The AFI Top Tens are here - what does it mean?
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 3:09PM by Nathaniel R
One of the hit and miss traditions of year-end hoopla is the American Film Institute's Top Ten List. This list, which has a rotating jury, began as something kind of unpredictable but it's been veering towards straight up Oscar Best Picture frontrunners mirroring for some years now. The ten titles they've cited this year are...
FILM TOP TEN
- CODA
- Dont Look Up*
- Dune*
- King Richard*
- Licorice Pizza*
- Nightmare Alley*
- The Power of the Dog
- tick, tick... BOOM!
- The Tragedy of Macbeth*
- West Side Story*
*also made the NBR list
Who does this help...
The biggest boost goes to Don't Look Up and Nightmare Alley, which are arguably the most divisive titles listed. Though they premiered to raves (as most films in awards season do these days, given the "first!" excitement of glitzy premieres and star-studded screenings) the raves quickly dissipated revealing surprisingly mixed reviews. This honor is a quick salve to those tiny wounds. And this acknowledgement is helpful to CODA, too. as the only release that survived AFI's extreme recency bias. One wishes they would select jury members who watch films all year long and not those called in to attend special screenings at the tail end of the year for this purpose.
Who does it hurt?
It's definitely not good news for quality American pictures like In the Heights, C'mon C'mon, Passing, Red Rocket, The Lost Daughter, or Zola (any of which might have snuck in in earlier years when the AFI was more apt to get a bit frisky and less "precursory"... they've only strayed out of Oscar territory once in the past several years in 2018 for two titles: A Quiet Place and Eighth Grade). Not making this list is bad news for Being the Ricardos (in the same boat, response-wise, as Don't Look Up and Nightmare Alley) and Cyrano, both of which should have theoretically benefitted from AFI's recency bias.
What else?
As usual they've picked the most Oscar-bound but ineligible film (i.e. not American) for a special prize (Belfast) and have also selected the documentary Summer of Soul for a special award. We always wish they would be a little more daring in these choices too. But they go with the buzziest titles every single year.
TELEVISION TOP TEN
- Hacks
- Maids
- Mare of Easttown
- Reservation Dogs
- Schmigadoon!
- Succession
- Ted Lasso
- The Underground Railroad
- WandaVision
- The White Lotus
Special Award: Squid Game (as it wasn't eligible since it's not American)
Ending on a nicer note:
One thing we do like about the AFI lists is that they honor the entire creative teams, in front of and behind the camera, and since film and television are collaborative arts, that's smart.
AFI, Best Picture, List-Mania, Punditry, Top Ten, precursor awards
Reader Comments (12)
Shameless
CODA seems to be what used to be called "The little film that could".
It's always a shame when an awards group who could be helping out independent and under-publicized films decides to go the route of "Oscar inside dopester" fighting for bragging rights as to who predicted the Oscar nominations the best. It looks like the AFI list is trying to outdo the Critics Choice.
So much recency bias! I haven't seen half the ten films on the list... because they haven't opened here.
Hard to believe In the Heights really isn't better than some of these titles, sigh.
I know you complain a bit about them mirroring frontrunners, but its been well over a decade since they've nominated something that is strongly in contention. They tend to nominate 7-8 films that are BP contenders, mixed in with a favored animation film, and a film or 2 that is a strong screenplay contender (usually a film by a well loved writer/director). I do wonder if, once the academy expanded to ten, they got less creative?
Also, does anyone know why they only did awards for one year? I always loved their recognition of Stockard Channing for her work in the Business of Strangers.
It's interesting that CODA continues to stick around. Is that film really well loved in the industry? It seems like it had no impact, other than among hollywood types who continue to nominate it.
With the Underground Railroad getting a nod here, at the Critics Choice Awards, and making so many year end list, I do wonder if Amazon would have been smarter to hold that film for a fall release and let momentum build slowly build up to the emmys.
Also, it's great to see tick tick...BOOM! here. I don't think that's a film sure to get a BP nom at all. It's also easy to ignore and just celebrate Garfield, so I'm glad it's making these top ten list. If Netflix were smart, I think they'd push it hard rather than devoting all their resources to their auteur film.
I'm wondering whether the failure of Cyrano and In The Heights to break through might be attributable to a bias against musicals. With West Side Story and tick tick...BOOM! already in the running, I'm guessing that many jury members may have felt reluctant to add more musicals to their ballot.
Miss last season where they were all indie movies and I loved everyone of them. I don't care about big part of these movies and I think I will not watch a lot of them.
Super happy for Tick Tick BOOM anyway
So thrilled to see Reservation Dogs making so many lists this year. More Willie Jack, please!
@ DAVIDE
In the case of Cyrano, it's a horrible score and an embarrassing lead performance, not a bias against musicals.
I fully expect Oscar’s Best Picture lineup to match this at least 8/10. Sigh. (Sighing not necessarily as a criticism of the films selected but out of disappointment in how routine and predictable other awards bodies have become in their attempts to predict the Oscars rather than make their own decisions).
Not a bad bunch of movies, honestly. I've only seen 4 of them thus far but nothing seems egregious. I note the absence of Belfast, hmm, I thought that would be at least a solid Probably, but perhaps not. Super curious to see WSS and Licorice Pizza. I will say that no one should hold their breath waiting for In The Heights to get anything more than *maybe* 1-2 minor awards nominations. The movie has just not been in the conversation at all.