We here at KJ have much more respect for the art of animation than the snuffy duffys over at the academy. Thus I wanted to give it a prominent spot this year.

The nominees for Best Animated Film are:

Across The Spiderverse
The Boy and The Heron
Elemental
Nimona
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

And the KJ goes to...

Across The Spiderverse

And I also think it has a good chance of going down as the best non-Disney animated film ever. Shame that this is only its first win, but 2023 was just so stacked.


Two more (unless I forgot something) so lets go with Best Picture next.


Im only kidding. No Steven Soderbergs making the decisions around here. Best Director will be next.

The best director is kinda like the coach of the year award. Without a strong presence at the helm, a film can fall apart at any time. We see it happen constantly. So never underestimate the power of a director. It is my #1 deciding factor when deciding what to watch

The nominees for Best Director are:

Greta Gerwig (Barbie)
Andrew Haigh (All Of Us Strangers)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Celine Song (Past Lives)

And the KJ goes to...

Christopher Nolan

for Oppenheimer



By far the most winningest director in KJ award history adds another one to the pile. An easy choice for the voters.


However, I will give a tease that Oppenheimer received more votes in best director than it did for best picture. In fact, the winner of best picture only got 5 out of the 18 votes. It was that spread out. Counting them was a rollercoaster as I thought something new was gonna win every 10 minutes lol. What ended up winning? Lets find out!

Thought before we do, lets take a look back at our previous winners

2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Children of Men
2007: Ratatouille
2008: The Dark Knight
2009: Inglourious Basterds
2010: Inception
2011: Drive
2012: Silver Linings Playbook
2013: Gravity
2014: Gone Girl
2015: Inside Out
2016: La La Land
2017: Coco
2018: A Quiet Place
2019: Parasite
2020: Promising Young Woman
2021: Spider-Man: No Way Home
2022: Top Gun: Maverick

and then more time for this year's nominees for Best Picture


Across The Spiderverse
All Of Us Strangers
Barbie
Godzilla Minus One
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
Saltburn

There was no tie this year thankfully. The winner had 5 votes, 2nd place had 4, 3rd place had 3.


The winner for Best Picture is....

Sorry for the false tease but I had to make it interesting somehow. For me, as the counter, it was like watching a #1 seed in Oppy struggle with a #16 seed before hitting a dagger 3 to seal it at the end of the game. Cause yes, somehow someway, All Of Us Strangers very nearly pulled the upset. Though since it would have lost the tiebreaker, Strangers needed two more votes to win. Oppy dominated so much in the nominations round that I couldn't believe it ended up so close. We got the right choice though, at least I think we did. Spiderverse was in 3rd place, and I'm honestly glad my vote didn't make the difference cause I find those two about equal.

Thanks again for tuning and filling out those really long ballots!

Expected winner

Nice write ups with the announcements, back to back years with my favorite also winning the KJ. Mostly good winners in every cat.

Thanks Flav!!!

Good winners all around... although I loved Saltburn, it winning Screenplay is kinda laughable lol

Thanks for hosting this. I think the right film won. Well done KJ.

Also only the 3rd time in 20 years - KJ’s BP matched the Oscars BP.

If anyone cares, this is how a potential tiebreaker would have gone:

Oppy - 10 + 7 + 10 + 5+4+10+8+9+4+8+10+5+
Past Lives - 10+3+9+10+5+1+7+5+5+
Poor Things - 5 + 4 +2+4+7+10+8+6+6+
Spiderverse - 9 + 6 + 8 + 8+6+6+4+
Killers - 4+6+6+7+5+5+9+
Barbie- 3+8+8+2+10+9+
Holdovers - 5+7+6+4+9+5+1+6+3+
All of Us Strangers - 10+10+9+
Saltburn - 2+2+4+3+9+8+
Godzilla - 7 + 8 + 3 + 10

Not gonna do all the math but pretty sure I ranked them somewhat correctly lol. Strangers seemed to be the only one to pick up fans in between the nominations and winners ceremonies.

Thanks for putting this together! Good results overall though I wish more people saw Anatomy of a Fall. It's song use of 50 Cent was so well done and it didn't up nominated.

Thanks for hosting Flava great job

Full master list:

Best Picture:

Oppenheimer

Best Director:

Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Best Actor

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Best Actress

Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Supporting Actor:

Ryan Gosling (Barbie)

Best Supporting Actress

Da'vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Best Acting Ensemble

Oppenheimer

Best Stunt Ensemble

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning

Best Original Screenplay

Saltburn

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Oppenheimer

Best Animated

Across The Spiderverse

Best Documentary

Taylor Swift: The ERAS Tour

Best Foreign Language Film

Past Lives

Best Cinematography

Oppenheimer

Best Editing:

Oppenheimer

Best Score

Oppenheimer

Best Original Song

What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish (Barbie)

Best Makeup and Hair Styling

Barbie

Best Visual Effects

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning

Best Art Direction and Set Design

Poor Things

Best Costume Design

Poor Things

Breakthrough of the Year:

Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)

Best Sound:

Oppenheimer

Scariest Horror

Scream VI

Funniest Comedy

Barbie

Best Needle Drop and Use of a Non-Original Song

"Murder On The Dance Floor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Saltburn)





Totals:

Oppenheimer - 9
Barbie - 4
Poor Things - 3
Saltburn - 2
Mission Impossible - 2
Many others - 1