FROM THE EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC DEPT.

In short order (the weekend of Dec. 9-10), the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The New York Film Critics Circle and the American Film Institute released their respective year-end lists .

A quick rundown:

LAFCA:
Best film: Letters from Iwo Jima
Best director: Paul Greengrass, United 93
Best actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Supporting actor: Micheal Sheen, The Queen
Supporting actress: Luminita Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Best doc: An Inconvenient Truth
Best foreign: The Lives of Others (Germany)
Best animated: Happy Feet

On the other coast, the NYFCC:
Best film: United 93
Best director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best actor: Forest Whitaker
Best actress: Helen Mirren
Supporting actor: Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Doc: Deliver Us from Evil
Foreign: Army of Shadows, Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 French resistance drama
Animated: Happy Feet

American Film Institute Top 10 of 2006 (alphabetical)

Babel
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Inside Man
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
United 93

Glad that United 93, which came out April 28, was remembered amidst the post-summer onslaught of releases. Greengrass' taut, terrifying film is so much more than just a TV-style docudrama. In smart, subtle strokes the filmmaker asks us not only to think about what we would have done if we were on that 9/11 flight, but also -- and this is the heavy stuff -- what is the nature of God, is there a God, and if there's a God, is he/she/it heeding the prayers of Christians and Muslims alike?