Two subsets of Hollywood’s production crews chimed in last night on the best film and television of 2010.  The American Cinema Editors handed out their adorably named Eddie Awards with a respectable degree of specialization.  The Social Network was named the best edited feature-length drama — Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, and Exit Through the Gift Shop won in the comedy/musical, animated, and documentary categories respectively.  Modern Family, The Walking Dead, Treme, and Temple Grandin were deemed the best edited programs on television last year.

The Cinema Audio Society gave their top film award to True Grit, and became the first voting body to recognize the straight-to-DVD greatness of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.  TV nods went to Boardwalk Empire, Temple Grandin, and Deadliest Catch.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

If elusive street artist Banksy wins Best Documentary for film Exit Through the Gift Shop at this year’s Academy Awards, how will he win?  It’s unlikely that he’ll reveal himself to everyone at the Kodak Theatre and the millions watching at home, but he should be allowed to win it on reasonable terms.  Unfortunately, Academy president Tom Sherak isn’t having it.  He tells The Wrap the he would prefer the film’s producer Jaimie D’Cruz and an executive producer accept the award on Banksy’s behalf:

“We suggested to them that it might be a good idea that if he did win, one of them would accept in his place – that it would not be dignified for the Academy to have somebody come up wearing a monkey’s head.”

Hit the jump for why Sherak’s suggestion is silly and disrespectful.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced their nominations for the 2011 BAFTA Awards (the British equivalent of the Oscars).  While The Social Network is busy dominating awards circles on this side of the Atlantic, it looks like (unsurprisingly) The King’s Speech is going to clean up at the BAFTAs.  The film received 14 nominations including Best Picture and Outstanding British Film.  The Social Network still managed to pick up 6 nominations including Best Picture.   Also in the Best Picture race: Black Swan (12 nominations), True Grit (8 nominations), and Inception (9 nominations).  Other great films getting some love from the BAFTAs included Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop (1 nomination) and Chris Morris’ Four Lions (2 nominations).

Hit the jump for a full list of the nominations.  Winners will be announced on February 13th.

Rotten Tomatoes has announced their 2010 Golden Tomato Awards.  To the surprise of no one, Toy Story 3 was the best-reviewed wide-release film of 2010.  This marks the fourth year in a row that a Pixar film has won the award.  The film scored a 99% on the Tomatometer with only 3 critics out of 248 giving the film a “rotten” review.  Rounding out the Top 5 best-reviewed wide-releases were How to Train Your Dragon (98%), The Social Network (97%), True Grit (95%), and The King’s Speech.  The best-reviewed limited-release film was Last Train Home (100%), the Top UK film was Exit Through the Gift Shop (98%), and the best User-Reviewed film was The King’s Speech (96%).  Taking home the Moldy Tomato for Worst-Reviewed film was Vampires Suck (4%).

Hit the jump for a list of Rotten Tomatoes’ Best and Worst-Reviewed films of 2010.

The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) have named David Fincher’s The Social Network as the best film of 2010.  This brings the total number of critics’ society awards the film has won to somewhere around “A lot.”  The film also picked up Best Director for Fincher and Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin.  OFCS also agreed with me when it came to picking the best performances of the years, giving awards to Colin Firth (Best Actor, The King’s Speech), Natalie Portman (Best Actress, Black Swan), Christian Bale (Best Supporting Actor, The Fighter), and Hailee Steinfeld (Best Supporting Actress, True Grit).

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

I won’t deny the vanity of year-end lists.  Most professional critics will sit through over 100 new films per year and the year-end list is a badge of honor that says, “These are the films I appreciated the most.  Behold.”  Despite the vanity, I continue to think that the year-end Top 10 provides a valuable service to the average moviegoer.  Most folks don’t have the time, cash, or inclination to see every movie released in a given year and a Top 10 list says, “Here are the must-see films from the past 365 days.  Netflix them or something.”  I didn’t get to see every film that could have potentially made this list, but I feel confident in my choices.  So forgive my indulgence and hit the jump for my Top 10 films of 2010.

