A total of 107 leading North American film critics participated in the first indieWIRE Critics Poll, surveying the best in film for 2006. Dennis Lim, who conducted the VIllage Voice poll from 1999 to 2005, was joined by Anthony Kaufman to poll critics for indieWIRE in nine categories and voting was conducted online during the first half of December. As Dennis noted in an email to critics just after Thanksgving, a national survey of this scope and scale, by calling attention to the year's best -- and, in many cases, most overlooked -- films, provides a meaningful counterpoint to much of the year-end hoopla. (Details on how the scores were tabulated are available at the end of this page.)
Best Performance
#
Artist
Points
Mentions
1
Helen Mirren , The Queen 540
51
2
Ryan Gosling , Half Nelson 494
46
3
Laura Dern , Inland Empire 384
33
4
Sacha Baron Cohen , Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 326
32
5
Forest Whitaker , The Last King of Scotland 208
23
6
Will Oldham , Old Joy 186
18
7
Meryl Streep , The Devil Wears Prada 156
15
8
Ion Fiscuteanu , The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 152
14
9
Penelope Cruz , Volver 144
15
10
Sandra Huller , Requiem 124
11
11
Leonardo DiCaprio , The Departed 120
13
12
Maggie Cheung , Clean 110
11
13
Jeremie Renier , L'Enfant 100
11
14
Kate Winslet , Little Children 94
9
15
Isabelle Huppert , Gabrielle 72
7
Peter O'Toole , Venus 72
6
17
Gael Garcia Bernal , The Science of Sleep 68
7
18
Pascal Greggory , Gabrielle 62
6
Gretchen Mol , The Notorious Bettie Page 62
7
20
Judi Dench , Notes on a Scandal 56
7
Full list for Best Performance
Best Supporting Performance
#
Artist
Points
Mentions
1
Mark Wahlberg , The Departed 268
26
2
Shareeka Epps , Half Nelson 216
20
3
Robert Downey Jr. , A Scanner Darkly 180
17
4
Jackie Earle Haley , Little Children 176
17
5
Nick Nolte , Clean 150
13
6
Luminita Gheorghiu , The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 140
15
7
Sergi Lopez , Pan's Labyrinth 118
13
8
Meryl Streep , A Prairie Home Companion 116
11
9
Michael Sheen , The Queen 114
11
10
Rinko Kikuchi , Babel 108
12
11
Catherine O'Hara , For Your Consideration 94
8
12
Rob Brydon , Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 90
10
13
Jack Nicholson , The Departed 88
8
14
Anthony Mackie , Half Nelson 80
8
Alec Baldwin , The Departed 80
8
16
Jennifer Hudson , Dreamgirls 78
8
17
Danny Huston , The Proposition 66
6
Ben Affleck , Hollywoodland 66
7
19
Ken Davitian , Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 62
6
20
Emily Blunt , The Devil Wears Prada 60
7
Full list for Best Supporting Performance
Best Director
#
Artist
Points
1
Martin Scorsese , The Departed 12
2
David Lynch , Inland Empire 11
3
Cristi Puiu , The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 10
4
Alfonso Cuaron , Children of Men 7
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne , L'Enfant 7
6
Hou Hsiao-hsien , Three Times 4
Jean-Pierre Melville , Army of Shadows 4
Nuri Bilge Ceylan , Climates 4
9
Kelly Reichardt , Old Joy 3
Carlos Reygadas , Battle in Heaven 3
Paul Greengrass , United 93 3
12
Pedro Almodovar , Volver 2
Julian Hernandez , Broken Sky 2
Jean Pierre Melville , Army of Shadows 2
Guillermo del Toro , Pan's Labyrinth 2
Michael Mann , Miami Vice 2
Claire Denis , The Intruder 2
18
Olivier Assayas , Clean 1
Brian De Palma , The Black Dahlia 1
Mel Gibson , Apocalypto 1
Full list for Best Director
Best Screenplay
#
Artist
Points
1
Peter Morgan , The Queen 15
2
William Monahan , The Departed 8
3
Richard Linklater , A Scanner Darkly 7
Frank Cottrell Boyce , Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 7
5
Rian Johnson , Brick 5
6
Patrice Chereau and Anne-Louise Trividic , Gabrielle 3
Nick Cave , The Proposition 3
Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan , The Prestige 3
Eric Schlosser and Richard Linklater , Fast Food Nation 3
Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt , Old Joy 3
