The Matrix - 30% Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - 24% Speed - 18% The Devil's Advocate - 15% Point Break - 7% Constantine - 5% top write in VOTE: (The Lake House)
American Film Institute released the winners of its AFI Awards Sunday, including its annual top 10 list.
Org's top 10 movies of the year, in alphabetical order, are "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Frozen River," "Gran Torino," "Iron Man," "Milk," 'Wall-E," "Wendy and Lucy," and "The Wrestler."
"Slumdog Millionaire," which has been racking up honors this awards season, was not on the list. One of AFI's criteria is that a film has "significant creative and/or production elements from the United States."
Awards contenders "Revolutionary Road," "Reader" and "Doubt," which meet that criterion, were also left off the list.
The AFI top 10 TV programs of the year, including series, telepics and minis, are "Breaking Bad," "In Treatment," "John Adams," "Life," "Lost," 'Mad Men," "The Office," "Recount," "The Shield," and "The Wire."
Several series that garnered multiple nominations from the Golden Globes and guilds in the past week were left off the list, including: "30 Rock," "Entourage," "Weeds," "Damages," "Dexter," "House" and "True Blood." This is the first awards attention NBC's "Life" has ever received.
AFI kudos are selected with a 13-person jury process where members discuss and debate the merits of titles and provide detailed rationale for each selection. The jury's composed of "scholars, film artists, critics and AFI trustees."
CLICK HERE and see the FULL LIST of the NOMINATIONS!
SPECIALTY FILMS SIZZLING AT BOX OFFICE
Rumors of the death of independent film are greatly exaggerated -- judging by the weekend box office, anyway.
The combined performance of a number of films delivered one of the best weekends ever for the specialty box office, led by the successful debuts of Warner Bros.' "Gran Torino," directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, and Miramax's Meryl Streep-Philip Seymour Hoffman starrer "Doubt."
Kate Winslet-Ralph Fiennes topliner "The Reader," from the Weinstein Co., also enjoyed a strong debut.
None of this, however, took away from holdovers Gus Van Sant's"Milk," Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" or Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon," all of which continued to do strong biz.
It's an unexpected reversal of fortune for a business that has taken plenty of knocks this year. The B.O. bounce came just as the first wave of award nominations and critic wins were announced last week, including Golden Globe noms, heightening awareness.
At $47,340, "Gran Torino" scored the best per-location average of the weekend as it grossed an estimated $284,000 from six runs in Los Angeles and Gotham, according to Rentrak.
"Torino" was absent from top Golden Globe categories, while "Milk" earned only one, for Sean Penn's performance. However, both films won key endorsements from critics groups announcing their 2008 winning picks.
Focus Features' "Milk" stayed on the top 10 box office chart as it made its biggest push yet, growing its theater count from 89 to 328. Pic grossed an estimated $2.6 million for a cume of $7.6 million in its third week. Per- location average of $8,035 was second best on the top 10 chart films after 20th Century Fox's "The Day the Earth Stood Still," which won the weekend.
CLASSIC FILMS
BY GENRE
Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Australia
Quantum of Solace
Milk
The Secret Life of Bees
BOX OFFICE
City of Ember
Four Christmases
Twilight
Bolt
