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.

Click to read more ...

Brand New Poster for Tom Ford's 'A Single Man'

We just received a brand new poster for Tom Ford's A Single Man, which is pushing Colin Firth pretty heavily for Best Actor. I suppose it has a few other possibilities in the awards season, but Firth is definitely what's opening doors right now. Click on the image below to see the whole poster. The Weinstein Company rolls out A Single Man in limited release on December 11th.

Trailer - Colin Firth's Best Actor Pitch in 'A Single Man'

One of the possible spoilers in this year's Oscar race is A Single Man, which could upset the apple cart for a few bigger ticket items thanks to the work of Colin Firth. He's already won the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival, and the longer that race remains fairly open, the better his chances become.

It's also getting notice for Julianne Moore, who would be eying her fifth Oscar nomination since 1998, but her first since two nominations in 2003. It's not a film too many people had on their list heading into the fall. Being the debut feature for fashion designer Tom Ford, it may have seemed like one of those vanity projects you shouldn't take seriously. It's all different now. In Contention has this film on its Oscar short list for nominations in three major categories, Best Actor, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay. And if they gave Oscars for trailers, it would have a shot at that, too. This is a damn good bit of editing.

Click to read more ...