Movies of the year

This year, an enterprising group of local writers formed the Indiana Film Journalists Association. Founded "to promote quality film criticism in the Hoosier State," it includes Ed Johnson-Ott of Nuvo, Matthew Socey, host of WFYI’s Film Soceyology, Joe Shearer of Indy.com, freelance critic and blogger Christopher Lloyd and others, including yours truly.

Tonight, we get together to hash out our picks for the year’s Best Film, Best Actor/Actress, Best Director and lots more. We’ll also be debating who should win the Hoosier Vision Award, celebrating an Indiana-connected person who has contributed to the art of film.

With this crew of passionate film writers, fisticuffs aren’t out of the question. I expect the discussion to get fairly heated.

Although I haven’t seen as many films as the other voters (and will be abstaining from some of the categories where I’m ill-prepared), I will be advocating for the likes of "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," Hal Holbrook’s performance in "That Evening Sun" (yes, films screened at the Heartland Film Festival and Indianapolis International Film Festival count) and Christoph Waltz or Jackie Earle Haley, who both gave outstanding performances in botched films ("Inglourious Basterds" and "The Watchmen").

We’ll be announcing our picks on or around Dec. 14.

If you were at the meeting tonight, what films and performances would you be championing?

Your thoughts?