All We Imagine as Light Shines Forth at ICS Nominations
Honoring films shown worldwide in 2024.
Payal Kapadia’s luminous drama All We Imagine as Light, about a trio of nurses navigating the complex personal landscapes of modern-day Mumbai, topped this year’s ICS Awards with 9 nominations. It was cited for best picture, director, actress (Kani Kusruti), supporting actress x 2 (Chhaya Kadam and Divya Prabha), ensemble cast, cinematography, editing and original screenplay. A pity that India didn’t choose to submit this lovely work for the International Feature Film Oscar.
Looming close behind with 8 nods was Brady Corbet’s immigrant saga The Brutalist, the monumental tale of architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (a harrowing Adrien Brody) as he fought for and was almost destroyed by the American dream. This gorgeous film received plaudits for picture, director, actor (Brody), supporting actor (Guy Pearce), and a slew of crafts including cinematography, production design, score and sound.
After taking home a couple of ICS awards in 2019 for his lyrical documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, filmmaker RaMell Ross has returned to us with Nickel Boys, a brilliantly impressionistic adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel. It received 7 mentions for picture, director, supporting actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, supporting actor Brandon Wilson, adapted screenplay, score, and Jomo Fray’s innovative first-person POV cinematography.
Bertrand Bonello carried us away on a mind-bending odyssey in The Beast, which saw ill-fated lovers Léa Seydoux and George MacKay battling time and circumstance in a Henry Jamesian past and an incel-infested present, only to reach a sci-fi future where painful emotions can be erased from the human heart. The film earned 5 nods, including picture, director, actress (Seydoux), adapted screenplay and production design. ICS voters also spread the love by bestowing 5 nods each on Sean Baker’s Anora, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers and Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths.
In a surprising momentum surge, Jane Schoenbrun’s trans identity horror film I Saw the TV Glow pulled in 3 last-minute nominations for picture, director, and a mesmerizing breakthrough performance by Jack Haven. The remaining director citations (with one tie) went to Miguel Gomes for Grand Tour and Alain Guiraudie for Misericordia.
In light of the world’s tragic state, and absolutely in keeping with ICS tradition, we are glad to see that our members have nominated a large number of films this year dealing with such diverse topics as immigration, the Palestinian genocide, racist brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s equality, climate catastrophe, the monstrous effects of war… sadly, the list goes on. May these works of artistic conscience reach a wider audience, helping us to outlast the oppressors and break free into a more humane future.
Winners of the 22nd ICS Awards will be announced on February 9, 2025.
PICTURE
• Afternoons of Solitude
• All We Imagine as Light
• Anora
• The Beast
• The Brutalist
• Caught by the Tides
• Challengers
• Evil Does Not Exist
• Grand Tour
• Hard Truths
• I Saw the TV Glow
• Juror #2
• Megalopolis
• Misericordia
• Nickel Boys
• The Other Way Around
• The Room Next Door
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig
• The Substance
• To a Land Unknown
DIRECTOR
• Bertrand Bonello – The Beast
• Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
• Miguel Gomes – Grand Tour
• Alain Guiraudie – Misericordia
• Payal Kapadia – All We Imagine as Light
• RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
• Jane Schoenbrun – I Saw the TV Glow
ACTOR
• Mahmood Bakri – To a Land Unknown
• Adam Bessa – Ghost Trail
• Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
• Daniel Craig – Queer
• Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
• Keith Kupferer – Ghostlight
• Abou Sangaré – Souleymane’s Story
ACTRESS
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
• Nicole Kidman – Babygirl
• Kani Kusruti – All We Imagine as Light
• Demi Moore – The Substance
• Léa Seydoux – The Beast
• Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
SUPPORTING ACTOR
• Yura Borisov – Anora
• Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
• Adam Pearson – A Different Man
• Aram Sabbagh – To a Land Unknown
• Ricardo Teodoro – Baby
• Brandon Wilson – Nickel Boys
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• Michele Austin – Hard Truths
• Joan Chen – Didi
• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Nickel Boys
• Chhaya Kadam – All We Imagine as Light
• Aubrey Plaza – Megalopolis
• Divya Prabha – All We Imagine as Light
ENSEMBLE
• All We Imagine as Light
• Anora
• Conclave
• Ghostlight
• Hard Truths
• Misericordia
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• All We Imagine as Light – Payal Kapadia
• Anora – Sean Baker
• Challengers – Justin Kuritzkes
• Hard Truths – Mike Leigh
• Misericordia – Alain Guiraudie
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Mohammad Rasoulof
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• The Beast – Bertrand Bonello, Benjamin Charbit, Guillaume Bréaud
• Conclave – Peter Straughan
• I’m Still Here – Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega
• Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
• Queer – Justin Kuritzkes
• The Room Next Door – Pedro Almodóvar
CINEMATOGRAPHY
• Afternoons of Solitude – Artur Tort
• All We Imagine as Light – Ranabir Das
• The Brutalist – Lol Crawley
• Grand Tour – Guo Liang, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Rui Poças
• Nickel Boys – Jomo Fray
• Nosferatu – Jarin Blaschke
EDITING
• Afternoons of Solitude – Albert Serra, Artur Tort
• All We Imagine as Light – Clément Pinteaux
• Caught by the Tides – Yang Chao, Matthieu Laclau, Xudong Lin
• Challengers – Marco Costa
• Grand Tour – Telmo Churro, Pedro Filipe Marques
• Mexico will no longer exist! – Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco
PRODUCTION DESIGN
• The Beast – Katia Wyszkop
• The Brutalist – Judy Becker
• Nosferatu – Craig Lathrop
• Queer – Stefani Baisi
• The Room Next Door – Inbal Weinberg
• The Substance – Stanislas Reydellet
SCORE
• Blue Giant – Hiromi Uehara
• The Brutalist – Daniel Blumberg
• Challengers – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
• Evil Does Not Exist – Eiko Ishibashi
• Ghost Trail – Lucas Verreman, Yuksek
• Nickel Boys – Scott Alario, Alex Somers
SOUND DESIGN
• The Brutalist – Andy Neil, Steve Single
• Challengers – Craig Berkey, Paul Carter
• Dahomey – Nicolas Becker
• Dune: Part Two – Richard King, Dave Whitehead
• Pepe – Nahuel Palenque
• The Substance – Valérie Deloof, Victor Fleurant
ANIMATED FILM
• Blue Giant – Yuzuru Tachikawa
• Flow – Gints Zilbalodis
• Memoir of a Snail – Adam Elliot
• Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass – Quay Brothers
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
• The Wild Robot – Chris Sanders
DOCUMENTARY
• Afternoons of Solitude – Albert Serra
• Alma del Desierto – Mónica Taboada Tapia
• Dahomey – Mati Diop
• A Fidai Film – Kamal Aljafari
• Intercepted – Oksana Karpovych
• No Other Land – Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
DEBUT FILM
• Blue Sun Palace – Constance Tsang
• Ghost Trail – Jonathan Millet
• Janet Planet – Annie Baker
• Mexico will no longer exist! – Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco
• No Other Land – Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
• Problemista – Julio Torres
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
• Mahmood Bakri – To a Land Unknown
• Jack Haven – I Saw the TV Glow
• Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
• Mikey Madison – Anora
• Abou Sangaré – Souleymane’s Story
• Ryland Brickson Cole Tews – Hundreds of Beavers