Dynamic Top Tens of 2008

[thirtyframesasecond]

I'm going to count films seen in the cinema this year on first release but none that I saw at festivals in 2007, then widely released in 2008 (UK). And in no order:

There Will Be Blood
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Headless Woman
Gomorrah
Three Monkeys
24 City
Frost/Nixon
Paranoid Park
XXY
Slumdog Millionaire

[Runaway]

1. The Dark Knight (Nolan)
2. In Bruges (McDonagh)
3. Things We Lost In The Fire (Bier)
4. Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (Edel)
5. Reservation Road (George)
6. Battle In Seattle (Townsend)
7. Wanted (Bekmambetov)
8. An American Crime (O' Haver)
9. Street Kings (Ayer)
10. Tropic Thunder (Stiller)

[newland]

Wall-E
A Christmas Tale
Silent Light
Still Life
Paranoid Park
Il Divo
Dans la vie
The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet)
You, the Living
Standard Operating Procedure

Honorable mentions: Summer Hours, Woman on the Beach, Stuck, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Unforseen

I have yet to see: Hunger, Waltz with Bashir, Three Monkeys, The Class, Two Lovers, Lorna's Silence, My Magic, Four Nights with Anna...

[Svevan]

Standard Operating Procedure
Happy-Go-Lucky
Encounters at the End of the World
Leatherheads
My Winnipeg
Synecdoche, New York
Milk
In Bruges

and maybe

Doubt
The Wrestler
Rachel Getting Married
Wall-E

[The Paineful Truth]

Doubt
Cadillac Records
Rambo
The Dark Knight
The Fall
Smart People
Kung Fu Panda (I thought Wall-E was weak)
Appaloosa
Body of Lies

(Reserving a possible spot somewhere in there for
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, maybe)

[ezmbmh]

1: There Will Be Blood
2: Shotgun Stories
3: 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
4: The Visitor
5: Frozen River
6: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
7: Counterfeiters
8: Tell No One
9: Pineapple Express
10: Man on Wire


Ones I missed/haven’t seen: Ashes Redux, Milk, In Bruges, Girl Cut In Two, Slumdog, Wrestler, Encounters At The End of the World

[Alyosha]

The Visitor
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
Let the Right One In
Involuntary
--
Snow Angels
There Will Be Blood
Into the Wild
Persepolis
Lust, Caution
Pineapple Express

Yet to see (among others):
Lorna's Silence
The Class

[lacritfan]

Wall-E
Che
Dark Knight
Tracey Fragments
Milk
Happy Go-Lucky
Let the Right One In
The Wrestler
Rachel Getting Married
In Bruges

[menthymenthy]

1. Revanche
2. Hunger
3. Bitter and Twisted
4. Four Nights with Anna
5. In the City of Sylvia
6. Wendy and Lucy
7. Boogie
8. In Bruges
9. Karamazovi
10. Tony Manero

[Daze]

Based on what I've actually seen (which mostly means stuff that has come out on dvd):

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Slumdog Millionaire
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Burn After Reading
Man on Wire
Paranoid Park
Tropic Thunder
The Fall
In Bruges
Cloverfield

[El Manchego]

1. Man on Wire
2. Eldorado
3. Wall-E
4. Rachel Getting Married
5. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
6. Happy-Go-Lucky
7. Slumdog Millionaire
8. Let the Right One In
9. Milk
10. Katyn

[Agnes of God]

Still a while to go, but I'm fairly happy with my top 5

Un conte de Noël
Let the Right One In
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Happy-Go-Lucky

Rachel Getting Married
Wall-E
The Duchess
In Bruges
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

[royalton]

placeholder for the next couple weeks, seeing a couple more tomorrow so this is subject to obvious change -

first tier top 10 (unfinished, natch):

Wendy & Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
Speed Racer (The Wachowskis)
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
The Reader (Stephen Daldry)
Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father (Kurt Kuenne)
Milk (Gus Van Sant)
Iron Man (Jon Favreau)
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)

second tier top 11-20:

JCVD (Mabrouk El Mechri)
Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
The Fall (Tarsem)
Gomorra (Matteo Garrone)
A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen)
Redbelt (David Mamet)
The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)

Man On Wire (James Marsh)

honorable mention:

The Wackness (Jonathan Levine)
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
Snow Angels (David Gordon Green)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)

guilty pleasures:

Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
Rambo (Sylvester Stallone)
August (Austin Chick)

disappointing/overrated:

Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard)
Che (Steven Soderbergh)
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (David Fincher)

yet to be seen:

The Secret Of The Grain
Waltz With Bashir
In Bruges
The Headless Woman
Savage Grace

I would love to list Ashes Of Time: Redux but I've yet to see "Redux," even though I just saw the original cut this year and adored it...I felt I couldn't cheat, though.

