Critics, like me, will ramble on ad nauseam about what movies qualify as great ones, especially during the Hollywood awards season, but few ever take the time to ask the filmmakers what movies blew them away during the previous year. Well, I decided to do just that while attending the Santa Barbara International Film Festival last month. Shockingly, I couldn't agree more with the results I culled from the host of past Oscar winners and/or current nominees attending the fest. Turns out my tastes are in line with a lot of my heroes' tastes. I'll try not to let it go to my head.

Richard Jenkins, Nominated this year for Best Actor for The Visitor

"There were a lot of great movies this year, and performances, just my luck [considering I'm nominated and up against those actors]. I've seen most of them, and like them all, to tell you the truth. But I just saw The Wrestler the other day. Oh man, [Mickey Rourke's] so good. What a performance!"

Dustin Lance Black, Nominated this year for Best Original Screenplay for Milk

"You know, I've always been fascinated by movies about politicians, and I've always been intrigued by Richard Nixon. Who he was, what he did. So I'd say Frost/Nixon. The movies Peter Morgan writes are exactly the kind of movies I like to see."

Andrew Stanton, past Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature for Finding Nemo, past Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay for Toy Story and Finding Nemo, and Oscar nominated this year for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay for Wall-E

"It's a small movie, but I just saw The Wrestler. I think it might be my favorite movie of the year. It's a shame [Darren] Aronofsky wasn't nominated [for Best Director]."

Viola Davis, Oscar nominated this year for Best Supporting Actress for Doubt

"You know, I haven't seen a lot. I saw Changeling, I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona." [Pauses to think, before making a decision]. "Doubt is my favorite film, even though the rest were fantastic. I'd have to say Doubt."

Clint Eastwood, past Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Director for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, past Best Picture and Best Director nominee for Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima, and past Best Actor nominee for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby

"[Sean Penn's] been in quite a few great movies, but this Milk's especially good."

Michael Shannon, Oscar nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor for Revolutionary Road

"For me, it was The Visitor. Richard Jenkins ... wow. Mind you, I haven't seen every film released this year, but his performance really struck me. The nuance. It had a real gravity to it you don't see very often. It wasn't so much that he was trying to impress anybody [as an actor], but as a human being [he] was trying to figure something out."

Danny Boyle, Oscar nominated this year for Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire

"There was so much extraordinary work this year, and we've been nominated alongside people I consider to be at the pinnacle of their careers in many different ways. For me, I'd like to always speak on behalf of smaller films and one discovery I've made this wonderful [award] tour is a Swedish film, a little one called Let the Right One In. It's a vampire film that's not like any vampire film you've ever seen. That's jut me, personally being obtuse and sticking up for very small indie films."

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