Roger Ebert has tallied up his Best of 2008 list, and found a plethora of prize-worthy pictures — not ten, but twenty, and that’s just the dramatic features. Then there are the five top documentaries, and a “Special Jury Award” for Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg”, which is neither fish nor fowl.

That’s twenty-six movies that make Roger Ebert’s best list. I know he’s an easier mark of late, but … well, any Best-Of list that finds room for “Happy-Go-Lucky”, “Iron Man”, “Milk” and “W.” could use some trimming.

In his defense, I believe that Roger actually does believe in the films that made his list, as opposed to the obvious calculations that went into the National Board of Review’s top ten. I mean, full props for setting “Slumdog Millionaire” apart as the year’s best picture — it’s near the top of my list as well — but the NBR’s actual top ten reads like a list of failed Oscar bait. “Burn After Reading”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Changeling”, “Defiance”, “Frost/Nixon”, “”Gran Torino” … really, did they just write down the names of the first screeners that arrived in their mailbox?

Oh, “WALL-E” is on there, too, but at this point if “WALL-E” doesn’t appear on a critic’s year-end list, that critic has to go away for a while.

Don’t worry, Roger included it too.