The Sunny D-drinking Juno might not have gotten any Genie nomination love, but that left the door wide open for two other Canadian pictures, both of which swept the Genie Awards last night. Sarah Polley's Away From Her and David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises led the evening, with each picking up seven honors. But it was the young, new director who really stole the spotlight.

I'm happy to say that while Sarah Polley didn't get any winning Oscar love, she did score the biggies last night -- Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Direction, and Adapted Screenplay, while star Gordon Pinsent won for best actor, Julie Christie for best actress, and Kristen Thomson for best supporting actress. With Polley's Claude Jutra Award, that's seven. So, while the number of wins might have been even for both Polley and Cronenberg, Sarah made an impressive impact on the ceremony.

Eastern Promises, meanwhile, picked up Genies for cinematography, editing, original score, supporting actor for Armin Mueller-Stahl, overall sound, sound editing, and original screenplay. There was also a little love for flicks like Fido and Silk in the few awards that remained once the other two cleaned house. Things might have been a bit different if Juno was in the running, but I'm thrilled to see Polley's film sweep all the big awards. How about you?

Continuing awards season, Canada's film awards, The Genies, announced their nominees last night. It's no surprise that David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is leading the charge with 12 nominations, an honor it is sharing with Roger Spottiswoode's Rwandan Dallaire drama Shake Hands with the Devil. The other Canadian biggie, Sarah Polley's Away From Her, only scored itself 7 nods, which is a bit of a bummer. Regardless, there's a lot of great CanCon in there, and it should make for a difficult decision come March 3rd.

Catch some of the big nominees below, and the rest after the jump:

Best Motion Picture -- Away From Her, Continental, a Film Without Guns, Eastern Promises, Days of Darkness, Shake Hands with the Devil

Achievement in Direction -- Sarah Polley (Away From Her), David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises), Denys Arcand (Days of Darkness), Roger Spottiswoode (Shake Hands with the Devil), Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments)

Actor in a Leading Role -- Gordon Pinsent (Away From Her), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Marc Labreche (Days of Darkness), Claude Legault (The 3 Little Pigs), Roy Dupuis (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gilbert Sicotte (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises), Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge (The 3 Little Pigs), Danny Glover (Poor Boy's Game), Michel Ange Nzojibwami (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie (Away From Her), Beatrice Picard (My Aunt Aline), Ellen Page (The Tracey Fragments), Anne-Marie Cadieux (You), Molly Parker (Who Loves the Sun)

Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kristen Thompson (Away From Her), Fanny Mallette (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Marie-Ginette Guay (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Laurence Leboeuf (Ma fille mon ange), Veronique Le Flaguais (Comment survivre a sa mere)

Best Actress (Drama)

Nominees:

Cate Blanchett -- Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie -- Away from Her

Jodie Foster -- The Brave One

Angelina Jolie -- A Mighty Heart

Keira Knightley -- Atonement

Predicted Winner: Keira Knightley

The sexy beanpole tomboy has blossomed into a full-fledged heavyweight as a dramatic actress, gracefully inhabiting the soul of an edgy, stylish flapper turned tragic, pining romantic heroine. The Cinematical writers are sold: Keira's time has come.

Now it's your turn to vote ...

Yahoo reports that the National Society of Film Critics (made up of 61 film critics across the country) has chosen Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood as the Best Picture of the Year, beating The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men. Anderson also won Best Director, over Julian Schnabel and the Coen Brothers. Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor for Blood, and Robert Elswit received an award for its cinematography. The critics are clearly crazy for Blood, but I don't think it'll take the Best Picture Oscar. It's too cold a film for Oscar voters to fully embrace, and though I know I'm practically alone in this assessment, it's too flawed.

Julie Christie was named Best Actress for her understated performance in Away from Her. Casey Affleck was named Best Supporting Actor for his excellent work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And Cate Blanchett was selected as Best Supporting Actress for a performance that, for me, didn't amount to much more than a pretty good Bob Dylan impression. No End in Sight, a straightforward account of the bad decisions made by the Bush administration after the invasion of Iraq, won Best Documentary. Tamara Jenkins' script for The Savages was named Best Screenplay. I really loved the first half of The Savages but felt the second got distracted with side stories that thinned out the story's impact. Only 41 of the Society's 61 members cast ballots this year (?), and their choices frequently differ from Oscar voters. We'll find out just how much they differ when the Academy Award nominations are announced on January 22nd.