[roujin]

This might as well be my first post.

1. Flight of the Red Balloon
2. Still Life
3. Paranoid Park
4. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
5. A Christmas Tale
6. Chop Shop
7. Water Lilies
8. Synecdoche, New York (
9. En La Ciudad de Sylvia
10. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

[miless]

a slightly revised top ten:

1. Silent Light (by far my favorite film of the year)
2. You, The Living
3. Import/Export
4. The Man From London
5. Breath
6. Still Life
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
8. Synecdoche, New york
9. Wall*E
10. Milk

the next three are:
11. Flight of the Red Balloon
12. Pineapple Express
13. Paranoid Park

[flyonthewall2983]

I'll reiterate it here, since as it existed as an afterthought on my initial post probably went unnoticed. The last two episodes of The Shield were probably better than any movie I've seen in the last two years. Anyone can feel free to take that with a bucket of salt since my own list for this year's thread is barely half-full. I was an eager fan of the show, not to an insane level but enough to know the score by the time the season winded down. But I was just blown away by almost every aspect and performance in those last couple of episodes of an already strong season.

[bearcuborg]

TOP TEN 2008
1. My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin) Admittedly I didn't see many documentaries this year and the lack of any true documentary film on my list short changes the good ones I only saw in portions (Helvetica and Taxi to the Dark Side), however this director described docu-fantasia was the best film I saw this year in any category. Like my top choice for last year (David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE), this film is a culmination of a career. This is Guy Maddin at his most inventive - rewriting history and creating it, silent movie minded, and wonderfully melodramatic. A.O. Scott of the NY Times said it best of the film's playfulness with the truth, "I thought I should check out some of the facts in My Winnipeg but I decided not to. Why should I doubt the film?" This film stayed in mind like no other this year. Like all great movies it conveys a sense of entrapment. To be in a dark theater seeing a movie like this is what it's all about...
2. Hannah Takes the Stairs (dir. Joe Swanberg) Officially this might count as a 2007 release but it was a straight to video release in my part of the country. Director Joe Swanberg has made 4 feature movies to date and in that time he has almost gotten better with each release, however this years outing Nights and Weekends failed to maintain creative momentum. Star Greta Gerwig is something of star in the making. She bares all for the movie figuratively and literally. Swanberg also puts more care into his cinematography having already been ahead of nearly every other filmmaker with his creative sound designs. Maybe he bought a better digital camera, because the colors pop and the placement of people in space maintains a fantastic naturalism. This rumination on Hannah's aimlessness, relationships in the professional, acquaintanceship and sexual world is the best of the post graduate realism genre also known as mumblecore. That term is something of a dirty word because it implies a movement, but the filmmakers associated with the movies are just telling stories. They aren't deconstructing film syntax and they aren't wasting time trumpeting the glories of the past with needless film references. They're just telling stories, and I respect that.
3. In the City of Sylvia (dir. Jose Luis Guerin) Perhaps the most pure film of the year. This was the first of director Jose Luis Guerin's films I saw so I didn't know how it compared to his other works, but this near wordless tour de force is the macho diametric of Swanberg's feminine romantic point of view. A romantic poet searches a foreign city for a woman named Sylvia he may have met a year ago. He sits and sketches her in his bed at night, and again in various cafés by day. When he isn't busy trying to find her, he reviews his sketches. It's even hinted in the film that he's auditioning for her as he is surrounded by a ridiculous amount of gorgeous women. He scratches out "elle" (her) and then adds "s" (them) at one point. Eventually he finds one to follow (stalk) and begins on one of the great movie chases ever filmed. Guerin's film is also an examination on the urban labyrinth. The circular chase is sensually rhythmic visually and aurally.
4. Ne touchez pas la hache (dir. Jacques Rivette) Both charged and nuanced, this period film and literary adaptation finds Jacques Rivette in command of his powers as a director of performance and mise en scene. Minimalistic and occasionally hilarious as a sadistic love story, it's brisk for a Rivette film (he has never made a film under 2 hours, and he has made some as long as 13 hours long). It focuses on a agonizingly non-consummated courtship in which a duchess recklessly leads on a just released from prison war hero. Her game backfires when things start to get out of hand and lead to tragedy.
