By Debbie Schlussel
Last night was the deadline for nominations for the Detroit Film Critics Society. As I noted on Monday, I’m a member of this group, and the movie studios have been sending me DVDs of movies and holding special screenings ad nauseam (and ad sleepium).
Below are my picks. Some of the movies grew on me, others lust their luster as the year went on. In some categories, it was tough to eliminate movies, like Best Picture, I had like eight choices and had to get rid of “Doubt”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, and “Flash of Genius.” I had to remove Clint Eastwood for Best Actor, because I could only vote for five. I’ll have my own, separate list of my Top Ten Best & Worst Films of 2008, at the end of the year or beginning of next. Stay tuned for that.
In other categories, since I had to rank my five favorites, I put names on there that I really didn’t like that much, like Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler.” She plays an aging stripper and appears topless in the movie. I don’t like to give awards to women for taking their tops off onscreen. But as far as supporting actresses go, there wasn’t much to choose from. If I could just vote for Best Picture and Best Actor, that would be good. I don’t really care much about the rest.

So here are my picks ranked in order. You may not have seen or heard of some of these movies because they aren’t out yet, but will be shortly.

BEST PICTURE:
1) “Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
2) “Gran Torino”
3) “Henry Poole is Here”
4) “And When Did You Last See Your Father?”
5) “Defiance”
BEST DIRECTOR
1) Clint Eastwood (“Gran Torino”)
2) Mark Pellington (“Henry Poole is Here”)
3) Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
4) Anand Tucker (“And When Did You Last See Your Father?”)
5) Randall Miller (“Bottle Shock”)
BEST ACTOR
1) Colin Firth (“And When Did You Last See Your Father?”)
2) Luke Wilson (“Henry Poole is Here”)
3) Greg Kinnear (“Flash of Genius”)
4) Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Doubt”)
5) Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)
BEST ACTRESS
1) Demi Moore (“Flawless”)
2) Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”)
3) Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)
4) Kristen Scott Thomas (“I’ve Loved You So Long”)
5) Mena Suvari (“Stuck”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Anil Kapoor (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
2) Liev Schreiber (“Defiance”)
3) Michael Caine (“Flawless”)
4) Dennis Hopper (“Elegy”)
5) Stephen Rea (“Stuck”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Misty Upham (“Frozen River”)
2) Amy Adams (“Doubt”)
3) Ahney Her (“Gran Torino”)
4) Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”)
5) Patricia Clarkson (“Elegy”)
BEST NEWCOMER
1) Anil Kapoor (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
2) Asa Butterfield (“Boy in the Striped Pajamas”)
3) Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
4) David Hayman (“Boy in the Striped Pajamas”)
5) Ahney Her (“Gran Torino”)
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
1) “Doubt”
2) “Burn After Reading”
3) “Bottle Shock”
4) “Defiance”
5) “The Bank Job”

I’m still recovering from my movie coma.