2023 Michigan Film Critics Guild Awards

[Mister Tee]

A very quick turnaround, as the group issued its winner list today:

Best Picture: Barbie
Best Director: Greta Gerwig, Barbie

Best Actor (tie): Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers & Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Actress: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actor: Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall
Best Animated Film: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Ensemble: Oppenheimer
Breakthrough Award: Cord Jefferson, American Fiction (director)
Best Stunts (tie): John Wick: Chapter 4 & Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

The MMCG Award for Film Excellence: Keegan-Michael Key for Wonka, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Migration

[Big Magilla]

We'll see as we go along, but aside from those I've already mentioned plus Critics Choice, which I forgot about, unless the Board is exceptionally quiet, I see no need to list the nominations of any of those other minor groups just to get a conversation going.

I agree there should not be individual threads for every upcoming newspaper film critics groups. However, they could all be bunched in one thread under "Minor Film Critics Groups" as Mister Tee suggested. I could compile them in that one thread as they come up.

That suggestion was for winners only. A separate thread for nominations for 15 or more organizations would be awfully long. Maybe if you limited it to just the nominees without comment it would be more manageable. Go ahead and try it if you want.

[Reza]

We'll see as we go along, but aside from those I've already mentioned plus Critics Choice, which I forgot about, unless the Board is exceptionally quiet, I see no need to list the nominations of any of those other minor groups just to get a conversation going.

I agree there should not be individual threads for every upcoming newspaper film critics groups. However, they could all be bunched in one thread under "Minor Film Critics Groups" as Mister Tee suggested. I could compile them in that one thread as they come up.

[Big Magilla]

We'll see as we go along, but aside from those I've already mentioned plus Critics Choice, which I forgot about, unless the Board is exceptionally quiet, I see no need to list the nominations of any of those other minor groups just to get a conversation going.

I do like the direction this group is going in, though. Nominating Gladstone, De Niro, and Scorsese but ignoring the New York Film Critics' bow to Scorsese in Best Picture. It will be interesting to see how many other groups follow suit.

[Mister Tee]

How many of these groups list nominees prior to announcing winners? Not many...

Well, just from Reza's posted calendar thread, I count at least 15 minor groups that announce nominations...so, yeah: many.

[Big Magilla]

The group is small, less than a dozen members? It's the same reason the Hawaii Film Critics Society is idiosyncratic. Their first year, there were four members and they've maybe doubled in size since. Smaller pool of voters, the lest representational they are.

Apropos of which...

I understand the "it's beginning!" tingle offered by the first set of prizes. But there are about 40-50 of these often tiny groups, and if we create separate threads for each -- let alone post their nominations, which, to me, are the sure sign of hackery -- we'll end up blinded by pages and pages of not especially noteworthy threads.

We certainly should have individual threads for the classic four, as well as the bigger cities -- Boston, Chicago, DC, Detroit, Toronto. But, for the rest -- like this one -- I seem to recollect we had a thread for Minor Film Critics Groups, where winners-only were posted. Is it too much to hope for that this year?

How many of these groups list nominees prior to announcing winners? Not many, and this is the first group to do so this year, which is why I gave it a thread of its own. I think the few that list nominees ahead of winners, like Chicago, would also be okay to have a thread of their own. Those that don't, aside from N.Y., L.A., and NSFC, and others that release ongoing twitter play-by-play announcements, could easily be lumped together.

Organizations like NBR, BAFTA, the Globes, the Satellites, and AARP, with their long list of nominees also deserve their own threads.

[flipp525]

I love the Sterling K. Brown nomination. That category seems too crowded for him to make it in this year but he is hysterical in American Fiction and steals every scene he’s in.

[Okri]

A different type of category fraud: Sandra Huller for the breakthrough award. Even if the award is meant to include veteran artists breaking through to American consciousness, didn’t she do that big-time with Toni Erdmann about 7 years ago?

Honestly, she was my personal best actress winner in 2006 for [Requiem, so yeah - that's a bullshit call.

Also what Tee said.

[Mister Tee]

The group is small, less than a dozen members? It's the same reason the Hawaii Film Critics Society is idiosyncratic. Their first year, there were four members and they've maybe doubled in size since. Smaller pool of voters, the lest representational they are.

Apropos of which...

I understand the "it's beginning!" tingle offered by the first set of prizes. But there are about 40-50 of these often tiny groups, and if we create separate threads for each -- let alone post their nominations, which, to me, are the sure sign of hackery -- we'll end up blinded by pages and pages of not especially noteworthy threads.

We certainly should have individual threads for the classic four, as well as the bigger cities -- Boston, Chicago, DC, Detroit, Toronto. But, for the rest -- like this one -- I seem to recollect we had a thread for Minor Film Critics Groups, where winners-only were posted. Is it too much to hope for that this year?

[OscarGuy]

The group is small, less than a dozen members? It's the same reason the Hawaii Film Critics Society is idiosyncratic. Their first year, there were four members and they've maybe doubled in size since. Smaller pool of voters, the lest representational they are.

[danfrank]

A different type of category fraud: Sandra Huller for the breakthrough award. Even if the award is meant to include veteran artists breaking through to American consciousness, didn’t she do that big-time with Toni Erdmann about 7 years ago?

[Big Magilla]

This is a newly formed organization, so we have no prior history to compare these nominations to, but I like them.

Past Lives, Oppenheimer, and The Holdovers are my favorites of the films I've seen so far this year. Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, and Poor Things are among the films I am most interested in seeing so it's good to see them rated so highly at this point.

On the other hand, I'm glad to see that Killers of the Flower Moon missed out on Best Picture, Actor and Screenplay, and May December wasn't nominated for Best Screenplay.

Your thoughts?

[Big Magilla]

DETROIT – The Michigan Movie Critics Guild has announced its nominees for the best films and performances of 2023. American Fiction, Barbie and The Holdovers topped the list of nominees with six apiece; all three were nominated for best picture. Winners will be announced at noon on Monday, Dec. 4, via press release and on the guild’s social media channels.

This year’s nominees include:

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 De Niro – 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