5. The Fall (dir. Tarsem Singh) The years best fantasy film edges out Wall-E and Dark Knight for me because it maintained its intent not to be taken seriously. Tarsem worked on this film for 5 years, and shot it all over the world. There isn't a single computer effect in the entire film, it's a visual knockout. The story is a successful mix of Pan's Labyrinth and The Wizard of Oz wherein what is real and what is not is blurred and characters involved in the drama reappear in the fantasy.
6. Gran Torino (dir. Clint Eastwood) Besting his overstuffed other 2008 film Changeling, director Clint Eastwood is willfully determined and disposed to go counter to what is expected or desired in a film of this kind. The narrative premise is in some ways unbelievable. A racist Korean war vet who has just survived his wife of many years finds himself in a position of a hero of sorts, when he adopts his Hmong neighbors, in particular Thao who is struggling with puberty and gangs. Eastwood's character is old school indeed, ridiculously so in fact. However his rethinking of his macho persona is his best since Unforgiven. The films nervy issues on race, upfront confrontation with xenophobia and gang youth life are remarkable.
7. Happy Go Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh) Sally Hawkins deserves all the praise she has received this year. She is irrepressibly cheerful as a primary school teacher who loves her work, and her friends. Her character doesn't so much refuse acknowledgement of a bad world as she refuses accept it. Even when she's pushed by awful things life gives her, she never strays from happiness by simply willing it on herself. Mike Leigh never fails to put Hawkins into interesting and sometimes nerve wrecking situations.
8. Pineapple Express (dir. David Gordon Green) Like a few directors this year, director David Gordon Green found greater success in the more carefree of his multiple projects (this one besting his own Snow Angels). The idea to have this weed movie directed by a art house director paid off for the Apatow gang. Green trimmed the fat found in so many of the other Apatow movies and was finally able to indulge in his appreciation for action movies.
9. Help Me Eros (dir. Lee Kang-sheng) I never saw Kang-sheng's first feature, but amazingly he employed all that works in his mentor Tsai Ming-Liang's films: mordant comedy, poetry of tone, skewed compositions and socially isolated characters. As always I appreciate their movies more in the moment rather than the whole more than anyone else making movies. There's a wonderful sense of discovering in their film making.
10. RR (dir. James Benning) This screened at the 46th New York Film Festival's avant garde series. Supposedly James Benning's last work on film. Essentially a collection of passing freight trains from a fixed camera position played out in real time. For the most part the sound comes from what is seen on screen, however there are moments when Benning employs samples from baseball games, and news radio. I didn't find the outside sound so compelling, but Benning is a master visualist.

Honorable mentions:
Wendy and Lucy (dir. Kelly Reichardt) Maintains her modest style, but not as cosmic as last year's Old Joy.
Vicky Christina Barcelona (dir. Woody Allen) Not without flaws, but the best of Allen's work since Anything Else.
WALL-E (dir. Andrew Stanton) Loved the first 35min, but I got lost in the conventional action packed ending.
Paranoid Park (dir. Gus Van Sant) Not as strong as previous 3 films, but interesting enough.
I Served the King of England (dir. Jiri Menzel) Along with the next film, might make my top ten on another day.
Rachel Getting Married (dir. Jonathan Demme) Despite the conventional script, this excels due to the strong improvisation.

Worst film:
Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan) The very definition of the emperor's new clothes. Nolan has never pleased me as a filmmaker, and despite the hype I felt everything about this film was over hyped, Heath Ledger included. The political allusions, and ethical dilemmas were too Crash (2006) like for me.

Best peformance of the year:
Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married) I never would have thought in a year when we get a significant role for Debra Winger (who was great in this movie) that someone would give a performance I liked better. Rosemarie DeWitt steals every scene she's in.

Best Director
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) Eastwood just seems elevate the material of every project he directs. In lesser hands, this masterpiece would be a joke.

Best Screenplay
Guy Maddin, George Toles (My Winnipeg) A brilliant blend of fact and fiction.

Best Editing
Craig Alpert (Pineapple Express) An expert blend of action and comedy.