Last year, it was pretty easy to nail down a Top Ten list. I knew pretty much what was going to be in there after Toronto, and while there was a little shuffling, it didn't change all that much. This year was another story entirely ... so many good films from which to choose, so many films I loved for different reasons. Culling that down to ten films was hard this year, and I agonized over my endlessly shifting list, trying out different films in my top ten like a woman hunting for the perfect little black dress for New Year's Eve. I finally managed to get it molded into a Top Ten which, if I wasn't ever going to be completely satisfied with, I could at least live with. So, here they are, the ten films. There are some excellent films from the fest circuit that could have just as easily ended up there, had I been in a different mood or had one more (or one less) cup of coffee while I was writing this. I'll be talking about them in my last Film Clips column of the year.

The Top Ten

1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly -- The top two films on my list shifted back and forth at least a dozen times before I finally settled on Julian Schnabel's moving piece about a vibrant man paralyzed by a stroke. The film is based on the true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke at the age of 42 that left him completely incapacitated by "locked-in syndrome." Bauby dictated a book about his experience one letter at a time by blinking his left eyelid to assistants. There are no car chases or gunshots, no serial killers or abortions in this film, but it is so full of heart and the redemptive power of the human spirit, and so beautifully made, that it deserves to be in the top slot of my list.

2. Juno -- As far as comedies go, Juno was executed to almost perfection from its sharply written script by newcomer Diablo Cody to the tight direction by Jason Reitman. It's harder than most people realize to make smart comedy, and Reitman does comedy very, very well. From his earlier short films (especially Consent) to his first feature Thank You for Smoking, Reitman has set out to prove that good comedy can also be good filmmaking, and with Juno he exceeds his freshman effort and ups the ante for what comedic films should be. In a year heavy with serious dramas and an abundance of depressing Iraq war flicks, Juno was the leaven that lightened it all up a bit, and it's one of the few films this year that I can watch repeatedly and never tire of.

The rest of the Ten, after the jump ...

Earlier this week, I along with 20 other San Francisco film critics assembled at an undisclosed location -- okay, it was a café -- to vote on the best films, best performances and best other stuff of 2007. It's an interesting experience. I spent a few weeks combing through the year's releases, coming up with my own choices. Then I second-guessed some of them, deciding whether I should eliminate certain choices. If I was absolutely certain that someone would make the final ballot, then I would cast a vote for someone more obscure, someone I really liked. After doing that, I scrapped the whole thing and went back to my favorites in each category, regardless of where they placed.

For Best Supporting Actress, I selected Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone (301 screens) as my #1 choice, comfortable in my certainty that she was a dark horse and that no one else would pick her. She was far from being the focus of that film, but she knocked a home run in her few scenes as a horrible, drug-ridden mother who has lost her baby girl. As a bonus, she was also in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (321 screens), a film that also made a decent showing on my personal ballot. (She lost a few points by being in the wretched Dan in Real Life, but gained them back again by being on TV's "The Wire.") In any case, Ryan not only made our final ballot, but she actually won. Congratulations, Amy! My other picks, Taraji P. Henson in Talk to Me, Kristen Thomson in Away from Her, and Maggie Smith in Becoming Jane, didn't make it so far. As for my fifth pick, Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There (148 screens), you've not heard that last of her.

The San Francisco Film Critics Awards have been announced, and they're especially exciting for us here at Cinematical. Why? Because three of our writers are in the SFFC! Our very own James Rocchi, Jeffrey M. Anderson, and Richard Von Busack are all part of the San Francisco critic "scene." San Fran made some interesting picks, several outside of the expected Oscar nominees. So what were their choices? For Best Foreign Film, they selected Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (which I am watching when I finish this post). For Best Documentary, they selected No End in Sight (which didn't blow me away, but was certainly well done). Best Adapted Screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Away From Her (great script, one of the most kick-in-the-stomach depressing movies I've seen lately). And Best Original Screenplay went to Tamara Jenkins for The Savages.

