iW CRITICS POLL '08 | The Complete Results

Scenes from "Synecdoche, New York," "Wall-E," "Man on Wire," "Waltz With Bashir," and "A Christmas Tale."

A total of 105 leading North American film critics participated in the third indieWIRE Critics' Poll, surveying the best in film for 2008. Voting was conducted in eight categories this month. 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. (Details on how the scores were tabulated are available at the end of this page.)

[Overview | Results | Comments | Undistributed | Critics]

#	BEST FILM	Points	Mentions
1	The Flight of the Red Balloon	495	43
2	A Christmas Tale	454	38
3	WALL-E	368	32
4	Wendy and Lucy	366	36
5	Happy-Go-Lucky	346	31
6	Paranoid Park	335	31
7	Still Life	330	31
8	Silent Light	310	26
9	Synecdoche, New York	290	25
10	Waltz with Bashir	283	27
11	Rachel Getting Married	267	24
12	In the City of Sylvia	256	22
13	My Winnipeg	248	27
14	Let the Right One In	237	22
15	Milk	205	20
16	The Edge of Heaven	203	17
17	Hunger	198	19
18	The Wrestler	192	19
19	Ballast	177	17
20	Man on Wire	165	16

COMPLETE LIST OF BEST FILM VOTES

#	BEST DIRECTOR	Mentions
1	Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Flight of the Red Balloon	10
2	Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky	9
3	Arnaud Desplechin, A Christmas Tale	8
	Jose Luis Guerin, In The City of Sylvia	8
5	Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light	6
6	Gus Van Sant, Milk	5
7	Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire	4
	Fatih Akin, The Edge of Heaven	4
	Gus Van Sant, Paranoid Park	4
	Kelly Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy	4
	Steven Soderbergh, Che	4
12	Ari Folman, Waltz With Bashir	3
	Eric Rohmer, The Romance of Astree and Celadon	3
	Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg	3
	Jacques Rivette, The Duchess of Langeais	3
	Jia Zhang-ke, Still Life	3
17	Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York	2
	Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler	2
	Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married	2
	Laurent Cantet, The Class	2

#	BEST FIRST FEATURE	Mentions
1	Ballast, Lance Hammer	24
2	Hunger, Steve McQueen	11
3	Frozen River, Courtney Hunt	9
4	Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman	8
5	Reprise, Joachim Trier	6
6	Frownland, Ronald Bronstein	5
7	Shotgun Stories, Jeff Nichols	4
8	In Bruges, Martin McDonagh	2
	Jellyfish, Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret	2
	Medicine for Melancholy, Barry Jenkins	2
	The Gits, Kerri O'Kane	2
12	Ben X, Nic Balthazar	1
	Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness, Laurin Federlein	1
	Charlie Bartlett, Jon Poll	1
	Choose Connor, Luke Eberl	1
	Fear(s) of the Dark, Blutch, Burns, Caillou, Di Sciullo, Mattotti, McGuire	1
	Fear(s) of the Dark, Charles Burns (segment)	1
	Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Nicholas Stoller	1
	Moving Midway, Godfrey Cheshire	1
	My Father My Lord	1
	Quid Pro Quo, Carlos Brooks	1
	Taking Father Home, Ying Liang	1
	The Betrayal - Nerakhoon, Ellen Kuras and Thavi Prasavath	1
	The Foot Fist Way, Jody Hill	1
	The Pool, Chris Smith	1
	Tokyo Gore Police, Yoshihiro Nishimura	1
	Wonderful Town, Aditya Assarat	1
	XXY, Lucía Puenzo	1

#	BEST PERFORMANCE	Points	Mentions
1	Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler	548	49
2	Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky	514	46
3	Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy	462	46
4	Sean Penn, Milk	424	41
5	Juliette Binoche, The Flight of the Red Balloon	404	38
6	Asia Argento, Boarding Gate, Mother of Tears, Last Mistress	152	15
7	Melissa Leo, Frozen River	120	12
8	Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married	114	12
9	Guillaume Depardieu, The Duchess of Langeais	104	11
10	Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche, New York	98	10
11	Mathieu Amalric, A Christmas Tale	96	11
12	Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long	90	10
13	Michael Fassbender, Hunger	78	7
14	Benicio Del Toro, Che	70	8
15	Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road	68	7
16	Catherine Deneuve, A Christmas Tale	56	7
17	Richard Jenkins, The Visitor	54	6
18	Dore Mann, Frownland	50	5
19	Galina Vishnevskaya, Alexandra	46	5
	Tarra Riggs, Ballast	46	4

#	BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE	Points	Mentions
1	Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight	424	39
2	Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky	318	29
3	Samantha Morton, Synecdoche, New York	186	17
4	Josh Brolin, Milk	174	16
5	Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road	166	17
6	Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married	156	17
7	Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder	154	16
8	Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona	144	14
9	Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler	140	13
10	Viola Davis, Doubt	124	12
11	Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain	114	10
12	Emmanuelle Devos, A Christmas Tale	100	11
13	Ann Savage, My Winnipeg	70	6
	Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading	70	7
15	Mathieu Amalric, A Christmas Tale	68	7
16	Ken Jacobs, Momma's Man	64	6
	Tarra Riggs, Ballast	64	6
	Tilda Swinton, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	64	7
19	Flo Jacobs, Momma's Man	60	6
	Jane Lynch, Role Models	60	6

#	BEST SCREENPLAY	Mentions
1	Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York	18
2	Arnaud Desplechin and Emmanuel Bourdieu, A Christmas Tale	9
3	Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married	4
	Joel and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading	4
	Martin McDonagh, In Bruges	4
	Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky	4
6	Guy Maddin and George Toles, My Winnipeg	3
	Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy	3
9	Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL-E	2
	Eric Rohmer, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon	2
	Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	2
	Fatih Akin, The Edge Of Heaven	2
	Ira Sachs and Oren Moverman, Married Life	2
	Jacques Nolot, Before I Forget	2
	Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, Reprise	3
	Robert Siegel, The Wrestler	2
	Serge Bozon and Axelle Ropert, La France	2
	Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire	2
	Steve McQueen and Enda Walsh, Hunger	2
	Thomas McCarthy, The Visitor	2

#	BEST DOCUMENTARY	Mentions
1	Man on Wire	14
2	My Winnipeg	10
3	Standard Operating Procedure	9
	Trouble the Water	9
	Waltz with Bashir	9
6	The Order of Myths	6
7	Encounters at the End of the World	3
	Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind	3
	Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired	3
	The Unforeseen	3
	Up the Yangtze	3
12	Chris & Don. A Love Story	2
	Dear Zachary: A Letter To a Son About His Father	2
	Fengming: A Chinese Memoir	2
	Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains	2
16	At the Death House Door	1
	Bigger, Stronger, Faster	1
	Chicago 10	1
	Constantine's Sword	1
	Forever	1
	Gunnin' For That #1 Spot	1
	Not Quite Hollywood	1
	Of Time and the City	1
	Operation Filmmaker	1
	Religulous	1
	Shine a Light	1
	Surfwise, Doug Pray	1
	Taxi to the Dark Side	1
	The Black List	1
	Wild Combination	1
	Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait	1

#	BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILM	Mentions
1	The Headless Woman	24
2	Night and Day	20
3	Tony Manero	17
4	Birdsong	15
5	24 City	14
	35 Shots of Rum	14
	United Red Army	14
8	I'm Going To Explode	12
	Sparrow	12
10	Liverpool	11
11	Afterschool	10
	RR	10
	Sita Sings The Blues	10
14	Chouga	7
	Four Nights with Anna	7
	Somers Town	7
17	Modern Life	6
	Me and Orson Welles	6
19	Anvil! The Story of Anvil	5
20	You, the Living	5

FULL LIST OF UNDISTRIBUTED VOTES

SCORING:
We asked each critic to cite 10 films, five lead performances, five supporting performances, 10 films without distributors, and one choice each for director, screenplay, cinematography, documentary, and first feature. Each film and performance in an unranked ballot received 10 points. Ranked ballots were weighted as follows: For film: 1 (15 points), 2 (14), 3 (13), 4 (12), 5 (11), 6 (9), 7 (8), 8 (7), 9 (6), 10 (5). For performance: 1 (14), 2 (12), 3 (10), 4 (8), 5 (6). We asked our voters to focus on films that opened for U.S. theatrical engagements in 2007. For performances that received votes in both lead and supporting, we retained the votes in those categories, so certain actors' performance votes were split into two.

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