It's that time of the year... The best movie of the year, ten best movies of the year, the worst movies of the year, etc. What are my favorite movies of the year?

Well, here are 16 movies I picked from the movies I've seen this year. Some opened only in Korea. Of course, I haven't seen everything and might've missed some of the most talked about movies of the year. I badly want to see LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA.

1. The New World

2. Match Point

3. Inside Man

4. Paradise Now

5. My Scary Girl

6. Little Miss Sunshine

7. United 93

8. The Departed

9. Flags of Our Fathers

10. Volver

11. Pan's Labyrinth

12. A Dirty Carnival

13. Family Ties

14. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

15. Shopgirl

16. Babel

Handicapping the Oscars...

The Golden Globes nominations have been announced. It's another interesting year (rather dull in the eyes of the mainstream audience) because there's no sure-fire movie.

What's unique about this year is that Clint Eastwood received a double nom for both "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." I can't recall anything like this before where a director gets two movies nominated. I am so envious that he made two movie this year at his age. Wonsuk, what are you slacking off for?

Another bizarre thing is, "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Apocalypto" are nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film. Maybe Clint and Mel should prepare their acceptance speech in Japanese and whatever language they were speaking in the latter film.

Anyhow, based on the results of critics' awards and the Golden Globes, I am predicting the following result for the Oscars (of course, I am also predicting some surprises):

Best Picture

Letters From Iwo Jima
The Queen
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Babel

Best Director

Clint Eastwood "Letters From Iwo Jima"
Martin Scorsese "The Departed"
Stephen Frears "The Queen"
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu "Babel"
Emilio Estevez "Bobby"

Best Actor

Sasha Baron Cohen "Borat"
Leonardo DiCaprio "The Departed"
Peter O'Toole "Venus"
Forest Whitaker "The Last King of Scotland"
Will Farrell "Stranger Than Fiction"

Best Actress

Helen Mirren "The Queen"
Meryl Streep "The Devil Wears Prada"
Penelope Cruz "Volver"
Kate Winslet "Little Children"
Toni Collette "Little Miss Sunshine"

Best Supporting Actor

Jack Nicholson "The Departed"
Eddie Murphy "Dreamgirls"
Jackie Earle Haley "Little Children"
Ben Affleck "Hollywoodland"
Brad Pitt "Babel"

Best Supporting Actress

Rinko Kikuchi "Babel"
Jennifer Hudson "Dreamgirls"
Adriana Barraza "Babel"
Emily Blunt "The Devil Wears Prada"
Ivana Baquero "Pan's Labyrinth"

Disappointing, very disappointing. This nameless actor (who shall remain nameless) passed. Apparently, he wants to do a big-budget studio film now. Well, c'est la vie. You move on, which we're doing now but nonetheless, it's still disappointing especially after his manager made us believe he would be very interested in the project. I guess, that's what we wanted to believe.

Now, the holiday season is upon us and we won't know anything about it until the first or second week of January. Which means, shooting in March is pretty much out of the question. April is more like it or we may have to push til May. June becomes difficult because of the weather (we hit the rainy season later that month).

But I'm still optimistic. I know we will find our actor.

It's the Award Season again!

LA bestowed the Best Picture to LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA while NY chose UNITED 93. From all those critics awards, the following films emerge as potential Oscar contenders:

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
UNITED 93
THE QUEEN
THE DEPARTED
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
DREAMGIRLS

Although I haven't seen it, I'm rooting for LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA just because I'm a huge fan of Clint-san. It's amazing how he keeps getting better and better. If only I could pick his brain. Maybe that time will come. Meanwhile, I learn plenty from his movies and bits of interviews from him.

At a recent screening of the film in New York, he was quoted saying, "War is very futile no matter how much you color it.” Thank you, sir.

Still waiting on a response from an actor we made an offer to... It's taking a little longer than I hoped but it's moving forward. If he says yes, then, we make the film. If no, we start again with another actor.