The New York Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review may have anointed Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” the top film of 2023, but the Best Coast, er, West Coast has a different view. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association selected Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” as their Best Film of 2023. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” was runner-up. For those looking for any Oscar influence in LAFCA’s pick, only four winners have gone on to win Best Picture this century.
READ MORE: “Killers of the Flower Moon” wins Best Film of 2023 from National Board of Review
Glazer also won Best Director while “Poor Things’” Yorgos Lanthimos came in second place.
LAFCA has non-gendered performance categories awarding two winners per category. For Best Lead Performance, the winners were Sandra Hüller for both “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest” and Emma Stone for “Poor Things.” The runners-up were Andrew Scott for “All of Us Strangers” and Jeffrey Wright for “American Fiction.” In the Supporting Performer field, the winners were the inspired choice of Rachel McAdams for “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for “The Holdovers.” “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone and “Barbie’s” Ryan Gosling were the runners-up.
It should be noted Gladstone is campaigning for Lead Actress in most submitted awards this year, but LAFCA clearly saw it as a supporting performance. Additionally, Hüller’s role in “Zone” is considered supporting by most critics groups.
“The Boy and the Heron” was named Best Animation while “Robot Dreams” was the runner-up.
“Anatomy of a Fall” was named Best Film Not In The English Language (“TOTEM” was runner-up) and took Best Editing for, Laurent Sénéchal, while Jonathan Alberts’ cutting on “All of Us Strangers” came in second.
Sarah Greenwood‘s work on “Barbie” took Production Design with Shona Heath and James Price named as the runners-up for “Poor Things.”
Mica Levi‘s score for “The Zone of Interest” won Best Music/Score “with special recognition of the contribution of sound designer Johnnie Burn.” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s work on “Barbie” came in second.
The complete list of winners is as follows:
Best Film, Winner: THE ZONE OF INTERESTBest Film, Runner-Up: OPPENHEIMER
Best Director, Winner: Jonathan Glazer for THE ZONE OF INTERESTBest Director, Runner-up: Yorgos Lanthimos for POOR THINGS
Best Lead Performance, Winners: Sandra Hüller, ANATOMY OF A FALL and THE ZONE OF INTEREST, and Emma Stone, POOR THINGSBest Lead Performance, Runners-up: Andrew Scott, ALL OF US STRANGERS, and Jeffrey Wright, AMERICAN FICTION
Best Supporting Performance, Winners: Rachel McAdams, ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, THE HOLDOVERSBest Supporting Performance, Runners-up: Lily Gladstone, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, and Ryan Gosling, BARBIE
Best Film Not in the English Language, Winner: ANATOMY OF A FALLBest Film Not in the English Language, Runner-up: TÓTEM
Best Animation, Winner: THE BOY AND THE HERONBest Animation, Runner-up: ROBOT DREAMS
Best Documentary/Nonfiction Film, Winner: “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros”Best Documentary/Nonfiction Film, Runner-up: THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Best Editing, Winner: Laurent Sénéchal, ANATOMY OF A FALLBest Editing, Runner-up: Jonathan Alberts, ALL OF US STRANGERS
Best Production Design, Winner: Sarah Greenwood, BARBIEBest Production Design, Runner-up: Shona Heath and James Price, POOR THINGS
Best Music/Score, Winner: Mica Levi, THE ZONE OF INTEREST, with special recognition of the contribution of sound designer Johnnie BurnBest Music/Score: Runner-up: Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, BARBIE
Best Cinematography, Winner: Robbie Ryan, POOR THINGSBest Cinematography, Runner-up: Rodrigo Prieto, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and BARBIE
New Generation: Celine Song, PAST LIVES