December 16, 2008

Lists and awards, 12/16.

Frontier of Dawn One of a handful of critics polls that really matter is indieWIRE's, and this year the ballots are being published as they come in. Karina Longworth presents an annotated, slightly expanded version of her list of the "Best Undistributed Films of 2008" at the SpoutBlog. Her favorite of the bunch: Philippe Garrel's Frontier of Dawn.

"For those unfamiliar with the Skandies, my annual survey o' cinema, now in its (gack) 14th year, you can find the procedural-historical lowdown here, the 2007 results here, and results for previous years about 2/3 of the way down my main page." Mike D'Angelo: "Here, then, are the group's estimation of the best films that premiered during 2006 but failed to secure New York distribution (and hence eligibility for the Skandies proper, which has a two-year window) by the end of 2008."

Added to the Movie City News Awards Scoreboard since yesterday alone: the San Francisco Film Critics go for Milk and Gus Van Sant, the San Diego Film Critics for Slumdog Millionaire and Danny Boyle. The Southeastern Film Critics Association picks Milk, followed by Slumdog; the St Louis Film Critics pick The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Phoenix Film Critics? Slumdog.

The Austin Chronicle's Kimberley Jones has the Austin Film Critics Association's list. They like Christopher Nolan and The Dark Knight.

At Daily Plastic, Robert Davis considers James Quandt's top ten: "In short, his list - whether he intends it to or not - fights the year-end canon, the list of films anointed by an amalgam of year-end lists to achieve a brief and (we often discover later) unwarranted degree of attention."

"The Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG) announces Canada's Top Ten feature and short films for 2008."

At Bright Lights After Dark, Erich Kuersten names his "Top Ten (Male) Performances of 2008."

The Happening The AV Club picks the "worst films of 2008." The Happening, by the way, only scored the #2 spot. Their #1 is simply too horrible to contemplate.

Kurt Halfyard lists "Five Character Actors to Celebrate" at Twitch.

The Movie Banter lists "the top movies about making movies."

Tom Tomorrow offers a "wholly subjective and thoroughly incomplete look back at the year that was" in This Modern World.

Slate editors and contributors pick the "best books of 2008."

At Regret the Error, via Jason Kottke: "Crunks 2008: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections."

Online viewing tip. David Carr muses on the Oscar race, Best Picture category. The minute and a half features a surprise guest.



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Posted by dwhudson at December 16, 2008 3:04 PM

Comments

D'Angelo is on target with "Taxidermia" as his #1. To echo Hoberman on "Eraserhead," I'd love to drop a reel of that into a suburban multiplex screening of "Four Christmases." But which reel? The vomiting? The auto-taxidermy? The bestial sex? It's a garden of earthly delights!

Posted by: Steve Dollar at December 16, 2008 4:00 PM

indiewire critics' poll is certainly one of the best ways to catch up on films that aren't getting much attention in other year-end retrospectives.

For instance, i probably would have missed "Before I Forget" if i didn't see it place highly on Dennis Lim's and Nathan Lee's top 10s.

After looking though the lists that indiewire has already published, it seems like the cinematography category has been omitted. I always liked to see those results, because they often provided a nice counter-point against "post-card" and helicopter landscape cinematography that will get attention at the oscars.

Posted by: Brian at December 17, 2008 7:16 AM

Phoenix Film Critics?

I live in Phoenix and I'm just as puzzled as you by this. The only thing I can think of is that someone accidentally pluralized it.

Posted by: Paul Iannone at December 17, 2008 7:30 PM