Awards season 2023

[Chris Knipp]

Jan. 23: Oscar nominations

SOURCE

Best Picture
AMERICAN FICTION
ANATOMY OF A FALL
BARBIE
THE HOLDOVERS
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
MAESTRO
OPPENHEIMER
PAST LIVES
POOR THINGS
THE ZONE OF INTEREST

Best Directing
Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
Colman Domingo (Rustin)
Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening (Nyad)
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
America Ferrera (Barbie)
Jodie Foster (Nyad)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
American Fiction (Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson)
Barbie (Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach)
Oppenheimer (Written for the screen by Christopher Nolan)
Poor Things (Screenplay by Tony McNamara)
The Zone of Interest (Written by Jonathan Glazer)

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Anatomy of a Fall (Screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)
The Holdovers (Written by David Hemingson)
Maestro (Written by Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer)
May December (Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik)
Past Lives (Written by Celine Song)

Best Animated Feature
The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)
Elemental (Peter Sohn and Denise Ream)
Nimona (Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary)
Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal)

Best Documentary Feature Film
Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek)
The Eternal Memory (Nominees to be determined)
Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha)
To Kill a Tiger (Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim)
20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath)

Best International Feature Film
Io Capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)

Best Animated Short Film
Letter to a Pig (Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter)
Ninety-Five Senses (Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess)
Our Uniform (Yegane Moghaddam)
Pachyderme (Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius)
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)

Best Live-Action Short Film
The After (Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham)
Invincible (Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron)
Knight of Fortune (Lasse Lyskjaer Noer and Christian Norlyk)
Red, White and Blue (Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)

Best Documentary Short Film
The ABCs of Book Banning (Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic)
The Barber of Little Rock (John Hoffman and Christine Turner)
Island in Between (S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien)
The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Sean Wang and Sam Davis)

Best Cinematography
El Conde (Edward Lachman)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Rodrigo Prieto)
Maestro (Matthew Libatique)
Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Poor Things (Robbie Ryan)

Best Costume Design
Barbie (Jacqueline Durran)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Jacqueline West)
Napoleon (Janty Yates and Dave Crossman)
Oppenheimer (Ellen Mirojnick)
Poor Things (Holly Waddington)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Golda (Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue)
Maestro (Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell)
Oppenheimer (Luisa Abel)
Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston)
Society of the Snow (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé)

Best Original Song
“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt)
“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony (Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson)
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon (Music and Lyric by Scott George)
“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell)

Best Original Score
American Fiction (Laura Karpman)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Robbie Robertson)
Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
Poor Things (Jerskin Fendrix)

Best Production Design
Barbie (Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis)
Napoleon (Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Elli Griff)
Oppenheimer (Production Design: Ruth De Jong; Set Decoration: Claire Kaufman)
Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)

Best Film Editing
Anatomy of a Fall (Laurent Sénéchal)
The Holdovers (Kevin Tent)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Thelma Schoonmaker)
Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
Poor Things (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)

Best Sound
The Creator (Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic)
Maestro (Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic)
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor)
Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell)
The Zone of Interest (Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn)

Best Visual Effects
The Creator (Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould)
Godzilla: Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek)
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One (Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould)
Napoleon (Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould

Filmleaf COMMENTS
Are you excited? You should be. 2023 was a great movie year, and so this is a great awards season, and the Oscars as always will be the climax: March 10th.
MOST NOMS:
Oppenheimer: 13
Poor Things: 11
Killers of the Flower Moon; 10
Barbie: 8
SURPRISES. . . AND SNUBS:
BEST PICTURE: It's surprising and heartening that movies of this quality were avaiilble from a single year and got nominated. Things are looking good.
Greta Gerwig got no Best Director nom for Barbie and Barbie got edged out for various noms despite being the highest growing picture of the year. (It was "snubbed" for earlier awards noms already. People are underwhelmed by it, apparently.)
French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall got numerous noms, and Past Lives, that toucining little Sundance film about Koreans separated by immigration - amazing.
American Fiction did surprisingly well. I found it a little disappointing but it's topical and smart.
Leonardo DiCaprio was passed over, though this isn't a surprise from other awards lists already.
Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction) edged out Charles Melton and Willem Dafoe for Supporting Actor noms. Some were saying Melton was a shoe-in.
May December's Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore got edged out for Best Acting noms. The Oscar Expert bros have said nobody likes this film and I don't.
Duvernay's Origin got no noms at all. (Have not seen.)
For detailed commentary on this general topic see the Washington Post article HERE.

