"Birdman," "Unbroken," "Imitation Game" among AFI Awards winners

PanARMENIAN.Net - The American Film Institute's AFI Awards saluted 11 best films this year, instead of the usual 10. Among best films which were announced as the winners on Monday, Dec 8 are "Birdman" starring Michael Keaton Angelina Jolie-directed WWII pic "Unbroken" and Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer "The Imitation Game", according to AceShowbiz.

Other flicks which are honored by the AFI are Richard Linklater's 12-year experiment "Boyhood", Bradley Cooper's "American Sniper", sports drama "Foxcatcher" starring Channing Tatum, and "Interstellar", a sci-fi flick starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

Musical movie "Into the Woods", starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp and Chris Pine, is also among winners. Rounding out the list are Jake Gyllenhaal's "Nightcrawler", "Selma", which focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march in 1965, and "Whiplash" starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.

Those 11 flicks, as well as 10 TV programs, are honored with the awards because they are "deemed culturally and artistically representative of the year's most significant achievements in the art of the moving image." AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said in a statement, "They are a part of our American cultural heritage - collectively, a new chapter in the story of the art form and of our nation."

In 2012, eight of films mentioned in the list were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Last year, seven flicks in the list competed for the coveted prize.

Among TV programs saluted by the AFI are "The Americans", "Fargo", "Game of Thrones" and "How to Get Away With Murder". "Jane the Virgin", "The Knick", "Mad Men", "Orange is the New Black", "Silicon Valley" and "Transparent" are also named winners. Prizes for both winners in movie and TV categories are handed at a private luncheon on January 9.