The Movie Rat reports on the 2011 BAM Award Winners. Super 8 won in the following categories: 

• Best Youth Ensemble

This is the best, most talented and most naturally amicable core of young actors I’d seen since Stand by Me and each subsequent viewing of the film has not shaken that belief instead it has solidified it. For those keeping track Stand by Me and Super 8 are separated by 25 years so when a new film earns that kind of comparison it’s well on its way to becoming a classic in due course whether it is hailed with the confusing “instant classic” label or not. The brilliant and naturalistic nature of this ensemble’s work is sealed in the clandestine diner conversation wherein in several topics are discussed at once, put-downs are exchanged and conversation flows so naturally it feels almost as if it’s real life and not a film. Certainly all these actors all have big futures but what they create here together is something truly special which they are blessed to have experienced and to recreate anything like in another project would be near miraculous.

• Best Performance by a Child Actor in a Leading Role

The ensemble work in Super 8 is brilliant as stated above but they also split off and the common factor in the smaller groups is Joe Lamb plus one or a few of his friends, or his dad and Joe Lamb is Joel Courtney and vice versa. Joel not only worked with various scene partner permutations but with various notes and emotions. If you think of a kind of conversation a kid can hold in a film he likely had one and it was apt to be one of the best examples of the year: the diner speculation, the late night talk with Alice, the fight with his father, the fake movie dialogue, etc. Not only is he natural in all these situations but effective and makes the movie work.

This is a film about kids, Joe specifically, that is told through the guise of a sci-fi tale and for it to work the performance has to be strong. The performance is brilliant therefore the film achieves greatness.

• Best Performance by a Child Actress in a Leading Role

Elle Fanning’s impact in Super 8 is massive. She is the girl in the boys’ club, she is the love interest not only that she is sought after by more than one of the guys so her disappearance has less negative impact on her lead status than most. She’s wise beyond her years, jaded, she plays older, she plays a great zombie and a brilliant “unfilmed” scene wherein you see how and why the boys fall in love with her. A lot of the film hinges on her and she more than holds up her own she helps carry it.

The Daily Texan rated Super 8 in the Top 5 Movies of 2011: 

The film gets the coming-of-age story at its center so right that it’s impossible to leave off this list. Magnificent performances from Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney make for several wistful, heartwarming moments, and Abrams nails the awe-inspired Spielberg aesthetic that made many of the films he’s trying to emulate classics.

The Dare to Dream show has Joel Courtney listed as their "Breakout Movie Star" for 2011. 

A Breakout Star list of 2011 would not be complete without Joel Courtney. Joel wowed audiences this year with his relatable and real performance as Joe Lamb in the summer blockbuster Super 8.Courtey currently has 2 films in post –production that we can’t wait to see. We know we’ll be seeing more of the star in 2012!

Joel has been noniated by the BAM Awards in the category of "Best Performance by a Child Actor in a Leading Role". 

But that's not the only Super 8 award nominations.

• Best Performance by a Child Actress in a Leading Role: Elle Fanning
• Best Performance by a Child Actor in a Supporting Role: Ryan Lee
• Best Sound Editing/Mixing
• Best Visual Effects

From the Twin Cities Daily Planet:

4. Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams (USA) 

The most commercial film on this list, J.J. Abrams’s Super 8 is a reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place: to be entertained. Abrams kept his plot secret for months before its release: Super 8 involves a group of adolescent kids working on a horror film, until their lives take a supernatural turn as a military science experiment derails from a train and sends their small town into a media frenzy. Abrams’s cast of young child actors are “mint”; the film showcased a breakthrough performance from Joel Courtney as a young adventurer caught in the middle of his first love. Super 8proved to be even better than all the hype that surrounded the film last summer promised.

The Gator Star reviewed Super 8:

The casting of characters was perfect and everyone acted very well.  Joel Courtney (Joe Lamb) just stole my heart.  He did a great job conveying such a wide range of emotions throughout the movie.  I knew Dakota Fanning’s younger sister was acting now, but this was my first time seeing Elle Fanning.  She can definitely hold her own, very impressive.  She had me crying with her when she was watching old home videos in Joe’s room.

The Daily Beast rated Joel and Elle with the "9th Best Kiss of 2011", even though their lips never touched. Read why. 

Elle Fanning has been acting in front of a camera for the majority of her young life, so it was no surprise when, in director J. J. Abrams’s Super 8, she wowed both her fictional castmates and real-life audiences with a captivating performance in the amateur “film” that the young characters make with a Super 8 camera. What nobody quite saw coming, however, was the chemistry between Fanning and Joel Courtney, who had never acted professionally before Super 8. In one pivotal scene, Courtney, whose character has a long-standing crush on Fanning’s, explains how to act like a zombie for their film. Fanning does a spot-on impression, deadening her eyes and approaching him with threatening, outstretched arms. But the closer her face gets to his, the more it occurs to both Courtney and audiences that their lips might touch. She pulls away before contact is made, but the atmosphere left behind is as emotion-packed as after any kissing scene. When asked by MTV News why he didn’t have the kids play out a full kiss, Abrams said, “These were kids who, their affection for each other didn’t necessarily need to be played out with a kiss. But hopefully you get the sense that their feelings for each other are profound.”