Today saw the UK & Ireland Horror Critics’ Group announce the winners of their inaugural Golden Claw Awards, and it was a big night for Jordan Peele’s Nope, which walked away with three trophies – for Best Direction, Best Looking, and Best Visual Effects. Nope also scored a second place finish in the coveted “Best Horror Film With a Cinema Release” category.
The winner of that prize was Zach Cregger’s huge crowd-pleaser Barbarian, which also picked up a Best Supporting Actor nod for Justin Long.
Other notable winners included two awards apiece for Hypochondriac (Best Film On The Festival Circuit, and Best Screenplay), and The Harbinger (Most Atmospheric Horror Film, and Scariest Horror Film).
Best Lead Performance went to Mia Goth for X (the sequel, Pearl, having not been released in the UK until 2023, and thus not eligable).
Best UK Or Irish Horror Film was an exact tie between Alex Garland’s Men and Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother.
Soho Horror Film Festival Festival director Mitch Harrod picked up two awards, one for best UK or Irish Film Festival and also the DIE DIE DIE award which is award by a jury for outstanding contribution to Diversity Inclusion and Equity.
The UK & Ireland Horror Critics’ Group was launched in 2022 by Andrew Pope of this site, WhitlockAndPope.com, Zoe Rose Smith of Ghouls Magazine, and Tim Coleman of Moving Pictures Film Club.
Speaking after the Awards were announced, UK & Ireland Horror Critics’ Group co-chair Andrew Pope said: “I know that people took their ballots incredibly seriously, with their passion really shining through. So many arguments! This is an exciting time for horror movies, and that showed in all the nominees – and all those wonderful horror films that almost but didn’t quite get nominated. But when the smoke cleared, we could see the winners were truly deserving of a coveted Golden Claw.
The UK & Ireland Horror Critics Group is committed to celebrating the UK and Irish horror scene, so I’m particularly proud to see the strength in that category – and the fact that this award was a dead heat means that we’re able to celebrate not one but two films in Men and You Are Not My Mother! One British and one Irish – we couldn’t have wished for a better outcome to kick off The Golden Claws.
I’m also delighted that the Group’s Committee chose Mitch Harrod as the recipient of the inaugural DIE DIE DIE award for championing Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity in horror – Mitch’s work in building up the Soho Horror Film Festival has provided the UK with a beacon of light in what’s sometimes a dark world, and when he parlayed that into launching its virtual cousin, the Sohome Horror Fest, during lockdown he provided a much-needed lifeline to those of us trapped indoors who needed to feel connected to the horror film community. Sohome Horror Fest is now the world’s largest online LGBTQ+ horror film celebration, and has a well-deserved reputation for championing the kinds of offbeat, foreign-language, transgressive or queer stories that other festivals aren’t sure how to handle. Mitch is truly a leader in the horror film festival scene.”
Tim says: “”It’s such an honour to be involved in the Golden Claw Awards. Right now we’re living through an incredible time for horror cinema, so it’s wonderful being able to celebrate the incredible films being made in a genre which means so much to us all””
Zoe says: “I’m incredibly excited about the Golden Claw Awards because there is just so much phenomenal horror out there right now.”
The announcement video is below, and you can scroll down for the full list of awards!
