Indiana Film Critics Awards Recognizes ‘The Substance’ as the Best Film of 2024

This year’s winners and runners-up for the annual Indiana Film Journalists (IFJA) have been named this morning. While The Substance and The Brutalist dominated multiple categories, there were a handful of surprises among the winners, and the 16-year-old organization made some eclectic choices in their top ten films of the year.

Here is the complete list of winners, runners-up, and the organization’s special award for excellence displayed by Indiana filmmakers, or films concerning the Hoosier state.

Best Picture

Winner: The Substance

Runner-up: The Brutalist

Top Ten Films of 2024: (listed alphabetically)

The Brutalist

Civil War

Conclave

A Different Man

I Saw the TV Glow

Mars Express

Nickel Boys

A Real Pain

Sing Sing

The Substance

Best Animated Film

Winner: Mars Express

Runner-up: The Wild Robot

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: Mars Express

Runner-up: Aattam

Best Documentary Film

Winner: Daughters

Runner-up: No Other Land

Best Original Screenplay

Winner: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist 

Runner-up: Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winner: RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys

Runner-up: Peter Straughan, Conclave

Best Director

Winner: Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Runner-up: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Best Lead Performance

Winner: Demi Moore, The Substance

Runner-up: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Best Supporting Performance

Winner: Margaret Qualley, The Substance

Runner-up: Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

Best Vocal/Motion Capture Performance

Winner: Lupita Nyong’o, The Wild Robot

Runner-up: Jonno Davies (motion-capture) and Robbie Williams (voice), Better Man

Best Ensemble Acting

Winner: His Three Daughters

Runner-up: Sing Sing

Best Musical Score

Winner: Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist

Runner-up: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers

Breakout of the Year

Winner: Vera Drew (director / co-writer / editor / performer), The People’s Joker

Runner-up: Mikey Madison, Anora

Best Cinematography

Winner: Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu

Runner-up: Lol Crawley, The Brutalist

Best Editing

Winner: Jérôme Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat and Valentin Feron, The Substance

Runner-up: Dávid Jancsó, The Brutalist

Best Stunt/Movement Choreography

Winner: Guy Norris (action designer / supervising stunt coordinator / second-unit director), Tim Wong (stunt coordinator), Harland Norris (assistant stunt coordinator), Karl Van Moorsel (sequence coordinator) and Michael Roughan (stunt rigging coordinator), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Runner-up: Runner-Up: Ashley Wallen (dance choreographer), Nicholas Daines (stunt coordinator), Slavisa Ivanovic (stunt coordinator), Tim Wong (fight choreographer) and Spencer Susser (second-unit director), Better Man

Best Special Effects

Winner: Bryan Jones (visual effects supervisor), Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky (visual effects producer) and Jean Miel (special effects supervisor), The Substance

Runner-up: Mike Cheslik (visual effects) and Jerry Kurek (assistant effects artist), Hundreds of Beavers

Original Vision Award

Winner: Hundreds of Beavers

Runner-up: The Substance

The Edward Johnson-Ott Hoosier Award*

Michael Husain (writer / director), The Waiting Game

*As a special honor, no runner-up is named for the Hoosier Award. It is named after founding IFJA member and longtime NUVO Newsweekly critic Edward Johnson-Ott.

Established in 2009 by a dedicated group of Indiana journalists, the Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) endeavors to promote quality film criticism in the Hoosier state and support Indiana’s growing film industry.

For more information, visit http://indianafilmjournalists.com.