2011 Village Voice/L.A. Weekly Film Critics' Poll

Absolutely — and that is also the subject of Hugo and The Artist. Welcome to the time machine and the novelty of moving pictures made new!

For me, the most fascinating cinema event of 2011 was that which caused crowds to line up day and night on West 21st Street in New York, and at LACMA in Los Angeles, for a 24-hour gallery installation, Christian Marclay's The Clock. For a few weeks, the hottest movie ticket in several cities was nothing more than the spectacle of time passing — and that spectacle passing for narrative suspense! Composed of a thousand film clips digitally projected, The Clock was not a movie but The Movies — newly reinvented, the triumph of pure cinema for a post-film audience.

Melancholia

A Separation

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More About

• The Tree of Life (Movie)
• The Tree of Life (Movie)
• Terrence Malick
• Movie Stars
• Movie Stars

To see the full ballots of all 95 Village Voice/L.A. Weekly Film Critics' Poll voters, go to laweekly.com/filmpoll.

Film by the Numbers

Ninety-five print and Web critics from around the country participated in the 2011 Village Voice/L.A. Weekly Film Critics' Poll. Each submitted their choices for the 10 best films of the year, the three best performances in each of the acting categories, and one top selection in every other category. Ninety out of 95 critics submitted a ranked ballot, on which a first-place vote was worth 10 points, a 10th-place vote was worth 1 point, and so on.

To access each critic's individual ballot and all of the data collected in the poll — plus winners not shown here, in categories such as best director and undistributed film — go to laweekly.com/filmpoll.

FILM

1. The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick

307 points, mentioned on 48 ballots (available on DVD)

2. A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi

251 points, mentioned on 41 ballots (in theaters Dec. 29)

3. Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier

246 points, mentioned on 34 ballots (in theaters and on video-on-demand)

4. Certified Copy, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

233 points, mentioned on 34 ballots (available on Blu-ray import; domestic DVD coming in 2012)

5. Mysteries of Lisbon, directed by Raul Ruiz

201 points, mentioned on 26 ballots (on DVD Jan. 17)

6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

199 points, mentioned on 31 ballots (available on DVD)

7. Margaret, directed by Kenneth Lonergan

165 points, mentioned on 26 ballots (not currently in theaters; DVD date unknown)

8. Meek's Cutoff, directed by Kelly Reichardt

146 points, mentioned on 22 ballots (available on DVD)

9. Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

140 points, mentioned on 25 ballots (in limited theatrical release)

10. Take Shelter, directed by Jeff Nichols

132 points, mentioned on 24 ballots (in limited theatrical release)

"In 2011's echo chamber of movies celebrating movies (The Artist, Hugo, My Week With Marilyn), only one of them fully functioned as a well-tooled thrill machine on its own terms, and that was Drive. You could pick out the '80s homage stuck between your teeth, or simply savor the perfect action." —Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

ACTOR

1. Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

2. Michael Fassbender, Shame

3. Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

4. Peyman Moaadi, A Separation

5. Brad Pitt, Moneyball

"Most Overexposed Actor, Double Entendre Division: Michael Fassbender. Most Overexposed Actor, Non–Double Entendre Division: Ryan Gosling. The Ides of March would have been a lot more plausible — and maybe even more compelling — if we'd learned that Ryan's incongruously credulous PR 'genius' had received a blunt head trauma just before the opening scene." —Adam Nayman, Cinema Scope

ACTRESS

1. Anna Paquin, Margaret

2. Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy

3. Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia

4. Yun Jung-hee, Poetry

5. Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

"The not-quite-completed Margaret is Kenneth Lonergan's Magnificent Ambersons, a masterful sophomore effort held down by studio pressure that has kept the director's cut from seeing the light of day (yet). It's a fragmented experience mainly anchored by Anna Paquin's impressive turn as a scowling, confused young woman — one of the most unnerving evocations of teen angst since Thirteen." —Eric Kohn, Indiewire.com

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Jeannie Berlin, Margaret

2. Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

3. Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter

4. Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus

5. Carey Mulligan, Shame

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Albert Brooks, Drive

2. Christopher Plummer, Beginners

3. Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

4. Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life

5. John C. Reilly, Terri

DOCUMENTARY

1. The Interrupters, directed by Steve James

2. The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard

3. Nostalgia for the Light, directed by Patricio Guzmán

4. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, directed by Andrei Ujica

5. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, directed by Werner Herzog

"Viewing memories, 2011: Kirsten Dunst's Justine watching with deathly calm as her sister makes a frantic attempt to escape planetary doom by car in Melancholia; Jessica Chastain dancing on air in The Tree of Life and facing the tide in Take Shelter; an ex-con confessing to the community activists of The Interrupters that he'd like to return to prison, where life is less boring; Ron Perlman head-butting a demon in Season of the Witch; The Arbor's youngest daughter/abuse survivor recalling bad times in her musical Yorkshire brogue: 'That were mad, that were.' " —Ryan Stewart, Moviemaker

FIRST FEATURE

1. Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed by Sean Durkin

2. Bellflower, directed by Evan Glodell

3. Attack the Block, directed by Joe Cornish

4. Margin Call, directed by J.C. Chandor

5. The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard

ANIMATED FEATURE