indieWIRE just finished polling "105 leading North American film critics," surveying the best in film for '08. Charlie and his Synecdoche posse did quite well. Some snippets:

Best Film
1 Flight of the Red Balloon
...
8 Silent Light
9 Synecdoche, New York
10 Waltz With Bashir

Best Director
1 Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Flight of the Red Balloon
...
17 Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York (equal with Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler; Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married; Laurent Cantet, The Class)

Other categories featuring Synecdoche:

Best First Feature (Synecdoche, New York, 4th)
Best Performance (Philip Seymour Hoffman, 10th)
Best Supporting Performance (Samantha Morton, 3rd)
Best Screenplay (Charlie Kaufman, 1st -- WOOHOO!)

The complete list is here.

Thanks to Tram, who has been essentially second-in-command at BCK for the last few months.

Have yourselves a great Christmas (or goat sacrifice, or whatever you do around this time of year) and I'll see you in a few days. Unless there's no news. In which case, even longer.