Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. See, too, The Notebook's 2nd Annual Writers Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2009, parts 1, 2 and 3.
Moving Image Source introduces one of the annual collections many of us look forward to most: "We invited our regular contributors and colleagues, as well as some of our favorite writers and artists, to select their moving-image moment or event of 2009 - anything from an entire movie or TV series to an individual scene or shot, from a retrospective or exhibition to a viral video or video game."
Back in November, I noted that Mike D'Angelo announced that he'd be tweeting his top films of the decade through to the end of 2009. True to his word, his countdown of his top 101 was complete before the stroke of midnight on Thursday, and now he's posted the entire list as it appeared via Twitter. These aren't reviews, of course, nor are they even capsules. While the limitations of statements made in 140 characters or less are obvious, the advantages are often surprising - in a very good way. His #1, by the way: Christopher Nolan's Memento.
Kevin B Lee tweeted his best of the decade, too (his #1: John Gianvito's The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein), while Michael Sicinski (#1: David Gatten's What the Water Said Nos. 4 - 6) and Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Assistant Curator Chris Stults (#1: Lewis Klahr's Daylight Moon) practically tossed a virtual baton back and forth throughout December as they listed the best of avant-garde cinema in the 00s.
Claire Twisselman's tweeted her top films of the year (Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds) and decade (Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood) and both lists are posted at Vinyl Is Heavy.
#1 film of 2009 for Steve Erickson, listing in Gay City News: The Limits of Control. "[Jim] Jarmusch's best film since Dead Man, it divided critics and didn't find much of an audience, but I suspect time will be kind to it."
Topping Michael J Anderson's 2009 list: Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective. And #1 on Lisa K Broad's list: James Gray's Two Lovers. Then, "The Year in Brief."
The Film Experience's decade in review is rolling along nicely.
"The silver lining to a decade that saw traditional critics in conventional media dwindle?" asks Adam Hartzell at SF360. "The explosion of socially networked citizen critics who've helped create a multidimensional, democratic dialogue about the movies. San Francisco, with its panoply of film festivals, has, not surprisingly, spawned a wealth of such web-based writers. We checked in with a few of these writers, some of whom call themselves bloggers, to get a snapshot of what '09 brought the web's way as the economy faltered, and the community tweeted."
From Michael Hawley: "2009 Favorite Bay Area Repertory/Revival Screenings."
After a quick run through 1999, Gareth Higgins looks back on the "Most Cinematic Experiences of the Year," that is, 2009.
Itself a favorite of many, Michael Z Newman's "Faves, 2009" list.
James van Maanen would rather avoid use of the word "best" and instead presents a list of "personal favorites out of what I've managed to see."
At Movie City News, Michael Wilmington's ten best of 2009. #1: Pete Docter's Up.
And it's Jason Reitman's Up in the Air for Robert Levin in the Critic's Notebook, where Matt Barone goes for Inglourious Basterds - which also tops the year for DVD Times, Brittan Claire, Just Another Film Buff and Peter Sobczynski at Hollywood Bitchslap (check the left-hand column for more ongoing countdowns).
Back in the Critic's Notebook, Sarah Manvel goes for Lone Scherfig's An Education for 2009 and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie for the decade; for Marco Duran, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is the film of the 00s.
"DVD Talk's Top 20 discs of 2009." #1: JJ Abrams's Star Trek.
From an interview with Gary Indiana. David Klein: "If we could stay with cinema for a minute, what would you characterize as recuperative, in the films that you've seen in the past year or so?" GI: "I can think of many obvious examples - although, for most consumers of images, they're not obvious, and probably the fact that they're not obvious to many people reflects how sophisticated the doctrinal system they reinforce really has become. I've seen, god, at least 20 films recently in which the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security are depicted as heavily staffed by charismatic figures (movie stars) who are superintelligent. There is invariably a lot of smooth interagency interface and cooperation, amazingly glitch-proof technological systems - importantly, all surveillance or weapons technology - deployed to catch the bad guys, kill the bad guys, remotely control pawn figures who emerge as protagonists of the underlying melodrama, whatever.... The brainless worship of militarism is absolutely standard in contemporary Hollywood film production. Yes, you get some dissonance. But it's not the generative dissonance that would stir up the population to revolt against this heavy tendency towards total control of consciousness, behavior, the imposition of a kind of conformity and obedience that Goebbels and Hitler could only dream about."
