movie of the year
Cloverfield is the year's greatest spectacle, with the inventive style popularised by The Blair Witch Project, and sweetened with the year's best visual effects and superb sound. An honorable mention goes to Taken.
direction
Nothing was done better than No Country for Old Men.
misc elements
Best comedy is Knocked Up, and the most enchanting is the formulaic, yet effective, Robots.
Nothing made me cry in my history of movie-watching as did the drama, Kinsey, and there wasn't a movie as bizarre as Persona, while the year's best dialogue can be found in The Squid & the Whale.
As for production design, nothing beats No Country for Old Men, while TMNT is a runner-up, animated as it is. No Country for Old Men also got the year's best sound, followed by a tie between 30 Days of Night and Cloverfield. The New World's editing is the year's most accomplished.
The best dancing can be found in Step Up 2: The Streets, there's no better action-thriller than Taken, while no horror is better than the chilling Vacancy. The best action is found in Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children, followed by Kung Fu Panda. The best fight is between the characters played by Jet Li and Jacky Chan in the otherwise shitty and silly The Forbidden Kingdom.
misc small things
The year's best escape was the villain's in Kung Fu Panda. The best confrontation was that of the characters of Craig Bierko and Russel Crowe in a party scene in The Cinderella Man. The best end-credits sequence can be seen in The Mummy, which uses a concept copied from 300's end-credits sequence.
I don't remember a car crash in movie history as great as that in Death Proof.
performances
The year's performance is easily Heath Ledger's in The Dark Knight, and he happens to be the movie's sole redeemer, almost. Other outstanding male performers are Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s as dirty cop in Dirty, John Carrol Lynch's bit appearance in Confidence, and then Stanley Tucci's fashion lover in The Devil Wears Prada. My favorite comic performance is William H. Macy's in Wild Hogs.
The best female performance was by Cate Blanchett's title character as a daring journalist in Veronica Guerin, followed by the surprisingly excellent Kerry Washington as a slutty girl in I Think I Love My Wife. Ger Ryan (2nd runner-up) really touched me as a loving mother in interMission followed by Ellen Barkin (3rd runner-up) in Someone Like You. That Ger Ryan also ties with Ellen Page's appearance in the horrifying Hard Candy as my favorite female performance. They are followed by a tie between Katie Holmes' thief in Mad Money and Q'Orianka Kilcher's Pocahontas in The New World. The best bit-female performance is Alexandra Silber's book lover in Room 1408 which is the best thing in the movie even though she appears in just one short scene.
The best cast is a tie between interMission (a bunch of memorable and eccentric characters) and No Country for Old Men (a small solid set of rural American characters). The best characterisations was in The New World for the colorful portrayal of the Native Americans.
characters
The best villain is Heath Ledger's The Joker in The Dark Knight, who is also my most favorite ever. He is followed by Sid Haig's homorous clown in House of A Thousand Corpses.
The most desirable character is by Cate Blanchett in Veronica Guerin, followed by Shirley Henderson as the emotionally-hurt girl in interMission.
There were no characters as cute the young penguins in Surf's Up.
My most favorite creature is the super-large monster in Cloverfield, followed by Pyramid Head in Silent Hill. 2nd runner-up is the hyper-realistic mountain creatures in The Mummy 3. The best character design however goes to the villainous Maltazard in Arthur & the Invisibles, followed by the three suits in Iron Man.
visuals
The year's most beautiful imagery can be found in Surf's Up (the waves and the hidden beach), with an honorable mention going to The Bank Job, especially its opening scene. Appleseed has the year's best visuals.
For a complete list of the movies I reviewed for the year, visit this tag.