Best Cinematography
The Fall (Colin Watkinson) I can't imagine any one person could be responsible for the images in a film like this, but the film nonetheless was the best looking of the year.

Best Score
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood) Clint's theme song really gets to you.

Best first feature:
Charlie Bartlet (dir. Jon Poll) Like last year's I'm Reed Fish, this film took the teen comedy and treated it with respect.

TOP TEN DVDS 2008
1. Films of Abel Gance - J'accuse, La Roue and, Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913) - Flicker Alley
The quality of production values (packed with extras, film restoration wise, lovingly designed) and importance on film history makes this the DVD company of the year. Both Gance films are remarkably fresh visually. La Roue in particular is at the apex of silent cinema. The Melies set is exhaustive in scope.
2. Films of Chris Marker, Fredrick Wiseman - Icarus Films & Zipporah Films
Two of the greatest living filmmakers get much needed recognition. Unfortunately the Wiseman films are overpriced and bare bones, but to have them at all is good enough. The Marker films (in particular The Last Bolshevik/Happiness) are much more packed with extras.
3. Natalie Granger - Blaq Out
Marguerite Duras's subtle, mysterious work is the precursor to Chantel Akerman's Jeanie Dielman. It's a stunning work and packed with wonderful extras.
4. Quiet City/Dance Party USA - Benton Films
Benton films has quickly made a name for itself. Obviously modeling themselves after Criterion and Masters of Cinema with their extras and spine numbers. Their focus is on contemporary films and these two are from the young master Aaron Katz. Visually poetic and very much in the vein of "mumblecore."
5. Murnau, Borzage, and Fox - 20th Century Fox
Nearly the equal of last years Ford at Fox set, this box set is lavishly designed.
6. Lawrence Jordan - Facets
I wasn't all that familiar with the surreal animation collage artist Lawrence Jordan, but this set made for a fine introduction. At his best he recalls the work of Joseph Cornell.
7. Griffith Masterworks 2 - Kino
Continuing a great year for silent cinema on DVD. Kino includes early works of Griffith on his way up, and those near the end of his career. The highlight for me is Kevin Brownlow's documentary.
8. Valerie and her Week of Wonders - Second Run
Unknown to me before Second Run made it available, this company continues to highlight the best of world cinema. This Czech film directed by Jaromi Jires is a visual stunner.
9. Jose Luis Guerin - Versus
Purchased soon after seeing Guerin's In the City of Sylvia, this set from Spain is English friendly and clearly the work of a master. Pricey, but worthwhile.
10. Make Way for Tomorrow - BAC Video
Leo McCarey's masterpiece is in pretty lousy shape, and without a English friendly extra but again it's one of those great movies that make it wonderful to have it at all.

TOP TEN FILM RELATED EVENTS
1. Razzle Dazzle conceived by Ken Jacobs (Anthology Film Archives) - NYC
Jacobs appropriates an early film by Thomas Edison and distorts his images to such extreme length, as to reconceptualize them and give them a whole new meaning.
2. Decay of Fiction directed by Pat O'neill (Gershman Y) - Philadelphia
For a cinematography buff like me, this was a real treat. The Ambassador Hotel in California is haunted in wonderful time lapse images. Seen with O'neill in person.
3. Mes Petites Amoureuses by Jean Eustache (French Institute) - NYC
The 2nd and last feature by Eustache was quite Truffaut like as a adolescent love story. Lavishly shot on 35mm color by Nestor Almendros.
4. Frederick Wiseman presents High School (International House) - Philadelphia
Wiseman came back to Philadelphia to screen High School. The man is still sharp.
5. Maya Deren with music by Relache (Gershman Y) - Philadelphia
Avant garde music group Relache put on another great show, perhaps besting last years performance for Buster Keaton's The General.
6. Film criticism discussion (New York Film Festivel) - NYC
A discussion on the state of film criticism with Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Jessica Winter, and David Hudson.
7. Don Hertzfeldt (IFC Center) - NYC
Animator Don Hertzffeldt took questions and showed some of his newest work.
8. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Anthology Film Archives) - NYC
"Joe" Weerasethankul presented his short films, video sketches and took questions.
9. Wendy and Lucy with Kelly Reichardt (Film Forum) - NYC
The NY premiere with director Reichardt and author Jonathan Raymond.
10. Ernie Gehr (University of the Arts) - Philadelphia
Unfortunately Mr. Gehr wasn't at the top of his game for his Q&A but any time you can see a master filmmaker in person, it's worthwhile.

