AND THE WINNER IS...

In a three-hour special that will air tomorrow evening at 8pm EST/5pm PST on CBS, the American Film Institute will unveil its latest "greatest list"—this year, the AFI will actually announce ten lists identifying the top ten films in ten different genres, or "10 Top 10," which were selected by 1,500 leaders from all sectors of the film industry from a ballot (PDF version here) featuring fifty options for each genre, which offered the opportunity to write-in any other candidate, as well.

The AFI's "10 Top 10" follows "100 Movies" (1998), "100 Stars" (1999), "100 Laughs" (2000), "100 Thrills" (2001), "100 Passions" (2002), "100 Heroes and Villains" (2003), "100 Songs" (2004), "100 Movie Quotes" (2005), "25 Film Scores" (2005), "100 Cheers" (2006), "25 Musicals" (2006), and "100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition" (2007). These lists have been widely credited for generating interest in classic movies among young people, and for that the AFI deserves immense praise.

(So, too, do a select few others, including: the National Society of Film Critics, whose books The A-List, The X-List, and the forthcoming The B-List also offer well-considered choices and well-written explanations for them, including several by my friend Jim Verniere, the great film critic at the Boston Herald; Tim Dirks of the marvelous indie web site Filmsite.org, which features fantastic in-depth analysis and rankings of classics; Sight and Sound magazine, for their once-each-decade polls; Turner Classic Movies, for offering easy access to all the important classics on both TV and DVD; and, of course, passionate professors in burgeoning film departments at colleges and universities across the country, including several with whom I've been fortunate enough to work, like Tom Doherty and Alice Kelikian. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others who are worthy of mention, but I think these are the biggies.)

As I sifted through the AFI's '10 Top 10' ballot before filing this post, I contemplated two very different things: (a) the films/filmmakers that have been embraced on previous AFI lists, and (b) the films/filmmakers that I believe most deserve recognition. By blending these two considerations together, I have composed my predictions of what these lists will end up looking like. (LOCK denotes a film that I cannot fathom being excluded from its category.)

Be sure to share your own favorites/predictions in the "Comments" section before the show...

Romantic Comedies (segment hosted by Jessica Alba)

1. Annie Hall (1977, d. Woody Allen) LOCK
   
2. It Happened One Night (1934, d. Frank Capra) LOCK
3. Roman Holiday (1953, d. William Wyler)
   
4. The Philadelphia Story (1940, d. George Cukor)
5. City Lights (1931, d. Charlie Chaplin)
   
6. Ninotchka (1939, d. Ernst Lubitsch)
7. Bringing Up Baby (1938, d. Howard Hawks)
8. When Harry Met Sally... (1989, d. Rob Reiner)
   
9. The Apartment (1960, d. Billy Wilder)
10. The Lady Eve (1941, d. Preston Sturges)

Fantasy (segment hosted by Sean Astin)

1. The Wizard of Oz (1939, d. Victor Fleming) LOCK
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946, d. Frank Capra) LOCK
3. King Kong (1933, d. Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Shoedsack) LOCK
4. The Princess Bride (1987, d. Rob Reiner)
5. Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson)
   
6. Big (1988, d. Penny Marshall)
7. Field of Dreams (1989, d. Phil Alden Robinson)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, d. Peter Jackson)
9. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, d. Mel Stuart)
10. Harvey (1950, d. Henry Koster)

Mystery (segment hosted by Gabriel Byrne)

1. Chinatown (1974, d. Roman Polanski) LOCK
2. The Maltese Falcon (1941, d. John Huston) LOCK
3. Vertigo (1958, d. Alfred Hitchcock)
   
4. Laura (1944, d. Otto Preminger)
5. Rear Window (1954, d. Alfred Hitchcock)
6. The Third Man (1949, d. Carol Reed)
   
7. In the Heat of the Night (1967, d. Norman Jewison)
8. The Usual Suspects (1995, d. Bryan Singer)
9. Gaslight (1944, d. George Cukor)
10. Blue Velvet (1986, d. David Lynch)

Epic (segment hosted by Kirk Douglas)

