I'd be sort of sad if I had to start my annual year-end film detrius thread here.

is that the Oklahoma! Critics Circle?

1 United 93 (Paul Greengrass) The best movie in the last five years. No cheap shots in this one! I have friends who would watch a snuff film, yet they refuse to see this great action picture—I don’t get why.

2 Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine) Playing on more than three thousand screens, Jackass 2 was the number-one-grossing movie in America on its opening weekend—and the male stars eat shit and drink horse semen for real. They’re nude a lot, too. If this isn’t cultural terrorism, I don’t know what is.

3 The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald) Forest Whitaker tops the performance of Joseph Olita in 1981’s Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, one of my all-time favorite trash masterpieces.

4 Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell) When was the last time the star of a film rimmed someone, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and walked away with his dignity? A touching, lovely movie that I hope gets turned into a Broadway musical.

5 The Departed (Martin Scorsese) The best-acted film of the year from America’s coolest director. The final shot is beyond perfection.

6 Sherrybaby (Laurie Collyer) Maggie Gyllenhaal plays an ex-convict drug addict (the kind I see in Baltimore every day), and the film is so depressing and great that I wish I could see it with an all-female prison audience.

7 Inside Man (Spike Lee) Handsome bank-robbing outfits—so chic, so scary, so fashionably conformist.

8 Sleeping Dogs Lie (Bobcat Goldthwait) A feminist tale of a girl who once blew her dog and mistakenly tells her boyfriend. Now there’s a high-concept romantic comedy.

9 Hamilton (Matthew Porterfield) A tiny, minimalist art film from Baltimore that made it to New York and is astonishing in its simple beauty, amazing performances, and hypnotic pace. The real thing.

10 Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola) Sofia Coppola is Karen Kilimnik!

No shit. Jesus is that list depressing.

In any case, it's the worst year ever for me going to cinema from America or anywhere else.

I don't think it's all that shocking when US distributors seem to be taking fewer and fewer chances (or ones that do are folding). Tsai ming-Liang has completed two since Goodbye Dragon Inn that haven't been distrib'd.

Foreign detrius films are crowd-pleasers; even if I liked Volver OK, I'd likely put Kekexili (Mountain Patrol), Battle in Heaven, 4, Fratricide plus maybe Changing Times ahead of it.

Doesn't The Science of Sleep count as foreign?

L.A. FILM CRITICS
Picture: "Letters From Iwo Jima"
Runner-up: "The Queen"

Director: Paul Greengrass, "United 93"
Runner-up: Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat" and Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland" (tie) (no runner-up)

Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Runner-up: Penelope Cruz, "Volver"

Supporting actor: Michael Sheen, "The Queen"
Runner-up: Sergi Lopez, "Pan's Labyrinth"

Supporting actress: Luminita Gheorghiu, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu"
Runner-up: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"

Screenplay: Peter Morgan, "The Queen"
Runner-up: Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, "Children of Men"
Runner-up: Tom Stern, "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Production design: Eugenio Caballero, "Pan's Labyrinth"
Runner-up: Jim Clay and Geoffrey Kirkland, "Children of Men"

Music: Alexandre Desplat, "The Queen" and "The Painted Veil"
Runner-up: Thomas Newman, "The Good German" and "Little Children"

Foreign-language film: "The Lives of Others"
Runner-up: "Volver"

Documentary/non-fiction film: "An Inconvenient Truth"
Runner-up: "Darwin's Nightmare"

Animation: "Happy Feet"
Runner-up: "Cars"

Douglas Edwards experimental/independent film/video award: "Old Joy" (Kelly Reichardt) and "In Between Days" (So Yong Kim)

New generation award: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (directors) and Michael Arndt (screenwriter), "Little Miss Sunshine"

Career achievement award (previously announced): Robert Mulligan

----------

BOSTON FILM CRITICS
Best Picture: The Departed (ru: United 93)
Best Director: Martin Scorsese (ru: Paul Greengrass)
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (ru: Ryan Gosling)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren (ru: Judi Dench)
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (ru: Michael Sheen, Alec Baldwin)
Best Supporting Actress: Shareeka Epps (ru: Meryl Streep)
Best Ensemble Cast: United 93 (ru: The Departed)
Best Screenplay: The Departed (ru: The Queen)
Best Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth (ru: Volver)
Best Documentary: Deliver Us from Evil, Shut Up & Sing (ru: 51 Birch Street)
Best New Filmaker: Ryan Fleck (ru: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
Best Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth (ru: The Painted Veil, Curse of the Golden Flower)

Idi Amin and Borat tying in LA is about the level of 'seriousness' present in the whole exercise.

Douglas Edwards experimental/independent film/video award: "Old Joy" (Kelly Reichardt) and "In Between Days" (So Yong Kim)

^the Ghettoizing Actual Art award?^

http://www.nyfcc.com/awards.php

The only reason I'm prejudiced against Haley winning is because it's a mediocre performance in a baity role in a worthless movie.

Condon > Haggis (yeah, I meant you wdn't be expecting much from him)

btw here is the shortlist of 15 Oscar Documentary Features:

“Blindsight”
“Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?”
“Deliver Us from Evil”
“The Ground Truth”
“An Inconvenient Truth”
“Iraq in Fragments”
“Jesus Camp”
“Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple”
“My Country, My Country”
“Shut Up & Sing”
“Sisters in Law”
“Storm of Emotions”
“The Trials of Darryl Hunt”
“An Unreasonable Man”
“The War Tapes”

and the 56 for Best Song (I guess Keillor's "Bad Jokes" is not original to the movie, and this will be Borat's sole nom, maybe):

“Believe It” from “The Heart of the Game”
“The Best” from “Everyone’s Hero”
“The Book I Write” from “Stranger than Fiction”
“Broken Bridges” from “Broken Bridges”
“Chan Chan” from “Water”
“Circle in the Sand” from “Friends with Money”
“Coming Back to You” from “Deja Vu”
“Definition of Love” from “Akeelah and the Bee”
“Dreamz with a Z” from “American Dreamz”
“Encarnacion” from “Nacho Libre”
“Every Word” from “Wordplay”
“Family of Me” from “Over the Hedge”
“A Father’s Way” from “The Pursuit of Happyness”
“The Girl in Byakkoya - White Tiger Field” from “Paprika”
“Heist” from “Over the Hedge”
“Hillbilly Holla” from “Barnyard”
“Hollywood Familia” from “Hollywood Familia”
“I Belong” from “Open Season”
“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”
“In Rosa Vernat Lilium” from “The Nativity Story”
“It’s a Fight” from “Rocky Balboa”
“Ju Hua Tai” from “Curse of the Golden Flower”
“Keep Holding On” from “Eragon”
“Khalbali” from “Rang de Basanti”
“Kingdom of Love” from “One Night with the King”
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”
“A Lonely Man” from “Don’t Come Knocking”
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”
“Luka Chuppi” from “Rang de Basanti”
“The Motion” from “3 Needles”
“My Little Girl” from “Flicka”
“Never Gonna Break My Faith” from “Bobby”
“Never Let Go” from “The Guardian”
“O Kazakhstan” from “Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
“Open Your Heart” from “Saving Shiloh”
“Ordinary Miracle” from “Charlotte’s Web”
“Our Town” from “Cars”
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”
“Philosophy” from “Step Up”
“PJ & Rooster” from “Idlewild”
“Quest for Love” from “Arthur and the Invisibles”
“Real Gone” from “Cars”
“Really Nice Day” from “The Wild”
“Shine on ‘Em” from “Blood Diamond”
“The Song of the Heart” from “Happy Feet”
“Star Mile” from “The Last Kiss”
“Still” from “Over the Hedge”
“Suenos” from “Hollywood Familia”
“Sweet Music” from “Glory Road”
“Til the End of Time” from “Little Miss Sunshine”
“Tonight” from “Night at the Museum”
“Try Not to Remember” from “Home of the Brave”
“Upside Down” from “Curious George”
“When You Taught Me How to Dance” from “Miss Potter”
“Won’t Let You Fall” from “Poseidon”
“You Know My Name” from “Casino Royale”

Why is "PJ & Rooster" the only potential nominee from Idlewild?

(x-post) I can never figure that out. There are some weird bylaws (from the NYT, not the NYFCC) that prevent them from participating, but some years they do anyway.

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, THE QUEEN

Runners-up:

Judi Dench, NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Meryl Streep, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

jaymc, that is an Academy-winnowed song list, not one of all eligibles.

NYT writers don't vote for sports awards, either.

haha, I was just gonna say Reed & Edelstein must be having a Mirren-Dench hairpull to settle that one.