No matter how long Indie Outlook remains on hiatus due to other projects, this site will continue to be the place where you will annually find, in addition to my best of the year list, my picks for what masterful work I would love to see nominated during the current awards season. My wife, Cinema Femme publisher Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, and I saw more short films than usual in 2023 due to our coverage of the Indy Shorts International Film Festival as well as Rebecca’s first in-person festival for her site, thus enabling me to include complete categories for live-action, animated and documentary contenders. I also have kept my Best Actor Under 18 category, for which there were a wealth a deserving contenders this year.

Abby Ryder Forston delivered one of my favorite performances of 2023 in Kelly Fremon Craig’s flawless Judy Blume adaptation, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”, which garnered the most nominations with a grand total of twelve. Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking blockbuster “Barbie” came up right behind it with 11 nods, while Jonathan Glazer’s shattering Holocaust drama, “The Zone of Interest,” and Christopher Nolan’s riveting epic, “Oppenheimer,” each received seven apiece. Yorgos Lanthimos’ uproarious fantasy, “Poor Things,” scored six nominations, Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner, “Anatomy of a Fall,” received five, and four nods went to both William Oldroyd’s thriller, “Eileen,” and Celine Song’s romance, “Past Lives.” 

Three nominations went to each of the following films: Wes Anderson’s beguiling “Asteroid City”; Ari Aster’s galvanizing “Beau is Afraid”; Ellie Foumbi’s scorching “Our Father, the Devil’; Sofia Coppola’s sublime “Priscilla”; Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson’s exhilarating “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”; and Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s viscerally powerful “Tori and Lokita.” Be sure to stick around after the nominees list for fourteen special mentions in categories such as Best Monologue, Best Dance Sequence and Best Cinematic Playlist. 

And now (drum roll, please), the nominees are…

BEST PICTURE

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Barbie

Our Father, the Devil

Past Lives

Poor Things

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life

The Disappearance of Shere Hite

Judy Blume Forever

Mighty Afrin: in the time of floods

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

BEST FOREIGN FILM

Anatomy of a Fall

Monster

Tori and Lokita

Tótem

The Zone of Interest

BEST ANIMATED FILM

The Boy and the Heron

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Robot Dreams

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

BEST DIRECTOR

Kelly Fremon Craig, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Greta Gerwig, “Barbie”

Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”

Celine Song, “Past Lives”

Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”

BEST ACTOR

Christopher Abbott, “Sanctuary”

Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”

Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”

Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

Kōji Yakusho, “Perfect Days”

BEST ACTRESS

Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall” & “The Zone of Interest”

Thomasin McKenzie, “Eileen”

Margaret Qualley, “Sanctuary”

Babetida Sadjo, “Our Father, the Devil”

Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Cera, “Barbie”

Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”

John Magaro, “Past Lives”

Ben Whishaw, “Passages”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Jessica Harper, “Memory”

Marin Ireland, “Eileen”

Rachel McAdams, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Alicia Witt, “Fuzzy Head”

BEST ACTOR UNDER 18

Abby Ryder Fortson, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Elle Graham, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Milo Machado Graner, “Anatomy of a Fall”

Haven Lee Harris, “Moon Garden”

Pablo Schils, “Tori and Lokita”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, “Barbie”

Michel Franco, “Memory”

Ellie Foumbi, “Our Father, the Devil”

Arthur Harari & Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”

Celine Song, “Past Lives”

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Kelly Fremon Craig, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”

Luke Goebel & Ottessa Moshfegh, “Eileen”

Tony McNamara, “Poor Things”

Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tim Ives, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Rodrigo Prieto, “Barbie”

Hoyte Van Hoytema, “Oppenheimer”

Maria von Hausswolff, “Godland”

Łukasz Żal, “The Zone of Interest”

BEST EDITING

Mike Andrews, “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse”

Oona Flaherty & Nick Moore, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Nick Houy, “Barbie”

Jennifer Lame, “Oppenheimer”

Wendy McColm, “Fuzzy Head”

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Alice Babidge, “Beau is Afraid”

Stacey Battat, “Priscilla”

Milena Canonero, “Asteroid City”

Jacqueline Durran, “Barbie”

Ann Roth, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Tamara Deverell, “Priscilla”

Sarah Greenwood, “Barbie”

Shona Heath & James Price, “Poor Things”

Steve Saklad, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Adam Stockhausen, “Asteroid City”

BEST SCORE

Michael Deragon, “Moon Garden”

Abel Korzeniowski, “Emily”

Mica Levi, “The Zone of Interest”

Richard Reed Parry, “Eileen”

Hans Zimmer, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

BEST SONG

“Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)” from “Asteroid City”

“Get to Know You” from “I’ll Show You Mine”

“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”

“Vasectopia” from “Give Me an A”

“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”

BEST MAKEUP

Beau is Afraid

Oppenheimer

Poor Things

Priscilla

Society of the Snow

BEST SOUND

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Maestro

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Tori and Lokita

The Zone of Interest

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Beau is Afraid

John Wick: Chapter 4

Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One

Oppenheimer

Poor Things

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Carl’s Date

Ninety-five senses

Once Upon a Studio

Peter and the Wolf

Rosemary A.D. (After Dad)

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

Babyface

Caroline

La Macana

My Eyes Are Up Here

Paper Planes

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Between Earth & Sky

Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games

Deciding Vote

Eat Flowers

Regenerate Ojai

Fourteen Special Mentions

BEST TV MINISERIES

A Small Light

BEST SHORT FILM ANTHOLOGY

Wes Anderson’s four Roald Dahl adaptations

BEST MONOLOGUE

“When Life Gives You Lemons” in “The Fall of the House of Usher”

BEST CINEMATIC CALL TO ACTION

Common Ground

BEST CINEMATIC PLAYLIST

Perfect Days

BEST 4K RESTORATION

Stop Making Sense

BEST CHEMISTRY

Bobbi Salvör Menuez and Amandla Stenberg, “My Animal”

BEST WORST CHEMISTRY

Nicolas Cage and Dylan Gelula, “Dream Scenario”

BEST WORDLESS PERFORMANCE

Amie Donald, “M3GAN”

BEST DANCE SEQUENCE 

Barry Keoghan, “Saltburn”

BEST MUSICAL TOUR DE FORCE

Bradley Cooper conducting Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2” in “Maestro”

BEST CHICAGOLAND SCENE

Tilda Swinton at Hotel Baker in “The Killer”

BEST HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR 

“Fishes,” Episode Six of “The Bear: Season 2”

WORST CINEMATIC DRECK OF THE YEAR

The Idol