The full list of categories, nominees, runners up and winners in the Golden Claw Awards 2023
Best Film (UK or Ireland Cinema Release)
Winner: Barbarian
Runner Up: Nope
Also nominated: Bodies Bodies Bodies, Bones and All, X
Best Film (Streaming Release)
Winner: Deadstream
Runner Up: We’re All Going To The World’s Fair
Also nominated: Dashcam, Mad God, Sissy, The Leech
Best Film (On the Festival Circuit)
Winner: Hypochondriac
Runner Up: The Harbinger
Also nominated: Huesera: The Bone Woman, New Religion, Next Exit
Best Film (Not in the English Language)
Winner: Piggy
Runner Up: The Innocents
Also nominated: Huesera: The Bone Woman, Incantation, New Religion
Best UK or Irish Horror Film
Joint Winner: Men
Joint Winner: You Are Not My Mother
Also nominated: A Banquet, All My Friends Hate Me, Lola
Best Documentary
Winner: Queer for Fear
Runner Up: The Found Footage Phenomenon
Also nominated: A Life on The Farm, Living with Chucky, Orchestrator of Storms
Best TV Show
Winner: Yellowjackets
Runner Up: Stranger Things
Also nominated: All of Us Are Dead, Archive 81, Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, What We Do In The Shadows
Best Lead Performance
Winner: Mia Goth – X
Runner Up: Amber Midthunder – Prey
Also nominated: Anna Cobb – We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, Georgina Campbell – Barbarian, Graham Skipper – The Leech, Keke Palmer – Nope, Laura Gálan – Piggy, Rahul Kohli – Next Exit, Taylor Russell – Bones and All, Zack Villa – Hypochondriac
Best Supporting Performance
Winner: Justin Long – Barbarian
Runner Up: Rachel Sennott – Bodies Bodies Bodies
Also nominated: Nicholas Hoult – The Menu, Rory Kinnear – Men, Bill Skarsgard – Barbarian, Brittany Snow – X, Kristen Stewart – Crimes of the Future, Melanie Stone – Deadstream & V/H/S/99, Mark Rylance – Bones and All, Steven Yeun – Nope
Best Direction
Winner: Jordan Peele – Nope
Runner Up: Zach Cregger – Barbarian
Also nominated: Kate Dolan – You Are Not My Mother, Keishi Kondo – New Religion, Ti West – X
Best Screenplay
Winner: Addison Heimann – Hypochondriac
Runner Up: Zach Cregger – Barbarian
Also nominated: Travis Stevens & Nathan Faudree – A Wounded Fawn, Kristen Roupenian & Sarah DeLappe – Bodies Bodies Bodies, Jordan Peele – Nope
Best Looking Film (Cinematography, production design, costumes, hair, makeup, lighting, etc.)
Winner: Nope
Runner Up: Mad God
Also nominated: Bones and All, Prey, X
Best Visual Effects
Winner: Nope
Runner Up: Fall
Also nominated: Deadstream, V/H/S/99, X
Best Score or Soundtrack
Winner: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Bones and All
Runner Up: VAAAL – A Wounded Fawn
Also nominated: Michael Abels – Nope, Sebastain Gainsborough & Robin Carolan – The Northman, Rich Vreeland – Bodies Bodies Bodies
Most Atmospheric Horror Film
Winner: The Harbinger
Runner Up: Barbarian
Also nominated: Crimes of the Future, Nope, X
Scariest Film
Winner: The Harbinger
Runner Up: Barbarian
Also nominated: Dashcam, Fall, You Are Not My Mother
Best Kill (exact details redacted due to SPOILERS!)
John Leguizamo in Violent Night
Pete Davidson in Bodies Bodies Bodies
Also nominated: Justin Long in Barbarian, Steven Yeun and his cohort in Nope, and the nice couple in Speak No Evil
Breakthrough Star
Winner: Jenna Ortega
Runner Up: Amber Midthunder
Also nominated: Eric Pennycoff, Taylor Russell, Joseph & Vanessa Winter
Best UK & Ireland Horror Festival
Winner: Soho Horror Film Festival
Runner Up: Frightfest
Also nominated: Celluloid Screams, Grimmfest, Mayhem
Best Media Outlet
Winner: The Evolution of Horror
Runner Up: Ghouls Magazine
Also nominated: Fishnets and Philosophy, The Final Girls, What a Scream
DIE DIE DIE award – for Championing Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity in Horror.
Awarded by decision of the UK & Ireland Horror Critics Group committee.
Winner: Mitch Harrod – Soho Horror Film Festival and Sohome Horror Fest
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