IN A YEAR of great releases on the big screen, it was a tough call for the members of the Dublin Film Critics Circle to narrow down the best movies of the year.

But today they confirmed that they consider Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story the best film of 2019 in their 13th annual poll.

Its Netflix neighbour The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese, came a close second place and was yet another indication of how the streaming service has become a huge player in the film industry.

Marriage Story was a hit with the critics across a number of categories: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson were named best actor and best actress, and Baumbach took the prize for best screenplay.

Scorsese secured best director, however, in an uncontroversial decision.

Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite won at the Oscars this year, but its 1 January release date might have hampered it somewhat. It features seventh in the best film race, and eighth in the competition for best Irish film.

The film that topped the best Irish film list was Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman’s supernatural comedy Extra Ordinary, which starred Maeve Higgins.

The critics said there was “an impressively strong showing” for Olivia Wilde’s comedy Booksmart, which they described as being “ignored by other critics circles throughout the globe”. But the delightful and sharp comedy featured in the top-five of the best film, best director and best screenplay categories.

The DFCC awarded two breakthrough awards, one to Aisling Franciosci, the Irish actor who starred in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale. The second went to Kantemir Balagov, who was named best breakthrough director for his Russian film Beanpole.

The Dublin Film Critics Circle comprises full-time critics working within the capital and beyond, including at TheJournal.ie. In addition to its annual awards, it presents a range of prizes at the Dublin International Film Festival.

Best Film

1. Marriage Story
2. The Irishman
3. Pain and Glory
4. Joker
5. Booksmart
6. Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood
7. The Favourite
8. Hustlers/High Life
9. The Souvenir
10. Ash is Purest White/Monos

Best Director

1. Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
2. Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory
3. Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
4. Olivia Wilde, Booksmart
5. Todd Phillips, Joker
6. Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
7. Jordan Peele, Us
8. Claire Denis, High Life
9. Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers
10. Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood

Best Actor

1. Adam Driver, Marriage Story
2. Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
3. Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
4. Robert De Niro, The Irishman
5. Christian Bale, Vice
6. Taron Egerton, Rocketman
7. Brad Pitt, Ad Astra
8. Robert Pattinson, High Life/Stephan James, If Beale Street Could Talk
9. Steve Coogan, Stan and Ollie
10. Felix Maritaud, Savage

Best Actress

1. Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
2. Lupita Nyong’o, Us
3. Olivia Colman, The Favourite
4. Renee Zellweger, Judy
5. Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose
6. Florence Pugh, Midsommar
7. Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
8. Awkwafina, The Farewell
9. Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
10. Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Kindergarten Teacher

Best Screenplay

1. Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
2. Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman, Booksmart
3. Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood
4. Rian Johnson, Knives Out
5. Steven Zaillian, The Irishman
6. Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir
7. Lulu Wang, The Farewell
8. Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory
9. Jordan Peele, Us
10. Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers

Best Cinematography

1. Hoyte van Hoytema, Ad Astra
2. James Laxton, If Beale Street Could Talk
3. Lawrence Sher, Joker
4. Robert Richardson, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood
5. Pawel Pogorzelski, Midsommar
6. Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman
7. Robbie Ryan, Marriage Story
8. Robbie Ryan, The Favourite
9. Adam Newport-Berra, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
10. Jasper Wolf, Monos

Best Irish Film

1. Extra Ordinary
2. The Hole in the Ground
3. A Bump Along the Way
4. Ordinary Love
5. Gaza
6. Papi Chulo
7. The Dig
8. The Favourite
9. Greta
10. Float Like a Butterfly

Best Documentary

1. Apollo 11
2. Diego Maradona
3. Gaza
4. Minding the Gap
5. For Sama
6. Amazing Grace
7. An Engineer Imagines
8. Shooting the Mafia
9. The Man Who Wanted to Fly
10.  Land Without God

Breakthrough Performance 2019

Aisling Franciosci, The Nightingale

Breakthrough Director 2019

Kantemir Balagov, Beanpole