2023 Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) Winners: ‘American Fiction’ is Best Feature, ‘Oppenheimer’ Takes Six

The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) have awarded American Fiction the Best Feature of 2023, also giving the Cord Jefferson film a win for Adapted Screenplay.

But it was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer that was the big winner of the day with six awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. Lily Gladstone was named Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, and the supporting prizes went to Charles Melton for May December and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers.

Here is the complete list of winners.

Best Feature

American Fiction – WINNER
Barbie
The Holdovers
Oppenheimer
Past Lives

Best Director

Greta Gerwig, Barbie
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer – WINNER
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Celine Song, Past Lives

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer – WINNER
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Actress

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Origin
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon – WINNER
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Margot Robbie, Barbie
Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Charles Melton, May December – WINNER
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Viola Davis, Air
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers – WINNER

Best Original Screenplay

Alex Convery, Air
Justin Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Celine Song, Past Lives – WINNER

Best Adapted Screenplay

Cord Jefferson, American Fiction – WINNER
Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Ava DuVernay, Origin
Tony McNamara, Poor Things

Best Animated Feature

The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – WINNER
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Best Documentary

20 Days in Mariupol
American Symphony – WINNER
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
They Shot the Piano Player

Best International/Foreign Language Film

Anatomy of a Fall (France) – WINNER
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Taste of Things (France)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)

Best Voice Performance

Jack Black, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Daniel Kaluuya, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Shameik Moore, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – WINNER
Hailee Steinfeld, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Masaki Suda, The Boy and the Heron

Best Youth Performance

Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie
Milo Machado-Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers – WINNER
Iman Vellani, The Marvels

Best Acting Ensemble

American Fiction
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer – WINNER

Best Cinematography

Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie
Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
Matthew Libatique, Maestro
Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer – WINNER
Robbie Ryan, Poor Things

Best Editing

Nick Houy, Barbie
Nathan Orloff, John Wick: Chapter 4
Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon
Michelle Tesoro, Maestro
Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer – WINNER

Best Production Design

Asteroid City – Adam Stockhausen (production designer), Kris Moran (set decorator)
Barbie – Sarah Greenwood (production designer), Katie Spencer (set decorator) – WINNER
Killers of the Flower Moon – Jack Fisk (production designer), Adam Willis (set decorator)
Oppenheimer – Ruth De Jong (production designer), Claire Kaufman (set decorator)
Poor Things – Shona Heath, James Price (production designer), Zsuzsa Mihalek (set decorator)

Best Original Score

Kris Bowers, The Color Purple
Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things
Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer – WINNER
Daniel Pemberton, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon

Photo: Claire Folger / 2023 Orion Releasing

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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