong impression on Awards Season, as it collected 7 nominations for next month’s London Film Critics Circle Awards.

It’s up against Christopher Nolan’s Second World War epic Dunkirk, Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fantasy The Shape of Water and Sean Baker’s social drama The Florida Project for Film of the Year and Best Director, where the four are joined by Luca Guadagnino, for Call Me By Your Name.

Other Film of the Year nominations included Get Out, God’s Own Country, Lady Bird, Loveless and Paul Thomas Anderson’s period fashion-set drama Phantom Thread.

The London Critics are one of the bodies with parochial British-only contests, although they include Irish in their domestic categorisation. Three Billboards, which at the Independent Spirit Awards is classed as an American film, will be contesting this category alongside Dunkirk, God’s Own Country, Lady Macbeth and Paddington 2.

The Actress of the Year category is dominated by either British actors or British films, featuring Annette Bening for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Florence Pugh for Lady Macbeth and Frances McDormand for Three Billboards, which is classed as British by the London Critics. Only Isabelle Huppert, who won a Golden Globe for Elle nearly a year ago, has no UK connection.

Elle is also in the running for the Best Foreign-Language film, alongside Raw, which won Best First Feature at the London Film Festival in 2016 and Loveless which won Best Film at the same festival a year later.

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is up for Best Screenplay for Phantom Thread

McDonagh is also up for the Best Screenplay award, against James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name, Greta Gerwig for her directorial debut Lady Bird, Jordan Peele for Get Out and Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread.

His star, awards favourite Daniel Day-Lewis, is in the running for Actor of the Year, having come back out of retirement for Phantom Thread, which reunites him with the There Will Be Blood director. This film doesn’t get a UK release until February, highlighting the spread of release dates for this year’s nominees, taking in films that were up for Oscars a year earlier as well as films that won’t be seen in UK cinemas until a month after these awards are handed out. Day-Lewis will be up against fellow Brits Gary Oldman, playing Sir Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, and Daniel Kaluuya, for Get Out. James Franco depiction of The Room director Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist earns him another nomination, alongside Call Me By Your Name’s Timothée Chalamet.

Day-Lewis’s co-star Lesley Manville is in the running for the Supporting Actress of the Year award, alongside Laurie Metcalf, Allison Janney and Holly Hunter, who’ve all received nominations for previous awards for their roles.

Similarly, Three Billboards co-stars Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are up against each other again in the Supporting Actor race, with The Florida Project’s Willem Dafoe also earning himself another nomination. Hugh Grant for Paddington 2 is perhaps the surprise in the category.

If Day-Lewis, Oldman or Kaluuya miss out on Best Actor, they’re also up against each other for the British or Irish Actor of the Year, alongside Josh O’Connor for God’s Own Country and Colin Farrell, who’s being recognised for both The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Beguiled.

Actress of the Year nominees Florence Pugh and Sally Hawkins are also in the running for the Best British or Irish Actress of the Year award, alongside Dame Judi Dench, Emily Beecham and US-born (but Irish raised) Saoirse Ronan.

And looking ahead to the stars of the future, the London Critics will be picking their best young British and Irish performer of the year from a field that includes the latest Spider-Man incarnation Tom Holland, Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead and Suburbicon‘s Noah Jupe.

The nominees for the corresponding award for behind-the-camera talent include both the director of Lady Macbeth William Oldroyd, its writer Alice Birch, Mindhorn‘s writer (and star) Simon Farnaby, God’s Own Country’s director Francis Lee and Rungano Nyoni, who directed I Am Not A Witch.

And here is the full list of nominees for the London Film Critics Circle Awards:

Film Of The Year
‘DUNKIRK’
‘THE FLORIDA PROJECT’
‘GET OUT’
‘GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’
‘LADY BIRD’
‘LOVELESS’
‘PHANTOM THREAD’
‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’
‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’

Foreign-Language Film Of The Year
‘AQUARIUS’
‘ELLE’
‘THE HANDMAIDEN’
‘LOVELESS’
‘RAW’

Documentary Of The Year
‘78/52’
‘HUMAN FLOW’
‘I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO’
‘JANE’
‘THE WORK’

British/Irish Film Of The Year
‘DUNKIRK’
‘GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’
‘LADY MACBETH’
‘PADDINGTON 2’
‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’