Amy Ryan was named Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant portrayal of a highly difficult character in Gone Baby Gone. Ryan's co-star in that film, Casey Affleck, was named Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Best Actress was Julie Christie for Away From Her and Best Actor was George Clooney in Michael Clayton -- two choices I approve of though I disagree with them. Joel and Ethan Coen took Best Director(s) honors for their latest masterpiece, No Country for Old Men. And -- drumroll please -- the Best Picture Award went to Jesse James. A surprising pick perhaps, but it was an absolutely fantastic film, and hopefully the award encourages more people to see it. The SFFC gave a special citation to an indie called Colma: The Musical, "a homegrown song-and-dance extravaganza about the paradoxical drudgery and surreality of life in a city where the dead outnumber the living one thousand to one." That old story again? See the list for yourself here -- it's a San Francisco treat!

Christmas time isn't only for Santa and kidlets. In the world of cinema, some filmmakers and actors get notable awards to scatter amongst their presents, while others only get to scatter empty space and the dismal tarnish of broken dreams. As films push to get themselves into the running before the ball drops, critics have started to share their picks. So, while we were all enjoying our weekends, the Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and D.C. critics were picking their best films of the year. B-town was all over a certain country for old folks, while the others were crazy for a little blood. Many of the critics picked the same films, so peruse this list and weigh in on who/what they're all forgetting about.

Here are the lucky winners, all courtesy of Variety:

Los Angeles

Paul Thomas Anderson was victorious in LaLa land, with his most recent film, There Will Be Blood -- the story of a Texan prospector during the early days of the oil business. The film nabbed the best picture slot, best director, best actor for Daniel Day Lewis, best production design for Jack Fisk, and then runner-up slots for screenplay, music, and cinematography.

Julian Schnabel also made a solid showing with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the story about French Elle EIC Jean-Dominique Bauby and the stroke that changed his life. The film won only the award for best cinematography for Janusz Kaminski, but it received some runner-up nods as well -- best picture, director, and foreign language film.

Other winners include: La Vie en rose, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and a tie between Ratatouille and Persepolis for best animated feature.

Last night I was having drinks with a Manhattan film critic who told me that he was putting both Zodiac and Black Book on his end of year list, no matter what the establishment thought of their awards chances. I was very happy about the latter, since I'm sure that it's one of the best films of the year, and although I didn't see Zodiac until recently, I also feel that it would be absurd if that film loses a slot in awards consideration to lesser (and later released) films like American Gangster or Enchanted. The Academy is, of course, notorious about forgetting what came in the January -- April period of the year, but sometimes they can surprise you, especially in a weak year for Best Picture like this one is. (Aside from No Country for Old Men and Atonement, what other sure bets for a Best Picture nomination are there?) Zodiac in particular seems to be catching some late momentum -- today Jeff Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere has released his top ten list and declares Zodiac to be the best of the year. I doubt he really thinks that, but putting it at the top spot may succeeded in the true goal -- getting it noticed.

When we take a look at The Envelope's Buzz meter -- the most comprehensive awards buzz calculator known to man -- we see very few early year contenders, except for Julie Christie for Away from Her. In fact, every movie on The Envelope's Best Picture slate is a movie I've seen in the last few weeks, except for Atonement, which I caught at a festival. A great film like Black Book isn't even a blip on The Envelope's horizon at this point. What early 2007 films do you think are being overlooked?

Most people consider the National Board of Review irrelevant, and yet they continue to write about the organization's annual film honors. Like the Oscars, though, it doesn't matter if the NBR is irrelevant or not. It's been around for nearly a century now, and it's been a significant part of awards season for many decades. Maybe the organization is made up of paid-entry film buffs rather than critics or "experts" but at the end of the day its members are simply movie lovers like you and me. And sometimes those members even champion and endorse movies that deserve that extra notice.

Sure, the 2007 mentions by the NBR seem so exhaustive that I almost can't even think of a movie that didn't get an award. Also, many of them seem like obvious and predictable decisions (doesn't this just mean the movies were noteworthy enough to receive the awards anyway?). Some of the winners, though, are pretty satisfying. Tim Burton probably won't win an Oscar for best director, so it's good to see him honored here. Also, I wouldn't have expected Lars and the Real Girl to get an original screenplay mention from anywhere. Nor did I expect for The Bucket List to land on any top ten lists. Mostly, I'm delighted to see Casey Affleck recognized for his acting.

Check out all the awards after the jump.