You didn't think I forgot about "The Hattys" this year, did you? Well, it might be a little delayed (due to an incredible amount of deliberation on my part) but here we go:

This was a pretty average year for hat-centric movies. You had your standard period-piece frontrunners, led by Pride and Prejudice. Any Victorian-era piece centered on English society has a huge leg up on the competition, but it also is held to a higher standard in my book, so if it's not flaunting haberdashery at every opportunity, it's going to lose points. The fantasy-hat contingent was also strong, featuring the likes of Star Wars and Narnia. However, these movies were again hurt by the fact that their headwear often fell into the grey area between hat and helmet. Now, I'm not saying I can define what constitutes a hat as opposed to a helmet, but, to paraphrase Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it. And I didn't see it. In the action genre, V for Vendetta arrived too late for consideration, and that darn mask has a habit of stealing scenes from the hat anyway.

That leaves us with hard-luck loser of that other award, Brokeback Mountain. Because of the dearth of good westerns in recent years, the cowboy hat had fallen into disuse in tinseltown. This year, however, the gay cowboy movie to end all gay cowboy movies moseyed into town, and sure enough, it's practically filled with cowboy hats*. So cheer up Ang Lee, forget about that best picture snub and revel in the fact that Brokeback is the most hat-centric movie of 2005.

*Based on my 30-second sample size while viewing the oscars and/or commercials.