1988 had probably the most diverse group of winners in awards history with none of the major pre-cursors agreeing on anything.

The L.A. Film Critics were the first out of the box this year. They declared the two-part British import, Little Dorrit, directed by Christine Edzard from one of Charles Dickens’ lesser known novels, to be the year’s best. Canada’s David Cornenberg was named Best Director for his bloody psychological horror film, Dead Ringers.

The National Board of Review made a more traditional choice in giving their award to British director Alan Parker’s film about the aftermath of the 1964 killings of American civil rights workers in Mississippi Burning. Parker was named Best Director.

The New York Film Critics went with the comedy Accidental Tourist, directed by Lawrence Kasdan, but gave their Best Director award to British born Chris Menges for his film of South African conflict, A World Apart.

The National Society of Film Critics went with a love story set against the background of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and its director, Philip Kaufman.

The Golden Globes went in a different direction altogether in naming Rain Man, a road movie about an autistic savant and his much younger brother, their Best Picture – Drama over Mississippi Burning; The Accidental Tourist (which apparently was no longer a comedy); Fred Schepsi’s Australian set A Cry in the Dark and Michael Apted’s African set Gorillas in the Mist. The Best Picture – Musical or Comedy award went to Mike Nichols’ Working Girl. Clint Eastwood, whose film about jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker, called simply Bird, was named Best Director.

Directors Guild nominations went to Nichols for Working Girl and Parker for Mississippi Burning along with Barry Levinson for Rain Man; Charles Crichton for the British comedy, A Fish Called Wanda and Robert Zemeckis for the semi-animated Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Oscar’s list of Best Director nominees agreed with the DGA except for Zemrckis who was replaced by Martin Scorsese for The Last Temptation of Christ from the controversial Greek novel of the same name.

Oscar’s Best Picture slate included the previously mentioned The Accidental Tourist; Mississippi Burning; Rain Man and Working Girl along with Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons adapted from the scandalous French novel, Les Liaisons Dangerouses.

To get to our hypothetical list of ten nominees I’ll throw in two more film not yet mentioned, Ron Shelton’s baseball comedy, Bull Durham and Sidney Lumet’s family in hiding melodrama, Running on Empty. To get to ten, take your pick from any of the films previously mentioned. I’d give the edge to The Unbearable Lightness of Being; Dead Ringers and The Last Temptation of Christ but it could have been anything in what was really quite a remarkable year for film.

Oh, yes, in case you didn’t know, Rain Man and Barry Levinson won.