Viewing. Jim Emerson's "favorite movies of 2009: The movie."
More viewing. "It's been a long, fascinating year for DP/30," writes David Poland. "125 interviews. Over 200 interviewees. More than 60 hours of conversation." By the numbers: 1 through 25, 26 through 50, 51 through 75 and 76 through 100.
Updates, 1/4: "Over the last 3 years, Japan's become my beat," writes Nicholas Vroman, listing his "10 Best Japanese Films 2009" at Hot Splice. "I have to place Matsumoto Hitoshi's Symbol at the top of the list. From his roots in the groundbreaking manzai team (two person standup - imagine Abbott and Costello in Japanese) called Downtown, Matsumoto hit the big screen a few years ago with the strange and hilarious Dianipponjin (Big Man Japan). His followup goes over the top with a deconstruction of comedy that's part Kubrick, part Tashlin, completely original."
MS Smith recalls several of his favorite films of the year and then turns to the decade: "The New World is neither mere history nor romance, but, instead, great transcendentalist cinema. [Terrence] Malick is a philosopher and one of the most humanistic of directors; The New World thrives with the belief that the lives of individuals are existentially intertwined with patterns of history and culture, with nature and the environment, and with other larger forces, and individuals participate, perhaps unknowingly, in the operations of the world itself. This is an inherently, deeply spiritual film, meant to be internalized in much the same way that Malick's characters speak to us, from within themselves, through interior monologue."
"I'm resisting the impulse to pick a '10 Best' list for the last decade," writes Chuck Tryon. "So instead, I'll discuss an extended list of movies that had some significance for me and that may also say something about film culture in the last decade."
Lukas Foerster's "Best of 2009," #1: Hong Sang-soo's Like You Know It All. Best first run in Germany, #1: Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. The #1 film of the year for Filmdienst: Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. And tip's got more lists from more German critics.
Joseph Fahim for Al Jazeera: "This was the decade when Hollywood went dark; the decade that saw Romanian cinema become the toast of the festival circuits, when China and Thailand produced the most feted filmmakers of the new century, when Western European auteurs continued to push the envelope, when Israel put on a human face and when Palestinian cinema came of age."
"Call me a terminal grouch if you like, but at least amongst the films I saw, this was a weak and watery year of cinema-going indeed, with a few real gems shining out amidst the indifferent," writes Roderick Heath at Ferdy on Films. Nonetheless, he's got a list (#1: Michael Mann's Public Enemies) and another: "20 Most Awesome Films I Saw for the First Time in 2009 (Not Made or Released in 2009)."
Marcy Dermansky's #1 of 2009: Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox.
According to Dennis Grunes, the "greatest performance of the past decade: Jeanne Moreau, Plus tard (Amos Gitai, 2008)." And of course, there are nine more.
The critics at Filmcritic.com post their annotated 2009 lists.
PopMatters' Bill Gibron lists his films of the decade (his #1: David Lynch's Mulholland Drive) and 2009 (#1: Inglourious Basterds).
New York's David Edelstein posts "a list of the year's most excruciating films, the ones that weren't just bad but oxygen-depleting, dementia-inducing."
Harper's "Yearly Review."
This year's Movie Club at Slate is on. Dana Stevens has invited Roger Ebert, Dan Kois, Wesley Morris and Stephanie Zacharek to discuss the year and decade with her. One of the questions she raises: "Has it struck anyone else that two of the best lead performances of 2008 - Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart and Tilda Swinton in Julia - bear a sneaking similarity to each other?"
