The fifth annual Not A Real Person Yet awards (The NARPYs) have arrived.
Only a handful of days away from the 96th Academy Awards, I am once again handing out my own list of completely made up awards—none of which exist at the Oscars—in order to honor the 2023 world of film. I do this to celebrate the best films from the previous year, as well as shine a spotlight on movies that have not been discussed enough throughout the course of awards season.
Just like the previous three years, I’m going to go through the awards one by one, list the nominees, the winner, and give some reasoning behind why I chose each winner. Most categories have a five nominee limit, except for a few that I felt needed to be expanded to ten.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Award #1: Most Memorable Scene
Nominees:
- Adam’s Final Visit to his Parents, All of Us Strangers
- I’m Just Ken, Barbie
- The Brute Fight Scene, The Killer
- The Ending, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Car Chase Through Rome, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
- Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon
- Trinity Test, Oppenheimer
- The Ending, Past Lives
- Spider-Men Chase Scene, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Preparing the First Meal, The Taste of Things
And The Winner Is: The Ending, Killers of the Flower Moon
As this truly was an incredible film year, it was extremely challenging to try to select the 10 individual scenes that stuck with me the most—let alone choose a winner in this category. There were so many memorable movie moments in 2023 but, when making this difficult decision, I turned to the fact that none of them surprised me, moved me, and captivated me quite as much as the ending of Martin Scorsese’s most recent masterpiece, Killers of the Flower Moon, did. I found it so impressive that, in the final moments of his film, Scorsese managed to challenge audiences to think even deeper about not only what they had just seen, but the art of storytelling in general—while also being vulnerable enough to reflect on his role as the storyteller of this film. Not to mention, he did it in a way that I’ve never really seen be presented on film ever before. There are not many modern films that leave you with more to think about upon their conclusion as Killers of the Flower Moon does, and this ending scene is a large reason why. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this scene is that it is easy for one to imagine just how awful it could have gone had it been made by less skillful hands. This scene is a testament to Scorsese’s genius, and proof that he is capable of doing things that very few other filmmakers throughout history would even attempt to pull off. It’s also worth noting that, whether or not you like this scene, it at the very least forces the viewer to have a reaction. It provokes thought and creates conversation, which absolutely needs to be taken into account when deciding what the “Scene of the Year” was.
Award #2: The “Shocked it Wasn’t Terrible” Award
Nominees:
- Anyone But You
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- Gran Turismo
- Plane
- You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
And The Winner Is: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
While not all of the five films nominated in this category are great, they all exceeded my expectations to varying degrees. To be honest though, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a film that I had practically zero expectations for before its release. This is not necessarily because I thought the film would be awful, I just had virtually no interest in seeing it. When I finally gave it a chance and sat down to watch it though, I was very surprised with how much I genuinely enjoyed this movie. The story was captivating, the performances were all solid across the board, and perhaps most importantly the humor consistently landed throughout the film. Also, while I have no relationship to the game Dungeons & Dragons, it was nice to see a film show real respect towards its source material, and the diehard fans, while also having a lot of fun with that material. That is a hard balancing act to pull off, but I thought Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves did it exceptionally well.
Award #3: Best Performance That Wasn’t Nominated at the Oscars
Nominees:
- Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
- Benedetta Porcaroli, Amanda
- Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
- Margot Robbie, Barbie
- Zac Efron, The Iron Claw
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Julianne Moore, May December
- Kōji Yakusho, Perfect Days
- Greta Lee, Past Lives
- Teo Yoo, Past Lives
And The Winner Is: Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Like always, the list of performances that went unrecognized by the Academy this year was incredibly long. It was difficult to narrow my own list of nominees down to the 10 snubs that I was most disappointed by. It was equally difficult to pick which performance I wanted to highlight as the winner here. Some may be surprised by my choice. Truthfully, I surprised myself a bit when I made the selection. But allow me to make the case. Is the work done by Rachel McAdams in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret the most technically impressive performance amongst my list of nominees? Probably not. But, the point of this category is to celebrate performances that were overlooked by the Academy—and the fact of the matter is—McAdams’ performance is not only tremendous in its own right, it is the exact type of performance that the Academy has failed to respect over the years. Historically, the Academy really struggles with comedic and lighter-in-tone performances. McAdams’ omission from this year’s awards is a perfect example of that (as is Margot Robbie’s, but seeing as that was maybe the most talked about snub of the year, I wanted to shine some light on someone else). McAdams does incredible work in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and there’s no reason the Academy should ignore that just because it occurs in movie with a lighter tone and lower stakes than the films one might traditionally find in the Best Picture category.
