Dave Karger just posted it on EW:
- The Descendants
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The Help
- J. Edgar
- Hugo
- Midnight in Paris
- Moneyball
- The Tree of Life
- War Horse
- Bridesmaids
The Artist and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy were not eligible. I don’t know if the jury saw Extremely Loud or not.
UPDATE: Special awards given to The Artist and the Harry Potter series.
AFI’s Top 10 TV series, after the cut.
- Breaking Bad
- Boardwalk Empire
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Game of Thrones
- The Good Wife
- Homeland
- Justified
- Louie,
- Modern Family
- Parks and Recreation.
Good for Tattoo ! AFI is important.
thanks Scott and for AJC how was 2011 not the best year for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Lion King (in 3D), Kung Fu Panda 2, Fast Five, Hangover Part 2, and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1?
Also isn’t it true HP8 still made over a billion dollars (minus 250 million from the budget)?
TGWTDT
aww im pleased!
@Scott: All these lists are great. But, the main problem is that we don’t know yet how many films will be nominated for Best Picture. In fact, the Academy intends to keep it secretive till the moment the Best Pic nominees are announced on Jan 24 2012. Between 5 and 10 can be ANYTHING. I don’t want to be the harbinger of doom, but what if the Academy decides say, six films, and DH2 comes in at #7 in terms of the % of votes cast? It could very well happen. That’s just rotten luck, isn’t it? As for me, I hope that only those films which totally deserve to be nominated are nominated, and only because they’re good enough (emotion playing no part).
Should be interesting to see how it contrasts to the last 2 years where there was 10 nominees. For instance last year the Top 9 and #11 made it and the year before 9 of the Top 10 made it with the 10th not appearing on the list at all.
If the BFCA is anything to go by (which they have been since 2003) then you can knock out Tree of Life, Melancholia, and Bridesmaids from the Top 10. Of course, it’s possibly a whole new ballgame with the new rules and the 85+ rule of thumb night not apply any more. Let’s hope it still does though…
So I noticed this link someone gave the other day has been updated- http://criticstop10.com/
Says we’ve hit the 50 list mark and guess what? Potter is hanging on at #10!
Interesting to see Melancholia at #4 which hasn’t really been showing up anywhere as a contender.
I knew the AFI was going to pick Bridesmaids – they often will be the sort of group to honor a mainstream comedy if it gets a good amount of theatrical gross and critical support. I love honoring comedy in theory, but Bridesmaids was overrated in my opinion. Could I really be the only one who thought the lengthy vomit/diarrhea sequence was just embarrassing for all involved? Do women get a pass on doing dumb poop humor just because it’s women doing it? I love Kristen Wiig usually and the movie does get at some really funny and truthful moments, but in other ways the movie is just the same kind of stuff we’ve seen a million times before.
Bridesmaids wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best mainstream comedy of the year. The Muppets, Crazy Stupid Love, and 50/50 were all superior.
The Hollywood Film Award (which HP won) wasn’t adjudged by a group of critics, it was voted for by the people online, and we all know which way that swings.
And for those who are saying the Academy should give JKR and the HP films a special achievement award, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Such awards are called honorary Oscars, and Oprah Winfrey and others have already been awarded their honorary Oscars a little while back. Yes, the Special Achievement Academy Award does exist but it is only given out for that exceptional contribution to the motion picture for which it was created, but for which there is no annual award category. And I don’t think HP exactly qualifies for this (thinking from the Academy’s perspective), unless the Academy members turn into Potter fanboys/fangirls overnight. Just my opinion. Don’t bite my head off.
The only way the franchise could be recognized by the Academy is by getting nominated in majority of the technical categories (just like ‘The Dark Knight’), and perhaps a Best Pic nomination as well. Other than that, I can’t see anything else as of now.
Ha, ok. The mean-spirited comments come out. OCO300, I’m not considering anything you say serious from now on. At least Scott is citing better evidence and not resorting to name calling. Highest pre-ordered DVDs. Welp, guess we have the new Citizen Kane right here. Thanks Amazon for reminding me what is quality.
Scott, I think when you put down the LOTR trilogy like that, I have a better idea where you are coming from. I disagree with you even more, but, you know what, there it is. A disagreement. At least we love movies enough to talk about them, right?
