AFI Goes 10 for 10

Thu., Jan. 17, 2008 3:49 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Those AFI lists are like tribbles. They keep multiplying.

The American Film Institute on Thursday announced plans to unleash yet another one of its AFI's 100 Years… TV specials, this time running down the top 10 American films from 10 genres.

Having already run through 100 Laughs, 100 Thrills and 100 Passions at annual intervals for a deade, the countdown-happy AFI folks have decided to give us not one, but 10 lists in 2008—ticking off their picks for in the realms of animation, fantasy, sci-fi, gangster, sports, western, romantic comedy, courtroom drama, mystery and epic.

The AFI is sending out ballots with 500 nominated movies—50 for each genre—to over 1,500 filmmakers, actors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, critics and historians who will then judge which ones will be in AFI's 10 Top 10.

For instance, last year's Best Picture winner The Departed will face off in the balloting process against Howard Hawk's 1932 classic, Scarface, for top gangster cred whereas Ben-Hur and Braveheart will go head-to-head in the epics category.

Nominees for the best films in animation include 1941's Pinnochio and 2001's Shrek, while Frodophiles will look forward to seeing how Peter Jackson's award-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy stacks up against 1933's original King Kong.

Other nominated flicks include 1953's War of the Worlds duking it out with 1999's The Matrix for sci-fi honors; 1956's The Searcher's and 1992's Unforgiven saddling up in westerns; 1934's It Happened One Night tangling with 1997's My Best Friend's Wedding in the romantic-comedy genre; 1957's Witness for the Prosecution and 1992's A Few Good Men under cross-examination for courtroom drama; 1942's tearjerking The Pride of the Yankees going the distance with 2003's Seabiscuit in the sports milieu; and 1939's Sherlock Holmes and 1995's The Usual Suspects deducing who's the greatest in the field of mystery.

The 10-by-10 rudown will be unveiled in a clips-heavy special that will air on CBS in June.

AFI kicked off the list-tallying with 1998's AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, which named Orson Welles' Citizen Kane the top American of all time. Other lists have included 100 Heroes & Villains, 100 Songs, 100 Movie Quotes, 100 Cheers and last year's AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies—10th Anniversary Edition.