1. Gone with the Wind (1939, d. Victor Fleming) LOCK
2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, d. David Lean) LOCK
3. Ben-Hur (1959, d. William Wyler) LOCK
4. The Ten Commandments (1956, d. Cecil B. DeMille) LOCK
5. Apocalypse Now (1979, d. Francis Ford Coppola)
6. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, d. Lewis Milestone)
7. The Birth of a Nation (1915, d. D.W. Griffith)
8. Braveheart (1995, d. Mel Gibson)
9. Spartacus (1960, d. Stanley Kubrick)
10. Titanic (1997, d. James Cameron)

Western (segment hosted by Clint Eastwood)

1. The Searchers (1956, d. John Ford) LOCK
2. High Noon (1952, d. Fred Zinnemann) LOCK
3. Shane (1953, d. George Stevens) LOCK
4. Stagecoach (1939, d. John Ford)
   
5. Unforgiven (1992, d. Clint Eastwood)
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, d. George Roy Hill)
7. The Wild Bunch (1969, d. Sam Peckinpah)
   
8. Giant (1956, d. George Stevens)
9. Red River (1948, d. Howard Hawks)
10. Dances with Wolves (1990, d. Kevin Costner)

Sports (segment hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr.)

1. Raging Bull (1980, d. Martin Scorsese) LOCK
2. Rocky (1976, d. John G. Avildsen) LOCK
3. The Pride of the Yankees (1942, d. Sam Wood) LOCK
4. Chariots of Fire (1981, d. Hugh Hudson) LOCK
5. Bull Durham (1988, d. Ron Shelton) LOCK
6. The Hustler (1961, d. Robert Rossen) LOCK
7. Jerry Maguire (1996, d. Cameron Crowe)
   
8. Field of Dreams (1989, d. Phil Alden Robinson)
9. Hoosiers (1986, d. David Anspaugh)
10. Million Dollar Baby (2004, d. Clint Eastwood)

Animation (segment hosted by Jennifer Love Hewitt)

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, d. David Hand) LOCK
2. Cinderella (1950, d. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, etc.) LOCK
3. Bambi (1942, d. David Hand) LOCK
4. Fantasia (1940, d. Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, etc.) LOCK
5. Pinocchio (1940, d. Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen) LOCK
6. Toy Story (1995, d. John Lasseter)
7. Dumbo (1941, d. Ben Sharpsteen)
   
8. Babe (1995, Chris Noonan)
9. Lady and the Tramp (1955, Clyde Gernomini, Wilfred Jackson, etc.)
10. The Lion King (1994, Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff)

Gangster (segment hosted by Quentin Tarantino)

1. The Godfather (1972, d. Francis Ford Coppola) LOCK
2. On the Waterfront (1954, d. Elia Kazan) LOCK
3. The Godfather, Part II (1974, d. Francis Ford Coppola) LOCK
4. GoodFellas (1990, d. Martin Scorsese)
5. White Heat (1949, d. Raoul Walsh)
6. Touch of Evil (1958, d. Orson Welles)
   
7. Little Caesar (1930, d. Mervyn LeRoy)
8. The Public Enemy (1931, d. William A. Wellman)
9. Pulp Fiction (1994, d. Quentin Tarantino)
10. The Untouchables (1987, d. Brian De Palma)

Sci-Fi (segment hosted by Sigourney Weaver)

1. E.T.—The Extra Terrestrial (1982, d. Steven Spielberg) LOCK
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, d. Stanley Kubrick) LOCK
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, d. Steven Spielberg) LOCK
4. Alien (1979, d. Ridley Scott) LOCK
5. Blade Runner (1982, d. Ridley Scott)
   
6. Back to the Future (1985, d. Robert Zemeckis)
7. A Clockwork Orange (1971, d. Stanley Kubrick)
8. Frankenstein (1931, d. James Whale)
   
9. Planet of the Apes (1968, d. Franklin J. Schaffner)
10. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, d. Robert Wise)

Courtroom Drama (segment hosted by James Woods)

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, d. Robert Mulligan) LOCK
2. Twelve Angry Men (1957, d. Sidney Lumet) LOCK
3. Inherit the Wind (1960, d. Stanley Kramer)
   
4. Witness for the Prosecution (1957, d. Billy Wilder)
   
5. Anatomy of a Murder (1959, d. Otto Preminger)
6. The Caine Mutiny (1954, d. Edward Dmytryk)
7. Philadelphia (1993, d. Jonathan Demme)
8. The Accused (1988, d. Jonathan Kaplan)
9. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, d. Stanley Kramer)
   
10. A Few Good Men (1992, d. Rob Reiner)