I think we both agree on one thing, though: 2011 was not the best year for movies, am I right.
BTW, I started my own Oscar thread the other day-
http://www.cosforums.com/showpost.php?p=5942128&postcount=1
Not only that OCO but it scored an A+ cinemascore!
AJC, let me ask you a question: 1. wasn’t it true that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ranked #1 in more theatres than any other film this year?
HP:DH2 made new records not only in the box office but was declared the highest pre-ordered Blu-ray and DVD ever by Amazon.com, and opened to universal critical acclaim, and is among the best reviewed films of 2011.
2)If memory serves me right American Jackass Critic (AJC), why do you think at the National Movie Awards, HP8 won an award for Must See Movie of the Summer (and how come Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris wasn’t nominated for that award)?
3)Why do you think HP8 won the Hollywood FIlm Award, even though it was filmed in England.
4) Isn’t it true the film received a score of 93 from professional critics at the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and to me they did better on BFCA this year than any filn in 2011 (and even in that best picture list).
And 5) Isn’t true that HP8 is nominated for not only favorite film but for alot of other awards at the People Choice Awards in 2012?
I don’t need to explain. It’s arguably the best of the year, take it or leave it. And I’m clearly NOT in the minority (well maybe here, but that’s about it)
I’ll just say that I hate comparisons to LotR. The Rings trilogy is great film-making I agree…but the story is very one-dimensional and it’s a wonder that Peter Jackson was able to turn those laborious books into such entertainment. HP’s source material has so much more depth, though unfortunately the film adaptations have not always done justice to JKR’s work. But I (and clearly most critics and the general public as well) feel they came about as close as could be with Deathly Hallows to surpassing the greatness of the book.
And AJ, I don’t think the 3D thing necessarily was Yates or Heyman’s decision.
Now I ask you, how is it NOT serious film-making? From what I could tell the cast and crew put their heart and soul into making these adaptations and the production value is as good as you’ll find anywhere. Also, WB’s campaign demonstrates they believe it’s serious filmmaking. Read this-
Winning an Oscar isn’t going to sell another ticket or DVD for Harry Potter. So why are you putting so much into this campaign?
Jeff Robinov: The films have been of a really high standard, and a lot of the academy attention has been on the technical side, which overlooks their quality. We believe if you look at what [director] David [Yates] has done with this last film, if you look at the critical reception and pure execution, and if you look at the scale and depth and entertainment value, it’s worthy of academy recognition. It feels to me like if you look at what has been released this year, “Harry Potter” is deserving of consideration as one of the best films and directorial efforts.
Scott, I see that you stir up a lot in other comment sections. I think that’s what you like to do. I’ll continue if you want to give me some honest to goodness reasons why you think HP8 was the BEST movie of the year. The very top-quality best. I’d love to hear it.
I’m going to copy and paste someone else’s comment on HP which I agree with and leave it at that until I hear your elaboration (also, in my opinion, if you think HP is up there with Super 8 with the best movies of the year … then, wow, you are in the minority and you have more movies to see)
“Harry Potter may deserve a special achievement award for doing this whole serious with, for the most part, the same cast….but, the story is really nothing ground breaking, the movies are really nothing groundbreaking, I saw everyone of them, and they are very good young adult films….of course superior to Twilight. But, this film has no business being considered for Best Picture. Oh God no. Even the metacritic score, in my opnion, is so high because these films are judged on a different scale. They are good genre films…yet, no where close to the level of The Lord Of The Rings, for example.”
Well sure money factored in, but no they split it so they could better do justice to JKR’s work. Could you imagine fitting all of Deathly Hallows into one film? No, not without it being over 3 hours and the studio was not going to allow it so splitting it into 2 was the next best option.
I know, maybe I am just weird. Last year was a weak year for me, nothing I really loved was in the top five, but this year I love LOVE films like Win Win, Drive, Take Shelter, The Help, Extremely Loud, they are all very emotional films and the performances in all those are spectacular!!!
