"A total of 106 leading North American film critics participated in the second indieWIRE Critics' Poll, surveying the best in film for 2007. Voting was conducted in nine categories during the first half of December. This poll was created to continue the tradition of a national survey of critics, by calling attention to the year's best -- and, in many cases, most overlooked -- films, providing a meaningful counterpoint to much of the year-end hoopla."

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The top 20 films, according to IndieWire:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Zodiac
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Syndromes and a Century
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
6. I’m Not There
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Colossal Youth
9. Killer of Sheep
10. Offside
11. Black Book
12. Once
13. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
14. Eastern Promises
15. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
16. Regular Lovers
17. The Host
18. Southland Tales
19. Into the Wild
20. Ratatouille

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The report further says: Still unseen by the general public as the year comes to a close, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" dominated indieWIRE's annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics. Set for a limited U.S. release starting next week, the exceptional fifth feature by P.T. Anderson was named best film of the year in indieWIRE's poll of 106 film critics.

Notably, the film topped five categories: Anderson was singled out for best director and best screenplay, while Daniel Day-Lewis' role as oil man Daniel Plainview was named the best performance of 2007 and Robert Elswit was singled out for best cinematography. Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight" was voted the best documentary of the year and in the category of best first film, Canadian actress turned director Sarah Polley, with her debut feature "Away From Her," edged out fellow thespian Ben Affleck's "Gone Baby Gone."

Set in Central California in the early 1900s, "There Will Be Blood" -- adapted by Anderson from Upton Sinclair's 1920s novel, "Oil!" -- was recently named the movie of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and is rightfully being recognized as a distinctive American cinematic achievement. The Paramount Vantage/Miramax production, depicting a power struggle that plays out on dusty, virgin West Coast oil fields, pits a slick oil man (Day-Lewis) against a savvy young, local preacher (Paul Dano). With striking music from Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood and exceptional period design by longtime Terrence Malick collaborator Jack Fisk, the film opens in limited release on December 26th, ahead of a slow expansion into more theaters in early '08.

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Comments (1)

huh????

Imagine the South Korean B-movie, The Host in the top 20? I could not disagree more!

I love Ratatouille! AND Zodiac at #2 seems fine to me, and to see There will be Blood getting the top spot!

Though I'm a big fan of Zodiac, I just think No Country should have been ranked higher...and NO ATONEMENT???

jedmed , December 21, 2007

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