It’s taken us a whole year, but we’re finally ready to unveil our Top 10 TMPA winners of 2011! It’s always difficult choosing the top 10 from a great year of TMPA winners. This year was no exception! Without further ado, the Top 10 list!
10. The Muppets – Walt Disney Pictures
With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.
9. Dolphin Tale – Warner Bros.
Swimming free, a young dolphin is caught in a crab trap, severely damaging her tail. She is rescued and transported to the Clearwater Marine Hospital, where she is named Winter. But her fight for survival has just begun, because without a tail Winter’s prognosis is dire.
8. Buck – IFC
A real-life “horse-whisperer,” Buck Brannaman eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect.
7. War Horse – Walt Disney Pictures
Young Albert enlists to service in WWI after his beloved horse, Joey, is sold to the cavalry. Albert’s hopeful journey takes him out of England and across Europe as the war rages on.
6. Warrior – Lionsgate
Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family – within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting.
5. The Way – Producers Distribution Agency
A father heads overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the “El Camino de Santiago” from France to Spain.
4. Win Win – Fox Searchlight
A disheartened attorney named Mike Flaherty, who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.
3. Beginners – Focus Features
Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who — following 44 years of marriage — came out of the closet at age 75.
2. Sarah’s Key – The Weinstein Company
In modern-day Paris, a journalist finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl whose family was torn apart during the notorious Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 1942.
1. The Help – Walt Disney Pictures
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maid’s point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
What do you think? Are there other TMPA winners from 2011 that you would like to see on this list?
