The American Film Institute Has $1,000 and Top Ten Lists...FOR YOU!!!!!

Andrew Osborne — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:30:00 GMT

As faithful readers are no doubt aware, we here at The Screengrab are cuckoo for Top Ten lists (and even Top Five and Top Sixteen lists), including The Top Five Black Presidents of the Silver Screen, The Five Kinds of Twist Endings, The Top Ten Barroom Scenes (not to be confused with The Top 15 Movie Bars), The Jailbait Sweet Sixteen, The Top Twelve Tough Jews of Cinema, The Twelve Greatest Movies Based on TV Shows, The Top 5 Hits and Misses of Summer 2008, The Ten Sexiest Guy Geeks and The Ten Sexiest Nerd Girls in Cinema, to name our Top Ten recent examples.

Now it seems the American Film Institute has contracted decaphilia as well, supplementing its list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time with this year’s listing of the Top Ten Greatest Films in Ten Classic Genres.

The films themselves will be revealed in a CBS special hosted by cinema legends Jessica Alba and Jennifer Love Hewitt (among others) on Tuesday, June 17th – at which point YOU, yes YOU could become the lucky winner of a cool thousand dollars of Best Buy swag!

All you have to do is go to the AFI website by June 16 and enter the 10 Top 10 Sweepstakes, wherein you must correctly guess the Top Ten Films in the aforementioned classic genres: Romantic Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery, Epic, Western, Sports, Animation, Gangster, Sci-Fi, Drama (hint: we’re guessing Citizen Kane is the free space on this particular Bingo card).

IDA List FUBAR

Peter Smith — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:00:00 GMT

As anyone who's perused the American Film Institute's lists can tell you, consensus is boring. Unfortunately, it's hard to get around when you conduct a poll. The International Documentary Association has asked its members to select the twenty-five greatest documentaries ever made. (They voted from a list of 700 films, but that complete list doesn't seem to be available on the IDA's website.) It reveals that documentarians are just as prone to sticking with the "new release" shelves and shying away from subtitles as the rest of us. Despite the "international" in the IDA's name, only two foreign-language films made the top twenty-five — Buena Vista Social Club landed at #20 and Night and Fog at #22. Never fear, though: Michael Moore will come to save the day, with three films on the list. While including a number of landmarks (Titicut Follies, Don't Look Back, Grey Gardens), the list leans towards high-profile recent documentaries, including major films (Capturing the Friedmans, Grizzly Man) and mediocrities (Born into Brothels, Spellbound). Any films made before 1955 are missing — so much for Dziga Vertov (without whom Koyaanisqatsi, the #14 entry, would look much different) and Robert Flaherty. A strict definition of documentary seems to have kept F for Fake and Close Up at bay. All but two films are available on DVD — I wonder if this has anything to do with Netflix's sponsorship of the poll. Still, this list isn't entirely without merit in the long run — like the AFI's, it begs to be countered and is bound to spur dialogue, as it already has in the blogosphere. — Steve Erickson

The Screengrab : american film institute

The American Film Institute Has $1,000 and Top Ten Lists...FOR YOU!!!!!

IDA List FUBAR