The Skuriels: The Skuriels: An Introduction

Well, the time has come!

As co-founder and current consigliere of the Muriel Awards, I would like to welcome everyone to the Skuriels, a full-on collaboration of the Muriels and our more seasoned cousins in movie honors, the Skandies, accompanied by a handful of other friends and well-wishers. And what could warrant such a collaboration, you ask? Why, a poll of the greatest movies ever, of course!

Naturally, there’s a tendency to feel a little intimidated, announcing our list like this in the shadow of the more established Sight and Sound poll. But while they’re certainly worthy of their legendary status, we like to think there’s plenty of room for other poll of this sort among moviegoers. Besides, was their name inspired by a hard-working Canadian screenwriter and a late, lamented guinea pig? Unless some oddball went and named his pet rodent “Sound” I highly doubt it.

Anyway, the countdown to #1 will begin in half an hour, at 10:30 AM, complete with remarks penned by some of our voters. Some of these write-ups are long, other short; some of them are academic, others anecdotal, and at least one of them is... well, pretty darn creative. But they're all well worth your time.

Before the countdown begins, I’d like to offer thanks and acknowledgement to everyone who participated this year. Clicking on the voter’s name will link to his or her web site, blog, or Twitter feed, if applicable:

- Jason Alley

- Ali Arikan

- Danny Baldwin

- Kent M. Beeson

- Josh Bell

- Andrew Bemis

- Christianne Benedict

- Scott W. Black

- Chuck Bowen

- Matthew Butcher

- Steve Carlson

- Paul Clark