I’m gonna take back what I said earlier. Scott, I think you’re in the minority. And I take offense to this movie being called serious film-making:
Did you know that HP8 was filmed in 2D, but converted to 3D to simply make money? Gimmicks. There was no need for it to be in 3D. Unlike Avatar, Hugo, Tin Tin and the upcoming Hobbit, which used 3D to help tell the story. Sounds kind of cheap if you ask me.
Also, they split it to make more money.
Serious “Hollywood film” making more like it.
Midnight in Paris? Excellent! No Drive, Ides of March or Extremely Close and Incredibly Boring? Even better!
That’s an interesting comment Dustin considering most are saying this is one of the weakest years in history. One of the reasons I was having hope Potter might finally get recognized despite whatever past bias has been shown against it. I mean if everything else is a flop they’ve got no choice, right? Well I guess not…seems they are open to even picking mediocre fare to avoid recognizing Harry Potter as serious film-making.
Wow no love for J. Edgar, I just watched the screener again and I think its an amazing, beautiful film. I think just the right amount of critics in the right places liked it as much as I did for it to pop up on a few lists.
I do agree with you guys, Harry Potter is among the years very best, but I think its a difficult film to nominate. There are so many great films this year, in my opinion. I am a tough critic, rarely give A- or A, and I had 13 this year!
I guess not…no hat trick for Jason Reitman it seems.
Kind of a predictable list, but J. Edgar!? Really!?
Scott: I totally get that you love HP (me too!!!), but I think the point of the Special Award was to honor the entire series and not just the last film. I’d have preferred it make the Top 10 as well, but let’s just be grateful it got SOMETHING.
And for those interested, here’s the AFI’s criteria for selecting films and TV programs: http://www.afi.com/afiawards/criteria.aspx.
So Young Adult isnt best picture worthy?
War Horse FOR THE WIN!
Wrong Jesus…as I said those “special awards” are bullshit 2nd rate things that basically say sorry we don’t take you seriously and consider you for the REAL awards, but hope you’ll forgive us and take this as consolation.
But Alfredo, it deserves to be talked about just as much as the other contenders…arguably even more so.
I wouldn’t be surprised if AMPAS give an special award to J.K. Rowling and maybe Steve Kloves for the whole franchise, anyways.
I think that would make everyone happy.
What?! No Drive?! Well at least they got Curb Your Enthusiasm– wait a minute! No Walking Dead?! Well at least there’s no Glee. Still, how could they put J. Edgar on the list over Drive? Not the best top 10 they’ve come up with.
Holy Shit, Scott stop Hijacking every thread with your talk about Harry Potter! We get it! You love Harry Potter.
Well, this just makes it all the worse…
Dave Karger | Just now
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AFI tells me the final Harry Potter film was in fact eligible…
“Game of Thrones” might be the best TV show ever. Anyone who hasn’t seen it should check it out.
Fortunately Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon so they’ll look like a bunch of fucking idiots when people look back on the year’s best reviewed films. Same as occured when they snubbed TDK.
Alright. I’m in your peer group and have also loved the books in a big way. I guess the last film disappointed me greatly, and in no way (IMHO) should be considered the top 10 best films of this year. But, to each his own.
I think I’m a minority among readers of this blog, though.
I hope this isn’t true but I’m going to predict that Potter gets shuts out of the major categories and given some bullshit 2nd rate “special achievement” award like some of these groups thus far have been doing.
Can I express again how much I hate not being able to edit posts? It is driving a perfectionist like myself insane when I read back over what I type and find errors. UGH
24, and I’ve grown up with the series. I’d consider myself part of “THE Harry Potter generation”, as in one of those who read the first book back when it was first released and stuck with it through their teens and into their college years.
Poor Drive
Alright, well. If that’s your opinion, great. I strongly disagree. Last question, how old are you Scott?
The sad thing is, as the critics awards are now demonstrating they either aren’t being honest with their chosen winners and bias has come into play or there isn’t a strong enough “LOVE IT” crowd. But with an 8.8 average from Top Critics I find the latter harder to believe. If you go back and read their reviews it’s pretty obviously that the majority loved it.
Yes AJC, I think it’s a great film aside from the 3rd act, which I’m a little pissed they changed from the book. How can it be justified? Simple, because it’s Hollywood and they always “Hollywoodize” movies in ways that they think will be more appealing to a broad audience.
