Guillermo Del Toro is the latest Mexican director to be showered with praise by critics as Oscar contenders are unveiled at the end of the year. His Pan's Labyrinth, which combines magic and realism is receiving downright ecstatic praise from some critics. "This is fabulous filmmaking in every sense of the word," writes Gene Seymour in Newsday. A.O. Scott in the New York Times comments, "If this is magic realism, it is also the work of a real magician. ... Pan's Labyrinth is a swift and accessible entertainment, blunt in its power and exquisite in its effects." Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times calls the director a "visionary" who has created "a dark and disturbing fairy tale for adults that's been thought out to the nth degree and resonates with the irresistible inevitability of a timeless myth." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post writes that "for me, nothing this year comes close to being as utterly unforgettable as Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth ... the year's best movie. Honest." Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune describes it as "an incredible achievement." And Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News concludes: "A critic trots out the word 'masterpiece' at his own peril, but there it is."

If Pan's Labyrinth is receiving some of the best reviews of the year, Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow is receiving some of the worst. The first feature set in war-torn Iraq, it's being called by Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times, "a scorching affront to Italians, Iraqis and the intelligence of movie audiences everywhere." Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News writes that the movie is virtually an updated version of Benigni's Life Is Beautiful, but is "built on a teetering pile of pratfalls. ... Zany where it should be charming, self-congratulatory where it should be generous, this misguided project looks for love in all the wrong places." Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times calls the film "shameless, utterly predictable and grimly unfunny nonsense" and says that it consolidates Benigni's position "as the most self-indulgent and altogether insufferable showoff in the movies." And V.A. Musetto in the New York Post predicts that the movie, unlike Life Is Beautiful, which won three Oscars, won't be on anybody's awards list this year. "The only award Benigni's misconceived and unfunny The Tiger and the Snow could possibly win is for Worst Movie of 2006," he writes.

Despite the fact that it will be playing in about a quarter of the theaters showing Night at the Museum, analysts are predicting that the musical Dreamgirls has a fighting chance of unseating the Ben Stiller fantasy-comedy as the box-office leader this weekend. Dreamgirls opened to a staggering $8.5 million on Christmas day, but it has not come close to equaling Museum's mid-week grosses. (On Wednesday, it was only fourth on the list, behind Museum, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Charlotte's Web.) Picturehouse, created by New Line and HBO Films, is also releasing Pan's Labyrinth during the last weekend of the year when it can qualify for Oscar nominations. Among a virtual glut of artsy films being put out in limited release this weekend is Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow.

Martin Scorsese's The Departed has received the best-picture award from the Chicago Film Critics Association. The film also received awards for best director and adapted screenplay (William Monahan). Helen Mirren received the best actress award for her performance as The Queen while Forest Whitaker drew the actor award for his performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

Although it was originally described as "bullet proof," the encryption code devised to prevent the copying of high-definition DVD's using Toshiba's HD DVD system may have been broken. Reports appearing on several tech websites Thursday said that a hacker calling himself Muslix64 posted information on how to crack the Advanced Access Content System codes. A video that he posted on YouTube describes his technique. In it, he shows how he decrypted such films as Van Helsing and Full Metal Jacket and promised more information on January 2.

Broadcast news executives were thrashing out plans for final coverage of the deaths of two former world leaders -- the funeral of Gerald Ford and the impending execution of Saddam Hussein. Coverage of the Ford funeral was due to begin on Saturday with the arrival of the casket at the Capitol Rotunda. All three network anchors are due to cover the funeral, including NBC's Brian Williams, ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric. On Tuesday, the three networks plan to cover the memorial service for the former president at the National Cathedral. By contrast, questions about how to cover Saddam's execution, reportedly due to take place as early as today, appeared more politically complicated. Iraqi officials said every minute of their former leader's last minutes will be recorded from the moment that they take over custody from U.S. authorities. It seemed certain that much of the video, including the hanging itself, would be shown on Iraqi TV and on Arab television generally in the region. It was also expected to be quickly available on YouTube. But it was not known how much of the actual execution -- if any -- would be shown on U.S. television. The TVNewser site quoted an unnamed insider as saying, "I'm sure every network has had their standards and practices discussions about this already."

A never-before-aired interview with the late President Ford in which he criticized President Bush's decision to invade Iraq was broadcast Thursday on CNN. In the interview, conducted by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward two years ago and aired on Larry King's show, Ford said, "I don't think if I had been president on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly, I don't think I would have wanted the Iraqi war." Woodward said that Ford had insisted that the interview be embargoed until "I did a book on him or Ford died." Woodward did not elaborate on why the former president did not want to have his views about the war made public.

The 17 most-watched television shows on cable in 2006 were the 17 Monday Night Football games televised by ESPN, the cable sports network said Thursday, citing ratings by Nielsen Research. The games averaged 12.33 million viewers, with more than 109 million tuning in at some point during the season, ESPN said. No other series in cable TV history has ever captured such ratings, it concluded.

The top ten shows of last week according to Nielsen Research (delayed because of the holiday): 1. NFL Sunday overrun, CBS, 10.3/24; 2. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 9.5/15; 3. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 8.4/14; 4. CSI: Miami, CBS, 8.2/14; 5. CSI: NY, CBS, 8.1/14; 6. Identity (Monday), NBC, 7.6/11; 7. Shark, CBS, 7.1/12; 8. NCIS, CBS, 7.0/11; 8. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 7.0/11; 10. 60 Minutes, CBS, 6.8/16.

AT&T, which plans to offer TV service in areas where it is upgrading its phone lines to fiber-optic cable, has not been able to reach its goal of doing so in 15 markets this year. With four Indiana markets added on Thursday, AT&T is only able to boast of bringing its U-verse TV service to 11 markets, and many of those only represent a portion of the targeted market. Nevertheless, the phone company maintained that it is proceeding apace to expand the service to 19 million homes by the end of 2008.

The New York gossip site Gawker reported today (Friday) that it had received a debit card loaded with $30 from Court TV for the holidays. "We have no doubt we'll feel indebted to them forever. So might the folks who take the money, of course," the website, edited by Alex Balk, commented. Accompanying the debit card was this note from Court TV: "We hope you enjoy your smartOne Visa gift card. It's easy to use, is preloaded with $30 and has been preactivated for your convenience. That means you're all set to use the card for whatever you want (whether it's naughty or nice). ..."