I know there are a million critics groups giving awards right now, but I mention this one because (a) there are some surprises and (b) a few DVDTalk reviewers are members (yours truly included)

Best Picture: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Director: Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Actor: Paul Giamatti, Sideways

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church, Sideways

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

Best Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, Story by Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sideways, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Rex Pickett

Best Cinematography: Hero, Christopher Doyle

Best Editing: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Valdís Óskarsdóttir

Best Score: The Incredibles, Michael Giacchino

Best Documentary: Fahrenheit 9/11

Best Foreign-Language Film: Hero (China)

Best Animated Feature: The Incredibles

Breakthrough Filmmaker: Zach Braff, Garden State

Breakthrough Performance: Catalina Sandrino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace

Gotta agree with Doyle getting the prize for Hero, it was stunning.

If by suprises you mean the list deviates from the inexplicable critical adoration for Sideways and actually fully recognizes a far superior film, then yes, this list is surprising.

The only thing I disagree with is Hero winning best foreign language film... the rest I'm basically okay with.

Terrific list. Eternal Sunshine deserves all the accolades and critical adoration Sideways has been getting.

That is what I meant. I liked Sideways... quite a bit. But I couldn't see naming it the single best film of the year, even an overall crummy film year like this one. It got the awards it deserved (and Madsen was wonderful too.)

I haven't seen any of the other films yet, so I can't comment on them. But these were some of my favorites from last year, particularly the two ladies.

Well just on a personal note, I like the winners here alot better...Any awards that give best actress to Kate Winslet gets a from me. Of course I am heavily biased and have yet to see Sideways.

Also, maybe I should see Eternal Sunshine again, but I doubt I'd like it much better than I did the first time.

You just have something against domestic filmmakers not named Soderbergh.

I definately have no problems with Eternal Sunshine getting some attention.

Just what we neeed, yet another 'critics award'! Are these people desperate for attention or what? Truly sad. Has anyone actually stopped to count the number of 'awards' in the film business? Must be in the thousands by now.

And yet you took the time to open this thread and read it and post a reply as well. Congrats!

Not true, not true! I also like Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Michael Mann...

Well that's a revelation!

That list does not suprise me at all. While I liked Eternal Sunshine it was far from the best movie of the year and was not even nearly as good as 2003's Lost in Translation.

Unsurprisingly, I'm in complete agreement.

Same here. I feel like I couldn't possibly have seen the same movie as everyone else. . .

Sideways is getting, and will continue to get all the awards because people between 30 and 60 can relate to it. That's all the Academy members right there.

I loved Eternal Sunshine, but I think its complexities and non-linear story hurt it somewhat because regular ppl like me have to see the damn thing more than once to figure out wtf is going on.

That being said, they're both very good and will clean up on award nods.