"DVDBeaver are proud to announce our voting results for DVD and Blu-ray of the Year - 2009," writes Gary Tooze. "We've done our best to assemble a formidable combination of knowledgeable cinephiles and digital-disc experts to help expose some of the best, and often clandestine, digital packages that surfaced in the last 12 months. As well as many of our astute ListServ members choices this year we are proud to include esteemed journalists Jonathan Rosenbaum, Daryl Chin, author Stuart Galbraith IV, webmasters Daniel Stuyck, Ross Willbanks, editor Mikkel Leffers Svendstrup plus the staff of Slant Magazine and many more." The DVD of 2009: Masters of Cinema's The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set (Fritz Lang, 1922-60). Blu-ray. Masters of Cinema again: Sunrise (FW Murnau, 1927).
At Twitch, Mitch Davis, head of International Programming at Montreal's Fantasia Festival, lists his 2009 favorites. His #1: Sion Sono's Love Exposure.
Updates, 1/5: "Reverse Shot's Best of 2009." Ten titles, each written up by a regular contributor. #1: Olivier Assayas's Summer Hours.
Tom Hall arrives at the end of his "Best Films of the Decade" countdown. #1: the work of Arnaud Desplechin. Since 2004's Kings and Queen, "Desplechin has released two more movies that have rocked me to my core; his intensely personal documentary L'Aimee and the brilliant A Christmas Tale. Kings and Queen was preceded in the decade by two more brilliant films, the incredibly misunderstood and under appreciated Esther Kahn and criminally unreleased Léo: Playing In the Company of Men. Taken as a whole, this body of work will remain for me the seminal work of this decade, the most important, pleasurable, meaningful movies I saw in the past ten years."
In the Critic's Notebook: Martin Tsai's best of 2009 (#1: György Pálfi's Taxidermia) and the decade (#1: Edward Yang's Yi Yi) and Alex Beattie's "Top Movies of 2009" in alphabetical order.
All week long, PopMatters will be posting lists of the best and worst of "Film, TV and DVD of 2009."
At Movie City News, Noah Forrest's #1 of the 00s is Spike Lee's 25th Hour.
"Awarding Excellence and Idiocy in Film for the Year 2009." David H Schleicher's #1: Joel and Ethan Coen's A Serious Man.
At GreenCine Daily, James van Maanen lists the best "Gay Films on DVD" in 2009.
From Glenn Kenny: "Best DVDs of 2009, Part One: Blu-ray discs," in alphabetical order, albeit divided into domestic and foreign releases.
"I'd give 2009 at the movies a B overall, and that ain't bad - it is, in fact, about as good as it gets." Stephen King tops his eclectic 2009 list for Entertainment Weekly with The Hurt Locker.
"As our final year and decade in review post, we asked some friends of Metro Classics to chime in with their own lists." Earlier: Their own lists for the decade (their #1: The New World). Plus, Sean's top ten of 2009 (#1: Inglourious Basterds), but: "More interesting, I think, is this list of the Top 20 movies I saw for the first time in 2009." #1 for Mike: The Limits of Control.
Updates, 1/6: As you've likely seen, Gabe Klinger has conducting a unique poll here in The Notebook: "Partly as a symbolic gesture, partly as a historical survey intended to study canonical shifts, I have initiated a counter-thrust to the deluge of commentary on the last decade by asking a coterie of friends and experts in the field to submit their ten (or more) best films from the years 1899-1909, and to include a figure of the decade." Today's is just the first round, too.
Film Salon: "Why did LOTR drop off the critical radar at decade's end?" asks Erik Nelson (director of the Harlan Ellison doc Dreams With Sharp Teeth and producer of Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World and Grizzly Man). "Methinks it's due to that perennial, fundamental disrespect of the fantasy and science fiction genre, the same reason 'sci-fi' literature was/is ghettoized and consigned to the bring-your-own-blacklight section of your local bookstore."
"I may have already known that I loved movies, but in the 2000s I gained a sharper sense of how to love them, what I really respond to in a film - and the 50 titles gathered here (along with many, many others) helped fine-tune that notion." Guy Lodge at In Contention on the 00s. His #1: Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!
"A French resurgence and an unprecedentedly strong showing by women directors helped make 2009 an exceptional year, says Jonathan Romney" - who introduces Sight & Sound's poll of its contributors. Lists galore.
