This was my 5th year being a voting member of THE PHILADELPHIA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE (PFCC):
(2019 Winners) (2020 Winners) (2021 Winners) (2022 Winners).

Every year we communicate via Discord with each other prior to nominating films – discussing stuff we saw outside of the ones being put up for awards season, which we all see via screenings and screeners. We encourage one another to see personal favorites.  My big ones were the two docs I saw during BlackStar Film Festival: INVISIBLE BEAUTY & THE SPACE RACE. Another fav I saw during Sundance from Mexico, that I don’t believe got distribution: RADICAL.  And a small indie called SHARE? sent to me by a PR Agent I’d never dealt with before.  But ultimately, either you can’t get enough of the other PFCC members to see your picks; or it’s difficult to get the screeners within our time frame; or not enough members are as enamored with your film choices to make a quorum.  This is why it typically comes down to the same 5 – 8 movies that every other Critics Association winds up voting on; but this year was a real sweep by both OPPENHEIMER & Our Best Picture Winner POOR THINGS– review will be posted in my personal Top 20 Movies of 2023 List 

POST UPDATE 3/9/2024

BACK TO ORIGINAL POST

HERE’S THE PHILADELPHIA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE WINNERS
and RUNNERS UP for 2023

Best Score or Soundtrack

Winner: OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Composer: Ludwig Göransson 

Runner-up: POOR THINGS

(Searchlight Pictures)

Composer: Jerskin Fendrix

BEST SCRIPT 

Winner: POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)

Screenplay: Tony McNamara

Runner-up: OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Screenplay: Christopher Nolan

  DIRECTORIAL DEBUT 
Winner: Celine Song

PAST LIVES
(A24)

Runner-up: Cord Jefferson

AMERICAN FICTION
(Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Breakthrough Performance

Winner: Charles Melton
MAY DECEMBER
(Netflix)

Runner-up: Abby Ryder Fortson 

ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET
(Lionsgate)

Best Cinematography

Winner: OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema

Runner-up: POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan

  Best Documentary
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL
(PBS Frontline)

Filmmaker: Mstyslav Chernov

Runner-up: STILL: MICHAEL J. FOX
(Apple TV+)

Filmmaker: Davis Guggenheim

Best Foreign Language
Winner: THE BOY AND THE HERON
(Toho Co. LTD)

Writer/Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Runner-up: ANATOMY OF A FALL
(Le Pacte)

Writer/Director: Justine Triet 

Best Animated

Winner: THE BOY AND THE HERON
(Toho Co. LTD)

Writer/Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Runner-up: ROBOT DREAMS
Bteam Pictures (Spain) | Wild Bunch (France) | NEON (US)

 Writer/Director: Pablo Berger

Best Supporting

Robert Downey Jr

OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Runner-up: Charles Melton
MAY DECEMBER
(Netflix)

Best Supporting Actress

Da’Vine Joy Randolph

THE HOLDOVERS
(Focus Features)

Runner-up: Julianne Moore

MAY DECEMBER
(Netflix)

  Best Actor

Cillian Murphy

OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Runner-up: Jeffrey Wright

AMERICAN FICTION
(Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Actress

Emma Stone

POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)

Runner-up: Lilly Gladstone
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
(Paramount Pictures/Apple TV+)

  Best Director
Yorgos Lanthimos

POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)

Runner-up: Christopher Nolan

OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

2nd Annual PHILLY CHEESESTEAK AWARD
Sponsored by SQ PHILIP’S STEAKS
2234 W Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA,19145

In Celebration of the Best Blockbuster Movie of the Year!

Winner: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
(Paramount Pictures)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie
 

Runner-up: GODZILLA MINUS ONE
(Toho)

Writer/Director: Takashi Yamazaki

BEST ENSEMBLE

Winner: OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Devon Bostick, Matt Damon, Jash Hartnett, Gary Oldman, Schweighöfer, Rami Malek, Josh Peck, Jack Quaid, Olvia Thirlby, Jason Clarke, Alden Ehrenreich and more…

Runner-up: POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)
Cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo,Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Kathryn Hunter,
Suzy Bemba, Christopher Abbott

THE ELAINE MAY AWARD
In Recognition of a film that focuses on issues facing Women

Winner: BARBIE
(Warner Bros Pictures )

Writer/Director Greta Gerwig
 

Final category BEST PICTURE

POOR THINGS
(Searchlight Pictures)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos |Screenplay: Tony McNamara

 

Runner-up: OPPENHEIMER
(Universal Pictures)

PFCC Awards Press Release

Thank you to PFCC Founders Rich Heimlich & Stephen Silver for running things during the year and Dan Tabor for Producing the Film Scribes Podcast

Click Images for Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReviews of this year’s Award Winners