Muriel Award: Best Editing

Giving this category an inaugural whirl this year, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Third place:



Jonathan Amos & Paul Machliss, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [95 points / 15 votes]

Second place:



Lee Smith, Inception [124/19]

And your winner....

Muriel Award: Best Web-Based Criticism

This one, in my opinion, has been a long time coming, and well-deserved. Without further ado:

Third place:



Slant Magazine [52 points / 8 votes]

Second place:



The Man Who Viewed Too Much (Mike D'Angelo) [54/9]

And your winner....

Special Muriel Award: Best Film of the 1950s

Oh, this one did cause of a lot of grief and hand-wringing. One voter re-dubbed the category "Ten Great Films from the '50s, or: A List That Shortchanges About 40 Masterpieces and Makes Me Tremble in Frustration." Another submitted his list unranked, in alphabetical order, because it was difficult enough pruning the list to ten.

Yet, for all the agonizing over what couldn't be crammed into those meager ten slots (I'm still sick over not finding space to include Rififi), this is the first category this year where the winner was pretty much what I would have guessed. Some certain members of the canon cannot be denied.

Third place:



The Searchers (1956, John Ford) [140 points / 14 ballots]

Second place:



Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock) [181.5/17]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Supporting Actress

This category tends to be a fairly wide-open field, but granting even that, I can't say I expected our winner to emerge as she did. Goes to show what I know.

Third place:



Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom [63 points / 10 votes]

Second place:



Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer [67/10]

And your winner....

Muriel Award: Best Supporting Actor

We've decided to shake things up a bit for this year's Muriel Awards. Where in past years, we've started with the Anniversary Awards, in order to ease people into the thing, this year we figured we'd take a cue from the Oscars and start with something more significant. The winner here isn't too surprising, but the overwhelming nature of his victory is. So, without further ado, here goes.

But first... runners-up!

Third place:



Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech [63 points/10 votes]

Second place:



Christian Bale, The Fighter [73/11]

And your winner....

What we've done: January 17th, 2011

(I will get better at doing these... I will get better at doing these...)

- Chuck Bowen felt The Green Hornet was a buzzkill.

- Jim Emerson reflected on Another Year and the reactions to its characters.

- James Frazier thought Black Swan was... interesting.

- Craig Kennedy riffed on the Golden Globes.

- Simon Abrams noted the irony in the 70mm Playtime being the film to kick off the newly revamped Museum of the Moving Image.

What we've done: January 1st, 2011

First posts of the new year! Hooray!

- Lucas McNelly got a shout-out from Filmmaker Magazine in regards to his simmering A Year Without Rent project. He also had something else to show us, which I'll get to in a minute.

- Simon Abrams was unimpressed by Exit Through the Gift Shop. He also didn't seem too pleased with Jonah Hex.

- Mark Pfeiffer started a new screening log.

- Craig Kennedy noted all the new stuff now available via Netflix Instant.

- Paul Clark asked for help with the last-minute Muriel cram.

- Adam Lemke wrapped up the year with Devil.

Today's video: That other thing I said Lucas McNelly had to show us? This is it. It's a rough cut of a scene from Up Country, and I'm pretty happy to feature it. Good way to start the year, I think.

UP COUNTRY: scene 33 rough cut from Lucas McNelly on Vimeo.