"Filmwell's Favorite Scenes of 2009 - Part One."
Eric Kohn has been posting a terrific "series of blog posts collecting best of the decade lists from 'non-professional' film-lovers."
Jonathan Rosenbaum revisits his "Ten Best Lists" from the 1980s.
From Dinca, the journal of avant-garde film and art, "Favorite Films of 2009," parts 1 and 2.
Glenn Kenny's "Best DVDs of 2009, Part Two: Standard Definition discs."
At Bright Lights After Dark, Erich Kuersten presents a list of the "Best Classic DVDs of 2009."
Tim Lucas offers his "Thoughts on the Aughts."
Jim Emerson adds a "commentary track" to his "Favorite movies of 2009 movie." And via Jim, straight from the Drafthouse in Austin: "Alamo programmers' Top 10 of '09... plus Top 20 of the Decade!"
Craig Kennedy's #1 for 2009: Summer Hours.
A year of viewing from Bob Turnbull: movies released prior to 2009.
"Counting Down the Top Ten Posters of 2009," Gino Pagliuca at Ioncinema.
"Best soundtracks of the decade," from Brandon Kim at IFC.
"kottke.org's best links of 2009."
Updates, 1/7: "The Year and Decade in Film: Why go to movies?" Quite a package in the Independent Weekly.
Ray Pride's #1 for 2009: The Limits of Control. "This may not be your cup of cinema, but cinema it is, and it's dreamy. And if you love movies, it's aromatic, deep-dish as all get-out.... The form of the film, a series of repetitions with slight variations, comes closer to fine arts photography mixed with dance than most movies released in the US. The Lone Man could be a filmmaker surrogate, to push it farther: listening to the dreams of others, hoping to find a poetic thread to stitch them up."
And here's the annual "Better-Than List" from the New York Press' Armond White. You'll laugh, you'll... laugh.
For the past couple of weeks, Walter Chaw has been revisiting the decade at Film Freak Central. Now he wraps with a list, the "Best of the 00s." His #1: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York.
Updates, 1/8: Cahiers du Cinéma's top ten of the 00s; #1: Mulholland Drive.
"Last year was historic for Thai cinema, with the enactment of a ratings system that was supposed to replace the 80-year-old censorship regime of cutting, blurring and banning," writes Wise Kwai. "There are six ratings: P for films that are promoted as educational, G for general audiences, 13+, 15+ and 18+ age advisories (no ID check) and the 20+ restriction, with ID check mandatory. And there's a seventh hidden category - films that are banned for broad and vaguely stated reasons of having to do with 'national security.' And movies are still being censored, particularly if they have any content about politics, recent history or current events. Seems the Culture Ministry's minders aren't quite ready to grant freedom of expression to filmmakers or audiences. Nonetheless, there were still Thai films released in 2009 that were worth seeing. Here's nine of my favorites, and one that couldn't be seen." And that would be the documentary Agrarian Utopia: "Everything is beautiful through his unblinking high-definition digital camera lens, but director Uruphong Raksasad does not shy away from the hardships of rice farmers in rural northern Thailand."
#1 for the Chicago Reader's JR Jones: Summer Hours.
Joe Bowman presents "Something Resembling a 2009 Wrap-Up." #1: Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman.
Reverse Shot: "As usual, the most puerile, rancid films largely were not tepid genre flicks or bloat-budgeted blockbusters but prestige pictures with inflated senses of their own (nonexistent) importance and cynical, audience-baiting hits that commentators and mindless critics like to claim really 'tapped into the zeitgeist.' So, here it is, our annual 11 Offenses column."
"Filmwell's Favorite Scenes of 2009 - Part Two."
"After the impossible task of making a list limited to ten of the best films from the past decade, assembling a list of the best films to screen in Columbus during 2009 is a much simpler prospect." Three lists from the Film/Video curators at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Updates, 1/9: Selections from the January/February issue of Film Comment are up, including the decade list you've seen, albeit cut to 100, and a top 50 for 2009 (#1: The Hurt Locker). But it's the contributors' write-ups of the "Movies That Mattered in 2009: For Better or Worse" and "Terra Incognita: 19 unknown pleasures from around the world to look out for" that you may want to take a little more time with.
