My favorite films of 2008 and can't wait for 2009

Every year Indiewire compiles a list of top favorites from the editors of indieWIRE and industry insiders. Included in these "industry insiders" are festival programmers and acquisitions folks.

I have a love/hate with "top ten" lists but I always love to read this one since Festival Programmers see so many films that don't break through and have seen so many films overall that I love to see what makes it into these lists. I can never narrow mine down to ten - that's one thing I love about my job is I actually like movies and honestly like a lot of them. If you asked me my top ten favorite films of all time, I would be more selective but in any given year, I like films for a variety of reasons... sometimes, a film stands out, because I feel like it's a new talent and someone to watch out for their next film and sometimes, the film captures the mood of that year and time. And sometimes a film stands out enough to even make it into the "of all time" list but mostly I just love films.

Here is my list with some additions that I forgot!
Also, my friend had posted sarcastically lovingly, I'm sure: "A list of films you can't see in the theatres or rent - how helpful!" Well sir, many of these are available on Netflix and others are available on that new thing called "the internet". Plus, many of them played in festivals, like AFI FEST and smaller regional festivals - once again making festivals so important!

I had a really hard time narrowing it down to 10 - there are 15 I think stood out above the rest. (Note: unranked, alphabetical order)

"The Class"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"Frozen River"
"Happy-Go-Lucky"
"Hunger"
"Man on Wire"
"Milk"
"Momma's Man"
"The Order of Myths"
"Rachel Getting Married"
"Secrecy"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Synecdoche, New York"
"Waltz with Bashir"
"Wendy and Lucy"
"The Wrestler"

And films released I forgot that are awesome:
"The Pleasure of Being Robbed"
"California Dreamin' (Endless)"

Best as yet undistributed films of 2008:
"Acne"
"Afterschool"
"Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
"Goodbye Solo"
"Finally Lillian and Dan"
"Intimades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo"
"I'm Gonna Explode (Voy a Explotar)"
"Last Days of Shishmaref"

I forgot to mention in the undistributed:
"Prodigal Sons"
"Dear Zachary"
"Of all the Things"

From my last year's best undistributed films:
"Silent Light"
"Still Life"
"Flight of the Red Balloon"

I love that Matt Dentler added these categories:
My new obsession is finding films online!

Web Series:
1. "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"
2. "Wainy Days"
3. "The Stagg Party"

Original Viral Video:
1. "Where the Hell is Matt?"
2. "Prop 8: The Musical"
3. "JC Penney's 'Beware of the Doghouse'"

New Film Portal:
1. Hulu
2. YouTube Screening Room
3. SnagFilms

Relaunched Film Portal:
1. Amazon VOD
2. Joost
3. Babelgum

Happy Hunting