[lord patchogue]

1) José Luis Guerín- En la ciudad de Sylvia
2) Jaimie Rosales- La soledad
3) Arnaud Desplechin- Un conte de Noël
4) Bakur Bakuradze- Shultes
5) Thanos Anastopoulos- Diarthosi
6) So Yong Kim- Treeless Mountain
7) Sergei Dvortsevoy- Tulpan
8) Heng Yang- Bingleng
9) Steve McQueen- Hunger
10) Ozcan Alper- Sonbahar

Honorable Mentions:
Hou hsiao-hsien- Flight of the Red Balloon
Antonio Campos- Afterschool
Darren Aranofsky- The Wrestler
Ulrich Seidl- Import/Export
Kelly Reichardt-Wendy&Lucy
Claire Denis- 35 Rhums
Gustavo Spolidoro- Still Orangutans
Rodrique Jean- Lost Song
Philippe Grandrieux- Un Lac
Nuri Bilge Ceylan- Three Monkeys
Oliver Assayas- Summer Hours
Nathaniel Dorsky- Saraband
Sam Taylor Wood- Love you no more
François-Jacques Ossang- Ciel éteint!
Danny Boyle- Slumdog Millionaire
Lucrecia Martel- Headless Woman
Ari Folman- Waltz with Bashir
Martin McDonagh- In Bruges
Jonathan Demme- Rachel Getting Married
Mike Leigh- Happy go Lucky

Looking to see:

Lisandro Alonso- Liverpool
Clint Eastwood- Gran Torino
Luc Bourdon- Memories of Angels
Terence Davies- Of Times and City
Yesim Ustaoglu- Pandora's Box

[swo17]

01 Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt)
02 Spanky: To the Pier and Back (Maddin)
03 WALL▪E (Stanton)
04 Still Life (Jia)
05 In the City of Sylvia (Guerín)
06 My Winnipeg (Maddin)
07 Let the Right One In (Alfredson)
08 Che (Soderbergh)
09 Silent Light (Reygadas)
10 Lucia, Luis and the Wolf (Atallah, Leon & Cociña)

Last edited Dec 31, 2015

[mute nostril agony]

A bit late on this cause I was catching up on all the Oscar movies!


1. Stellet Licht
Words cannot express the beauty it contains. Carlos Reygadas has earned himself a place next to Aleksandr Sokurov as suitable heir to Andrei Tarkovsky. Stellet Licht so unabashedly pays homage to Carl Theodor Dreyer that it should come off as a cheap clone, yet somehow everything works wonderfully within the film’s gentle frame. I was overcome with sadness when the film ended b/c I wanted it to go on forever. This is everything the art of cinema should be.


2. Waltz with Bashir
A magnificent achievement in animation. Spellbinding and devastating.


3. Doubt
My favorite religious picture since The Milky Way. Viola Davis and Meryl Streep are stellar. This lapsed Catholic boy loved it.


4. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
What first seems like just another time travel send-up turns into a very amusing ride. Part science fiction, part relationship tale, all fun!


5. Hunger
Sparsely directed debut feature about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Sometimes subtle, sometimes loud, always intense.

6. My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin brings us the most tripped out autobiographical mockumentary of the year. Very personal and very strange.

7. The Edge of Heaven
A nice little entropy film shot in Turkey and Germany. The best acting ensemble of the year.

8. Wall-E
Morbidly obese humans in outer space = lawl.

9. Encounters at the End of the World
You can always count on Werner Herzog to capture nature’s chilling beauty (and weirdness) in the most haunting way.

10. The Fall
Beautiful pictures. There are some tonal misfires, but it manages to be quite an enchanting little tale.

11. Man on Wire
Made me hold my breath. Philippe Petit is a plucky little character.

12. The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
Sergio Leone homage with brilliantly orchestrated action sequences from A Tale of Two Sisters director Kim Ji-woon.

13. Let the Right One In
The Swedish vampire film that everyone loved. Oskar was the kid we all rooted for.

14. Elegy
Formulaic but very well crafted. You can’t take your eyes off Penelope Cruz, who has never looked this stunning.