Award #4: Best Comedy
Nominees:
- Asteroid City
- Barbie
- Bottoms
- No Hard Feelings
- Theater Camp
And The Winner Is: Bottoms
It’s important to note that I do not consider Bottoms to be the all-around best film amongst the nominees. In fact, I think both Asteroid City and Barbie are stronger films from top to bottom. In this category though, I like to reward pure comedies. And while 2023 turned out to be filled with some pretty solid comedy filmmaking, I found Emma Seligman’s satirical lesbian high school sex romp to be the best true comedy movie of the year. This film was highly anticipated for me because I was a huge fan of Shiva Baby, Seligman’s debut feature which also starred Rachel Sennott. I was extremely glad when this film, and the theater experience, lived up to my expectations. I’m very excited to see the creative forces behind this film, both on screen and off, collaborate more in the future because they have shown they have tremendous chemistry.
Award #5: Best Music Moment in a Film
Nominees:
- Steel Drum “P.I.M.P”, Anatomy of a Fall
- “Unwritten” Montage During the Closing Credits, Anyone But You
- “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)”, Asteroid City
- “I’m Just Ken”, Barbie
- “Push” on the Beach, Barbie
- “Complicated” Needle Drop, Bottoms
- “Tom Sawyer” Training Montage, The Iron Claw
- Conducting Mahler, Maestro
- “Maneater” on Piano, No Hard Feelings
- “Better Now” Audition, Theater Camp
And The Winner Is: “I’m Just Ken”, Barbie
Normally, I limit this category to five nominees. But when I was going through possible choices for this year, I just found too many moments that I wanted to highlight. Interestingly, many of those moments, including my winner, turned out to be comedic in nature. Of course, the scene at the top of my list here is the “I’m Just Ken” sequence in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. While I definitely found the scene of all the Ken’s serenading Barbies with Matchbox Twenty on the beach to be a funnier moment, “I’m Just Ken” feels like the definitive music moment in film in 2023. This is evidenced by the fact that it already has, and will continue to, live on in our culture more so than any other moment nominated in this category.
Award #6: Best Film With Zero Oscar Nominations
Nominees:
- Amanda
- Asteroid City
- The Killer
- Showing Up
- The Taste of Things
And The Winner Is: The Taste of Things
It has been disheartening to see The Taste of Things get backlash for being France’s selection for the Best International Feature category at this year’s Oscars—which obviously led to Anatomy of a Fall being unable to be nominated there—because I personally find the film to be absolutely remarkable. When a filmmaker is able to make something like cooking be as exciting, captivating, and stunning as pretty much any big action set piece from the last five years, that is something that deserves praise—and that is exactly what Trần Anh Hùng was able to do in The Taste of Things. Unquestionably, this is one of the most beautiful looking films I’ve seen so far this decade. Moreover, it contains a narrative and characters that elicit genuine emotion out of the viewer. It is an absolute shame that this film was shown no love by the Academy because there are so many categories in which it would have been a worthy nominee—including Production Design, Cinematography, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Costume Design. Hopefully, despite being snubbed across the board, people still choose to seek this film out, because it deserves to be seen by a lot of people.
Award #7: Most Rewatchable Film
Nominees:
- Air
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
- Barbie
- The Killer
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
And The Winner Is: Air
I feel like pretty much instantaneously upon its release, people started putting Air into the category of “films I will end up watching dozens of times on lazy, and possibly hungover, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.” It is impossible to know if it will end up being the film from this year that I watch the most times throughout my life, but it is hard to deny that it has that certain easy-to-return-to quality that so many truly rewatchable films have. It may not be the best film of the year by any means, but when it comes to rewatchability, sometimes all you need is characters to root for, a simple yet captivating story line, movie stars giving good performances, and a talented director with a clear vision at the helm of all of it. Air certainly has all of those things, which is why I firmly believe it will stand the test of time.
