The North Dakota Film Society is a new regional critics group.  They were formed just last year and today, they announced their inaugural nominees for their first batch of film awards.

And what can I say about these nominees other than the fact that they are freaking awesome!  Only with the regular suspects — Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Parasite, and Marriage Story — they also nominated Midsommar and The Lighthouse!

Seriously, I can only hope that this group is as consistently interesting over the upcoming year!

Here are the nominees:

BEST PICTURE:

• THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Directed by Robert Eggers; Produced by Rodrigo Teixeira, Jay Van Hoy, Robert Eggers, Lourenco Sant’Anna, Youree Henley
• MARRIAGE STORY
  Directed by Noah Baumbach; Produced by Noah Baumbach, David Heyman
• MIDSOMMAR
  Directed by Ari Aster; Produced by by Thomas Benski, Fredrik Heinig, Pelle Nilsson, Ben Rimmer, Philip Westgren
• ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
  Directed by Quentin Tarantino; Produced by David Herman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE
  Directed by Bong Joon ho; Produced by Bong Joon Ho, Sin-ae Kwak

BEST DIRECTOR:

• Ari Aster
  MIDSOMMAR
• Robert Eggers
  THE LIGHTHOUSE
• Bong Joon Ho
  PARASITE
• Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
  UNCUT GEMS
• Quentin Tarantino
  ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

BEST ACTRESS:

• Awkwafina
  THE FAREWELL
• Scarlett Johansson
  MARRIAGE STORY
• Lupita Nyong’o
  US
• Florence Pugh
  MIDSOMMAR
• Saoirse Ronan
  LITTLE WOMEN

BEST ACTOR:

• Leonardo DiCaprio
  ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
• Adam Driver
  MARRIAGE STORY
• Robert Pattinson
  THE LIGHTHOUSE
• Joaquin Phoenix
  JOKER
• Adam Sandler
  UNCUT GEMS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

• Laura Dern
  MARRIAGE STORY
• Jennifer Lopez
  HUSTLERS
• Florence Pugh
  LITTLE WOMEN
• Margot Robbie
  ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
• Zhao Shuzhen
  THE FAREWELL

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

• Willem Dafoe
  THE LIGHTHOUSE
• Tom Hanks
  A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
• Al Pacino
  THE IRISHMAN
• Joe Pesci
  THE IRISHMAN
• Brad Pitt
  ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

BEST SCREENPLAY:

• THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Written by Robert Eggers, Max Eggers
• MARRIAGE STORY
  Written by Noah Baumbach
• MIDSOMMAR
  Written by Ari Aster
• ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
  Written by Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE
  Written by Bong Joon Ho, Jin Won Han

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

• A HIDDEN LIFE
  Director of Photography: Jorg Widmer
• JOKER
  Director of Photography: Lawrence Sher
• THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Director of Photography: Jarin Blaschke
• ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
  Director of Photography: Robert Richardson
• PARASITE
  Director of Photography: Kyung-pyo Hong

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

• THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Production Designer: Craig Lathrop; Set Decorator: Ian Greig
• JOJO RABBIT
  Production Designer: Ra Vincent; Set Decorator: Nora Sopkova
• MIDSOMMAR
  Production Designer: Henrik Svensson
• ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
  Production Designer: Barbara Ling; Set Decorator: Nancy Haigh
• PARASITE
  Production Designer: Ha-jun Lee

BEST EDITING:

• THE IRISHMAN
  Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker
• JOJO RABBIT
  Editor: Tom Eagles
• THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Editor: Louise Ford
• ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
  Editor: Fred Raskin
• PARASITE
  Editor: Jinmo Yang

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

• JOKER
  Composer: Hildur Guonadóttir
• LITTLE WOMEN
  Composer: Alexandre Desplat
• MARRIAGE STORY
  Composer: Randy Newman
• MIDSOMMAR
  Composer: The Haxan Cloak
• US
  Composer: Michael Abels

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

• “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)”
  WILD ROSE
  Music and lyrics by Mary Steenburgen
• “A Glass of Soju”
  PARASITE
  Music and lyrics by Bong Joon Ho and Jung Jae-Il
• “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away”
  TOY STORY 4
  Music and lyrics by Randy Newman
• “I’m Gonna Love Me Again”
  ROCKETMAN
  Music and lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
• “Into the Unknown”
  FROZEN II
  Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE:

• HONEYLAND
  Directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
  (Macedonia)
• LES MISERABLES
  Directed by Ladj Ly
  (France)
• PAIN AND GLORY
  Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
  (Spain)
• PARASITE
  Directed by Bong Joon Ho
  (South Korea)
• PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
  Directed by Céline Sciamma
  (France)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:

• AMERICAN FACTORY
  Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• APOLLO 11
  Directed by Todd Douglas Miller
• THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
  Directed by John Chester
• HONEYLAND
  Directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
• ONE CHILD NATION
  Directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:

• FROZEN II
  Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
• I LOST MY BODY
  Directed by Jérémy Clapin
• KLAUS
  Directed by Sergio Pablos
• MISSING LINK
  Directed by Chris Butler
• TOY STORY 4
  Directed by Josh Cooley