There Will Be Blood has been named one of the year's best films by the American Film Institute. The creative team behind the film will receive the AFI Award in Los Angeles on January 11.

CBS Sunday Morning's film critic David Edelstein counts Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood as "the jewel" among holiday releases. Edelstein calls the film "a psychodrama with the epic scale of an Old Testament parable," and says Daniel Day-Lewis, in the lead role, "looms as large as the derricks that dominate the unruly landscape." Even the film's already-controversial final scene is, in Edelstein's opinion, "brilliant," all part of the "mad American classic" Anderson has created.

NPR's music programs and reviewers are turning in their lists for the Best of 2007, and a number of Nonesuch artists are among the top choices from public radio. Wilco's Sky Blue Sky tops World Cafe's list of the best albums of the year. All Things Considered's Banning Eyre has three Nonesuch albums among his Top Ten of 2007: Caetano Veloso's Cê, Sérgio and Odair Assad's Jardim Abandonado, and Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take). On the list for "Top Ten Jazz Jewels of 2007" from WDUQ is Metheny/Mehldau Quartet. And Wilco's "Hate It Here," from Sky Blue Sky, is among the best songs of the year, per KUT.

In the Nonesuch Journal's final episode from Stephen Sondheim's discussion of Sweeney Todd, the composer expresses a preference for singing actors (over acting singers) and has high praise for all of the actors in the film, beginning with Johnny Depp's "extraordinary" performance in the title role.

In its review of the new big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Rolling Stone calls the film "a thriller-diller from start to finish: scary, monstrously funny and melodically thrilling ... This Sweeney is a bloody wonder, intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score." The review exclaims that the "brilliantly conceived and executed film moves from one highlight to another."

"Watershed highlights what lang does best," says MOJO magazine of k.d. lang's upcoming Nonesuch release: "fulsome, ballads sung with precision-timing, intelligence, and a humorous twist." The new record, writes MOJO's Lucy O'Brien, is "reflective and wistful." In keeping with that tone, Watershed "shows lang revisiting the wry country style of her early work  ... layering her laconic delivery with lush, seductive harmonies."

Featured on today's Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, New York Public Radio, is Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from HBO's The Wire. She's written a new memoir, Grace After Midnight, about overcoming an incredible set of odds and turning her life around. Publisher's Weekly has called hers "a powerful story of someone trying to find her way in a dark world ... Pearson's narrative is spare, even poetic, rendering traumatic moments all the more powerful."

In the second installment of the Stephen Sondheim interview on the making of Sweeney Todd, the composer discusses some of the major inspirations behind the musical (think film) and puts to rest one longstanding misconception about the work. In the end, though, it could all be summed up in one very basic principle; says Sondheim: "All I wanted to do was scare an audience."

The All Songs Considered annual holiday edition aired today on NPR, and in the show's special holiday mix is the festively titled "Mr. Mistletoe" off The Magnetic Fields' forthcoming Nonesuch release, Distortion.

Nominations for the 2008 Golden Globe Awards have just been announced, and among the nominees for Best Picture are There Will Be Blood (Drama) and Sweeney Todd (Comedy or Musical). Sweeney received three other nominations as well: Tim Burton for Best Director and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter for Best Actor and Actress, Comedy or Musical. Also nominated in the performance category was Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, Drama, for his starring role in There Will Be Blood.

HBO's The Wire has been nominated for Best Dramatic Series by the Writers Guild of America, as well as Best Episodic Drama for the episode "Final Grades," the season finale from the show's fourth season, now out on DVD. The WGA Awards will be handed out February 9 in Los Angeles and New York.

There Will Be Blood has been nominated for the four top awards by the London Critics' Circle: Best Film, Best Director and Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. Sweeney Todd's Helena Bonham Carter also earned a nom for British Actress of the Year. The 28th annual awards will be presented in a ceremony in London on February 8 benefiting the children's charity NSPCC.