IndieWire Critics Poll '08 | "Red Balloon" Tops iW Poll

by Eugene Hernandez

Hou Hsiao-hsien's "The Flight of the Red Balloon" topped indieWIRE's annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics. It was named best film of the year and Hou was singled out as best director in a survey of 105 critics conducted this month by indieWIRE. Written by Hsiao-hsien Hou and Francois Margolin, the film was inspired by Albert Lamorisse's classic, "The Red Balloon." Released theatrically back in April and simultaneously on demand via cable TV, the IFC Films title debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. James Marsh's "Man on Wire," from Magnolia Pictures, was voted the best documentary of the year in the survey.

Lance Hammer's "Ballast" was hailed as the best first feature this year, while Charlie Kaufman's screenplay for "Synecdoche, New York" was picked as the best of the year and the critics singled out Mickey Rourke's role in "The Wrestler" as the best performance, with Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" as best supporting performance.

Meanwhile, the runner-up for best film, Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale," from this year's Cannes fest, also came in second in the best screenplay category. Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" placed strongly in a number of categories, coming in fifth for best film.

The complete results in the 2008 indieWIRE Critics' Poll are available now online, including the full ballots from all 105 critics, as well comments from the voters. An article about the best undistributed category was also published today.

Developed to celebrate film culture and criticism, this third annual poll by indieWIRE, conducted in recent weeks with critics casting their ballots online, focuses primarly on film critics who write for alternative outlets and online publications, including blogs. Inspired by a similar poll previously launched by the Village Voice in 1999, iW continued the survey two years ago after the Voice abandoned its popular poll, hoping to give North American cinephiles a direct opportunity to highlight the best in international cinema. The Village Voice is again working with sister publication the L.A. Weekly on a film poll this year.

"When we did our first poll in '99, it was before the explosion of film blogs and websites," noted former Village Voice film editor Dennis Lim last year. "There was no real counterpoint to the groupthink of critics' circle awards and there were many critics and writers whose tastes and opinions weren't represented in the year-end accounting." Continuing in comments to indieWIRE last year, Lim added, "Obviously it's a different landscape today and at this time of year especially, it can seem like there are too many lists, too many blogs, too much white noise. But even more so, you could argue, the poll serves a valuable aggregating function, by trying to tease out a consensus from a loosely defined community of serious, cinephilic writers."

Posted below is the list of 100 films that received more than one ballot mention in the indieWIRE Critics Poll this year.

#	Film Title	Points	Mentions
1	The Flight of the Red Balloon	495	43
2	A Christmas Tale	454	38
3	WALL-E	368	32
4	Wendy and Lucy	366	36
5	Happy-Go-Lucky	346	31
6	Paranoid Park	335	31
7	Still Life	330	31
8	Silent Light	310	26
9	Synecdoche, New York	290	25
10	Waltz with Bashir	283	27
11	Rachel Getting Married	267	24
12	In the City of Sylvia	256	22
13	My Winnipeg	248	27
14	Let the Right One In	237	22
15	Milk	205	20
16	The Edge of Heaven	203	17
17	Hunger	198	19
18	The Wrestler	192	19
19	Ballast	177	17
20	Man on Wire	165	16
21	The Duchess of Langeais	160	17
22	The Dark Knight	156	14
23	Che	146	13
24	Reprise	141	15
25	Gomorrah	132	13
26	Woman On The Beach	122	13
27	Before I Forget	105	10
28	Slumdog Millionaire	104	10
29	La France	103	9
30	Encounters at the End of the World	101	10
	Trouble the Water	101	10
32	The Last Mistress	97	10
33	The Class	91	9
34	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	87	9
35	Frownland	86	8
	Standard Operating Procedure	86	8
37	The Exiles	84	7
	The Romance of Astrea and Celadon	84	8
39	Burn After Reading	77	8
40	The Order of Myths	76	8
41	Momma's Man	73	8
42	The Secret of the Grain	70	7
43	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	68	6
	Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World	68	6
45	Vicky Cristina Barcelona	67	8
46	Chop Shop	64	8
47	Ashes of Time Redux	63	6
48	Boarding Gate	60	6
49	Boy A	58	6
	Frozen River	58	5
51	Gran Torino	55	6
52	Mister Lonely	54	5
53	The Witnesses	53	5
	Up the Yangtze	53	5
55	Mary	52	5
46	Shotgun Stories	51	6
57	The Visitor	50	5
58	I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar	48	4
59	Alexandra	47	5
60	Be Kind Rewind	46	5
61	Tell No One	45	5
62	My Father My Lord	44	5
63	Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind	41	5
64	W.	39	4
65	Changeling	37	3
	The Silence Before Bach	37	3
	The Unforeseen	37	4
68	Summer Palace	35	4
	Taxi to the Dark Side	35	3
70	In Bruges	34	4
	The Pool	34	3
72	Fengming: A Chinese Memoir	32	3
	Love Songs	32	4
	State Legislature	32	3
75	Frost/Nixon	31	3
	Opera Jawa	31	3
	The Band's Visit	31	3
	The Other Half	31	3
79	Cadillac Records	29	3
80	Funny Games	28	3
	Stuck	28	3
	Tropic Thunder	28	3
83	JCVD	27	3
	Redbelt	27	3
85	My Blueberry Nights	26	3
	Savage Grace	26	2
87	Snow Angels	24	3
88	Married Life	23	2
	Pineapple Express	23	3
90	Of Time and the City	22	2
91	Battle for Haditha	20	2
92	Mad Detective	20	2
	Mukhsin	20	2
94	Revolutionary Road	19	2
	Speed Racer	19	2
96	Operation Filmmaker	18	2
97	Dear Zachary: A Letter To a Son About His Father	17	2
	I Served the King of England	17	2
99	Doubt	15	2
	Heartbeat Detector	15	2