Acquarello lists her Favorite Films (in preferential order), Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order), Close Contenders and New Discoveries of 2009. #1: The White Ribbon.
Eric Dienstfrey at Filmbo's Chick Magnet: "Torrenting, Kino/Criterion/MoC/BFI/etc DVD labels, Netflix, college, five years of free time after college, and online cinephile communities all contributed to my growing interest in cinema during the 00s. I assume others my age were impacted by these events the same way, specifically in terms of which new films we chose to watch and whether or not we saw their merit. However, while the new found abilities to understand film history first hand might have been a boon on appreciating contemporary cinema, the above list also forces you to write any top ten list with humility as there are still hundreds of films from the decade I still need to see, or perhaps even re-evaluate."
Chad Hartigan's best of '09 at In Contention. #1: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Sugar.
Peter Keough posts the Boston Phoenix's "Last of the tens and fives."
Updates, 1/11: Not Coming to a Theater Near You's "Decade in Review." What a smart alignment of sharp design and choice reading.
Then there's our own Notebook's "Images of the Decade," with words to follow.
Updates, 1/12: "Reverse Shot's Two Cents of 2009." Sample categories: "Most Needless Backlash," "The Alfred Molina Award for Overacting" and so on.
Entertainment Weekly's "Best Movies of the Decade." For Owen Gleiberman, the #1 film is Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven; for Lisa Schwarzbaum, it's Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood.
"What does it say that three of the top five films on my list this year - and another that could easily have made the top ten, Coraline - are 'kid’s movies'?" asks the New Republic's Christopher Orr. "In the end not much, I think.... But if there is something the films have in common that seems to elude most 'grownup' pictures, it is the marriage of whimsy with deeper, darker elements: the palpable grief of Carl Fredricksen in Up, the loneliness and rage of Max in Where the Wild Things Are, the undercurrents of existential dissatisfaction in Fantastic Mr Fox. This knack for melding disparate elements, never easy, seems harder than ever for Hollywood to pull off." And his #1 is Up.
Kevyn Knox's #1 for 2009: Inglourious Basterds: "A bloody love letter to cinema, Quentin Tarantino's giddily pompous and purposefully inflammatory WWII exploitation film is the audacious auteur's best and greatest work of cinematic bravura yet."
Wise Kwai records his first podcast: the "Top 10 Thai Films of the 2000s."
"It likely comes as little surprise that Mulholland Dr. emerged the winner in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's inaugural survey of the decade in cinema. Call us provincial - David Lynch's psychoerotic noir is one of the essential LA movies - but the more significant reason for the film's enduring critical favor may be its deconstruction of the toxic allure of the Dream Factory." Individual ballots and full results at the site.
Nathaniel R's countdown of his favorite films of the decade has finally reached #1: Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!
Topping James Hansen's 2009 list: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Primitive Project.
From Chris MaGee, Kinema Junpo's Top 10 Films of 2009. #1: Miwa Nishikawa's Dear Doctor.
Topping Scott Marks's best 50 of the decade: John Boorman's The Tailor of Panama.
Updates, 1/13: Brian Darr's sent a request to 15 cinephiles: "I asked for lists of up to ten filmgoing experiences had in Frisco Bay cinemas during 2009 watching repertory/revival films. Some contributors followed my 'rules' to the letter, while other bent them according to their own predilections."
The second part of The Notebook's "Images of the Decade" feature is now up: Words.
"In the Mood for Love by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai topped the results of an international poll of the best Chinese-language films of the past decade, conducted by dGenerate Films. The poll included ballots from forty-seven filmmakers, critics, programmers and scholars from around the world. A total of 152 Chinese-language films were cited."