I still have to watch and review SOCIETY OF THE SNOW and IO CAPITANO, from the best foreign list.

[Chris Knipp]

Have now watched IO CAPITANO - a tremendous film.

On reflection one sees that among those passed over was Zac Efron and THE IRON CLAW. Much admired in France, where they gave him and the supporting cast raves (AlloCiné 4.0).

[Chris Knipp]

A Reminder. Coming Sunday (Feb. 18):

The 77th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).

See a briefing on the current BAFTAs in Entertainment Weekly. Predictions on The Oscar Expert.

Awards calendar highlights remaining:

Feb. 18: BAFTA Film Awards

Feb. 21: Writers Guild Awards nominations

Feb. 24: SAG Awards

Feb. 25: Film Independent Spirit AWards

Feb. 25: Producers Guild Awards

March

Mar. 10: Academy Awards

[Chris Knipp]

HERE'S A BAFTA CATEGORY:

Outstanding British Film
All of Us Strangers
How to Have Sex
Napoleon
The Old Oak
Poor Things
Rye Lane
Saltburn
Scrapper
Wonka
The Zone of Interest

Bong! Lacunae revealed. I haven't seen Rye Lane* or The Old Oak. Have to work on that. Just rewatched Scrapper: it's a film I enjoy rewatching, appreciating how Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson play off each other. The Oscar bros point out though it has several nominations including Special Effects, Napoleon was rotten on ROTTENTOMATOES with both audience and critics (58%/59%)).

_____________
*Seen Rye Lane now. It's wonderful. (Metacritic rating 82%, by the way.)

[Chris Knipp]

BAFTA award masks

2024 BAFTA AWARDS
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Best film
WINNER: Oppenheimer — Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
Anatomy of a Fall — Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
The Holdovers — Mark Johnson
Killers of the Flower Moon — Dan Friedkin, Daniel Lupi, Martin Scorsese, Bradley Thomas
Poor Things — Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone

Leading actress
WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Fantasia Barrino, The Color Purple
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane
Margot Robbie, Barbie

Leading actor
WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
Teo Yoo, Past Lives

Supporting actress
WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers
Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest
Rosamund Pike, Saltburn

Supporting actor
WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Jacob Elordi, Saltburn
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

Director
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh
Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet
The Holdovers, Alexander Payne
Maestro, Bradley Cooper
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Original screenplay
WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Barbie — Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
The Holdovers — David Hemingson
Maestro — Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer
Past Lives — Celine Song

Adapted screenplay
WINNER: American Fiction, Cord Jefferson
All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh
Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
Poor Things, Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Original score
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Ludwig Göransson
Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson
Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix
Saltburn, Anthony Willis
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Daniel Pemberton

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
WINNER: Earth Mama — Savanah Leaf (Writer, Director, Producer), Shirley O’Connor (Producer), Medb Riordan (Producer)
Blue Bag Life — Lisa Selby (Director), Rebecca Lloyd-Evans (Director, Producer), Alex Fry (Producer)
Bobi Wine: The People’s President — Christopher Sharp (Director) [also directed Moses Bwayo]
How to Have Sex — Molly Manning Walker (Writer, Director)
Is There Anybody Out There? — Ella Glendining (Director)

Film not in the English language
WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Jonathan Glazer
20 Days in Mariupol — Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson Rath
Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet, Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
Past Lives — Celine Song, David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon
Society of the Snow — J.A. Bayona, Belen Atienza

