Vincent Orange, fighting Kwame Brown for Gray’s seat, went with a smaller Cadillac SUV than his competitor. What, he couldn’t afford an orange paint job?

It must be hard out there for a Washington film critic. You’ve got big-city cinema dreams, but you’re stuck in a town where politics is usually the order of the day. The number of people who turn to you as the last word in quality filmmaking is probably frustratingly small considering the size of the media market you’re working in. So what are our humble D.C. area film critics to do? Well, as we’ve noted before, the first step is to get your Best of the Year list out before anyone else has a chance to disagree with you. And the second, we suspect, is to pick a top film that no other critics in their right minds would bestow the honor to. Last year it was Munich, and this year, it’s United 93. Really.

Okay, to be fair, we too thought United 93 was surprisingly good. It was incredibly moving, and despite many people’s concerns that it might exploitative of the events of September 11, 2001, critics and audiences all seemed to agree it couldn’t have been made much more honestly than it was. It pretty typical Hollywood fare, but it wasn’t a bad film after all. But the best film of the year? Come on. We certainly haven’t seen all the Oscar contenders already, but plenty of other films are higher up on our list, including The Queen, The Departed, and Little Miss Sunshine.

The rest of the DC Area Film Critics Association Awards winners follow below. None of the other categories are anywhere near as surprising to us — in fact, they’re really pretty far on the safe side. But what do you think, faithful commenters?

Best Film — United 93

Best Actor — Forest Whitaker – The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress — Helen Mirren – The Queen

Best Supporting Actor — Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress — Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls

Best Director — Martin Scorsese – The Departed

Best Screenplay, Original — Michael Arndt – Little Miss Sunshine

Best Screenplay, Adapted — Jason Reitman – Thank You For Smoking

Best Foreign Film — Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Animated Feature — Happy Feet

Best Documentary — An Inconvenient Truth

Best Breakthrough Performance — Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls

Best Ensemble — Little Miss Sunshine

Best Art Direction — Marie Antoinette

Filed Under: An Inconvenient Truth, art, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Director, Best Documentary, Best Film, Best Foreign Film, best of, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, bestartdirection, bestdocumentary, Blood Diamond, commenters, Djimon Hounsou, events, fare, feature, film, film critics, forest whitaker, Happy Feet, helen mirren, hollywood, Inconvenient Truth, Jason Reitman, Jennifer Hudson, Little Miss Sunshine, Marie Antoinette, martin scorsese, media, movies, Pan's Labyrinth, people, performance, politics, Queen, September 11, smoking, Supporting Actress, Thank You, thank you for smoking, thankyouforsmoking, The Departed, The Last, The Last King, The Queen, washington,