This Week on Criticwire: Singing the Praises of Films and Critics Alike

The Criticwire Survey: The Best Film Criticism of 2012: Some are reviews, some are broader analyses and some cover films that weren't made in this century. But as a collection, they provide enough reading material to sustain you through the holiday season.  

The Best Films of 2012: Matt counts down his top ten films of the year, including a vibrant dance ode to New York, a bold statement against censorship and a Danish canoe ride gone horribly wrong.

Toronto Critics Champion 'The Master': P. T. Anderson's film took a foothold north of the border, where Gina Gershon and Panos Cosmatos also garnered some notable attention.

Five More Critics Groups Announce Their Favorites: 'The Master,' 'Zero Dark Thirty,' and 'Silver Linings Playbook': Detroit really went for David O. Russell's latest, recognizing it in half of their major categories.

Indiewire's Critics Poll Names 'Holy Motors' the Best Film of 2012: To the ranks of Indiewire year-end best films winners Malick, Fincher, Anderson and Assayas, we can now add Carax.

Austin Critics Zero in on 'Zero Dark Thirty,' Florida Critics Love 'Argo': As the results keep piling in, a few notable trends among winners are beginning to emerge.

'The Master' Reigns Supreme in the Village Voice's Film Critics' Poll: There's not a lot of disparity between the Indiewire list and the Voice's, but it still makes for a compelling look at orders of enthusiasm.

Our Favorite Unconventional Performance Votes From This Year's Indiewire Critics Poll: Not all the Best Performance Votes went to Day-Lewis, Phoenix and Chastain. Here are some of our favorites from the best of the bunch.

VODetails: 'Struck by LIghtning': The new Chris Colfer vehicle is faring well in its early going, suggesting that this might an on-demand winner.

From Megan Ellison to Ai Weiwei, Critics Comment on the 2012 Indiewire Critics Poll: Those critics who opted to share their overall thoughts on 2012 made for some insightful and impassioned summations of the year in film.

The Best Worst Films of 2012: They may not have gotten any votes in our various end-of-year polls, but there are certainly less-entertaining ways to spend your time.

Watch the Worst Movies of the Year Review Themselves: Avaryl Halley's genius supercut shows either an uncanny level of self-awareness or a highly amusing level of coincidence.

The Best Flops of 2012: Not all box-office failures deserve to be relegated to obscurity. Here are a handful that might have flown under the radar for all the wrong reasons.

Four Different Winners at Four Different Critics Group Awards: "Safety Not Guaranteed" as the year's best film? One group thinks so, and that's the way we like it.

A Few Notable Indiewire Critics Poll Ballots: Rather than narrow down the bevy of critic's lists to a handful of selections, we celebrate the diversity of not just the picks, but the voters who picked them.

One Last Critics Group Awards Roundup Before the Holidays: After some quick thoughts on the bizarre restrictions of the Academy's Best Foreign Film category, we offer one more look at notable critics circle results.