Lists, 12/17.

Gabriel Shanks puts out the call for Top Tens to all Cinemarati and those who read them: "It's time to lay all of the cards on the table." And there are responses already, too.

And then there are the Los Angeles Times critics:

• Kenneth Turan: "This year, not one but two exceptional films, The Best of Youth from Italy's Marco Tullio Giordana and Duma from Carroll Ballard, suffered that excruciating fate, and it is to underline how infuriatingly destructive that state of affairs is that I've paired them at the top of my 10-best list."

• Carina Chocano: "I've upped the list of top films to an unlucky 13, left out and missed several excellent ones, and haven't attempted to rank them."

• Kevin Thomas tops his ten with Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin.

Three briefs follow as the LAT asks industry reps how things are going. John Horn checks in with Stephen Einhorn, president of New Line Home Video ("the trend is still upward"), Elaine Dutka with Universal vice chairman Marc Shmuger ("Things need to change") and Mary McNamara with screenwriter David Goyer ("we are seeing the death of film itself, which is not a bad thing").

In the New Statesman, David Thomson assesses what went wrong and what went right this year and then offers his suggested Oscar nominees in the five top categories. Why? "In many ways, it is in the power of the Academy to signal the change. If the Oscars were about honesty as much as judgement, we would have nominations that trumpet the arrival of independence." More in Variety on what makes a "Best Picture," via the Carpetbagger.

Except for the sluggish bits in the middle where that Hudson guy blathers on about Miranda July, Steve Rosen's overview of "The Year in (Film) Blogs" for indieWIRE is excellent, packing several vital angles into just a few hundred words. Commentary: Chuck Tryon.

Nick Davis scopes Oscar race.

NP Thompson: "14 moments that spoke to me in Forty Shades of Blue."

Best music DVDs? John Robinson in the Guardian.

Posted by dwhudson at December 17, 2005 3:54 PM