Philadelphia Film Critics Circle (PFCC): ‘Poor Things’ is Best Film, Director, Actress and More

The Philadelphia Film Critics Circle have chosen Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things as the best film of 2023. It was one of four awards for Poor Things, which also won for Best Director (Yorgos Lanthimos), Best Script (Tony McNamara), and Best Actress (Emma Stone.)

Oppenheimer won five awards: Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey, Jr.), Best Ensemble, Best Cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), and Best Soundtrack/Score (Ludwig Göransson). The Boy and the Heron, by Hayao Miyazaki, was the winner of both Best Animated Film and Best Foreign Language Film.

See full list of winners below.

Best Film: Poor Things (Runner-up: Oppenheimer)

Best Director: Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things (Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer)

Best Actor: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer (Runner-up: Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction)

Best Actress: Emma Stone, Poor Things (Runner-up: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon)

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer (Runner-up: Charles Melton, May December)

Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (Runner-up: Julianne Moore, May December)

Best Script: Tony McNamara, Poor Things (Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer)

Best Animated Film: The Boy and the Heron (Runner-up: Robot Dreams)

Best Documentary Film: 20 Days in Mariupol (Runner-up: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie)

Best Foreign Language Film: The Boy and the Heron (Runner-up: Anatomy of a Fall)

Best Ensemble: Oppenheimer (Runner-up: Poor Things)

Best Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer (Runner-up: Robbie Ryan, Poor Things)

Best Soundtrack/Score: Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer (Runner-up: Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things)

Best Directorial Debut: Celine Song, Past Lives (Runner-up: Cord Jefferson, American Fiction)

Best Breakthrough Performance: Charles Melton, May December (Runner-up: Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.)

Elaine May Award: Barbie

Philips Steaks Cheesesteak Award: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Runner-up: Godzilla Minus One)

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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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