Muriel Award: 50th Anniversary Award for Best Film of 1960

Today: Maybe the least surprising winner we have!

Third place:



Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard) [110 points / 19 ballots]

Second place:



The Apartment (Billy Wilder) [124/19]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Cinematography

Last year, this category ended up a tight race that was decided by the last two submitted ballots. This year? Not quite that close, but still damned close.

Third place:



The Social Network (director of photography: Jeff Cronenweth) [75 points / 13 votes]

Second place:



Shutter Island (director of photography: Robert Richardson) [95/15]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Cinematic Breakthrough

The most nebulous category we have, and one where there's always some offbeat votes. (Last year two different members voted for phenomena.) Yet, we always end up with a winner of which I can be proud. This year ain't no different.

Third place:



Banksy [68 points / 11 votes]

Second place:



Jennifer Lawrence [80/13]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Music (Original, Adapted or Compiled)

There was a time, early on in the ballot tabulation, where I thought this race might be close and the second-place finisher could sneak in up top. Boy, was I wrong about that.

Third place:



Inception (score by Hans Zimmer) [82 points / 14 votes]

Second place:



Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (score by Nigel Godrich, additional music by Steve Price, music supervisor Kathy Nelson, songs by Beck Hansen and others) [85/14]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: 25th Anniversary Award for Best Film of 1985

I honestly expected our second-place finisher in this category to be the winner. (And I say this as someone who, shamefully, has yet to see it.) I love the winner. I voted for it. But I figured Kurosawa would not be denied. Shows what I know.

Third place:



After Hours (Martin Scorsese) [110 points / 19 votes]

Second place:



Ran (Akira Kurosawa) [128/19]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Ensemble

Some categories, the voting is close and you understand why. Others, it isn't. And you still understand why. Guess which today's is.

Third place:



Carlos [70 points / 11 votes]

Second place:



True Grit [111/18]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: Best Body of Work

This was a befuddling category this year. A lot of partial votes, a lot of empty ballots on this category. And I can't really blame anyone - but we still got enough to declare a winner. (One I rather like, too.) Also, I'm both surprised and happy at our third-place entry.

Third place:



Manoel de Oliveira, director (Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl and The Strange Case of Angelica) [67 points / 9 votes]

Second place:



Mark Ruffalo, actor (Shutter Island and The Kids Are All Right) [67/12]

And your winner...

Muriel Award: 10th Anniversary Award for Best Film of 2000

A lot of strong contenders for the award this year. Any of the top five could have taken the top slot and I doubt most people would have had much issue. But there's a winner - there's always a winner.

Third place:



Yi Yi (Edward Yang) [80 points / 12 votes]

Second place:



Memento (Christopher Nolan) [81/14]

And your winner...

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....