AFI Announces Top 10 Films of the Year

The American Film Institute has announced its list of top 10 features of the year, which reads like a tally of leading Oscar contenders: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. The AFI jury (which included my EW colleague Lisa Schwarzbaum) also gave special awards to two films that were not eligible for the top 10: The King’s Speech (ineligible because it’s British) and Waiting for “Superman” (which couldn’t be considered because it’s a documentary). The AFI top 10 didn’t include any surprises; rather, dark horse entries like Get Low, Rabbit Hole, and How to Train Your Dragon all weren’t able to break in. Last year only five of the AFI’s top 10 films (The Hurt Locker, Precious, Up in the Air, Up, and A Serious Man) ended up scoring Best Picture nominations (An Education and District 9 weren’t eligible, while Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and The Blind Side were just plain snubbed). This year I’d say they’re going to line up 9 for 10.