The American Film Institute issued its list of the year’s Top 10 movies (and television shows) today, and their selections have been quite close to the Oscar nominees over the past couple of years, so they’re worthy of some attention. There were no great surprises in the chosen 10, which AFI lists alphabetically, with no one film chosen as the year’s best:
12 YEARS A SLAVE (Fox Searchlight)
AMERICAN HUSTLE (Sony)
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony)
FRUITVALE STATION (Weinstein)
GRAVITY (Warners)
HER (Warners)
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (CBS)
NEBRASKA (Paramount)
SAVING MR. BANKS (Disney)
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Paramount)
The most prominent excluded titles are probably DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (Focus/Universal) and AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Weinstein), although other hopefuls like BLUE JASMINE (Sony Classics), THE BOOK THIEF (20th), PHILOMENA (Weinstein), LONE SURVIVOR (Universal), THE BUTLER (Weinstein), RUSH (Universal), ENOUGH SAID (Fox Searchlight), PRISONERS (Warners) and ALL IS LOST (Lionsgate/Roadside) also didn’t make the list. (Note: AFI limits its selection to US films, so foreign notables like BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR aren’t eligible.) It’s a sign of how strong a year this has been for films that one could fill another worthy list of 10 out of the also-rans.
On the TV side, AFI combines comedies and dramas, although the fact that its list includes only one real comedy is a sign of how remarkably high-quality TV drama has become:
THE AMERICANS (FX)
BREAKING BAD (AMC)
GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
THE GOOD WIFE (CBS)
HOUSE OF CARDS (Netflix)
MAD MEN (AMC)
MASTERS OF SEX (Showtime)
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)
SCANDAL (ABC)
VEEP (HBO)
There are, of course, many other shows that could have been included here (ORPHAN BLACK and JUSTIFIED, to name just two), but the omission that stands out is HOMELAND, which has fallen off the mountaintop very quickly.
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