Best Animated Film
WINNER: Wreck-It Ralph (dir. Rich Moore) In a year of pretty disappointing animated films, all it took was Disney to use their imagination for once and actually outdo Pixar with Wreck-It Ralph, a super-smart, gleeful love letter to video games that's sure to please gamers the world over, and even entertain those who have never picked up a controller (though this film might convince them to have a go!). A sweet tale about accepting those with differences that's at once visually stunning and jam-packed with homages to countless classic games, this a geeky delight that, as is rare for films, actually gives video games their fair due.
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Best Documentary
WINNER: The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton) No documentary film I have ever seen in a cinema provoked as strong a reaction as Bart Layton's unbelievable film The Imposter; I observed audience members leaning forward in anticipation, waiting for the next disturbing, or possibly darkly funny, revelation to make it to the surface. Layton weaves an agreeably tense tale about a young American boy's disappearance, and then piles on the absurd facts such that if it wasn't a documentary, there's no way you would buy into it. The Imposter tells a story that is initially horrifying, and then becomes disturbing in unexpected ways once it begins to riff on the human condition.
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Best Foreign Film
WINNER: The Hunt (dir. Thomas Vinterberg) Thomas Vinterberg finally makes his way back from the filmmaking wilderness with The Hunt, a terrifying, timely tale about a nursery school teacher Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) who is accused by a vindictive child of molesting her. Soon, the entire parent-teacher collective turns on him as mass hysteria spreads, and Lucas finds himself fighting for more than his reputation. Mikkelsen is absolutely stunning in the lead role, right up to the film's finale, which is at once nerve-shreddingly tense and absolutely infuriating; Vinterberg's criticism of tabloid witch-hunts and mob mentality is razor-sharp.
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