Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The “Barbenheimer” craze continues with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” being named among AFI Awards 2023 top 10 best films of the year.
Netflix led studios with two movies making the list — Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” and Todd Haynes’ black comedy “May December.” With an eclectic mix of critically acclaimed and consumer friendly titles, the list of top movies also includes films by newcomers (Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” and Celine Song’s “Past Lives”), veterans (Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers”) and stylish visionaries (Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K.
Thompson’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”). The AFI honors contribute to momentum in various awards campaigns as the holiday break looms, as voters catch up on screening multiple titles.
A strong bellwether for the Oscars’ best picture category, some of the notable omissions include Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Ava DuVernay’s “Origin,” Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple” and Ben Affleck’s “Air.” The AFI top 10 typically averages between seven and eight movies translating to best picture nominations in the last decade.
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