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Last week, we posted our Top 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2006. And this week, we present our Critics' Choice Awards for the Top 10 Films of 2006.

What's the difference between the lists? The "redeeming" list speaks for itself—films that told a story of redemption (something or somebody bad turned good, an uplifting story that celebrates truth, goodness and/or biblical values, etc.).

Our Critics' Choice list, on the other hand, consists of the 10 films that our panel believes were the most excellent films of 2006, whether they carried a "redeeming" message or not—though four of our top 10 choices also appeared on our Most Redeeming list. But all of the movies here are films of excellence, and many are up for various honors at the upcoming Academy Awards.

Our list resembles some top 10 lists you've seen in the mainstream, but we've got a few off-the-beaten-path picks as well. We also let each of our panelists choose "One That Got Away"—a single film they wish had made our Top Ten list. Think of those extra films as sort of our "honorable mentions."

And so, in reverse order, our Critics' Choice list for 2006:

This movie could have just as easily been titled "Adults Behaving Badly" or even "The Wages of Sin." The main characters in Todd Field's brilliantly directed film are self-absorbed adults who indeed act like little children, giving in to their impulses and desires with little thought (except of themselves), and sometimes with reckless abandon. But unlike many other Hollywood films, Little Children actually shows that sin has consequences, sometimes devastating ones. And while various immoral acts are depicted (sometimes too graphically), they're done so within that moral worldview framework—that sin indeed does have its wages. Phenomenal performances by Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Hayley.(Our review.)

Tsotsi won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but most Americans (including our panelists) didn't get to see it till early '06. An incredibly powerful movie about a Soweto street thug whose life—and perspective—is dramatically changed from the unlikeliest of sources: A baby. After stealing a car, the title character is stunned to find an infant in the back seat. What will he do with the helpless child? Anyone who has become a first-time parent can attest how a newborn can change their lives, but how would it affect this aimless, violent young man? Put it this way: Tsotsi was also named one of our Most Redeeming Films of 2006, so that might give you a hint.

Little Miss Sunshine was 2006's Napoleon Dynamite—an independently made film that released with little fanfare, till word-of-mouth caught fire about this quirky-but-charming gem. At the heart of the movie is an over-the-top dysfunctional family (including a suicidal gay uncle, a drug-and-porn-addicted grandfather, and a morose teen boy who has taken a vow of silence) whose lone link to "normalcy" seems to be Olive, a pudgy, bespectacled, and effervescent 7-year-old who dreams of winning a beauty pageant. Ten-year-old Abigail Breslin was nominated for an Academy Award in the film, which, despite the messy behavior of its characters, wraps up with a redemptive note of family love and togetherness.(Our review.)

For decades, James Bond fans have said we'll never have another 007 as good as Sean Connery. Roger Moore certainly didn't come close, and Timothy Dalton was even worse. Pierce Brosnan was pretty good, and many were sorry to see him get canned. Now along comes Daniel Craig with his flaxen hair ("No, Mr. Blond, I expect you to dye!"), and skeptics—including some of us—had their doubts. But no more: Craig is terrific, and is already being tagged the best Bond since Connery. And oh yeah: It's a great movie too—a taut thriller that goes back to the basics of the Ian Fleming novels and, admirably, far less objectification of women than we're used to seeing in these films. JB falls in love? For real? Yup. (Our review.)

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Related Elsewhere:

The 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2006	Printer view
What do a shy-but-brilliant speller, a dead Mexican guy, a street thug from Soweto, a compassionate spider, an anti-Nazi young woman, and the baby Jesus have in common? They're all in movies that we've just voted the ten most redeeming films of 2006.

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Ahoy! Readers Pick Pirates	Printer view
We asked our readers to pick their favorite movies of 2006, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest rose to the top. Captain Jack Sparrow rules, savvy?