AFI Winners
For those of you who don't know, I spend two months before the Academy Awards air discussing the year in film - not only those movies that I personally enjoyed or thought particularly special, but also those movies set to win big. Ultimately, the film that AMPAS awards as Best Picture probably isn't the finest movie of the year and all in all, the Oscars don't mean anything. But winning an Academy Award remains the single greatest achievement in cinema. And people care - people with no stake whatsoever in who wins or who gets snubbed. When Brokeback Mountain's chances for Best Pic came Crashing down (you have no idea how many times that pun was used) last year, people were legitimately upset. I mean, it was certainly an unprecedented move, but was it really a big deal? In hindsight, no. But people still cared and it was still important to the landscape of cinema in 2005.
So I'll talk Oscars and, more often, about the precursors. Not a lot, but I'll definitely mention things here and there, starting, well, now.
The American Film Institute named their top ten films of the year this morning:
AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR-OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Babel
Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Inside Man
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
United 93
The only glaring omission is The Departed, but this doesn't really hurt that film's chances of being nominated, just as the NBR's Dreamgirls snub won't hunder that film.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association will announce today, as well, with New York and Boston following tomorrow.
EDIT: The New York Online Critics have voted and the Boston winners have been announced.
The Queen Takes NYFCO Top Award
The Departed Sweeps Boston Film Critics
So I'll talk Oscars and, more often, about the precursors. Not a lot, but I'll definitely mention things here and there, starting, well, now.
The American Film Institute named their top ten films of the year this morning:
AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR-OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Babel
Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Inside Man
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
United 93
The only glaring omission is The Departed, but this doesn't really hurt that film's chances of being nominated, just as the NBR's Dreamgirls snub won't hunder that film.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association will announce today, as well, with New York and Boston following tomorrow.
EDIT: The New York Online Critics have voted and the Boston winners have been announced.
The Queen Takes NYFCO Top Award
The Departed Sweeps Boston Film Critics