Cast Your Vote in the Film Junk 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards!

Posted by on December 10th, 2008   Filed under: Featured, Polls, Site News

It’s that time again folks! As 2008 is drawing to a close, we are once again asking our fellow Film Junkies to look back over the year’s theatrical releases and help us separate the cream of the crop from the cream of the crap. That’s why we have put together the 2008 Film Junk Reader’s Choice Awards, a place where you can cast your vote for the best movies of the year and make your voice heard.

As with years previous, we have divided the releases up into categories and presented you with five nominees for each. I’m sure there will probably be some disagreement over some of the choices, and particularly the pigeonholing of movies that might fit into multiple categories. However, keep in mind that we wanted to stick with (a) movies that actually had a theatrical release prior to December, (b) movies that most people had access to during the year, and (c) category breakdowns that do not necessarily have a clear winner ahead of time. Anyway, we hope this all sparks some discussion, and you can tell us what your picks would have been in the comments below.

Note: You can only vote once, and the poll will run until December 25th. The winners will be announced on our live podcast for Film Junk Episode #200: The Year End Spectacular. If there are any technical difficulties, feel free to contact me at filmjunk@gmail.com. Now go forth and vote!

» Related Link: Film Junk 2008 Reader's Choice Awards



  • Goon

    the Best Foreign category was one of the toughest decisions i had to make all year

    indie and drama should have been molded together somewhat into one category. the result of which though would probably be all the ‘drama’ pictures no longer appearing. that category has a couple good films but they are nothing compared to most of this year.

    The ‘sure things’ in my top ten list for the year are Synecdoche New York, Let the Right One In, JCVD, Rachel Getting Married, Man on Wire, Burn After Reading and yes, Speed Racer. I have a few things left to see, including Slumdog and maybe even Benjamin Button, which have their shot.

    I counted 4 Months… as a last year release so it wont be in my top 10 list, and i skipped past it when voting, but if it was it would definitely be up there.

  • Goon

    also, I’m pretty sure the Orphanage was put out into a decent run in theaters in October 2007… I skipped past that one too.

  • Goon, Slumdog was voted best film this year by some organization that influences the Oscars. So you had better see it before you vote!

  • Yeah I definitely agree about the indie and drama categories. I struggled to find some decent dramas that were in wide release this year, but they were few and far between. I guess it goes to show that studios don’t think mainstream audiences want to see a straightforward drama anymore.

    I was going by the U.S. release date listed on Box Office Mojo for eligibility of each movie, but I did bend the rules a little for The Orphanage. Officially it opened in limited release on December 28th, 2007, but since last year’s Reader’s Choice awards also took place before it was released, I figured I’d throw it in there. 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days is listed as January 25th, 2008 though, so should qualify in this case.

  • gooso

    thank you ‘Goon’. speedracer was great. it was funny and simply put, cool as shit.
    and Synecdoche New York, to easily say, i wanted to cry by the end but was too confused to.

  • Best Drama of 2008: Video of Reed Farrington watching Star Trek XI trailer.

  • Haha. Thx, Joel. My eyes smolder and my ears burn with delight when people write or talk, respectively, about me.

    The other day, I came across the YouTube comments for that video of me that Sean posted. I was surprised that people watched and commented on it. There should be a Best Dramedy category.

    One interesting note about the shoot for that clip if anyone cares is that Sean’s flip video camera battery died just before the trailer ended. He missed some good spontaneous reaction stuff at the end. It’s not like we could have reshot it either because it was supposed to be me watching it for the first time. So a lesson for you documentarians. Keep your batteries fresh!

  • Primal

    There are still quite a few films I need to check out before voting especially in the best documentary section. The toughest area would definitely be the one for best Foreign Film. I haven’t seen Mongol or JCVD, but I loved the rest of the films on that group.

    Speed Racer should own the polls the Sunshine owned it last year. Both are awesome films. Anyone who thought the last 30min of Sunshine sucked is a retard. Buh-Bye ;)

  • Neil M

    I just watched Man on Wire. I don’t watch as many documentaries as I should, but man…best one I’ve seen this year. I wish I didn’t already vote for Young@Heart.

  • I thought the last 30 minutes of Sunshine sucked.

    Frankly, I don’t see where the love is coming from for Sunshine. Primal, I think others on Film Junk have sung the film’s praises as well. Or maybe it’s just your comments that I’m constantly reading.

    Maybe if I was 10 years old, I might think the film was awesome. (Sorry if I insulted anyone out there including the 10 year olds.) The film didn’t make me think. And it didn’t affect me emotionally.

  • DavidM

    The more I think about it, Speed Racer is some avant-garde masterpiece. F’real.

  • Falsk

    Why is Hancock listed on here? I think I’m insulted to see the words “Hancock” and “best” next to each other.

    Eeeesh.

  • anna

    Do you really think there was any real drama movies this year?But most exentrick,dramatic-realistic-sadistic perfomance was done by the young Australian Ledger from Bat Man.But I dont see any real drama like recent Deer Hunter,Cinema Paradiso,English Patient …
    Silly shows called ‘dramas’.By the way Kate Winslet in Reader has not Golden Globe perfomance, but somehow Hollywood has to award her. I think Hollywood present her Oscar for Revolutionary Road and than they will forget her like tehy did with Julia Robers and Rene Zellweiger.

  • Christian

    “Why is Hancock listed on here? I think I’m insulted to see the words “Hancock” and “best” next to each other.

    Eeeesh.”

    It was a disappointment but at least it was better than Wanted.

  • Brett

    Shouldn’t “The Visitor” be on the Indie list?

  • Falsk

    “It was a disappointment but at least it was better than Wanted.”

    Maybe so. But isn’t that like saying stepping in dog dirt is better than stepping in elephant poo? Either way you’ve got $9 crud on your shoes.