Lists and awards, 12/22.

"The 'Cyber-Horror Elite' Have Spoken." Again. Following last month's poll of "32 cyber-horror notables," leading to a list of the "Top 50 Horror Films of All Time!," the Vault of Horror has conducted another: the "Top 25 Horror Films of the Modern Era!," which is to say, since 1990. Via Scott Weinberg, who presents his own ballot of 30 at Cinematical. #1 at the Vault: The Descent. Scott's #1: Let the Right One In.

"Most of the films I found most resonant speak to our times by avoiding the subject." Peter Bowen is the first in a series of Filmmaker editors and contributors to post a list.

"That Was the Year That Was" as it was for Kathy Fennessy at the Siffblog: the Tops, Runners-Up, Top Documentaries and Top DVDs.

DVD Savant, whose "interest is purely from the disc collector's point of view," picks the "Most Impressive Discs of 2008." His #1: Criterion's release of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr. Earlier: a July roundup.

Ambrose Heron lists the "Best DVDs of 2008" chronologically, as they were released in the UK.

There's a tie at the top of Paul Matwychuk's "list of the 10 best (plus six runners-up)": Happy-Go-Lucky and Synecdoche, New York.

For Tribune, Neil Young lines up a UK top ten and then adds notes on best performances, the under- and overrated, a handful of worsts and "special mentions for the year's best Film Festival Premieres: a trio of masterpieces which delighted audiences at Bradford (programmed by yours truly), Edinburgh and London respectively. Ron Lamothe's The Call of the Wild and Jeon Soo-il's With A Girl of Black Soil remain, depressingly, in distribution-limbo - but Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, one of the top half-dozen movies of the decade, is set for UK release in mid-January."

The list of "1000 Greatest Films" at They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? "has undergone its annual upgrade. It is now based on 1,825 critics/reviewers' and filmmakers' top-10 lists, culled from many sources. Additionally, we have also factored in over 900 magazine polls, film institute polls, and many other polls of interest. The net effect of all our fine-tuning over the last twelve months is that a total of 96 films have debuted or re-entered our list and, of course, 96 films have dropped out."

Michael Z Newman lists his faves - tunes, imagery, what have you: "And the short version of what follows is: my favorite thing of '07, Mad Men, is also my favorite thing of '08." But like Girish, you'll want to read the long version. Earlier: a July roundup.

"You might reasonably assume from the outside, or even from the inside, that an article about the state of independent film in 2008 is going to be a tale of gloom and woe." But what Salon's Andrew O'Hehir discovers as he talks to Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, Dennis Doros, co-founder of Milestone Films, Marcus Hu, president of Strand Releasing, among others, is that business has actually been pretty good. "If anything, the apparent collapse of the mid-level Indiewood sector has opened up the marketplace for smaller, leaner, cinephile-oriented distributors like Strand, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2009."

You'll remember that AJ Schnack has been interviewing the filmmakers behind some the year's most notable documentaries. His most recent interviewees: Jeremiah Zagar (In a Dream) and Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze).

"The sad truth is that 'family movies' have become an anachronism thanks to the fracturing of the modern movie marketplace," writes Mark Kermode in the Observer, where he offers a list of remedies for our fractured times, a family films top ten.

The AV Club lists "42 holiday entertainments that don't make us want to claw our eyes out with rage."

Roger Ebert refries a slew of movies with some of his hottest pans.

Pitchfork takes a leisurely walk through the "50 Best Albums of 2008"; Matt Dentler picks his top 30.

Vince Keenan lists his "Favorite Novels of 2008."

An announcement from Andrew Sullivan: voting for the Daily Dish Awards begins now.

'Tis the season. No one's flush this year, but if the spirit grabs you, do keep Art Fag City in mind.

Online viewing tip. Mark Kermode's best of 2008. His #1: Terence Davies's Of Time and the City.

Posted by dwhudson at December 22, 2008 6:59 AM