indieWIRE > Critics Poll

A total of 106 leading North American film critics participated in the second indieWIRE Critics' Poll, surveying the best in film for 2007. Voting was conducted in nine categories during the first half of December. This poll was created to continue the tradition of a national survey of critics, by calling attention to the year's best -- and, in many cases, most overlooked -- films, providing 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 Film
#	Title	Points	Mentions
1	There Will Be Blood	716	58
2	Zodiac	571	52
3	No Country for Old Men	561	48
4	Syndromes and a Century	444	39
5	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	406	35
6	I'm Not There	388	37
7	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	309	30
8	Colossal Youth	307	26
9	Killer of Sheep	264	22
10	Offside	250	24
11	Black Book	245	25
12	Once	208	22
13	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	204	17
14	Eastern Promises	195	22
15	I Don't Want to Sleep Alone	187	19
16	Regular Lovers	184	18
17	The Host	173	19
18	Southland Tales	166	17
19	Into the Wild	161	14
20	Ratatouille	147	15
Full list for Best Film

Best Performance
#	Artist	Points	Mentions
1	Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood	668	54
2	Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	252	24
3	Julie Christie, Away From Her	246	23
4	Carice van Houten, Black Book	228	22
5	Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises	202	20
6	Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose	136	13
7	George Clooney, Michael Clayton	118	12
8	Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	106	11
9	Michael Shannon, Bug	94	9
10	Ellen Page, Juno	90	9
11	Nicole Kidman, Margot at the Wedding	86	10
12	Philip Seymour Hoffman, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	84	8
13	Ashley Judd, Bug	82	10
	Marina Hands, Lady Chatterley	82	8
15	Kate Dickie, Red Road	78	7
16	Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn	70	8
17	Chris Cooper, Breach	66	7
18	Laura Linney, The Savages	62	7
	Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah	62	6
20	Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening	60	6
Full list for Best Performance

Best Supporting Performance
#	Artist	Points	Mentions
1	Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There	428	40
2	Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men	356	33
	Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	356	34
4	Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood	268	24
5	Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone	210	20
6	Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild	198	19
7	Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton	142	13
8	Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac	140	14
9	Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot at the Wedding	120	12
10	Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men	106	11
11	Steve Zahn, Rescue Dawn	102	9
12	Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War	100	10
13	Kurt Russell, Grindhouse	94	9
14	Vlad Ivanov, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	86	9
15	Mark Ruffalo, Zodiac	82	9
16	Samantha Morton, Control	74	7
17	Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton	72	7
	Vanda Duarte, Colossal Youth	72	6
19	Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men	66	7
20	Charlotte Gainsbourg, I'm Not There	64	7
Full list for Best Supporting Performance

Best Director
#	Artist	Points
1	Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood	27
2	David Fincher, Zodiac	9
	Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men	9
4	Todd Haynes, I'm Not There	6
5	Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	5
	Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Syndromes and a Century	5
7	Jafar Panahi, Offside	4
	Pedro Costa, Colossal Youth	4
	Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	4
10	Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	3
	Sean Penn, Into the Wild	3
12	Joe Wright, Atonement	2
	Paul Verhoeven, Black Book	2
	David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises	2
	Wes Anderson, The Darjeeling Limited	2
16	Lisandro Alonso, Los Muertos	1
	Tsai Ming-Liang, The Wayward Cloud	1
	Bong Joon-ho, The Host	1
	Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton	1
	Alain Resnais, Private Fears in Public Places	1
Full list for Best Director

Best Screenplay
#	Artist	Points
1	Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood	14
2	Noah Baumbach, Margot at the Wedding	9
	James Vanderbilt, Zodiac	9
4	Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton	7
5	Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men	6
6	Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	5
	Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman, I'm Not There	5
8	Diablo Cody, Juno	4
	Tamara Jenkins, The Savages	4
10	Sean Penn, Into the Wild	3
11	Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz	2
	Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl	2
	Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, Black Book	2
	Richard Kelly, Southland Tales	2
	Quentin Tarantino, Death Proof	2
	Corneliu Porumboiu, 12:08 East of Bucharest	2
	Brad Bird, Ratatouille	2
	Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard, Gone Baby Gone	2
	Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	2
20	Judd Apatow, Knocked Up	1
Full list for Best Screenplay

Best First Film
#	Artist	Points
1	Away From Her, Sarah Polley	15
2	Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck	13
3	Control, Anton Corbijn	9
	In Between Days, So Yong Kim	9
5	Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud	6
6	Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy	5
7	Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett	4
8	Red Road, Andrea Arnold	3
	Vanaja, Rajnesh Domalpalli	3
	12:08 East of Bucharest, Corneliu Porumboiu	3
11	The Band's Visit, Eran Kolirin	2
	Great World of Sound, Craig Zobel	2
	Once, John Carney	2
	No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson	2
	L'Iceberg, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy	2
	The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck	2
17	War, Philip G. Atwell	1
	Manda Bala, Jason Kohn	1
	Wild Tigers I Have Known, Cam Archer	1
	Apart From That, Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker	1
Full list for Best First Film

Best Documentary
#	Artist	Points
1	No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson	11
2	Into Great Silence, Philip Groning	8
3	The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Seth Gordon	7
	Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye	7
5	Manda Bala, Jason Kohn	6
6	Terror's Advocate, Barbet Schroeder	5
	Zoo, Robinson Devor	5
8	Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal	3
	Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, Julien Temple	3
	Czech Dream, Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak	3
	West of the Tracks, Wang Bing	3
	My Kid Could Paint That, Amir Bar-Lev	3
	Sicko, Michael Moore	3
14	Forever, Heddy Honigmann	2
	The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Sophie Fiennes	2
	Protagonist, Jessica Yu	2
	The Cats of Mirikitani, Linda Hattendorf	2
	Deep Water, Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell	2
	The Life of Reilly, Frank L. Anderson and Barry Poltermann	2
	I for India, Sandhya Suri	2
Full list for Best Documentary

Best Cinematography
#	Artist	Points
1	Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood	19
2	Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	11
	Harris Savides, Zodiac	11
4	Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men	9
	Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	9
6	William Lubtchansky, Regular Lovers	4
	Seamus McGarvey, Atonement	4
8	Edward Lachman, I'm Not There	3
	Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Syndromes and a Century	3
	Pedro Costa and Leonardo Simoes, Colossal Youth	3
	Ed Lachman, I'm Not There	3
12	Agnes Godard, Golden Door	2
	Eric Gautier, Into the Wild	2
14	Oliver Wood, The Bourne Ultimatum	1
	Benoit Delhomme, Breaking and Entering	1
	Robert Yeoman, The Darjeeling Limited	1
	Martin Ruhe, Control	1
	Larry Fong, 300	1
	Dariusz Wolski, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	1
	Sabine Lancelin, The Fifth Empire	1
Full list for Best Cinematography

Best Undistributed Film
#	Title	Points
1	Secret Sunshine	34
2	Useless	20
3	The Romance of Astree and Celadon	14
	In the City of Sylvia	14
5	The Man From London	11
	Profit motive and the whispering wind	11
7	La France	9
8	You, the Living	8
9	Frownland	7
	Go Go Tales	7
11	Battle for Haditha	6
12	The Tracey Fragments	5
	Import Export	5
14	The Pool	4
	Reprise	4
	The Other Half	4
	Nightwatching	4
	He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir	4
	Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait	4
	Angel	4
Full list for Best Undistributed Film

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 2007. For performances that received votes in both lead and supporting, we retained the votes in those categories, so certain actors' performance votes were split into two.