2023 Team Experience Awards - WINNERS

by Christopher James

Poor Things won the hearts of The Film Experience team, but it wasn't the only film the team loved this year.

The Film Experience team has spoken. Our nomination leader - Poor Things - won Best Picture from the group. However, it was not a sweep for Yorgos Lanthimos' ambitious film. The only other category Poor Things won was Best Costume Design. Instead, the team decided to spread the wealth across all categories, rewarding a total of 16 films. The most wins racked up by any film this year was three, which both Anatomy of a Fall and Barbie achieved. 

See what won each of the categories after the jump...

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Split Decision: "The Zone of Interest"

No two people feels the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Ben Miller and Nick Taylor on The Zone of Interest...

BEN: Hey Nick!  I will freely admit that The Zone of Interest haunted me in a way that I won't soon forget.  I consider it among the absolute best of the year and one of the most impactful Holocaust films to come out in some time.  The praise for the film is near universal, so I know that you thought it was just as exceptional as I did. We can be in agreement, and then call it a day.  Quick and painless...you thoughts?

NICK: I am definitely haunted by it! There’s plenty to admire in Jonathan Glazer’s direction, and I can’t deny I was taken aback by its provocations when I watched it. But even without the comparison to Glazer’s previous stone-cold masterpieces, I felt myself disengaging from the movie’s rhythms as it went on. Intellectually, I get why we’re kept at such a remove from the Höss family, and what the oppressive sound design and spycam cinematography are meant to convey about these people. I swear I do. But this did not connect with me the way it clearly has with you, and I would love to hear more about why this is one of the best movies of the year for you . . . .

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Nathaniel's Best Supporting Actress Ballot

by Nathaniel R

Da'Vine Joy Randolph owns the Best Supporting Actress party. She brought baked goods and "it".

Dearest readers, imagine my terror when I realized this morning that it was just one week until the Oscars. That's the deadline to finish the Film Bitch Awards (at least in the Oscar-parallel categories). So let's have our final pre-Oscar discussion about Best Supporting Actress, mine and theirs... 

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Split Decision: “American Fiction”

No two people feels the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here’s Lynn Lee and Cláudio Alves on American Fiction...

LYNN LEE: Hi Cláudio - looking forward to a friendly fisticuffs (is there such a thing? at TFE, yes!) on American Fiction, one of my favorite movies of 2023. 

I have to admit I'm a little self-conscious about ranking it so high in a year filled with noteworthy films.  It wasn't a cultural behemoth à la Barbenheimer.  It's not the work of a known auteur or a rising one; it doesn't have the weird-cool vibe of a Poor Things or the wistful-cool cachet of a Past Lives.  Visually, it's not particularly interesting.  Thematically, it follows in the footsteps of other, similarly themed movies about Black artists confronting racial pigeonholing and stereotypes - from The 40-Year-Old Version to Bamboozled all the way back to Hollywood Shuffle - but made significantly more palatable (I won't say diluted) for mainstream audiences...

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Godzilla's Not-So-Anonymous Oscar Ballot

by Cláudio Alves & ???

Despite new Academy rules prohibiting such activity, the final Oscar voting period once again coincides with a slew of anonymous ballots. Now, here at The Film Experience we don't want to incur AMPAS' ire, but we also suffer from FOMO when seeing all those other publications with their horrid insight into the Oscar voter's mindset. And wouldn't you know it, TFE got exclusive access to one of last year's biggest stars. So, why not capitalize on that and discuss how one titanic performer will cast their votes? Faced with this irresistible possibility, we couldn't help ourselves. All that to say, please welcome to The Film Experience none other than Godzilla, star of Godzilla Minus One and one of Japanese cinema's most beloved personalities…

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