Fox SearchlightLeave it to those catalog-happy folks at the American Film Institute to come up with another year-end rundown, though this one may be its most random yet.
The AFI has unveiled its latest set of laurels, which it has given the suspect title of 2008's eight "Moments of Significance in Film, TV and the Web" and appears to be a grab bag of kudos for whatever the organization might've missed in its other lists.
And leading the charge is British helmer Danny Boyle's hit film Slumdog Millionaire, which the organization heralded "as a monument to the possibilities of cross-cultural storytelling" by way of its Hollywood-meets-Bollywood connection (despite the fact Slumdog failed to make it onto its list of Top 10 movies this year).
Among the notable TV "moments," the AFI also went out of its way to pay tribute to Saturday Night Live alum and 30 Rock star Tina Fey for her hilariously biting send-ups of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on SNL while giving tube-lovers some of the year's best laughs on her Emmy-winning NBC series.
Speaking of November's presidential election, the group singled out TV coverage of Barack Obama's historic duel with GOP presidential nominee John McCain as well as the Peacock's marvelous coverage of the Summer Olympics in Beijing back in August. The AFI also mentioned NBC's decision to install Jay Leno in the Monday-Friday 10 p.m. time slot as a potential game-changer when it comes to prime-time scheduling given the power it could have in reducing the number of scripted programs.
And finally acknowledging the power of the Internet as a cultural force, the AFI feted fast-growing website Hulu, a joint venture from NBC and Fox and other networks and studios that offers flash video of many of their popular shows. It made mention of DirecTV's sponsorship of a season of the Peacock's hit series Friday Night Lights.
And the institute noted Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind Joss Whedon's successful online creation, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a 43-minute musical comedy starring Neil Patrick Harris made exclusively for Netizens that debuted last summer and put the big boys on notice that creatives could use the Web as their own distribution outlet.
Last but not least, the AFI also cited the diminishing state of indie filmmaking as a number of specialty divisions belonging to the major studios went out of business, including Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent and New Line Cinema. It also pointed to the dwindling influence of film critics due to the cutbacks of staff jobs at several big-name publications, among them Time, Newsweek and The Village Voice.
The American Film Institute's "Moments of Significance" was chosen by a 13-person jury comprising scholars, film artists, critics and AFI trustees after two days of deliberations in Los Angeles by two juries, one for film and one for TV.
The organization will officially recognize its latest roundup in a ceremony set for Jan. 9 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.