Animated film
WINNER: The Boy and the Heron — Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget — Sam Fell, Leyla Hobart, Steve Pegram
Elemental — Peter Sohn, Denise Ream
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Avi Arad, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, Christina Steinberg

Outstanding British film
WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Ewa Puszczyńska
All of Us Strangers — Andrew Haigh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey
How to Have Sex — Molly Manning Walker, Emily Leo, Ivana MacKinnon, Konstantinos Kontovrakis
Napoleon — Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Kevin J. Walsh, David Scarpa
The Old Oak — Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty
Poor Things — Yorgos Lanthimos, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone, Tony McNamara
Rye Lane — Raine Allen-Miller, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, Damian Jones, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia
Saltburn — Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara, Margot Robbie
Scrapper — Charlotte Regan, Theo Barrowclough
Wonka — Paul King, Alexandra Derbyshire, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby

Documentary
WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol — Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson Rath
American Symphony — Matthew Heineman, Lauren Domino, Joedan Okun
Beyond Utopia — Madeleine Gavin, Rachel Cohen, Jana Edelbaum
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie — Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan King, Annetta Marion
Wham! — Chris Smith

Casting
WINNER: The Holdovers — Susan Shopmaker
All of Us Strangers — Kahleen Crawford
Anatomy of a Fall — Cynthia Arra
How to Have Sex — Isabella Odoffin
Killers of the Flower Moon — Ellen Lewis, Rene Haynes

Cinematography
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Hoyte van Hoytema
Killers of the Flower Moon, Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro, Matthew Libatique
Poor Things, Robbie Ryan
The Zone of Interest, Łukasz Żal

Editing
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lame
Anatomy of a Fall, Laurent Sénéchal
Killers of the Flower Moon, Thelma Schoonmaker
Poor Things, Yorgos Mavropsaridis
The Zone of Interest, Paul Watts

Costume design
WINNER: Poor Things, Holly Waddington
Barbie, Jacqueline Durran
Killers of the Flower Moon, Jacqueline West
Napoleon, Dave Crossman, Janty Yates
Oppenheimer, Ellen Mirojnick

Makeup & hair
WINNER: Poor Things — Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, Josh Weston
Killers of the Flower Moon — Kay Georgiou, Thomas Nellen
Maestro — Sian Grigg, Kay Georgiou, Kazu Hiro, Lori McCoy-Bell
Napoleon — Jana Carboni, Francesco Pegoretti, Satinder Chumber, Julia Vernon
Oppenheimer — Luisa Abel, Jaime Leigh McIntosh, Jason Hamer, Ahou Mofid

Production design
WINNER: Poor Things — Shona Heath, James Price, Zsuzsa Mihalek
Barbie — Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
Killers of the Flower Moon — Jack Fisk, Adam Willis
Oppenheimer — Ruth De Jong, Claire Kaufman
The Zone of Interest — Chris Oddy, Joanna Maria Kuś, Katarzyna Sikora

Sound
WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers
Ferrari — Angelo Bonanni, Tony Lamberti, Andy Nelson, Lee Orloff, Bernard Weiser
Maestro — Richard King, Steve Morrow, Tom Ozanich, Jason Ruder, Dean Zupancic
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — Chris Burdon, James H. Mather, Chris Munro, Mark Taylor
Oppenheimer — Willie Burton, Richard King, Kevin O’Connell, Gary A. Rizzo

Special visual effects
WINNER: Poor Things — Simon Hughes
The Creator — Jonathan Bullock, Charmaine Chan, Ian Comley, Jay Cooper
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — Theo Bialek, Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — Neil Corbould, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland, Alex Wuttke
Napoleon — Henry Badgett, Neil Corbould, Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet

British short animation
WINNER: Crab Day — Ross Stringer, Bartosz Stanislawek, Aleksandra Sykulak
Visible Mending — Samantha Moore, Tilley Bancroft
Wild Summon — Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Jay Woolley

