It's about to start: the fall marathon of Fil-um. The big-studio Oscar bait replete with Movie Stars being Serious, the indies replete with Movie Stars being paid very little money to be Serious. And all of them will be released in time to meet Academy deadlines and the nomination dates of the major critics' organizations -- that is, between December 21 and December 25.

Okay, not really. But it sure feels that way when you're running from screening to screening while also trying to shop for Thanksgiving dinner, write Christmas cards, and wrap holiday presents. So before the mad rush starts, it's time to look back on the films that have come so far this year and remind myself that there will be some performances, some films, some stuff worth remembering when I'm putting together my nominations for the Cinemarati Awards in January.

Speaking of which, other members of Cinemarati have also picked their best-ofs for the first half of 2003 -- check out their picks over at Cinemarati.org.

The place to start seems to be with the state of my 2003 Films Ranked list as of today. The top 10:

1. American Splendor
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
3. Millennium Actress
4. Hulk
5. The Magdalene Sisters
6. Carnage
7. X2: X-Men United
8. Buffalo Soldiers
9. Winged Migration
10. A Mighty Wind

And the bottom 10:

10. Anger Management
9. Uptown Girls
8. Hollywood Homicide
7. Bad Boys II
6. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
5. From Justin to Kelly
4. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
3. Kangaroo Jack
2. Marci X
1. Gigli

The best performances of the year, so far (alphabetical by film):

Paul Giamatti in American Splendor
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean
Ewan McGregor in Down with Love
Shia LeBeouf in Holes
Chris Cooper in Seabiscuit

Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday
Juliette Binoche in Jet Lag
Catherine O'Hara in A Mighty Wind
Evan Rachel Wood in Thirteen
Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider

Best script: American Splendor

Best director: Ang Lee for Hulk

Best production design: Down with Love

Best geeky pleasure: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Best heartstring-pulling blubfest: The Guys

Most quotable film: Pirates of the Caribbean

Most haunting film: Irreversible

It'll probably all look different come December 31, but the fun will be in seeing how different.

--MaryAnn Johanson
09.09.03