American Film Institute recognizes The Dark Knight Rises and Louie as worthy of recognition by The Institute

By Sean O'Neal | December 10, 2012 | 11:01pm

Aux Features TV

While the various critics on America's margins have had their say on the year's finest movies, today it was the turn of the American Film Institute—or simply, "The Institute," as its members refer to it with a dismissive upward gaze, their eyes then trailing disdainfully to the floor to look at the dilapidated canvas eyesores that pass for shoes in your tatterdemalion world. Being an organization of some dignity, the Institute does not believe in the grubby tussling for individual awards by nominees, like starved refugees or some sort of baseball team, instead offering only two, unranked lists of the entertainment it enjoyed in 2012—one for film and one for television. Here are both; awards will be handed out at a private "luncheon" that you are not invited to, not being a part of the Institute.

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR
Argo
Beasts Of The Southern Wild

The Dark Knight Rises

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life Of Pi

Lincoln

Moonrise Kingdom

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty