AFT Awards: Best Documentary

This is the eighteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. This is a new AFT category, added because I had the privilege of screening twenty-three documentaries from 2010.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero, 11/4/08, Freakonomics, Harlan: In Shadow of Jew, Highwater, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel, The Lottery, Precious Life, Saint Misbehavin: The Wavy Gravy Movie, Severe Clear, Smash His Camera, Waiting for Amageddon, When You're Strange

The winner:
The Art of the Steal was a thoroughly-researched, delightfully entertaining chronicle of an astonishing theft.

Other nominees:
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Inside Job
Waiting for Superman
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. Despite including two of my top ten favorite films of the year, 2010 did not boast too much terrific animation.

The winner:
Toy Story 3 was an absolutely fantastic return to childhood through the lens of a third series entry that had its own original story to tell.

Other nominees:
Tangled
The Illusionist

AFT Awards: Best Visual Effects

This is the sixteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
Inception bent reality in scene after scene, making the impossible look gloriously possible through seamless special effects.

Other nominees:
Iron Man 2
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Alice in Wonderland
Daybreakers

AFT Awards: Best Makeup

This is the fifteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
District 13: Ultimatum, Micmacs, Shutter Island

The winner:
Daybreakers defined a new landscape of society by visually identifying and distinguishing the undead from the still living.

Other nominees:
Alice in Wonderland
The Way Back
Barney’s Version
The Fighter

AFT Awards: Best Sound Editing

This is the fourteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Alice in Wonderland, Daybreakers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Knight and Day, Micmacs, Shutter Island

The winner:
Inception had its characters and story live and breathe with its sound effects, triggering those within the film and watching the film with aural cues.

Other nominees:
Iron Man 2
District 13: Ultimatum
Lebanon
127 Hours

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Alice in Wonderland, Daybreakers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Micmacs, 127 Hours, Shutter Island

The winner:
Inception relied heavily on its audio-related elements to drive forward its story and sow its worlds together.

Other nominees:
Iron Man 2
District 13: Ultimatum
Lebanon
Knight and Day

AFT Awards: Best Original Song

This is the twelfth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. This year, I’ve decided to work off of the official list of 41 eligible original songs, choosing to honor great songs from films I haven’t necessarily seen (namely, “Idiots and Angels” and “Twilight: Eclipse”) in the aim of recognizing the best original songs written for motion pictures this past year.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me (Burlesque), Me and Tennessee (Country Strong), If I Rise (127 Hours)

Runners-up:
Sticks and Stones (How to Train Your Dragon)
Bound to You (Burlesque)
Coming Home (Country Strong)
Chanson Illusionist (The Illusionist)
Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

The winner:
Le Gris (Idiots and Angels) is a gorgeous and unique ballad with wonderful scoring with wonderfully haunting lyrics.

Other nominees:
I See the Light (Tangled)
We Belong Together (Toy Story 3)
This Is a Low (Tamara Drewe)
Eclipse: All Yours (Twilight: Eclipse)

AFT Awards: Best Original Score

This is the eleventh category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, District 13: Ultimatum, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, The King’s Speech, The Last Airbender, The Social Network

The winner:
Inception (Hans Zimmer) used music to accompany its action scenes and also as an integral, spectacular part of its plot.

Other nominees:
Never Let Me Go (Rachel Portman)
The Ghost Writer (Alexandre Desplat)
Tamara Drewe (Alexandre Desplat)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Jacob Groth)

AFT Awards: Best Film Editing

This is the tenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Blue Valentine, City of Your Final Destination, Daybreakers, Dogtooth, The Dry Land, Fish Tank, The Girl on the Train, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Handsome Harry, Kisses, The King's Speech, The Losers, Mother, Ondine, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, Shutter Island, Toy Story 3

Runners-up:
127 HOURS
THE FIGHTER
DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM
SOMEWHERE
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES

The winner:
Inception (Lee Smith) was mesmerizingly assembled, combining multiple realities and somehow sensibly layering them on top of one another.

Other nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Anne Osterud)
The Social Network (Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall)
A Prophet (Juliette Welfling)
Micmacs (Hervé Schneid)

AFT Awards: Best Costume Design

This is the ninth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Daybreakers, Inception, Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Shutter Island, The Tempest, True Grit

Runners-up:
HEARTBREAKER
MAO’S LAST DANCER
THE KING’S SPEECH
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
THE KILLER INSIDE ME

The winner:
A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop (Huang Qiuping) garbed its characters in gorgeous, colorful, cultural wear that made them stick out so much from their considerably grimmer surroundings.

Other nominees:
Glorious 39 (Annie Symons)
Micmacs (Madeline Fontaine)
Red Riding: 1974 (Natalie Ward)
Red Riding: 1983 (Caroline Harris)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, Daybreakers, District 13: Ultimatum, The Eclipse, The Girl on the Train, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Iron Man 2, Life During Wartime, The Losers, Mao's Last Dancer, Micmacs, Ondine, A Prophet, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, The Secret in their Eyes, Secretariat, Shutter Island

Runners-up:
SOMEWHERE
THE KING’S SPEECH
DOGTOOTH
KISSES
MAO’S LAST DANCER

The winner:
Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias & Douglas A. Mowat) designed countless realities, each more visually mesmerizing and astounding than the next.

Other nominees:
I Am Love (Francesca Balestra Di Mottola & Monica Sironi)
Micmacs (Aline Bonetto)
A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (Han Zhong)
The Killer Inside Me (Rob Simons, Mark Tildesley & Jeanette Scott)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Animal Kingdom, The Eclipse, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, The Secret in their Eyes, Shutter Island, The Social Network

Runners-up:
THE KILLER INSIDE ME
127 HOURS
A PROPHET

The winner:
Inception (Wally Pfister) offered a whole new take on reality, and nowhere was that more clear than in the way its shots were framed and presented.

Other nominees:
Somewhere (Harris Savides)
I Am Love (Yorick Le Saux)
Micmacs (Tetsuo Negata)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Eric Kress)

Movie with Abe: The Way Back

The Way Back
Directed by Peter Weir
Released January 22, 2011

Some films can be easily classified as epics, where a grand, sweeping cinematography-filled adventure, battle, or experience fills a large chunk of the plot. They are often extensive in runtime and prone to indulgence in celebrating their own magnitude. Some films, such as “Gladiator” or “The Lord of the Rings” (at least the first two films), are marvelously effective staples of the genre. Others, such as Peter Weir’s new film “The Way Back,” try so desperately hard to feel like epics that they ultimately just don’t deliver as either compelling or rewarding, taking their audiences on an overlong and tiresome journey.

The story of three men who escaped from a Siberian gulag and walked several thousand miles to India is without a doubt fascinating. Some have raised questions about its truthfulness as a real-life event, but that need not be part of the analysis or breakdown of the film. What’s more pertinent is that it’s a magnificently intriguing story, yet the execution of the film doesn’t do it justice at all. It’s the kind of cinematic realization that leaves viewers with a desire to learn more about how this incredible journey occurred, hardly being fulfilled by the events onscreen as some sort of explanation.

Its participants undertook a long, unbearable, impossible trek to get to freedom. The film represents a similarly strenuous and seemingly endless trip, consistently failing to seize upon the more interesting portions of a given scene or the journey as a whole. Director Peter Weir has made many terrific films – “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” “The Truman Show,” “Dead Poets Society,” and “Witness” are among the more notable – and this is not one of them. There’s no trace of hidden brilliance here; instead it’s a movie that presumes itself to be of grand importance, and accordingly assigns its characters significant roles in its greater storytelling scheme. Ed Harris is the fatherly veteran, Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement,” “The Lovely Bones”) the wandering orphan who instantly commands trust from all of the men, Colin Farrell the crazy-eyed jackal, and Jim Sturgess the stoic, always hopeful leader. With the exception of the solid and dependable Sturgess, none of these otherwise great actors delivers a strong performance, though Mark Strong (“Body of Lies,” “Rocknolla”) impresses in his limited role. It’s simply not worth traveling the way back with this group, and it’s a shame because with such a terrific premise and the talent involved, the dialogue should not have been this bad and the film should not have been this dull.

C-

Movie with Abe: The Other Woman

The Other Woman
Directed by Don Roos
Released February 4, 2011

Though it was filmed several years ago, “The Other Woman” marks Natalie Portman’s third film to be released in three months. This makes an interesting comparison piece after her Oscar-nominated turn as a paranoid, overworked ballerina in “Black Swan” and her lighter comic portrayal of a workaholic medical student determined not to have a committed relationship in “No Strings Attached.” Now she’s playing an entry-level paralegal that ends up married to her boss after an extensive affair with the married man, conveyed via informative flashbacks to fill in the holes in the present-day story of Emilia’s struggle to fit in with her new husband and his young son.

It’s hard to find a truly sympathetic character in “The Other Woman.” Emilia (Portman) is cold in demeanor, rarely boasts a smile, and quickly become impatient with those around her. Her husband’s first wife, Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow) is outright cruel and icy in her interactions with everyone, not just Emilia. Emilia’s husband Jack (Scott Cohen) is a kind-hearted, supportive father, but he’s also an unfaithful husband who became involved with Emilia while he was still married to Carolyne. And then there’s Jack’s son William (Charlie Tahan), who seems to do his best to antagonize Emilia, though it’s important to remember that he’s only a child, and a child of divorce at that.

Having no sympathetic characters isn’t a damning factor for a film, but there needs to be something to make up for that represented in some other element or elements of the film. This feels very much like a film that can’t quite realize the fullness of its potential, working off of an intriguing premise that just doesn’t lend itself to an equally interesting story. Part of the film’s central plot, involving the premature death of Emilia’s baby, feels forced and overly drawn out to make it into something that it’s not. The dialogue feels particularly out of sync with the characters, as if the actors are reading right off a rough draft script and haven’t yet had a chance to prepare their lines or polish their performances. It lends a great air of inauthenticity to a film that never really takes time to develop its characters, fascinating as they could well be. Anyone searching for a moral or cautionary tale in the film will be left wanting, and there isn’t much else for those without an active interest in taking something home from the film with them.

C

AFT Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay

This is the sixth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Greatest, Rabbit Hole, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Wild Grass, Youth in Revolt

Runners-up:
WINTER’S BONE
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
127 HOURS
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES
TANGLED

The winner:
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin) was fast-paced, witty, furiously engaging, and easily contained the best dialogue of the year

Other nominees:
Fair Game (Jez & John-Henry Butterworth)
The Ghost Writer (Robert Harris & Roman Polanski)
The City of Your Final Destination (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich)

AFT Awards: Best Original Screenplay

This is the fifth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Biutiful, Blue Valentine, Cyrus, Daybreakers, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Dogtooth, Easy A, The Eclipse, The Father of My Children, The Fighter, Harry Brown, Heartbreaker, The Joneses, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, The Last New Yorker, Leaving, Looking for Eric, Mother, Mother and Child, Ondine, Paper Man, Please Give, Somewhere

Runners-up:
HANDSOME HARRY
LEAVES OF GRASS
OF GODS AND MEN
ANIMAL KINGDOM
ANOTHER YEAR

The winner:
Four Lions (Simon Blackwell, Sam Bain, Christopher Morris & Jesse Armstrong) was a wondrously politically-incorrect comedy that managed to stay smart as it presented the dumbest of characters in the most hilarious of scenes.

Other nominees:
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
Micmacs (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri & Nicolas Peufaillit)
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

AFT Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

This is the fourth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Alison Barry (Ondine), Helena Bonham Carter (Alice in Wonderland), Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Kathleen Chalfant (The Last New Yorker), Minnie Driver (Barney’s Version), Elle Fanning (Somewhere), America Ferrera (The Dry Land), Julie Ferrier (Heartbreaker), Julie Ferrier (Micmacs), Tamsin Greig (Tamara Drewe), Amber Heard (The Joneses), Iben Hjelje (The Eclipse), Scarlett Johanssen (Iron Man 2), Ranin Karim (Ajami), Alice de Lencquesaing (The Father of My Children), Leighton Meester (Country Strong), Marguerite Moreau (Douchebag), Emily Mortimer (Harry Brown), Kerry Peacock (Down Terrace), Amanda Peet (Please Give), Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham), Emma Roberts (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), Sarah Steele (Please Give), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Marisa Tomei (Cyrus), Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right)

Runners-up:
CAREY MULLIGAN (The Greatest)
SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Life During Wartime)
ANN GUILBERT (Please Give)
RUTH SHEEN (Another Year)
EMANUELLE DEVOS (Wild Grass)

The winner:
Melissa Leo (The Fighter) was nearly unrecognizable as a mother obsessed with helping her son – and the legacy of her family – succeed.

Other nominees:
Rosamund Pike (Made in Dagenham) shined in a small role as an wonderfully positive and forward-thinking unlikely ally for the ladies of Dagenham. Jodie Whittaker (White Wedding) infused tremendous energy and excitement into a young woman on holiday who stood out distinctly from all those around her. Amy Adams (The Fighter) played against type and delivered a typically excellent performance. Laura Linney (The City of Your Final Destination) defined uptight, judgmental, and impatient in her portrayal of a widow living with her husband’s mistress.

AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

This is the third category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Roger Allam (Tamara Drewe), Mathieu Amalric (Wild Grass), Niels Arestup (A Prophet), Lucas Black (Get Low), Jim Broadbent (Another Year), Eric Cantona (Looking for Eric), Gary Cole (The Joneses), Andre Dussolier (Micmacs), Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom), Chris Evans (The Losers), Guillermo Francella (The Secret in their Eyes), Zach Galifianakis (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), Armie Hammer (The Social Network), Tom Hardy (Inception), Garrett Hedlund (Country Strong), Jonah Hill (Cyrus), Dustin Hoffman (Barney’s Version), Bob Hoskins (Made in Dagenham),Tommy Lee Jones (The Company Men), Ben Kingsley (Shutter Island), Dick Latessa (The Last New Yorker), Michael Lonsdale (Of Gods and Men), Nicolas Marie (Micmacs), Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom), Cillian Murphy (Inception), Sean Penn (Fair Game), Oliver Platt (Please Give), Pablo Rago (The Secret in their Eyes), Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2), Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Phillippe Torreton (District 13: Ultimatum)

Runners-up:
ANTHONY HOPKINS (The City of Your Final Destination)
EDDIE MARSAN (The Disappearance of Alice Creed)
YVAN ATTAL (Leaving)
MATT DAMON (True Grit)
ANDREW GARFIELD (The Social Network)

The winner:
Christian Bale (The Fighter) disappeared into the troubled character of Dicky Eklund, and his dramatic weight loss was hardly the only notable part of his transformation.

Other nominees:
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) breathed marvelous life into a film full of (purposely) stiff personalities, refusing to let their negative spirits bring him down. John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) was unrecognizable as the terrifying Teardop. Michael Fassbender (Fish Tank) offered a layered portrait of a man with immoral tendencies but a kind heart. Nigel Lindsay (Four Lions) was hilarious as the most purposefully ridiculous of his terrorists-in-training cohorts.

AFT Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role

This is the second category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Gemma Arterton (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe), Alicja Bachleda (Ondine), Annette Bening (Mother and Child), Madeline Caroll (Flipped), Chiara Caselli (The Father of My Children), Julia Deakin (Down Terrace), Emilie Dequenne (The Girl on the Train), Cameron Diaz (Knight and Day), Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt), Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs), Sally Hawkins (Made in Dagenham), Isabelle Huppert (White Material), Catherine Keener (Please Give), Demi Moore (The Joneses), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), Kelly O’Neill (Kisses), Vanessa Paradis (Heartbreaker), Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Emma Stone (Paper Man), Kristin Scott Thomas (Leaving), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Naomi Watts (Mother and Child), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)

Runners-up:
KIM HYE-JA (Mother)
NICOLE KIDMAN (Rabbit Hole)
TILDA SWINTON (I Am Love)
EMMA STONE (Easy A)
KATIE ASELTON (The Freebie)

The winner:
Lesley Manville (Another Year) buried herself into this year’s strongest Mike Leigh-directed performance, authentically and mesmerizingly playing an ordinary woman who couldn’t hope to recognize her dependence on others.

Other nominees:
Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank) delivered a raw, magnetic turn in her film debut. Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) acted much older than her age as she played a teenager desperately to be an adult. Naomi Watts (Fair Game) embodied a real-life CIA agent and made her seem brave, tough, and strong without resorting to action-oriented tricks. Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) perfected her high-strung, sardonic archetype to hilariously and dramatically portray an atypical wife and mother.

AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role

This is the first category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Casey Affleck (The Killer Inside Me), Riz Ahmed (Four Lions), Dany Boon (Micmacs), Michael Caine (The American), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Michael Cera (Youth in Revolt), George Clooney (The American), Paddy Considine (Red Riding: 1980), Brian Cox (The Good Heart), Tom Cruise (Knight and Day), Shane Curry (Kisses), Ricardo Darin (The Secret in their Eyes), Stephen Dorff (Somewhere), Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man 2), David Duchovny (The Joneses) Steve Evets (Looking for Eric), Colin Farell (Ondine), James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom), Andrew Garfield (Red Riding: 1974), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs), Robert Hill (Down Terrace), Robin Hill (Down Terrace), Shair Kabaha (Ajami)Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (The Father of My Children), Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), John C. Reilly (Cyrus), Dax Shepard (The Freebie), Jamey Sheridan (Handsome Harry), Kevin Spacey (Casino Jack), Ben Stiller (Greenberg), Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter)

Runners-up:
COLIN FIRTH (The King’s Speech)
AARON ECKHART (Rabbit Hole)
CIARIN HINDS (The Eclipse)
DOMINIC CHIANESE (The Last New Yorker)
ROMAIN DURIS (Heartbreaker)

The winner:
Edward Norton (Leaves of Grass) played identical twins so different from one another that it was hard to see a resemblance, energetically embodying a Southern drug dealer and his more subdued, philosophical professor brother.

Other nominees:
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) dominated a film full of strong actors with his distinct, committed, and complex portrait of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. James Franco (127 Hours) carried an entire film with his youthful energy and free spirit in the midst of an impossible situation. Javier Bardem (Biutiful) compellingly portrayed a good man trying to reconcile the state of his life and the terrible nature of his actions. Lambert Wilson (Of Gods and Men) was remarkably subtle in his realization of a forward-thinking monk determined not to let himself or his community be influenced by violence.