AFI's Top Ten (American) Films of the Year

This deserves some explanation, especially after last year, when Slumdog Millionaire was ineligible. The American Film Institute only concerns itself with American movies. To me, that's pretty silly: "We have the most advantages of any nation in the world when it comes to making films, so let's reward our hulking industry and disregard any movie from any other country, no matter how difficult it is to make films there or whatever social concerns it raises." So, yeah, last year, there was no Slumdog, because it was principally British, in terms of funding and authorship. And if you look at the big AFI Top 100 lists, they're only American productions, as well. In essence, the AFI acknowledges geography more than it does filmmaking. At least that's my opinion. This year's list of films doesn't suffer as much as previous years do if you're interested in a well-rounded list of the "best" movies from around the world, because the perception is the number of groundbreaking, well-publicized international films is not as strong as nearly every other year this decade. There are still candidates, of course, but not as many top-of-mind foreign films as 2007 or 2008. There are lots of familiar names and plenty of surprises and notable omissions, which will be plain to see. Coraline
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
Precious
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
Up
Up in the Air Yeah, we have no Avatar, Nine, Invictus, (500) Days of Summer, Lovely Bones, or Inglorious Basterds. Didn't expect Sugar, Coraline, or The Hangover, frankly. And among the international movies that could have made the list if we weren't busy promoting American films, were An Education, In the Loop, The White Ribbon, and A Prophet.

Comments

[FishFish]

Only one i agree with been in that list is The hangover {havent seen up in the air yet}

[Nick Capertina]

I only really agree with "Up" and "The Hurt Locker". The others were alright, but seriously? I can think of a few that shouldn't have missed that list.

The Hangover? Really? THAT MOVIE SUCKED! Very Bad Things is the mark to match on the coveted Vegas Movie =P

[anybody]

Inglourious Basterds is still the all around best picture I have seen (writing, direction and acting not to mention a helluva good time) with Fantastic Mr Fox, District9 and The Hurt Locker close behind. Looking forward to Up in the Air and Avatar this week though to maybe change my mind. Yet to see some of the other biggies as well...

[Nelson]

I've seen 5
Hangover
Hurt Locker
Precious
A Serious Man
Up

[SEAN]

The Hangover sucked???? Wow who are you lol

Wow Ill tell you what sucks is this list....

I mean Coraline & Sugar??? What the hell are they on...

-Colin you pretty much mentioned the rest in that paragraph so Im done! :)