first the National Board of Review, now it's time for the various critics circles to roll out their award selections. Here's the Washington, DC area Film Critics picks:


Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire/Fox Searchlight
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Ensemble: Doubt/Miramax
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Animated Feature: Wall∙E /Disney & Pixar
Best Foreign Language Film: Let The Right One In/Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing
Best Documentary: Man On Wire/Magnolia
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/Paramount



Last year:

Best Film:No Country for Old Men/Miramax & Paramount Vantage
Best Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Best Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
Best Actress: Julie Christie (Away From Her)
Best Ensemble:No Country for Old Men/Miramax & Paramount Vantage
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Best Breakthrough Performance: Ellen Page (Juno)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War)
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno)
Best Animated Feature:Ratatouille/Disney & Pixar
Best Foreign Language Film:The Diving Bell and the Butterfly/Miramax
Best Documentary:SiCKO/The Weinstein Company
Best Art Direction:Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street/Paramount

Year before that:

Best Film, United 93/Universal
Best Actor, Forest Whitaker - The Last King Of Scotland
Best Actress, Helen Mirren - The Queen
Best Supporting Actor, Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Best Director, Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Best Screenplay, Original, Michael Arndt - Little Miss Sunshine
Best Screenplay, Adapted, Jason Reitman - Thank You For Smoking
Best Foreign Film, Pan’s Labyrinth/Picturehouse
Best Animated Feature, Happy Feet/Warner Brothers
Best Documentary, An Inconvenient Truth/Paramount Classics
Best Breakthrough Performance, Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Best Ensemble, Little Miss Sunshine/Fox Searchlight
Best Art Direction, Marie Antoinette/SONY Pictures Entertainment

The Movie Mom, the kid from the Sports Junkies, Willie Waffle, and about twenty other oddballs and nobodies...if you were wondering.

What, no Arch Campbell!?? I've lived in D.C. nearly my entire life and yes, the critics here are useless.

Nice to see Slumdog Millionaire racking up the awards.

personally, I find Arch Campbell to be so vanilla in his movie tastes.

While I have nothing against Arch Campbell personally or professionally, I'd prefer we never mention his name again. A friend of mine used to work as a projectionist, and was caught in the booth naked by Arch. So every time his name is mentioned I picture that scene, and it isn't pretty.

but does Arch's wife know

you guys ever hear Patton Oswald's bit on Arch Campbell? If you are from the area you will love it.

A quick search couldn't find a clip.....

Their choices for the past 3 years are not very good IMO

with DC being more a "theatre" town than a "film" town - I'm really surprised that anyone really cares what the DC film critics tout and award.

Patton Oswald - Werewolves & Lollipops
Track 14 - "The Gatekeepers of Coolness"

The bit right before is on Sterling.

That Patton Oswalt bit is the last part of this:
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Is your friend male or female?

Male. He was "with" a girl when Arch walked in on them.

That's it. Listen to the whole thing cause his view on the Prequel Trilogy is

I got my "by's" and "with's" mixed up there...

What, no love for Desson Howe and Stephen Hunter?

I knew his brother when he and I worked at Olsson's Books and Records in Georgetown.

Me too. But surely Arch was sneaking in there with the male concession stand guy. Seriously though, why else is he going in the projection booth!?

I bet Warner Brothers wishes they never sold Slumdog Millionaire

"Idiots!!'