The American Film Institute awards a top ten list every year, and this year their list speaks to what may be a disconnect between the critic's consensus and the coming guild/industry groups. Check out this top eleven they just bestowed:
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Nightcrawler
Selma
Unbroken
Whiplash
The AFI list is usually more important than the various critics awards for predicting the Oscars- this jury actually includes some Academy members, so we can see here that their taste includes not well received titles like American Sniper, Unbroken, Into the Woods and Interstellar (which was more mixed than negative), as well as the crowdpleasing Imitation Game (which I could have sworn was a British production, so I don't know how that got in here) and Selma- two movies that are heavily predicted to be Oscar favorites but that critics don't seem to be embracing in their year end awards so far. The two crossover films are Boyhood and Birdman, while tiny indie darlings Foxcatcher, Nightcrawler and Whiplash also get a boost here. Based on this list it's going to be interesting to see what actually makes up the Oscar BP nominees- they could be drawn from a very wide range of films this year, and right now it looks like the only locks are Boyhood, Birdman, Imitation Game and Selma, which leaves at least five slots open that could be filled with any of up to ten other contenders. I'm pretty shocked that Gone Girl missed out here, as one of the biggest American hits of the year, from a respected director and studio. We'll see what the SAG and Golden Globe nominees reveal later this week.
