born 17 January 1970

Ashby Richardson, Warren, Michigan, writer/director

Bart Freundlich, birthplace unspecified, writer/director

Darnell Walker, St. Louis, Missouri, NFL football player

Genndy Tartakovsky, Moscow, Soviet Union, animation writer/director/producer

Hollye Hitt, birthplace unspecified, video game voice actress

Imre Baska, Budapest, Hungary, extra

Jeff Vespa, Baltimore, Maryland, photographer

Jeremy Roenick, Boston, Massachusetts, hockey player

Laura Hodge-Huffman, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, victim

Manfred Serner, birthplace unspecified, son of tragic Swedish actor

Steve Asheim, state of Florida, death metal drummer

Let us now praise Bart Freundlich. Few if any of us, myself included, have willingly paid to see one of his films. He is in many ways the sine qua non of the American festival circuit: his entire oeuvre seems to exist solely to be appended to a Telluride or East Hampton wine-and-cheese soiree, never to receive adequate distribution.

None of this is bad. His films do play on cable, and I am confident that one of these days I will watch one, and its plainspoken verities will comfort and embiggen my desiccated soul. The main reason I have praise for Bart Freundlich is that he’s the male head of the Julianne Moore household. Julianne Moore: the only actress I have ever witnessed roller-blading down Bleecker Street. The author of the most fearless bottomless scene in Hollywood history. The soul at the heart of several of the greatest films of my lifetime.

The clincher is that the man is nine years younger than his wife. C’mon. That’s hot.

Bart Freundlich, you are Today’s Winner, and the forty candles on your Sunday cake will be well-deserved indeed.