In my profession, there are two very important things you must do: watch movies and keep notes.  I did an alright job with the first one, but admittedly fell short on the latter.  While last year I was able to confidently provide what I thought were the best kills and quotes, this year I didn’t do a good job with record keeping and so I’ve omitted those categories.  Next year I’ll be more meticulous and make it a point to see movie where people get destroyed while saying witty things.

However, I did see enough movies to confidently make a list of the folks I thought were the best actors, directors, and other miscellaneous greats.  Hit the jump to check out my picks.

What is outsider art? Graffiti has long been considered the work of criminals, but the art world is perverse in its attempts to co-opt them. They’re happy to turn the anonymous or damaged into superstars, launching them into a world of art shows that sell prints for thousands upon millions of dollars. With Exit through the Gift Shop – Banksy’s one of a kind documentary – two of the main subjects are the popularity of outsider art and the meaningless of such attention. The credibility of the film has become a subject of discussion, and how much of the film is a prank is hard to know. But even if the whole film is lying to you, that too creates a truth. Heady questions for one of the best films of the year. My review of Exit through the Gift Shop follows after the jump.

The critics’ lists just keep on coming. We already brought you the American Film Institute and the Boston Society of Film Critics’ awards for the best in film of 2010 earlier today, and now the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has announced the winners of their awards. The Social Network was, again, the big winner. David Fincher’s award-magnet picked up Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Music, and in a tie with Carlos’ Olivier Assayas, Best Director. In a bit of a surprise, the other big winner was the French-German television mini-series-turned theatrical film Carlos. The film took home the award for Best Foreign-Language Film as well as Best Director. Oscar heavyweight The King’s Speech only managed to pick up one award, Best Actor. Hit the jump for a full list of winners and runners-up.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released their shortlist of 15 documentaries that have advanced in the voting for Best Documentary nominations.  The list includes Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job, Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman, and, one of my favorite films of the year, Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop.  Unfortunately, the documentary Catfish was shutout.  While some have speculated that it’s because of controversy regarding the documentary’s authenticity, that same controversy of “realism” also surrounds Exit Through the Gift Shop.  However, as long as Gift Shop continues to have a shot at the top prize, I’m happy (although Inside Job and Waiting for Superman are also quality films).

Hit the jump for the press release and a list of the final 15 contenders.  The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on January 25, 2011.

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one of the last films to get announced was also its biggest: Exit Through the Gift Shop.  Focusing on the graffiti art movement, the film was directed by Banksy and it featured many of the biggest artists in the field on camera and explaining how they work. It was my favorite film at this year’s Fest and it’s now playing in limited release.  Go see it.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of Banksy (and you should be), you know the mysterious artist produces art all around the world and you never know where the next one will be.  But with his movie premiering at Sundance, many suspected he would show up in Park City…and he did.  Around the time of the premiere, many Banksy pieces appeared around the city.  While everyone thought we’d seen it all, with the snow melting in Park City, a new piece has been revealed.  Hit the jump for more:

A 5 minute clip from Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film by graffiti artist Banksy, has been released.  You may not be familiar with the name Banksy, but you’ve almost certainly seen pictures of his street art before.  His style – which is based mostly on creating graffiti through the use of stencils – is very distinctive, provocative and often beautiful.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary about a video-obsessed Frenchman named Thierry Guetta with a love for street art who tried to make a film about the secretive Banksy.  Bansky, however found Guetta to be more fascinating than himself and turned the cameras around on the would-be filmmaker.

The resulting movie – which has no credited director – debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this year.  It is narrated by Rhys Ifans.  You can watch the five-minute clip after the jump.

One of the best films I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival almost wasn’t shown.  That’s because when the schedule was released, Exit Through the Gift Shop wasn’t listed.  Instead, the documentary by the renowned graffiti artist Banksy about the underground street artist movement was added at the last minute.  Since I’d heard positive things from a screening the other day, Peter from Slashfilm and I decided to check the film out earlier today and then do a video review.

If you’re not familiar with Banksy and his art, here’s his official website. Here’s a bit about him:

“with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the Palestinian segregation wall in the West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film.”

Trust me, the guy is an amazing artist and someone who deserves all the press he gets.  And after watching the documentary, I’m even more impressed.  Hit the jump to hear Peter and I gushing over this film.  Also, you can watch the trailer: