A fine list of Mitten-state nominees

Announcing the Michigan Movie Critic Guild's inaugural honorees

I apologize for the unanticipated hiatus, dear readers, but get ready to be hit by a deluge.

As I’ve noted over the last few weeks, we’ve hit the busy time for movie critics. We’re quickly approaching the end of the year, and so we’ve been buried under piles of screeners and spending our days and evenings in the dark so we can vote on the best of 2023. In the past 10 days alone, I’ve seen 13 new films, eight of those spread out over two days. Yes, it’s exhausting, and yes, I love it. 

The reason for the rush was I had until the middle of this week to catch up on the year’s films and submit my ballot for the Michigan Movie Critics Guild. It’s our first year, and I’m honored to be a part of it, as well as a member of its leadership team. I know my film criticism benefited greatly from being brought into the sadly defunct Detroit Film Critics Society way back when it was formed in 2007, and I think critics guilds are an important part of furthering the film conversation, establishing legitimacy for critics and helping form collectives of great film reviewers. 

Our full list of nominees was released earlier today. You can head over to the guild’s website to read the full press release, but I’ll also post the list of nominees below. I’m really, really proud of this year’s nominees; it’s a really diverse slate, and includes a lot of films I deeply love. I can’t wait to discover who our winners will be (they’ll be announced Monday, and I’ll also have a newsletter with that list). 

Before I jump into the nominees, just a head’s up that I’m really planning to get a lot out in the next two weeks. I’ve been reviewing a lot at CinemaNerdz, so I’ll hopefully have a digest out with links to those reviews later this weekend. Monday, I’ll announce the winners. Later next week, Perry and I will release our final We’re Watching Here episode of 2023. There’s also a new documentary hitting Disney+ Dec. 8 that I want to write a bit about if time allows because it hit me very personally. 

As of right now, I’m planning to drop my list of my 10 favorite movies of 2023 on Monday, Dec. 11. I also have two other lists I’ll be putting out that week that I think will be a lot of fun, too. And then, after Dec. 15, I’m planning to take a bit of a break to enjoy the Christmas season with my family, returning closer to New Year’s. 

But there’s a lot coming before that, my friends. And let’s start with the Michigan Movie Critics Guild’s inaugural list of nominees for the best in film in 2023.

I have to say, I went in expecting that we’d see a year dominated by three movies – Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie. And we did see a year dominated by three movies. But only one of those previously mentioned films was among the top nominees — and it was the one about the doll. Our three most-nominated were American Fiction, Barbie and The Holdovers, which all received six nominations apiece, including best picture. All three are great movies – and, worthy of note, only one of those three were made by a white man (in fact, I’m very proud that three of our best picture nominees were directed by women, even if only one of those women was nominate for best director). 

Here is the full list! I’ll have the winners on Monday! 

Best Picture

• American Fiction

• Anatomy of a Fall

• Barbie

• The Holdovers

• Past Lives

• Poor Things

Best Director

• Greta Gerwig – Barbie

• Cord Jefferson – American Fiction

• Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things

• Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer

• Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Actress

• Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon

• Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall

• Greta Lee – Past Lives

• Carey Mulligan – Maestro

• Emma Stone – Poor Things

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper – Maestro

• Zac Efron – The Iron Claw

• Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers

• Cillian Murphy –  Oppenheimer 

• Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Best Supporting Actress

• America Ferrera – Barbie

• Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

• Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

• Julianne Moore – May December

• Rosamund Pike – Saltburn

Best Supporting Actor

• Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction

• Robert DeNiro – Killers of the Flower Moon

• Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer 

• Ryan Gosling – Barbie 

• Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things 

Best Animated Film

• The Boy and The Heron

• Nimona

• Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Best Documentary

• Beyond Utopia

• Sly

• Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Best Ensemble

• Air

• Barbie

• The Holdovers

• Killers of the Flower Moon

• Oppenheimer

Best Screenplay (Adapted or Original)

• American Fiction 

• Anatomy of a Fall 

• Barbie 

• The Holdovers 

• Past Lives 

Breakthrough Award

• Sandra Hüller – Actress, Anatomy of a Fall

• Cord Jefferson – Director, American Fiction

• Greta Lee – Actress, Past Lives

• Dominic Sessa – Actor, The Holdovers

• Celine Song – Director/Writer Past Lives

Stunts

• John Wick: Chapter 4 

• The Killer

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

• Polite Society

• Silent Night

The MMCG Award for Film Excellence (presented to a filmmaker, writer, actor, crew member etc. who has Michigan ties or to a film made or set in Michigan)

• Keegan-Michael Key – Actor Wonka/The Super Mario Bros. Movie/Migration 

• Ashley Park – Actress, Joy Ride

• Paul Schrader –  Director, Master Gardener

• Lily Tomlin – Actress, 80 For Brady

• J.K. Simmons – Actor, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse 

• Bruce Campbell – Producer, Evil Dead Rise 

Information about the MMCG and its members is available at its website. For further information, email michiganmoviecritics@gmail.com. 

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