James Berardinelli's (ReelViews) Top 10.

Honorable mentions:
The Avengers
End of Watch
Ruby Sparks
Moonrise Kingdom

10 (tie): The Dark Knight Rises
             Les Miserables
9: Argo
8: Skyfall
7: Silver Linings Playbook
6: Django Unchained
5: Amour
4: A Separation (A 2011 holdover)
3: Lincoln
2: Zero Dark Thirty
1: Looper

You can read his thoughts on each film here.

Golden Bear!

What is this Caesar Must Die? Its the winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin! Not that that's a good thing. It opened to mixed reviews, and it might head straight to TV. Terrible, because when I think 'Golden Bear', I think Thin Red Line, Magnolia, or most recently, A Separation. Anyways, that's just a quick news update.

ICS Nominees!

The International Cinephiles Society has announced their nominees! A Separation leads the pack.

PICTURE
• Certified Copy
• Drive
• Hugo
• Margaret
• Meek’s Cutoff
• Melancholia
• Mysteries of Lisbon
• A Separation
• The Tree of Life
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Weekend

DIRECTOR
• Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
• Abbas Kiarostami – Certified Copy
• Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
• Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
• Raoul Ruiz – Mysteries of Lisbon

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• Certified Copy
• House of Pleasures
• Le Havre
• Le Quattro Volte
• Mysteries of Lisbon
• Of Gods and Men
• Poetry
• A Separation
• The Skin I Live In
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

ACTOR
• Tom Cullen – Weekend
• Michael Fassbender – Shame
• Peyman Moaadi – A Separation
• Chris New – Weekend
• Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

ACTRESS
• Sareh Bayat – A Separation
• Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy
• Elizabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Anna Paquin – Margaret
• Yun Jung-hee – Poetry

SUPPORTING ACTOR
• Albert Brooks – Drive
• Shahab Hosseini – A Separation
• Michael Lonsdale – Of Gods and Men
• Brad Pitt – The Tree of Life
• Christopher Plummer – Beginners

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
• Jessica Chastain – The Tree of Life
• Leila Hatami – A Separation
• Carey Mulligan – Shame
• J. Smith-Cameron – Margaret

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• Certified Copy – Abbas Kiarostami
• Margaret – Kenneth Lonergan
• Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
• A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
• Weekend – Andrew Haigh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• Drive – Hossein Amini, James Sallis
• Moneyball – Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis
• Mysteries of Lisbon – Carlos Saboga, Camilo Castelo Branco
• The Skin I Live In – Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar, Thierry Jonquet
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan, John le Carré

CINEMATOGRAPHY
• Drive – Newton Thomas Sigel
• Melancholia – Manuel Alberto Claro
• The Mill and the Cross – Lech Majewski, Adam Sikora
• Mysteries of Lisbon – André Szankowski
• The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki

EDITING
• Drive – Matthew Newman
• Martha Marcy May Marlene – Zachary Stuart-Pontier
• Mysteries of Lisbon – Carlos Madaleno, Valeria Sarmiento
• A Separation – Hayedeh Safiyari
• The Tree of Life – Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa

PRODUCTION DESIGN
• Hugo – Dante Ferretti
• The Mill and the Cross – Marcel Slawinski, Katarzyna Sobanska-Strzalkowska
• Mysteries of Lisbon – Isabel Branco
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Maria Djurkovic
• The Tree of Life – Jack Fisk

ORIGINAL SCORE
• Drive – Cliff Martinez
• Hanna – Tom Rowlands, Ed Simons (as The Chemical Brothers)
• Mysteries of Lisbon – Jorge Arriagada
• The Skin I Live In – Alberto Iglesias
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias

ENSEMBLE
• Bridesmaids
• Margaret
• Midnight in Paris
• Mysteries of Lisbon
• A Separation
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

ANIMATED FILM
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Rango
• Winnie the Pooh

DOCUMENTARY
• The Arbor
• The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
• Nostalgia for the Light
• Pina
• Senna

BEST PICTURE NOT RELEASED IN 2011
• Alps
• Century of Birthing
• Declaration of War
• The Deep Blue Sea
• Elena
• Faust
• The Kid with a Bike
• Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
• This Is Not a Film
• The Turin Horse

9 films duke it out for the Foreign Language film nomination.

The following 9 will contend for the 5 nominations. Surprised that Where Do We Go Now? didn't make the cut, but I am still waiting for A Separation to come to our quiet Cedar Rapids. Following films will contend:

Belgium: Bullhead
Canada: Monsieur Lazhar
Denmark: Superclásico
Germany: Pina
Iran: A Separation
Israel: Footnote
Morocco: Omar Killed Me
Poland: In Darkness
Taiwan: Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

People Magazine's Top 10 Movies

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close got a number one! You can read the complete list below or go to your newsstand and see it, including top 10 albums and TV shows...

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
"...a film that's wrenching and a miracle."
2. The Artist
"...more imaginative than nearly every other film this year."
3. Drive
4. A Separation
5. The Skin I Live In
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
7. Senna
8. The Descendants
9. The Adventures of Tintin
10. Bridesmaids