Andrew Bujalski , Mutual Appreciation 3
Alan Bennett , The History Boys 3
13
Eric Roth , The Good Shepherd 2
Jason Reitman , Thank You for Smoking 2
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne , L'Enfant 2
Cristi Puiu and Razvan Radulescu , The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 2
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck , Half Nelson 2
18
Carlos Reygadas , Battle in Heaven 1
Craig Chester , Adam and Steve 1
Chu Tien-wen and Hou Hsiao-hsien , Three Times 1
Full list for Best Screenplay
Best First Film
#
Artist
Points
1
Brick , Rian Johnson 14
2
4 , Ilya Khrzhanovsky 13
3
Little Miss Sunshine , Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 6
4
The Puffy Chair , Jay Duplass 5
Man Push Cart , Ramin Bahrani 5
6
Sweet Land , Ali Selim 4
13 Tzameti , Gela Babluani 4
Thank You for Smoking , Jason Reitman 4
Duck Season , Fernando Eimbcke 4
10
Slither , James Gunn 3
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros , Auraeus Solito 3
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints , Dito Montiel 3
13
Fateless , Lajos Koltai 2
The Forsaken Land , Vimukthi Jayasundara 2
Cavite , Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon 2
Hamilton , Matthew Porterfield 2
The Ister , David Barison and Daniel Ross 2
Street Fight , Marshall Curry 2
19
Hollywoodland , Allen Coulter 1
Deliver Us From Evil , Amy Berg 1
Full list for Best First Film
Best Documentary
#
Artist
Points
1
Iraq in Fragments , James Longley 15
2
The Devil and Daniel Johnston , Jeff Feuerzeig 7
Our Daily Bread , Nikolaus Geyrhalter 7
4
Deliver Us From Evil , Amy Berg 6
5
The Case of the Grinning Cat , Chris Marker 5
6
An Inconvenient Truth , Davis Guggenheim 4
Shut Up and Sing , Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck 4
8
49 Up , Michael Apted 3
The Road to Guantanamo , Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross 3
Dave Chappelle's Block Party , Michel Gondry 3
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan , Larry Charles 3
A Lion in the House , Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert 3
13
Sir! No Sir! , David Zeiger 2
Jackass Number Two , Jeff Tremaine 2
Neil Young: Heart of Gold , Jonathan Demme 2
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple , Stanley Nelson 2
The Ground Truth , Patricia Foulkrod 2
The War Tapes , Deborah Scranton 2
19
Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! , Adam Yauch 1
Why We Fight , Eugene Jarecki 1
Full list for Best Documentary
Best Cinematography
#
Artist
Points
1
Emmanuel Lubezki , Children of Men 25
2
Guillermo Navarro , Pan's Labyrinth 7
Mark Lee Ping-bin , Three Times 7
4
Dion Beebe , Miami Vice 6
5
Gokhan Tiryaki , Climates 5
6
David Lynch et al. , Inland Empire 3
James Longley , Iraq in Fragments 3
Eric Gautier , Clean 3
Michael Ballhaus , The Departed 3
10
Rodrigo Prieto , Babel 2
Alain Marcoen , L'Enfant 2
Alejandro Cantu , Broken Sky 2
Cao Yu , Mountain Patrol: Kekexili 2
Benoit Delhomme , The Proposition 2
Tom Stern , Letters From Iwo Jima 2
Peter Sillen , Old Joy 2
Dean Semler , Apocalypto 2
David Tumblety , Sweet Land 2
19
Henry Kaiser and Tanja Koop and Klaus Scheurich , The Wild Blue Yonder 1
Diego Martinez Vignatti , Battle in Heaven 1
Full list for Best Cinematography
Scoring: We asked each critic to cite 10 films, five lead performances, five supporting performances, 10 films without distributors, and one choice each for director, screenplay, cinematography, documentary, and first feature. Each film and performance in an unranked ballot received 10 points. Ranked ballots were weighted as follows: For film: 1 (15 points), 2 (14), 3 (13), 4 (12), 5 (11), 6 (9), 7 (8), 8 (7), 9 (6), 10 (5). For performance: 1 (14), 2 (12), 3 (10), 4 (8), 5 (6). We asked our voters to focus on films that opened for U.S. theatrical engagements in 2006. For performances that received votes in both lead and supporting, we shifted the points to the more popular category.
