The Dublin Film Critics Circle has announced the winners of its poll for the best of 2022.
For the first time in the body’s 14-year history an Irish title has taken best film. Colm Bairéad’s An Cailín Ciúin(The Quiet Girl), praised throughout the world, edged ahead of Charlotte Wells’s memory piece Aftersun and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once to secure the top prize.
Premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, An Cailín Ciúin, adapted from Claire Keegan’s story ‘Foster’, has taken over €1 million at the Irish and UK box office — an unprecedented amount for an Irish-language title — and has been selected as the Irish submission for the Best International Feature at the Oscars®.
Confirming a welcome cultural shift, Róise & Frank, another title in the native language, was runner-up in best Irish film. The other films registering in that top five were Kathryn Ferguson’s Nothing Compares, a study of Sinead O’Connor; Pat Collins’s The Dance, a documentary on work by the choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, and Antonia Campbell-Hughes’s It Is in Us All, a psychological drama from Antonia Campbell-Hughes.
Aftersun figured well in the poll. Wells won best director for debut feature and Paul Mescal, who stars as a troubled man holidaying with his daughter in Turkey, came fourth in best actor. That film has been praised critics since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, likely to be a big Oscar player, did not go unrewarded. The Circle named Colin Farrell as best actor and the film took best screenplay ahead of Everything Everywhere All at Once and Aftersun.
Top Gun: Maverick, by far the highest grossing film of the year, was honoured with best cinematography.
Breakthrough awards went to Amber Midthunder, star of the action film Prey, and, in the Irish category, Alisha Weir, juvenile lead in Matilda The Musical.
Formed in 2006, the Dublin Film Critics Circle, whose president is Tara Brady of The Irish Times, invites professional critics in the city to vote on their favourite films and professional contributions each year. Previous winners of best film have included Gravity, Portrait of a Lady on Fire and I, Daniel Blake.
BEST FILM
1. An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl
2. Aftersun
3. Everything Everywhere All At Once
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
5. Living
6. Elvis
7. RRR
8. Happening
9. Vortex
10. Parallel Mothers
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)
2. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)
3. Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
4. Colm Bairéad (An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl)
5. Robert Eggers (The Northman)
6. Oliver Hermanus (Living)
7. SS Rajamouli (RRR)
8. Park Chan-Wook (Decision to Leave)
9. Gaspar Noé (Vortex)
10. Luca Guadagnino (Bones and All)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Nothing Compares
3. Lyra
4. Kurt Vonnegut
5. Futura
6. Cow
7. Fire of Love
8. Million Dollar Pigeons
9. The Territory
10. North Circular
BEST ACTOR
1. Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)
2. Bill Nighy (Living)
3. Austin Butler (Elvis)
4. Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
5. Udo Kier (Swan Song)
BEST ACTRESS
1. Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
2. Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
3. Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)
4. Tang Wei (Decision to Leave)
5. Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening)
BEST SCREENPLAY
1. Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
2. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
3. Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)
4. Park Chan-Wook (Decision to Leave)
5. Jordan Peele (Nope)
6. Mariano Cohn, Andrés Duprat, Gastón Duprat (Official Competition)
7. Gaspar Noé (Vortex)
8. Terence Davies (Benediction)
9. Rian Johnson (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery)
10. Ian Stokell, Lesley Paterson, Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. Claudio Miranda (Top Gun: Maverick)
2. Ben Davis (The Banshees of Inisherin)
3. Hoyte van Hoytema (Nope)
4. Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
5. Kate McCullough (An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl)
6. K.K Senthil Kumar (RRR)
7. Jarin Blaschke (The Northman)
8. Benoît Debie (Vortex)
9. Jamie D Ramsay (Living)
10. Mitja Licen (Small Body)
BEST IRISH FILM
1. An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl
2. Róise and Frank
3. Nothing Compares
4. The Dance
5. It Is In Us All
BREAKTHROUGH, INTERNATIONAL
Amber Midthunder, Prey
IRISH BREAKTHROUGH
Alisha Weir, Matilda The Musical