Award #8: Best Quote
Nominees:
- “She thinks I’m a fascist?! I don’t control the railways or the flow of commerce.” – Barbie, Barbie
-
“You know what? I’m good, ‘cause it’s not gonna happen for me. If it’s not happening here, then it’s definitely not happening at Emerson. Okay? I’m done trying to sow my damn oats. I’m packing up my vagina and I’m fucking Mathieu. That’s the only hope for me. It’s me and Mathieu, man. And ‘cause he’s gay and fearless, he’s probably going to fuck me without protection. Then I’m gonna get pregnant, we’re going to have to join a church. He’ll be the gay pastor. My whole life’s fucked! And yeah sure, his sermons are good. But everybody knows he’s fruity, everybody knows he’s fucking fruity! By the way, our son Hezekiah hates us ‘cause he knows we’re both closeted but we try to make it work for him, but he’s not happy. And yeah, guess what? The deacon’s fucking the evangelists, man, he’s fucking the evangelists! I don’t want to live like that, will you come and visit us on Sundays? Please, will you come and visit us on Sundays?” – Josie, Bottoms
- “My color.” – Mollie Burkhart, Killers of the Flower Moon
- “God, I can’t tell if we’re connecting or if I’m creating a bad memory for you in real time.” – Joe Yoo, May December
- “What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life? Who do you think we are then?” – Hae Sung, Past Lives
And The Winner Is: “What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life? Who do you think we are then?” – Hae Sung, Past Lives
First off, let me address that I definitely cheated by selecting the entirety of Ayo Edebiri’s incredibly funny improvised monologue from Bottoms as one of the nominees here. And also just take the time to comment on how it looks even more ridiculous when listed next to the incredibly powerful line from Lily Gladstone’s character in Killers of the Flower Moon. But I mean what are you going to do? They were both great pieces of dialogue from 2023. On to the winner though, I think this line delivered brilliantly by Teo Yoo captures the essence and themes of the film it appears in better than any other single line of dialogue from this past year. I chose Past Lives as my number one film of 2023, and there were many reasons for that, but perhaps none bigger than the spectacular screenplay penned by Celine Song. There are so many heartbreaking, beautiful, emotional, and funny lines in that film, but the one that I chose as the winner here is the one that affected me the most when I was sitting down in the theater watching it.
Award #9: Best Theater Experience
Nominees:
- Barbie
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
- Oppenheimer
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
And The Winner Is: **TIE** Barbie & Oppenheimer
Yes, it’s true. For the first time in the history of the Not A Real Person Yet Awards, we have a tie. I don’t feel bad about this decision though because there was truly nowhere else to go with this category, and, there was no way to crown one of these films here without recognizing the other. Barbenheimer was the definitive moviegoing event of 2023. I personally participated by seeing both films in the same day, and I am so grateful that I did. Not to sound too film twitter-ey and corny, but that is a day that I will remember for a long time. It was such a fun thing to be a part of, and there was just something so invigorating about seeing so many people collectively be excited about going to the theater. I hope to see more of that enthusiasm in the future. I do want to quickly give a shoutout to the other three nominees in this category though, because they were also at the top of a very long list of great theater experiences I had in 2023. And I’d like to give a special mention to A24’s rerelease of Stop Making Sense, because even though I didn’t feel it was technically eligible for this category, it was maybe the most fun I had in a movie theater this past year.
Award #10: Best Performance in a Bad Film
Nominees:
- Iman Vellani, The Marvels
- Jodie Foster, Nyad
- Emily Blunt, Pain Hustlers
- Colman Domingo, Rustin
- Sebastian Stan, Sharper
And The Winner Is: Jodie Foster, Nyad
It’s always important to note that, while I end up grouping five movies together under the label of “bad films” in this category, there are always some that I think are better than others—and I use a pretty broad and general definition of the word “bad.” If I had to choose one word to really describe my true feelings on Nyad, it would probably be forgettable. I didn’t hate the film. In fact, I found it to be pretty much fine, given what it was trying to accomplish. I did find Jodie Foster’s performance to be genuinely magnificent, and quite charming, though. While Annette Bening also gives a good performance, Foster’s acting work was by the far the best aspect of this film for me—so much so that I found myself being disappointed that it was being wasted in a film this underwhelming. That is why I consider her to be the clear winner in this category.
Award #11: Most Underrated Film
Nominees:
- The Creator
- Dream Scenario
- Ferrari
- Leave the World Behind
- The Royal Hotel
And The Winner Is: The Royal Hotel
It can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between underrated and underseen. Because truthfully, not only do I feel all five of these films deserved more praise, they probably all deserved more eyeballs on them as well. When I thought about what film from 2023 I wish I heard more people speaking highly of though, the answer was Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel. The follow-up to her tremendous debut feature from 2020, The Assistant, this film served as further proof that Green is a true talent behind the camera and has a long career ahead of her. Unfortunately, it just did not receive the attention that it deserved. It was one of many films from 2023 that, due to being rolled out during the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, just never really was able to garner enough noise to catch on with audiences in any real way. I also wonder if some of the people who did watch this film let their reaction be colored by the fact that they thought the trailer was promising a different kind of film. Regardless of the reasons though, the fact remains that this is a great film which still deserves more attention and praise than what it got upon its release.
