Michigan Movie Critics Guild (MMCG) Winners: ‘Barbie’ is Best Picture, Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giamatti Tie for Best Actor

The Michigan Movie Critics Guild has announced its winners for the best films and performances of 2023. Barbie – also the highest-grossing film of 2023 – was the year’s big winner, taking home prizes for best picture, best director for Greta Gerwig and best supporting actor for Ryan Gosling.

Other winners included Emma Stone for her performance in Poor Things and a tie for best actor between Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction. American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson was named the guild’s breakthrough of the year for his directorial debut. Comedian Keegan-Michael Key, a Detroit native, received the group’s MMCG Award for Film Excellence. 

This year’s full list of winners and nominees is (winners in bold): 

Best Picture

• American Fiction
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Barbie
• The Holdovers
• Past Lives
• Poor Things

Best Director

• Greta Gerwig – Barbie
• Cord Jefferson – American Fiction
• Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
• Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
• Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Actress

• Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
• Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall
• Greta Lee – Past Lives
• Carey Mulligan – Maestro
• Emma Stone – Poor Things

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper – Maestro
• Zac Efron – The Iron Claw
• Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers (tie)
• Cillian Murphy –  Oppenheimer 
• Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction (tie)

Best Supporting Actress

• America Ferrera – Barbie
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
• Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
• Julianne Moore – May December
• Rosamund Pike – Saltburn

Best Supporting Actor

• Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction
• Robert DeNiro – Killers of the Flower Moon
• Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer 
• Ryan Gosling – Barbie 
• Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things 

Best Animated Film

• The Boy and The Heron
• Nimona
• Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Best Documentary

• Beyond Utopia
• Sly
• Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Best Ensemble

• Air
• Barbie
• The Holdovers
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Oppenheimer

Best Screenplay (Adapted or Original)

• American Fiction 
• Anatomy of a Fall 
• Barbie 
• The Holdovers 
• Past Lives 

Breakthrough Award

• Sandra Hüller – Actress, Anatomy of a Fall
• Cord Jefferson – Director, American Fiction
• Greta Lee – Actress, Past Lives
• Dominic Sessa – Actor, The Holdovers
• Celine Song – Director/Writer Past Lives

Stunts

• John Wick: Chapter 4 (tie)
• The Killer
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (tie) 
• Polite Society
• Silent Night

The MMCG Award for Film Excellence (presented to a filmmaker, writer, actor, crew member etc. who has Michigan ties or to a film made or set in Michigan)

• Keegan-Michael Key – Actor, Wonka/The Super Mario Bros. Movie /Migration 
• Ashley Park – Actress, Joy Ride
• Paul Schrader –  Director, Master Gardener
• Lily Tomlin – Actress, 80 For Brady
• J.K. Simmons – Actor, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse 
• Bruce Campbell – Producer, Evil Dead Rise 

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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