The Best of 2012: Director & Ensemble

Best Director
10. Andrew Dominik for Killing Them Softly - For making the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino.
09. Rian Johnson for Looper - For being the most original writer/director working today.
08. Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom - For continuing to create singular, definitive modern day masterpieces.
07. Ben Affleck for Argo - For proving that Gone Baby Gone and The Town were certainly no flukes.
06. Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises - For finishing out his epic trilogy in bad-ass style.
05. Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained - For making a movie as bloody and violent as it is beautiful to watch.
04. Behn Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild - For making a gorgeous, wondrous fairy tale.
03. Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master - For continuing to not give a f**k and churning out the most divisive, but gorgeous, film of the year.
02. Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty - For making the most controversial and thrilling movie of the year (and having bigger balls than all the boys).
01. Ang Lee for Life of Pi - For taking a movie that sounds utterly ridiculous and unfilmable and creating a 3D masterpiece.

Best Ensemble
10. The Hunger Games
Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Toby Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci.
09. Looper
Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Pierce Gagnon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Piper Perabo, Noah Segan, Tracie Thoms, Bruce Willis.
08. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton.
07. Silver Linings Playbook
Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Anupam Kher, Jennifer Lawrence, John Ortiz, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, Shea Whigham.
06. The Dark Knight Rises
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Nestor Carbonell, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Mendelsohn, Matthew Modine, Gary Oldman, Juno Temple.
05. Moonrise Kingdom
Bob Balaban, Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis.
04. Magic Mike
Matt Bomer, Cody Horn, Gabriel Iglesias, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaughey, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash, Alex Pettyfer, Adam Rodriguez, Channing Tatum.
03. Zero Dark Thirty
Kyle Chandler, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mark Duplass, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, et al.
02. Argo
Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Kerry Bishe, Kyle Chandler, Rory Cochrane, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, John Goodman, Zeljko Ivanek, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver.
01. Lincoln
Joseph Cross, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Walter Goggins, Lukas Haas, Jackie Earle Haley, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson, Lee Pace, Gloria Reuben, James Spader, David Strathairn.

Tomorrow - Oscar nominations! Next Week - Best Supporting Actor & Actress, Lead Actor & Actress!