British short film
WINNNER: Jellyfish and Lobster — Yasmin Afifi, Elizabeth Rufai
Festival of Slaps — Abdou Cissé, Cheri Darbon, George Telfer
Gorka — Joe Weiland, Alex Jefferson
Such a Lovely Day — Simon Woods, Polly Stokes, Emma Norton, Kate Phibbs
Yellow — Elham Ehsas, Dina Mousawi, Azeem Bhati, Yiannis Manolopoulos

EE rising star award (public-voted)
WINNER: Mia McKenna-Bruce
Phoebe Dynevor
Ayo Edebiri
Jacob Elordi
Sophie Wilde

The Top Films
7 wins - Oppenheimer
5 - Poor Things
3 - The Zone of Interest
2 - The Holdovers

SOURCE

I'm waiting to see the Oscar Expert bros reactions. They certainly got some things wrong. Did they know Poor Things would be this much favored? They may have foreseen that Barbie would come away with nothing. Did the BAFTA jury not favor British films as much as they might have? But while Oppenheimer is about Americans, its director and star are British. It's funny, though, that The Zone of Interest, in German, set in Germany, gets "Best British Film." Poor Things is a British story, though some say it's not a faithful version of it; Greek director and American stars, though. The Oscar Expert bros were excited that The Zone of Interest won something else: Best Sound.

[Chris Knipp]

The (French) 49th César awards



ANATOMY OF A FALL/L'ANATOMIE D'UNE CHUTE by Justine Triet was the big winner (six trophies, eleven noms) - also much admired in the US. It was named Best Picture; Thomas Cailley's THE ANIMAL KINGDOM/LE RÉGNE ANIMAL, starring Romain Duris and Paul Kircher, was in second place. There was also a career achievement award to OPPENHEIMER's Christopher Nolan.

Swann Arlaud the lawyer in ANATOMY, won Best Supporting Actor. Sandra Hüller won Best Actress. Best Original Screenplay went to Justine Triet and her cowriter Arthur Harari.

Hüller won over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for LITTLE GIRL BLUE; Lea Drucker, up for LAST SUMMER; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in JUST THE TWO OF US.


JUSTINE TRIET, DIRECTOR OF ANATOMY OF A FALL

The other big winner on the night was THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT. Cailley picked up the best cinematography trophy and a slew of wins in craft categories like best sound, original score, costumes and special effects.

In other acting categories, Arieh Worthalter won best actor for his starring role in Cédric Kahn’s courtroom drama THE GOLDMAN CASE, and Adèle Exarchopoulos won for best supporting actress for her star turn in ALL YOUR FACES.


SWANN ARLAUD, SANDRA HÜLLER IN ANATOMY OF A FALL

ANATOMY OF A FALL was reviewed on Filmleaf as part of the 2023 NYFF. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM and LITTLE GIRL BLUE have recently been reviewed here as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. THE GOLDMAN CASE and ALL YOUR FACES haven't been covered here yet.

Sandra Hüller has been looking like the European star of the year, appearing in both ANATOMY OF A FALL and English director Jonathan Glazer's German-language Auschwitz-ralated film THE ZONE OF INTEREST - arguably the two best European films of 2023.


ROMAIN DURIS, PAUL KIRCHER IN LE RÈGNE ANIMAL

[Chris Knipp]

Are you ready for the Oscars?

SANDRA HÜLLER IN THE ZONE OF INTEREST

The big (American) awards we've been waiting for are coming Sunday night. Here are some arguments from today's GUARDIAN. What's your pick? Oppenheimer?

Best picture Oscar hustings:

Why Past Lives should win the best Picture Oscar

Why The Holdovers should win the best picture Oscar

Why Maestro should win the best picture Oscar

Why Barbie should win the best picture Oscar

Why The Zone of Interest should win the best picture Oscar

. . .BUT:

Serious themes, serious people, an unflinching dedication to both the craft and the medium of cinema, Oppenheimer ticks the boxes. Bookmakers are duly offering odds as short as 1/25 on for it to take home best picture.

Why Oppenheimer should win the best picture Oscar

Oe maybe Anatomy of a Fall is your pick, or another movie.