Everything up until that changed ending is fantastic though and until I’ve seen a film that gets the whole picture right Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 remains the best film of the year.
Young Adult doesn’t completely work. it never quite finds a rhythm, and it takes a while to get going. Still Theron is wonderful, and Cody and Reitman deliver a character study of intelligence and impact.
I am aware of what the critics say. It’s baffling. I think this blog has a vocal majority of people who say that HP8 is a great film. But I’ve also heard enough people who believe it was boring, confusing, and not a great film in general. So, with a staggering high score for HP from the critics, it seems to polarize people with opinions about the film.
Do YOU think it’s a great film? And my only question for any HP8 film fans out there: if you have read the book, how can you justify the ending and how counter to the book it is?
They did have a televised ceremony and awarded winners once…not sure why they stopped…IMDB should clear it up…
*and overall 97% fresh
AJC, tell that to the critics…or did you not notice the 100% Top Critic rating with an 8.8 avg, the 87 Metacritic score, and the 93 BFCA score?
Harry Potter Film fanboys and girls need to cool it. It was a great series, let’s not award a mediocre film to honor 8 other movies. HP8 was really not great.
Oh, I see. Thanks.
Why isnt Young Adult on there 🙁 sad day
Ditto, J. Edgar, a film that will come back to haunt the naysayers in time….a really underrated film with the one major drawback of being out of step with current critical tastes and expectations. It’s definitely not an oscar film, though, and that’s more a reflection of that overrated award than anything else.
J. Edgar is a wonderful choice. This is one of the most misunderstood and beautiful films of the year. It is above all a love story, and a cautionary tale about living a life where the self is oppressed. Thoroughly haunting.
Jake, AFI goes alphabetical every time. There is no “#1” movie here. 🙂
AFI has the right idea; give The Artist a special award and thus keep it out of the Oscar competition. Way to go for Bridesmaids. At least the people are represented a little bit on the list 🙂
Looks like Karger is saying they did see EL&IC-
“Extremely Loud‘s exclusion doesn’t bode well for its chances in the coming weeks. After the film failed to screen in time for the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle voting, the AFI was one of the first groups to see it for awards consideration.”
Are these ordered by preference (with the Descendants at #1), or is it just random?
Deadline Hollywood said the Artist and Harry Potter got special awards.
This list is so predictable and shows the limitations of just awarding American films.
And there is plenty of American involvement in the Potter series GL
I wasn’t the biggest fan of J.EDGAR, but compared to EL&IC, it’s freakin’ CITIZEN KANE! (Thomas Horn’s line readings are all over the place and ultimately ineffective.)
I don’t have a problem with comedies…but Bridesmaids? And The Hangover last year? Come on, there are better. What about Crazy, Stupid, Love?
It’s the “AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE” “American”…doesn’t that means anything to anyone lol. I am sure other countries have their equivalent there is nothing wrong with that.It is really interesting how “Drive” didn’t make the cut after so many critics have been putting on number 1.
Why do people knock Bridesmaids ….. about time comedies got back into the game – it aint just about serious pretentious shit!!!!
They probably didn’t see Extremely Loud because although I have not seen it either (and think It looks pretty good), if they wanted to vote for Oscar bait, it would definitely be less outrageous than J. Edgar.
All together now! “J. Edgar? Ewwwww.”
Now we can move on.
there is so much cross-over between US and British productions anyways that I think simply any film made in the English language should be eligible
Hmm, guess that answers the question of whether Harry Potter, The Artist, or Tinker Tailor were eligible. Well that’s stupid…
J. Edgar???? WTF
The Artist and the Potter series did receive an special award.
I give up!
“Bridesmaid” among TOP 10 AFI and McCarthy awarded on BSFC and NYFCO.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?! Were the serious critics??
Nice to see J.Edgar indeed…
god why is j edgar so high…
Neither of them are american films.
Actually I was thinking about taking a nap. This clinches it. 🙂
The Artist and Potter aren’t American films, so no, they weren’t.
WTF?? The artist? Potter? were not elegible?
I just missed the boat on Tree of Life, I guess. It has all this love and I just DON’T get it. I just don’t. Different stokes… for different folks.