Lists and awards, 12/20.

"The Guardian First Film award became a titanic struggle between Control, Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic, and the eventual winner, Unrelated, directed by Joanna Hogg," reports Andrew Pulver. Earlier: A round of reviews in September.

"Blind Sunflowers, Jose Luis Cuerda's film adaptation of the Alberto Méndez novel, has received 15 nominations for the 23rd Goya Awards, the Academy of Arts and Cinematic Sciences of Spain announced this morning." Vitor Pinto for Cineuropa: "Spain's Oscar entry will also compete in the main categories - including Best Film, Director, Actor (Raúl Arévalo) and Actress (Maribel Verdú)." Earlier: James Van Maanen on the film's recent screenings in the Spanish Cinema Now series.

For the Independent, Charlotte Cripps and Kat Ekrami asks the likes of Danny Boyle, Gurinder Chadha, Ken Loach and many others to talk a bit about their favorite films of the year.

IFC's gathered all their lists in one big entry and, as it happens, both Matt Singer and Michael Atkinson have placed Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg in their #1 spot. Alison Willmore goes for Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale, "one of the few [films of this year] that felt truly electric, the dysfunctional family gathering chestnut filtered through an insanely cinematic prism, a far richer, larger-than-life Gallic one-upping of [Jonathan] Demme's uneven and staunchly naturalistic Rachel Getting Married."

Time Out London film critics each name three "Films of the Year," the "Best Film Without Distribution," the "Worst Film of the Year" and the "Reissue of the Year."

Ryan Gilbey looks back on 2008 and ahead to 2009 for the New Statesman.

Few will be surprised to find Synecdoche, New York in the #1 spot on Andrew Grant's list, but there may be a surprise or two in the remaining nine.

Another #1er for Synecdoche: MSNBC's Alonso Duralde.

Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light tops M Leary's ten.

Jürgen Fauth puts Steven Soderbergh's Che at the top of his list.

Anne Thompson's #1: Andrew Stanton's WALL•E.

Roger Ebert lists the "year's best foreign films (I hope they play in your state)."

The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan: "[W]hile slots two to 10 will be listed alphabetically, I'm going to depart from my usual practice and name a clear No. 1 film: Danny Boyle's exhilarating Slumdog Millionaire."

Added to the Awards Scoreboard at Movie City News: the Las Vegas Film Critics (Frost/Nixon) and the Florida Film Critics (Slumdog Millionaire).

The Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu and Tim Robey put Kung Fu Panda at the top of their list: "It's this year's Ratatouille." Also: best performances, best lines, ten casting catastrophes and the ten worst films of the year. In that category, the London Times goes a little overboard, listing the "100 Worst Movies of 2008."

The Evening Standard rounds up the "Best DVDs of 2008."

The latest quiz at the Guardian: "Have you been paying attention to the world of film in 2008?"

Jim Emerson lists the "Dogs of the Year." No, seriously - actual canines. With pix.

Thom Powers, programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Stranger Than Fiction series: "In an effort to add some variety to the deluge of 'best film' lists, I've approached the exercise a bit differently. In chronological order, here are my favorite personal documentary memories from the year..."

Andy Horbal keeps "a copy of the '100 Greatest Films I've Never Seen' handy for those times when I don't know what I want to watch." And he shows us his "current Top 10."

Ed Howard lists the "best films of the 1980s."

Movie Morlock Richard Harland Smith presents "12 movies to get you through the Holidays!"

Blake Ethridge looks back on a year of wallpapering our desktops.

"Nearly every movie with dreams of Oscar has a publicist - or several publicists - making its case not to audiences, but to the 6000-plus members of the Academy, as well as various guilds, and anybody else who hands out prizes in the Hollywood awards firmament. Sure, every movie studio has publicists, but these independent awards publicists are specifically brought in to turn celluloid into gold." Dan Kois reports in the Washington Post on what it is they do, exactly. Via MCN.

Online scrolling tip. The Big Picture's "2008, the year in photographs (part 3 of 3). Earlier: parts 1 and 2.

Online listening tip. Nathan Lee: "For the second part of my critics roundtable with Melissa Anderson, film editor of Time Out New York, and AO Scott, film critic of the New York Times, we start with a discussion of Momma's Man, Azazel Jacobs' touching micro-indie about a young man caught up in the mysterious gravity of his parent's life and legacy." Earlier: Part 1.

Online viewing tip. David Carr talks with the New York Times' Manohla Dargis and AO Scott about how much or how little influence on the Oscar race they might have.

Posted by dwhudson at December 20, 2008 2:55 PM