Film

Best films of 2023: Irish critics name their favourites

Celine Song’s Past Lives and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall top Dublin Film Critics Circle poll, which also names best actor, actress and Irish film

Best film of 2023: Past Lives, directed by Celine Song

Donald Clarke's face
Donald Clarke
Mon Dec 18 2023 - 18:03

Dublin Film Critics Circle has announced the results of its 2023 poll. Celine Song’s Past Lives, a touching drama about two childhood friends reuniting in New York City, was a comfortable winner of best film. Premiered at Sundance in January, the independent film, a critical hit throughout the world, played to great applause at Galway Film Fleadh during the summer. Following the success of An Cailín Ciúin in 2022, this is the second year running the circle has awarded its top prize to a debut film. Past Lives also took the best-director prize.

Song, who was born in South Korea, raised in Canada and now lives in the United States, was delighted by the news. “Thank you so much to the Dublin Film Critics Circle for these incredible honours – it means the world to me,” she said. “As someone who grew up admiring Irish cinema and literature, I had such a special time introducing Past Lives to the Irish audience at the Galway Film Fleadh this year.”

[ Past Lives: Beautiful, slyly moving cinematic debut heralds a new star in the firmament ]

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival, was runner up in best film.

[ Anatomy of a Fall: An unlikable widow goes on trial in a fascinating, knotty courtroom thriller ]

Perhaps inevitably, the Barbenheimer phenomenon, which dominated movie chatter during the summer, was represented in the poll results. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer came third in the best-film race. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, the highest-grossing film ever at the Irish box office, came seventh. Cillian Murphy, who plays J Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, in Nolan’s sprawling biopic, was named best actor by the circle. Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in Barbie, scored at number 10 in that chart. Nolan and Gerwig also came in, respectively, at number three and number seven in best director.

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[ Oppenheimer review: Cillian Murphy gives a commanding turn. But why is Florence Pugh reduced to Crazy Naked Chick? ]

[ Barbie review: Margot Robbie is explosive in Greta Gerwig’s lurid assault on senses ]

Unsurprisingly, a number of competitors for the upcoming Oscars were mentioned. Murphy is a slim favourite with the bookies. The same turf accountants have Lily Gladstone, touching as a doomed Native American woman in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, as favourite for best actress – and, sure enough, she finished just ahead of Carey Mulligan, the female lead in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, in the corresponding Dublin Film Critics Circle poll.

[ Killers of the Flower Moon review: Exquisitely mounted, impeccably finished and just a little worthy ]

One arresting statistic stands out. A full six of the films listed among the top 10 documentaries were from Irish directors. Laura McGann’s The Deepest Breath, touching on the terrifying sport of free-diving, came in at number one. Also scoring were Joe Lee’s 406 Days: The Debenhams Picket Line, Garry Keane and Stephen Gerard Kelly’s In the Shadow of Beirut, Margo Harkin’s Stolen, Ken Wardrop’s So This Is Christmas, and Ollie Aslin and Gary Lennon’s I Dream in Photos.

[ The Deepest Breath: A tense, engrossing documentary about the terrifying sport of freediving ]

Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney’s Lakelands, starring Éanna Hardwicke as a rural GAA player facing up to a potentially career-ending injury, took the overall prize for best Irish film. It has been a good year for Hardwicke. The Cork man won rave reviews for his performance as a notorious murderer in the BBC series The Sixth Commandment.

[ Lakelands: Gripping study of emotional inhibition showcases some impressive young Irish actors ]

The circle restricts its votes to films released in Ireland during the calendar year. As a result, a number of films that may feel like 2022 titles hung around for belated acclaim. Todd Phillips’s Tár came sixth in best film. Cate Blanchett, the star of that film, registered at number three in best actress.

The circle nodded towards two up-and-comers. Orén Kinlan, son to Eve Hewson’s mum in John Carney’s musical Flora and Son, won best Irish breakthrough. Raine Allen-Miller, director of the British romantic comedy Rye Lane, took the equivalent international prize.

[ Flora and Son: Eve Hewson just about convinces as an inner-city mum ]

Dublin Film Critics Circle, whose president is Tara Brady of The Irish Times, was formed in 2006. Each year since then, like similar bodies throughout the world, it has handed out yearly awards. Previous winners of best film have included The Lives of Others, There Will Be Blood and Marriage Story.

“I have a piece of my heart in Ireland,” Song added. “Thank you – I’m so incredibly touched and honoured.”

Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards 2023

Best film

  1. Past Lives
  2. Anatomy of a Fall
  3. Oppenheimer
  4. Killers of the Flower Moon
  5. May December
  6. Tár
  7. Barbie
  8. Close/EO (tie)
  9. Eight Mountains/Passages (tie)
  10. Priscilla

Best director

  1. Celine Song, Past Lives
  2. Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
  3. Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
  4. Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
  5. Todd Field, Tár
  6. Alice Diop, Saint Omer
  7. Greta Gerwig, Barbie
  8. Lukas Dhont, Close
  9. Jerzy Skolimowski, EO
  10. Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Best actor

  1. Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
  2. Franz Rogowski, Passages
  3. Bradley Cooper, Maestro
  4. Joaquin Phoenix, Beau Is Afraid
  5. Denis Ménochet, The Beasts
  6. Luca Marinelli, The Eight Mountains
  7. Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
  8. Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
  9. Chares Melton, May December
  10. Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Best actress

  1. Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
  2. Carey Mulligan, Maestro
  3. Cate Blanchett, Tár
  4. Sandra Muller, Anatomy of a Fall
  5. Julianne Moore, May December
  6. Natalie Portman, May December
  7. Tilda Swinton, Eternal Daughter
  8. Annette Bening, Nyad
  9. Adèle Exarchopoulos, Passages
  10. Sydney Sweeney, Reality

Best documentary

  1. The Deepest Breath
  2. 406 Days
  3. Still: A Michael J Fox Movie
  4. Kokomo City
  5. In the Shadow of Beirut
  6. Stolen
  7. So This Is Christmas
  8. Little Richard: I Am Everything
  9. I Dream in Photos
  10. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Best Irish film

  1. Lakelands
  2. The Deepest Breath
  3. Lola
  4. My Sailor, My Love
  5. Ballywalter

Best screenplay

  1. Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
  2. Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, The Beasts
  3. Samy Burch, May December
  4. Aki Kaurismäki, Fallen Leaves
  5. Paul Schrader, Master Gardener

Best cinematography

  1. Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
  2. Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
  3. Mark Jenkin, Enys Men
  4. Ruben Impens, Eight Mountains
  5. Thomas Favel, Return to Seoul

International breakthrough

  • Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane

Irish breakthrough

  • Orén Kinlan, Flora and Son
Dublin Film Critics Circle