Director Of The Year
SEAN BAKER – ‘THE FLORIDA PROJECT’
GUILLERMO DEL TORO – ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’
LUCA GUADAGNINO – ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’
MARTIN MCDONAGH – ‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN – ‘DUNKIRK’

Screenwriter Of The Year
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON – ‘PHANTOM THREAD’
GRETA GERWIG – ‘LADY BIRD’
JAMES IVORY – ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’
MARTIN MCDONAGH – ‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’
JORDAN PEELE – ‘GET OUT’

Actress Of The Year
ANNETTE BENING – ‘FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL’
SALLY HAWKINS – ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’
ISABELLE HUPPERT – ‘ELLE’
FRANCES MCDORMAND – ‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’
FLORENCE PUGH – ‘LADY MACBETH’

Actor Of The Year
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET – ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS – ‘PHANTOM THREAD’
JAMES FRANCO – ‘THE DISASTER ARTIST’
DANIEL KALUUYA – ‘GET OUT’
GARY OLDMAN – ‘DARKEST HOUR’

Supporting Actress Of The Year
LILY GLADSTONE – ‘CERTAIN WOMEN’
HOLLY HUNTER – ‘THE BIG SICK’
ALLISON JANNEY – ‘I, TONYA’
LESLEY MANVILLE – ‘PHANTOM THREAD’
LAURIE METCALF – ‘LADY BIRD’

Supporting Actor Of The Year
WILLEM DAFOE – ‘THE FLORIDA PROJECT’
HUGH GRANT – ‘PADDINGTON 2’
WOODY HARRELSON – ‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’
SAM ROCKWELL – ‘THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI’
MICHAEL STUHLBARG  ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’

British/Irish Actress Of The Year
EMILY BEECHAM
 – ‘DAPHNE’
JUDI DENCH – ‘VICTORIA & ABDUL’/’MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS’
SALLY HAWKINS – ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’/’MAUDIE’/’PADDINGTON 2’
FLORENCE PUGH – ‘LADY MACBETH’
SAOIRSE RONAN – ‘LADY BIRD’/’LOVING VINCENT’

British/Irish Actor Of The Year
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS – ‘PHANTOM THREAD’
COLIN FARRELL – ‘THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER’/’THE BEGUILED’
DANIEL KALUUYA – ‘GET OUT’
JOSH O’CONNOR – ‘GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’
GARY OLDMAN – ‘DARKEST HOUR’/’THE SPACE BETWEEN US’

Young British/Irish Performer Of The Year
HARRIS DICKINSON – ‘BEACH RATS’
TOM HOLLAND – ‘THE LOST CITY OF Z’/’SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING’
NOAH JUPE – ‘SUBURBICON’/’WONDER’/’THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART’
DAFNE KEEN – ‘LOGAN’
FIONN WHITEHEAD – ‘DUNKIRK’

Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker: The Philip French Award
ALICE BIRCH – ‘LADY MACBETH’
SIMON FARNABY – ‘PADDINGTON 2’/’MINDHORN’
FRANCIS LEE – ‘GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’
RUNGANO NYONI – ‘I AM NOT A WITCH’
WILLIAM OLDROYD – ‘LADY MACBETH

British/Irish Short Film Of The Year
‘THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING’ – MIKE HANNON
THE DOG AND THE ELEPHANT’ – MIKE SHARPE
TUESDAY’ – CHARLOTTE WELLS
‘WE LOVE MOSES’ – DIONNE EDWARDS
‘YOUR MOTHER AND I’ – ANNA MAGUIRE

Technical Achievement Award
BABY DRIVER’ – DARRIN PRESCOTT, STUNTS
BLADE RUNNER 2049’ – DENNIS GASSNER, PRODUCTION DESIGN
DUNKIRK’ – HANS ZIMMER, MUSIC
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY’ – JOSHUA JAMES RICHARDS, CINEMATOGRAPHY
LADY MACBETH’ – HOLLY WADDINGTON, COSTUMES
THE LOST CITY OF Z’ – DARIUS KHONDJI, CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE LOVE WITCH’ – EMMA WILLIS, HAIR & MAKEUP
‘PADDINGTON 2’ – PABLO GRILLO, VISUAL EFFECTS
PHANTOM THREAD’ – MARK BRIDGES, COSTUMES
‘STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI’ – BEN MORRIS, VISUAL EFFECTS