Apologies for my inadvertent three-week hiatus – I have been preoccupied with researching Bradley Cooper and making Kate Bush-themed shirts and scrubbing hair dye out of my shower.
The 96th Academy Awards may not be until Sunday, but tonight is an equally prestigious awards ceremony – the 1st Annual Colby Awards.
I’m honouring the best in film from 2023, in many of the same categories as the Oscars (excluding some that I have not seen enough eligible movies in to award, and some that I just don’t have strong opinions about), and a few categories of my own! I haven’t yet seen Perfect Days, which is my biggest omission of the year that I would’ve liked to have seen before making my list. Next week, I will be sending out a newsletter with expanded thoughts about each of my Best Picture nominees (my top 10 movies of 2023).
Without further ado, here are my winners and nominees! Winners will be listed in bold.
Best Picture:
A Thousand and One
All of Us Strangers
Anatomy of a Fall
Fallen Leaves
Killers of the Flower Moon
May December
Passages
Poor Things
The Promised Land
Showing Up
Director:
Todd Haynes, May December
Aki Kaurismäki, Fallen Leaves
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Most Improved:
Kenneth Branagh, A Haunting in Venice
Least Improved:
Ari Aster, Beau Is Afraid
Most Missed Potential:
William Oldroyd, Eileen
Leading Performance:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, Killers of the Flower Moon
Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller as Sandra Voyter, Anatomy of a Fall
Milo Machado-Graner as Daniel Maleski, Anatomy of a Fall
Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, May December
Alma Pöysti as Ansa, Fallen Leaves
Andrew Scott as Adam, All of Us Strangers
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, Poor Things
Teyana Taylor as Inez de la Paz, A Thousand and One
Michelle Williams as Lizzy, Showing Up
Supporting Performance:
Sakura Ando as Saori Mugino, Monster
Hong Chau as Jo, Showing Up
Robert De Niro as William Hale, Killers of the Flower Moon
Claire Foy as Adam’s mother, All of Us Strangers
Marin Ireland as Mrs. Polk, Eileen
Charles Melton as Joe Yoo, May December
Paul Mescal as Harry, All of Us Strangers
Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo, May December
Antoine Reinartz as the prosecutor, Anatomy of a Fall
Mark Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn, Poor Things
Animal Performance:
Alma the dog as Chaplin, Fallen Leaves
Messi the dog as Snoop, Anatomy of a Fall1
Two unknown cats as Ricky, Showing Up
Adapted Screenplay:
All of Us Strangers
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
May December
The Promised Land
Costume Design:
Barbie
Eileen
Passages
Priscilla
Poor Things
Makeup and Hairstyling:
Barbie
Beau Is Afraid
May December
Poor Things
Priscilla
Production Design:
A Thousand And One
Asteroid City
Barbie
Beau Is Afraid
Poor Things
Best Grownup Love Story (In loving memory of the AARP Movies for Grownups award category of the same name):
Adam and Harry, All of Us Strangers
Ansa and Holappa, Fallen Leaves
Bella and Toinette, Poor Things
Ludvig and Ann-Barbara, The Promised Land
Sandra and Vincent, Anatomy of a Fall
Best Child Who Manipulates Authority Figures (With Good Intentions):
Jude Hill as Leopold Ferrier, A Haunting in Venice
Milo Milado-Graner as Daniel Maleski, Anatomy of a Fall
Sōya Kurokawa as Minato Mugino, Monster
Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross as Terry, A Thousand and One
Numerous actors as the entire school of children, The Teacher’s Lounge
The Lydia Tár Memorial Award for “Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It”:
Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, Nyad
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Sandra Hüller as Sandra Voyter, Anatomy of a Fall
Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, May December
Teyana Taylor as Inez de la Paz, A Thousand and One
Honourable Mentions (Very good movies that have been underrepresented across my categories):
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Barbie
The Holdovers
Io Capitano
The Iron Claw
The Teachers’ Lounge
I’ll be back this weekend with my ranking of this year’s Best Picture nominees and my final Oscar predictions. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading – I’d love to hear about your favourite movies and performances of the year in the comments!
Messi received the Palm Dog 2023 at Cannes. However, when you look up photos of the event, the dog pictured is very clearly not the same dog who is in Anatomy of a Fall? I think it might just be a different border collie who has previously won the award.