Skandies: #17 (Patreon)

Picture: Fallen Leaves (43/6)
Director: Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor, De humani corporis fabrica (53/6)
Actress: Yang Mal-bok, The Apartment With Two Women (42/3)
Actor: Michael Cera, The Adults (49/4)
S. Actor: Willem Dafoe, Poor Things (53/6)
S. Actress: Catalina Saavedra, Rotting in the Sun (48/4)
Screenplay: Aki Kaurismäki, Fallen Leaves (50/6) [tie for #16]
Scene: Arc de Triomphe, John Wick Chapter 4 (31/3)

HISTORY: 

Paravel & Castaing-Taylor placed 7th a decade ago for Leviathan. 

Dafoe is a previous Skandie winner in Supporting Actor, for 2017's The Florida Project. It's his seventh career nod; he's also placed 8th in the lead category (for Tommaso, 2020) and—all in Supporting—7th for Shadow of the Vampire (2000), 13th for Auto Focus (2002), 11th for The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004), and 5th for The Lighthouse (2019). 

First time we've seen Cera since he placed twice in 2007—at #13 for Superbad, and at #14 in Supporting for Juno. (So welcome to Michael Cera: The Adult.) Saavedra was our #10 Actress in 2009, for another Sebastián Silva film, The Maid. Yang is new, and a result that I basically willed into being—The Apartment With Two Women (which made my top 10 list last year, got my attention due to being selected for ND/NF) isn't readily available to watch much of anywhere, and I believe her three votes reflect every voter who's seen it. Alex Fung is perpetually a month behind in logging on Letterboxd so maybe he caught it in the last few weeks and was less impressed. 

Kaurismäki's screenplay for The Man Without a Past placed 12th in 2003. He'd never before landed one of his films in Picture, though. Unclear to me why others perceive this one as a standout, but certainly he was overdue (though I suspect that Match Factory Girl would have fared well had I started the survey a few years earlier. Drifting Clouds never opened in the U.S. and so wasn't eligible). Another major filmmaker will likewise make a first appearance this year—as the clickbait ads say, who it is will surprise you!