American Film Institute Juries Pick Top Ten Movies and TV Shows

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Sony

The American Film Institute film and TV juries--a mix of industry professionals, critics and academics-- met Sunday to pick their top ten films and television shows of 2011, below. They limit their choices to American content only, which is often the subject of some debate. While Harvey Weinstein managed to convince the Independent Spirit Awards committee to include "The Artist" as an American film, the AFI gave it a special award instead, along with the "Harry Potter" series.

This year the film jury went mainstream with such films as "Bridesmaids," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Moneyball" and "War Horse." While they also included entries from such studio specialty distributors as Sony Pictures Classics and Fox Searchlight, the group did not pick one truly independent release.

The AFI Awards' intimate award celebration will be held January 13 at the Four Seasons. It's always a hot ticket.

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR (alphabetical)
BRIDESMAIDS


THE DESCENDANTS


THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

THE HELP


HUGO


J. EDGAR


MIDNIGHT IN PARIS


MONEYBALL


THE TREE OF LIFE


WAR HORSE

AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

BREAKING BAD

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

GAME OF THRONES


THE GOOD WIFE

HOMELAND


JUSTIFIED


LOUIE


MODERN FAMILY


PARKS AND RECREATION

AFI SPECIAL AWARDS
THE ARTIST


THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

This year’s juries were chaired by AFI Board of Trustees Vice Chairs Tom Pollock (movies) and Richard Frank (television) and included Whoopi Goldberg, Indiewire's own Leonard Maltin and various film scholars.