The
International Cinephile Society, an online organization made up of 60 film historians have announced their favorites of 2009:
BEST PICTURE
- A Serious Man
- The White Ribbon
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Inglourious Basterds
- Tokyo Sonata
- 35 Shots of Rum
- The Hurt Locker
- District 9
- Bright Star
- Up in the Air
BEST DIRECTOR
Ethan & Joel Coen,
A Serious Manrunner-up: Michael Hanake,
The White RibbonBEST ACTOR
Colin Firth,
A Single Manrunner-up: Michael Stuhlberg,
A Serious ManBEST ACTRESS
Tilda Swinton,
Juliarunner-up: Abbie Cornish,
Bright StarBEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz,
Inglourious Basterdsrunner-up: Peter Capaldi,
In the LoopBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga,
Up in the Airrunner-up: Mo'Nique,
PreciousBEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
A Serious Man- Ethan & Joel Coen
runner-up:
Inglourious Basterds- Quentin Tarantino
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Fantastic Mr. Fox- Wes Anderson & Noah Bombach
runner-up:
In the LoopBEST FOREIGN FILM
- The White Ribbon
- Tokyo Sonata
- 35 Shots of Rum
- Summer Hours
- Broken Embraces
- Still Walking
- Lorna's Silence
- The Beaches of Agnes
- Ponyo
- O Horten
- The Headless Woman
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Fantastic Mr. Foxrunner-up:
PonyoBEST DOCUMENTARY
The Beaches of Agnesrunner-up:
Anvil! The Story of AnvilBEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The White Ribbon- Christian Berger
runner-up:
Inglourious Basterds- Robert Richardson
BEST FILM EDITING
The Hurt Lockerrunner-up:
Broken EmbracesBEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Fantastic Mr. Foxrunner-up:
A Serious ManBEST ORIGINAL SCORE
A Single Manrunner-up:
Fantastic Mr. FoxBEST ENSEMBLE
In the Looprunner-up:
The White RibbonThe
ICS also recently released their top 100 films of the 1990s-- let's argue about that again. The top ten was:
- The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick) 1998
- Short Cuts (Robert Altman) 1993
- Trois Coloeurs: Rouge (Krzysztof Kieslowski) 1994
- Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier) 1996
- The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese) 1993
- My Own Private Idaho (Gus van Sant) 1991
- Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick) 1999
- Trois Coloeurs: Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski) 1993
- The Ice Storm (Ang Lee) 1997
- Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese) 1990
That's a divisive list right there, and I applaud it as much as I don't particularly agree. I think my disagreement comes primarly at the high placement of
Eyes Wide Shut. While I feel in the minority of people that didn't detest the film, I still don't see it as one of the 10 best of 1990s, and rightfully perhaps the worst film of Kubrick's career, and sadly the final one as well. But I wish the ye olde Academy had a bit more the courage film scope to make decisions that may not be of the all pleasing majority rule.