Award #12: Breakthrough Performer
Nominees:
- Milo Machado-Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
- Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
- Ruby Cruz, Bottoms
- Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
- Iman Vellani, The Marvels
- Charles Melton, May December
- Andrew Barth Feldman, No Hard Feelings
- Teo Yoo, Past Lives
- Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla
- Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane
And The Winner Is: Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
When deciding the winner of Breakthrough Performer this year, I took two things into consideration: degree of difficulty, and future career potential. While I wasn’t as high on The Holdovers as many others, it is undeniable that Dominic Sessa was able to shine in a fairly difficult situation. He was put beside two seasoned performers, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who both turned out incredible performances, and he managed to hold his own. Furthermore, when I think about which nominee out of these 10 will go on to have the most successful career, he seems like the safest bet. After being witness to his performance in The Holdovers, as well as his possibly equally important impressive red carpet run this awards season, it is not hard to imagine him becoming a successful leading man in the near future. I can legitimately say that I’m excited to see where his career goes from here.
Award #13: Best Hidden Gem
Nominees:
- Afire
- Amanda
- The Burial
- The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
- When You Finish Saving the World
And The Winner Is: Amanda
It’s rare for the winning movie in this category to also be one of my top three or four films of the year. That is because I don’t necessarily award this category to the nominee that I flat-out enjoyed the most. Instead, I give it to the nominated film that I heard and saw being discussed, analyzed, and reviewed the least throughout the course of last year. It just so happens that, in the case of 2023, the winner here was one of my absolute favorite films of the year. Carolina Cavalli’s debut feature, Amanda, is a tremendously great film that I so desperately wish was seen by more people. Personally, I was lucky enough to see this film at the Metrograph theater in New York City—an experience that I am incredibly grateful for because it turned out to be one of my most cherished moviegoing memories of 2023. Along with the other four nominees in this category which went underseen, I truly hope this film is able to reach more viewers in the future. I’m confident that, just like it did with me, it will resonate strongly with a lot of people if they decide to seek it out and give it a chance. I truly can’t recommend it enough.
Award #14: Best First Time Director
Nominees:
- Carolina Cavalli, Amanda
- Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
- Celine Song, Past Lives
- Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane
- Juel Taylor, They Cloned Tyrone
And The Winner Is: Celine Song, Past Lives
I share this sentiment every year but I once again want to reiterate that this is a category that needs to be present at the Oscars. It would be a great way to introduce people to movies they are unfamiliar with, as well as honor certain films and filmmakers that don’t have a chance at being recognized in the bigger categories. With that out of the way, let’s get to Celine Song and the incredible work she did on, what I previously mentioned was my favorite film from 2023, Past Lives. It’s rare to see a first time director show as much control over their story as Song did with Past Lives. Clearly, she perfectly understood the emotion and tone of her film, as well as the correct ways to convey those things to her audience. Furthermore, I’m still astounded by how she was able to create something so unique, yet so universal, with her first movie. The story of Past Lives resonated with so many people—something that would not have happened had it been told by a different voice and made by a different set of guiding hands. It takes a skilled filmmaker to create something that has an impact on as many people as Past Lives did. Viewers, like myself, didn’t just enjoy this movie; they fell in love with it. It’s hard for any director to pull that off, let alone someone who is doing it for the first time. I can’t wait to see what Song does next. One thing I know for sure is that I will show up for it, regardless of what it is.
Award #15: Best Cast
Nominees:
- American Fiction
- Asteroid City
- The Iron Claw
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Poor Things
And The Winner Is: American Fiction
For me, American Fiction was the clear winner in my final category because, more so than any other film in 2023, it is a movie that is made by its cast. I don’t mean to discredit any of the work done by the film’s brilliant writer and director, Cord Jefferson, but I think American Fiction was elevated to the level of success it ultimately achieved in large part due to the performances that occur within it. This film needed the amazing work that Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, John Ortiz, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, and others brought to it. In a film that blends together comedy, drama, romance, realistic characters, and big ideas—there needed to be actors that understood their roles deeply. And in American Fiction, not one performer missed their mark. It was truly a collaborative effort, and it was exciting as a viewer to see all these terrific actors work so well together. Jefferson certainly deserves credit for getting all of this amazing work out of these performers as well.
Now, as I wrap up these awards and look back on all 15 categories and the nominees, I’m reminded of just how much great work we saw from the film world in 2023. I’m very grateful for all of it and can only hope that we get more of the same in 2024.
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Not A Real Person Yet 