Best Actress: Naomi Watts, The Impossible (Runners-up: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty; Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild).
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master, and Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (tie). (Runner up: John Hawkes, The Sessions)
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Hathaway, Les Miserables, and Helen Hunt, The Sessions (tie).
Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)(Runners up: Robert DiNiro, Silver Linings Playbook, Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln)
Best Supporting Ensemble: the people of Carthage, TX, Bernie
Best Director: Ben Affleck, Argo
(Runners up: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln and Quintin Terrantino, Django Unchained)
Best Song: Skyfall, Adelle, from Skyfall
Best Animated Movie: Brave (Runner up: Wreck-It Ralph)
And now the Best Movie list:
1. Argo - Great movie making. Tense drama, edge of your seat suspense even though you know the ending - and a little humor thrown in, too.
2. The Impossible - Extraordinary film making about a family swept away by the 2004 tsunami.
3. Life of Pi - wonderful 3-D movie making that will give you plenty to think about when you leave the theater
4. Lincoln - Daniel Day Lewis is sensational, but its still a bit pretentious.
5. Skyfall - Bond is back, and at his best
6. Zero Dark Thirty - The decade of planning and sacrifices leading to the raid on Osama Bin Ladin.
7. End of Watch - Best cop movie in a long time. You really care about these guys.
8. Django Unchained - Outrageous. Filled with over-the-top characters and uber blood and guts. Vintage Terrantino.
9. Bernie - a quirky comedy with Jack Black, Shirley McClain and the scene-stealing people of Carthage, Texas.
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6-year-old Hushpuppy & the ancient auroch - one of stunning images from Beasts of the Southern Wild |
10. Beasts of the Southern Wild - Remarkable performance by 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis and Dwight Henry as her dying alcoholic father. Whether you fully understand it or not, the imagery is visually stunning.
11. Silver Linings Playbook - wonderful performances, but a too simple look at mental illness.
12. The Sessions - Sex and polio, and two incredibly brave performances.
13. The Hobbit - Peter Jackson's treatment of the prequel to Lord of the Rings is perhaps the most engaging of all those movies.
14. Moonrise Kingdom - Star-crossed teen lovers and great quirky performances by Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton & Frances McDormand
15. The Avengers- Superheros squabble among each other then take on the bad guys.
16. The Dark Night Rises - The Dark Night trilogy concludes. Not as powerful as Heath Ledger's Joker, but a good film.
17. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Veteran actors plying their craft in a delightful light entertaining movie.
18. Les Miserables - Beautiful moments, but drags under its own pretentious weight.
19. Flight - Denzel Washington deals with disaster and addiction in a wrenching movie that doesn't go the direction you might expect from the previews.
20. Looper - imaginative, engaging sci-fi time travel.
