AFT Awards: Best Opening

This is the twenty-third category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Click here to see previous years of this category. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them.

The winner:
Beasts of the Southern Wild started out with fascinating narration and a picaresque, visually dazzling introduction to its main character and its world.

Other nominees:
Anna Karenina set up its signature framework with a stunning series of set changes colorfully lit by the costumes and faces of its era. Headhunters used its protagonist’s dry sense of humor to establish a completely compelling and extremely layered narrative. Argo dove right into its tempestuous political situation and looked at its events from the fearsome inside. Skyfall didn’t waste any time waiting for the action, instead offering a thrilling foot chase within moments of its start.