REGAL CINEMAS

We had one movie theater in mind for this category, but the readers chose Knoxville-based Regal Cinema to win for its entire oeuvre -- as the boys at Les Cahiers du Cinema like to say.

To provide commentary on Regal, we turned to an expert on oeuvres: Charles J. Maland, professor of film studies at the University of Tennessee and author of books on Charles Chaplin, Frank Capra, John Ford and Orson Welles.

The professor sees up to three movies a week in the theater. His favorite is Regal's Downtown West, which specializes in art-house fare.

In addition to singling Regal out for providing the area's only regular screenings of independent and foreign-language films, Maland praises it for being a good corporate citizen.

He notes that Regal has hosted the Valleyfest Film Festival and held a premiere for the award-winning "Gina, An Actress, Age 29," a film-festival favorite that was made in Knoxville.

In addition, he says Regal offers support and donations to the community in a variety of non-film-oriented ways.

"It's a company that encourages its employees to be good community citizens," Maland says.

Runners-up: Carmike Cinemas and Wynnsong