Bill Georgaris presents the fourth annual update to the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films list: "So what have we been up to since December 2008's edition? Well, to quote directly from last year's introduction, 'we've spent another baffling year sifting (sometimes aimlessly) through film polls and best-of film ballots, collating them, weighting them and, hey presto, here are the goddamn results.' The most significant highlight of this update has probably been the inclusion in this year's calculations of many best-of-decade lists for 2000-2009. This has seen a sharp rise in films from the 21st Century entering the 1,000 Greatest Films listing, which I know for a fact, will please many 1,000 Greatest Films followers. Who doesn't like a happy face? Of course, you can see a more comprehensive list of the 21st Century's most acclaimed films (to date) by going here."
Adam Batty completes his top ten of the decade countdown. His #1: There Will Be Blood.
"Out 1 Film Journal's Best Movies of the Decade." #1: Lars von Trier's Dogville.
Filmwell's "Favorite Scenes of 2009," part 3. And part 4.
Joe Mantegna lists his top ten Criterion releases.
Update, 1/15: "Vulture's Critics' Poll: What's the Worst Movie of 2009?"
Updates, 1/16: It's "The Auteurs Best of the Decade" extravaganza.
"The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time." #1: The Sopranos.
Update, 1/17: The Senses of Cinema 2009 World Poll. 87 lists, many with comments.
Update, 1/18: Here in The Notebook, Stephen Sarrazin from Tokyo on the Japanese films of the 00s.
Updates, 1/19: Wildgrounds has 00s top tens from Jia Zhangke, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Bong Joon-ho and Shinji Aoyama.
FIPRESCI Argentina has voted up lists of the best Argentine and best foreign films of 2009 - and the best Argentine films of the decade.
AWARDS
Via Movie City News, the Irish Times (which, sadly, has just lost film correspondent Michael Dwyer, who wrote for the paper for over 20 years) on the Dublin Film Critics Circle poll: Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In and There Will Be Blood - this writer's pick in both the relevant races - triumphed as, respectively, best film of 2009 and best film of the decade. Indeed, the two pictures were miles ahead of the competition in both cases."
Anne Thompson notes that this'll be a busy week for awards, particularly once the guilds start chiming in.
"The Hurt Locker swept the awards bestowed today by the National Society of Film Critics during its voting conclave held at Sardi's restaurant in New York," reports the Los Angeles Times. "The Iraqi war drama won best picture, director (Kathryn Bigelow) and actor (Jeremy Renner as a daredevil US soldier who disarms bombs)." Tom O'Neil (Los Angeles Times) and Michael Wilmington (Movie City News) break down the votes - and the process.
Update, 1/4: Usual suspects Up, Up in the Air, Kathryn Bigelow, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz are the Kansas City Film Critics Circle's choices for best of 2009," reports Anna Robinson at the Alternative Film Guide.
Update, 1/5: The sci-fi smashes Avatar, Star Trek and District 9 are among nominees for top film honors from the Producers Guild of America," reports the AP. "The group representing Hollywood producers also handed best-picture nominations to the animated blockbuster Up, the World War II hit Inglourious Basterds and the critical favorites The Hurt Locker, Precious, Up in the Air, An Education and Invictus."
Updates, 1/6: "The Hurt Locker, the intense war drama about explosives experts in Iraq, took top honors in the 13th annual Online Film Critics Society Awards, winning Best Picture against fellow nominees Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air."
"For the first time, I participated in the annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards." And Anne Thompson has the full list of nominees.
Updates, 1/7: The Directors Guild of America has announced its "Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for the year 2009." And they are Kathryn Bigelow, James Camerson, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.
David Poland on the longlist for the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2010, and nominations for the Film Not in the English Language Category: "Avatar short-listed in every possible category, except acting, for 11 nominations. An Education leads all nominees with 17, including 3 Supporting Actress nods. Inglourious Basterds gets 14, including 4 for acting, inc. Pitt. The Hurt Locker gets 11 short-list nods. Up in the Air with 9. The Lovely Bones gets 11, but no Picture or Director slots. Precious lands 7, including Mariah Carey. Nine gets 6, no Picture, Director, Screenplay."
Turn to the Alternative Film Guide for the winners of the People's Choice Awards.
Updates, 1/9: "Daniel Monzón's prison drama Cell 211 and Alejandro Amenábar's historical blockbuster Ágora (aka Mists of Time), with respectively 16 and 13 nominations, are the two leaders in the race for the 2010 Premios Goya (or Goya Awards), the Spanish Academy Awards," reports Pedro Bunuel at the Alternative Film Guide.
