Filmmaker Year in Review.

The other day I noted that Peter Bowen was kicking off a series of reflections by Filmmaker editors and contributors. I should have recognized right off that this series would need its own entry.

Updated through 12/24.

Karina Longworth considers the exciting and terrifying developments in independent film that keep her up at night. David Lowery comments - within the context of an entry celebrating the availability of Frank V Ross's Hohokam on DVD.

James Ponsoldt's favorite film of the year is Milk and Noah Harlan wants us to remember Jake Mahaffy's Wellness.

Brandon Harris: "It's becoming clearer and clearer that most people making films with their investors hard earned dollars should start distributing and promoting the films of more gifted filmmakers and building communities everywhere (not just Manhattan and a small sliver of Brooklyn) in which sophisticated film appreciation is a given, not an oddity, instead of indulging their own narcissistic impulses to make their own pictures in order to build a truly sustainable (and diverse) film culture."

Updates: Howard Feinstein's favorites, "in no particular order: Alexandra; The Secret of the Grain; Silent Light; Times and Winds; and Still Life."

"Like many others, I do not think that the films released in 2008 can compare with the embarrassment of riches of 2007, but considering how exceptional last year was for cinema it seems a little unreasonable to complain too much," writes Nick Dawson. "And honestly, how could anyone find fault with a year when exceptional movies like Silent Light and Synecdoche, New York reminded us of the transformative power and almost limitless potential of cinema?"

Updates, 12/24: Alicia van Couvering throws down, Damon Smith lists ten and recalls "three indelible, goose-bump-raising sequences" and Brian Chirls invents a few new categories, e.g., "Best Foreign Film About Food That I Saw at a European Festival Of Which No One I Know In the States Has Ever Heard: Estômago."

Posted by dwhudson at December 23, 2008 1:46 PM