And the 2023 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year

With afternoons still dark, woolly gloves and scarves retrieved from cupboards; housefronts flickering with neon Santas and mulled wine recipes getting Googled, it is time for me once again to present the “Braddies”, my strictly personal movie awards list for the calendar year coming to an end (as distinct from the film section’s collegiate best-of-year list).This means top 10s for film, director, actor and supporting actor, best actress and supporting actress, directorial debut, cinematographer, screenplay and film most likely to be overlooked by the boomer mainstream media (MSM).In Britain this year we celebrated the unlikely phenomenon of #Barbenheimer, something that began as a social media gag but actually put bums on seats. People were going to see Christopher Nolan’s searing A-bomb drama Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s comedy Barbie – seeing them together, that is, and usually in that order with Barbie the emollient dessert after Nolan’s chewy main course. Those two films gave a rocket boost to UK cinema admissions and hinted that audiences were getting a bit tired of superhero films and wanted new stories from original storytellers.Of course, the cinema scene had its share of water-cooler disputes and op-ed quarrels. Ridley Scott’s spectacular Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, was coldly greeted by some. In interviews, Sir Ridley naughtily baited historians. They obligingly spluttered. I can only say this film’s inaccuracies were flagrant – and so was its excitement, energy, brio and glorious vulgar dash. It was nowhere near boring enough to be respectable.But there was another more complicated film dispute to be found on social media: concerning Emerald Fennell’s movie of the jeunesse dorée Saltburn – a twist on Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead with a bit of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley. Now I wasn’t totally convinced by this film but if anything was going to bring me back round it was the clumsy attacks and quote-tweet putdowns aimed at Fennell’s privileged background. Her detractors seemed unmoved by or unaware of all the male posh people in the business. Emerald Fennell is posh. And? So was Visconti.This was the year Hollywood’s actors and writers flexed their muscles with strikes, with actual industrial action: something rarely if ever depicted in a Hollywood movie, and only then usually as something tragically compromised or ineffective. And these strikes, unlike almost any other kind of strike, were treated more or less sympathetically in the media. The Writers Guild of America was out from May to September and the SagAftra union, representing actors, from July to September. And they got a deal – securing understandings on residual payments from streaming services and restrictions on AI. It’s something that our British writers and actors, without that kind of industrial muscle, can only wonder at. The strike left behind a picture-gallery of #nofilter and #nomakeup Instagram shots of beaming, placard-wielding stars.But a pantomime villain emerged from Hollywood cinema this year – a horrible baddie, what the world of American wrestling calls a “heel”, a snarling monster that everyone in the business was booing. And that was Mr David Zaslav, the man who last year had taken over as CEO of Warner Bros Discovery; he was initially praised for his avowed plan to pivot away from releasing films direct to streaming services. How we cheered Mr Zaslav when he announced his commitment to films in real-live cinemas. But our cheers died on our lips when it became clear that Mr Zaslav wanted to save cash by ruthlessly taking a tax write-down on a finished film: Batgirl. All that work, from all those creative professionals, simply locked away. And what made it worse was that Zaslav tried it again with another film, a Looney Tunes comedy, Coyote vs Acme – another piece of sweated labour that he wanted to lock away for ever against tax. This time, the uproar from the industry was deafening. Zaslav backed down, offering Coyote vs Acme to other distributors. He then defiantly insisted his move was “courageous”. The mood was clear. Don’t mess with your creatives’ hard work. It was a good message to end on.

Best film

The Eight MountainsGodlandPast LivesKillers of the Flower MoonWonka RealityThe FabelmansOppenheimerBottomsNapoleon

Best director

Christopher Nolan for OppenheimerMartin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower MoonJustine Triet for Anatomy of a FallCeline Song for Past LivesLukas Dhont for CloseKen Loach for The Old

OakAki Kaurismäki for Fallen LeavesCarol Morley for Typist Artist Pirate KingTodd Haynes for May DecemberMolly Manning Walker for How to Have Sex

Best actress

Margot Robbie for BarbieSydney Sweeney for RealityAline Küppenheim for Chile ’76Glenda Jackson for The Great EscaperDanielle Deadwyler for Till Greta Lee for Past LivesMonica Dolan for Typist Artist Pirate KingMia McKenna-Bruce for How to Have SexCate Blanchett for TárLily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon

Best actor

Cillian Murphy for OppenheimerBradley Cooper for MaestroTom Cruise for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part OneTeo Yoo for Past LivesMichael Fassbender for The KillerMichael Caine for The Great Escaper Joaquin Phoenix for Napoleon Nicolas Cage for Dream ScenarioNathan Stewart-Jarrett for FemmeGeorge MacKay for Femme

Best supporting actress

Rosamund Pike for Saltburn Ebla Mari for The Old Oak Cara Jade Myers for Killers of the Flower MoonMichelle Williams for The Fabelmans Carey Mulligan for MaestroEmily Blunt for Oppenheimer Vic Carmen Stone for GodlandAicha Tebbae for The Damned Don’t CryJessica Clement for Dream Scenario Danielle Vitalis for The Great Escaper

Best supporting actor

Hugh Grant for WonkaRyan Gosling for BarbieAidan Gillen for Dance FirstRobert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon Emeka Amakeze for Mami WataJohn Magaro for Past Lives Pascal Greggory for One Fine MorningIngvar Eggert Sigurðsson for GodlandSebastian Stan for SharperAli Junejo for Joyland

Best cinematographer

Maria von Hausswolff for GodlandLílis Soares for Mami WataAndrew Dunn for The Book Club: The Next ChapterTimo Salminen for Fallen LeavesMatthew Libatique for MaestroErik Messerschmidt for The KillerAaron McLisky for Talk to MeLinus Sandgren for SaltburnRuben Impens for The Eight MountainsArtur Tort for Pacifiction

Best documentary

20 Days in MariupolMy Name is Alfred HitchcockTown of Strangers Brainwashed: Sex–Camera–PowerSquaring the CircleOn the AdamantAll the Beauty and the BloodshedAnselmTishLittle Palestine: Diary of a Siege

Best debut

Savanah Leaf for Earth MamaMolly Manning Walker for How to Have SexCecile Song for Past LivesSam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping for FemmeCharlotte Regan for ScrapperDanny Philippou and Michael Philippou for Talk to MeDina Amer for You Resemble MeLola Quivoron for RodeoMary Nighy for Alice, DarlingNida Manzoor for Polite Society

Best screenplay

Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower MoonEmma Seligman and Rachel Sennott for BottomsDanny Philippou, Bill Hinzman and Daley Pearson for Talk to MeCeline Song for Past LivesCarolina Cavalli and Babak Jalali for FremontJoanna Hogg for The Eternal DaughterBrian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka for SharperChristopher Nolan, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin for OppenheimerIsabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen for The BeastsLaura Citarella and Laura Paredes for Trenque Lauquen Parts 1 & 2

Most likely to be overlooked by the boomer MSM

I Love My Dad

Photograph: Jaap Buittendijk/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Extra! … Timothée Chalamet in Wonka.

Photograph: Rob Youngson Making a great exit … Glenda Jackson in The Great Escaper.