Ladies, Gentlemen, and Enbies, welcome to the 2023 Nerddy Awards.
In previous years, The Nerddy’s was specifically a film award, but this year, I’ve decided to instead pivot, to anything that was my favorite. This is a little less organized, but I’ll celebrate that which I believe deserves celebration.
Previous years’ Best Nerddy Picture winners include:
- 2017 – Logan
- 2018 – A Quiet Place
- 2019 – Avengers: Endgame
- 2020 – Palm Springs
- 2021 – Dune
- 2022 – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Favorite Movie
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is an unsurprising choice for many, as Nolan has an incredible track record of big budget, big scope films. I think Oppenheimer is the best Biopic I’ve ever seen. It is worth mentioning that I was able to see Oppenheimer not only in IMAX, but specifically in 70mm, in one of 19 possible theaters in the US. Not only that, but the theater’s 70mm projector was broken in a way that was too expensive for the theater to afford, and so Nolan PERSONALLY paid for the projector’s repairs, so we could see the movie in the way he intended. I was there at the midnight premiere, and the energy in that room was downright nuclear.
Other great movies of the year include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, Nimona, and Asteroid City.
Favorite Series
The Last of Us
I love zombies, in fact The Walking Dead was the show that first got me into nerdy fandoms back in 2010. Pedro Pascal is a treasure, and HBO, as always, invests a lot in their major projects, whether it’s writing, production, or casting.
Honorable mention to The Fall of the House of Usher. I’m not usually a horror guy, but this show was fascinating, especially since we watched the (average) movie Pain Hustlers the night before, so we understood how Big Pharma works.
Favorite Video Game
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This game was fantastic, and the only reason people aren’t talking about it is because Baldur’s Gate III. This might be surprising, but I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate III, because I don’t actually buy that many games throughout the year.
Favorite TtRPG Product
Flee, Mortals!
I’m a big fan of MCDM, and I have been since before MCDM was a company, and it was just Matt Colville’s Running the Game series on YouTube. Flee, Mortals! has given me a boost to 5e excitement as I started getting really tired of it. I think this book is the reason their MCDM RPG Crowdfunder campaign made $4.6million.
More Favorites!
Move to Nashville!
I haven’t talked about this much yet, but I will soon. I moved to Nashville, TN this last year, and it has turned out to be a great decision. I love being in this city, and I can’t wait to see the opportunities that I’ll find here.
Mainstream D&D
Dungeons & Dragons is breaking through to mainstream circles a lot lately. Whether that’s the previously mentioned Baldur’s Gate III game, the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie, or even the fact that USPS was selling D&D Stamps for the holiday season. The more we have regular folks have a passing curiosity in the Wizards of the Coast brand, the larger the TtRPG community will become, and fresh blood is always a net positive in a community.
This was a fun year, but now it’s time to see what 2024 will bring!
The Nerdd 