"The Central Ohio Film Critics Association has spoken. Yes, Central Ohio has a film critics association, 23 members strong. They like Up in the Air. And animated movies, two of which made their top four. And Inglourious Basterds, which won four awards." And Steve Pond has the full list at the Wrap.
Updates, 1/11: "The Writers Guild Award nominations are in," and Anne Thompson's got 'em, pointing out a couple of surprises, too.
"The nominations for the 24th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards were announced this afternoon," reports Peter Knegt for indieWIRE, "with Avatar again managing to make the cut in as it did with the WGA nominations earlier today."
Updates, 1/12: The American Cinema Editors have announced their nominees for this year's Eddie Awards.
"Canadians Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Xavier Dolan (J'ai tué ma mère) topped the Vancouver Film Critics Awards," reports indieWIRE. And again, Peter Knegt: "The Directors Guild of America have announced the DGA's nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for the year 2009."
"Streep Speech Season Begins!" announces Peter Knegt at his own blog. And he's got a clip: "Here's Meryl, fabulous as ever, receiving her award at the New York Film Critics dinner last night."
Update, 1/13: "Polytechnique, Denis Villeneuve's harrowing examination of the Montreal Massacre, has won the Toronto Film Critics Association's Rogers Best Canadian Film Award for the year 2009."
Update, 1/15: "The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced the nominees for its 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor film, television, music, theater and journalism with 'outstanding images of the LGBT community,'" reports Peter Knegt for indieWIRE. In his own blog, he adds that there are "three obvious choices - Precious, A Single Man and Taking Woodstock... But, hey, why isn't Kirby Dick's politician-outing Outrage in the documentary category? Dick's sadly underseen film went to great lengths to expose some incredible hypocrisy that is one of the backbones of homophobia the United States... Outrage most definitely deserves recognition for what it set out to do."
Peter Knegt is not alone, and Movieline's Seth Abramovitch quotes from GLAAD's response to the criticism out there - and then adds, "the problem is that Outrage is confrontational material, and doesn't jibe with GLAAD's 'gays and media: BFFs' mandate."
Updates, 1/16: "The Cinema Eye Honors, celebrating artistic achievement in nonfiction film in 12 categories, were presented tonight at the Times Center in New York City where Louie Psihoyos's The Cove - the acclaimed undercover investigation into secret dolphin hunting in Taijii, Japan - was the night's big winner, receiving three Cinema Eye Honors for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, Outstanding Production and Outstanding Cinematography."
"The 15th Annual Broadcast Film Critics Awards (or the 'Critics' Choice,' as they are widely known) were handed out [last night] at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles," reports Peter Knegt for indieWIRE. "Leading the winners was James Cameron's Avatar, which won a whopping seven trophies - though none of them in major categories. Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow actually took the nights two top honors - best director and best picture - for her The Hurt Locker, while Inglourious Basterds won three major awards: best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz, best original screenplay for Quentin Tarnantino, and the award for best acting ensemble." Nathaniel R live-blogged the evening.
Update, 1/17: "Philippe Lioret's immigrant drama Welcome was named best French film of the year Friday night at the Lumiere Awards." Rebecca Leffler for the Hollywood Reporter: "The Lumieres are usually an indication of what titles and talents can be expected at the country's most prestigious event, the Cesar Awards, whose nominees will be announced next Friday."
Update, 1/18: "Taking the prizes for best drama and best director, the mega-blockbuster that had been lacking award momentum gets a major boost heading into the final week of Oscar nomination voting." Yep, Avatar. John Horn introduces the Los Angeles Times Golden Globes package.
Images: Moving Image Source editor Dennis Lim: "Jim Jarmusch made his definitive movie, a paragon of insinuating mystery and effortless cool, only to earn a dismissive shrug (or worse) from most critics. The Limits of Control is nothing if not a movie of moments." Also, The Fountain and Taxidermia.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @theauteursdaily (RSS).