It’s hard to know what films will qualify for the American Institute honor and which won’t. They have a strict U.S. only selection process, which eliminates films like Amour, but the New Zealand-based The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could be eligible, but was it too foreign for them? The original trilogy was on their list, so it is presumably eligible, but was U.S. Studio MGM American enough for a film like Skyfall? The most notable omission here is The Master, helmed by an American for an American studio, but despite being a key player in the Oscar precursor season, it is completely absent from the below list.

Best American Films

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

American Film Institute Data

Year Founded: 1967
First Awards: 2001 (12)