15. Milk
Fails in fleshing out its characters but wins in retelling the resoundingly relevant political events of Milk’s life.

16. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Uproarious Penelope Cruz gives the performance of the year and single-handedly saves this movie.

17. Happy Go Lucky
I have to say, Sally Hawkins kind of annoyed me. Maybe I have a little of Scott the driving teacher in me.

18. The Headless Woman
The WTF movie of the year. Also has a spot on my shit list b/c I can’t decide whether I love it or hate it.

19. Cloverfield
Awesome—and then you see the monster. Buzzkill.

20. Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise, LOL.

21. Savage Grace
Swoon director Tom Kalin with another true life story of homosexuality and murder.

22. The Dark Knight
Expertly paced. Lulzworthy ending. Shut up with your stupid voice, Christian Bale.

23. Burn After Reading
Yea, it’s silly and it ends prematurely, but I laughed. Needs moar Tilda.

Worst:

1. The Reader
Treats very delicate subject matter in a longwinded, melodramatic, thoughtless and offensive way.

2. Revolutionary Road
Kate Winslet gives the most misguided performance of her career in the year’s worst Lifetime movie.

3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Never reconciles its magic with its realism. Unintentional lolz abound. Brad Pitt is useless.

4. The Wrestler
The movie is one cliche after another and a refreshing turn of events arrives too late.

5. The Headless Woman
Um, yea.

Best Performance:

1. Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
2. Penelope Cruz – Elegy
3. Julianne Moore – Savage Grace
4. Josh Brolin – Milk
5. Viola Davis - Doubt
6. Meryl Streep - Doubt
7. Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
8. Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
9. Tilda Swinton – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. Eddie Marsan - Happy Go Lucky
11. Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
12. Maria Onetto – The Headless Woman

Worst Performance:

1. Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road
2. Christian Bale – The Dark Knight
3. Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Diego Luna – Milk
5. Sean Penn – Milk

Best Production Design: The Fall
Best Cinematography: Stellet Licht
Best Film Editing: The Dark Knight
Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Performance in a Trainwreck: Leonardo DiCaprio – Revolutionary Road
Most Abused Child Actor: Catinca Untaru – The Fall
Best Politically Incorrect Performance: Humans – Wall-E
Best Deranged and/or Gay Performance: Penguin – Encounters at the End of the World
Achievement in Peen: The Reader & Savage Grace
Best Study on Social Structures: The Headless Woman
Strong Black Women of the Year: Taraji P. Henson & Viola Davis
Best Moment of 2008: “Niñata de mierda” – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Re-Release: Last Year at Marienbad
Missed: Synecdoche New York, Quantum of Solace, Wendy and Lucy

[Barmy]

Best Film Editing: The Dark Knight

I assume you meant Worst. Otherwise, however, well done.

[tavernier]

Strong Black Women of the Year: Taraji P. Henson & Viola Davis

Best Award of the Year.

[criterionaficionado]

just wanted to add my top american/british films list for 2008 (i know i'm a little behind so please forgive me in advance).

the list, in no particular order;

in bruges
the wrestler
gran torino
frost/nixon
slumdog millionaire
the reader
revolutionary road (the critics were wrong on this one)
doubt
iron man
the dark knight
vicky christina barcelona
the curious case of benjamin buttons

[Andre Jurieu]

The 2000s Decade Poll made me realize that I never made a list for 2008. I think that was mostly because I was really exhausted by watching (and writing) about movies in previous years. Anyway, while looking back at the decade, I felt that 2008 was much better than I initially perceived.

2008
1. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
2. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, 2008)
3. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
4. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2008)
5. Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater, 2008)
6. Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
7. Che: Part One & Part Two (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
8. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2008)
9. The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2008)
T10. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2008)
T10. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)

Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008)
The Silence of Lorna (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 2008)
24 City (Jia Zhangke, 2008)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008)
Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard, 2008)
Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry)
Man on Wire (James Marsh, U.K.)
35 Shots of Rum* (Claire Denis)

[Lars Von Truffaut]

1) LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Alfredson)
2) MY WINNIPEG (Maddin)
3) WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Folman)
4) HUNGER (McQueen)
5) REVANCHE (Spielmann)
6) SUMMER HOURS (Assayas)
7) EVERLASTING MOMENTS (Troell)
8) A CHRISTMAS TALE (Desplechin)
9) SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (Kaufman)
10) HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (Leigh)