Monday, April 16, 2012

Recent updates

Note to readers: I'm finally finished in the process of overhauling the page. In my effort to spruce up my blogs, I decided to add to all of the yearly list an image from my favorite film of that year. I think you'll agree this lends some class to the proceedings. I tried to pick images with some character whenever possible. If there are any you particularly enjoy- and really, there ought to be considering some of the ones I've picked- let me know in the comments.

Thanks for understanding. 

Also, a word on the “Ripe for re-appraisal” section of these lists.  I’ve included films here that meet at least one of the following criteria:

a) Films that weren’t good enough to qualify for these lists on first viewing, but which would seem to benefit from multiple viewings,

b) Films by directors I generally love which didn’t necessarily rank among their best films but which might improve now that I’ve gotten past the initial disappointment,

c) Cult movies or otherwise semi-disreputable genre films that I initially enjoyed, but whose seeming disreputability may very well have led me to underrate them,

d) Highly-regarded films (usually Hollywood) that I saw so long ago (college, if not before) that my memory of them is too vague for me to have a solid opinion, or at least one I entirely trust, or

e) Highly-regarded films that I saw under less-than-ideal circumstances (crappy VHS transfer, watched when extremely tired, that screening of A Visit to the Louvre at Views ’05 with no subtitles, assisted only by a printed translation that was difficult to read in a darkened theatre, etc.).

In any case, I think any of these films will benefit from multiple viewings.  Yes, even Crank.  Just ask Steve C.

I’m also listing other major/semi-major awards and festival honors here, primarily for comparison’s sake and as a reference. 

Oh, and films that are [bracketed] are recent additions.

2011


2011
1. The Tree of Life- Terrence Malick
2. It’s Such a Beautiful Day- Don Hertzfeldt [short]
3. A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
4. Margaret – Kenneth Lonergan
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy- Tomas Alfredson
6. Terri- Azazel Jacobs
7. Take Shelter- Jeff Nichols
8. Hugo- Martin Scorsese
9. Drive- Nicolas Winding Refn
10. Moneyball- Bennett Miller
11. Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol- Brad Bird
12. House of Tolerance- Bertrand Bonello
13. Rango- Gore Verbinski
14. Le Havre- Aki Kaurismäki
15. [This Is Not a Film- Jafar Panahi and Mojbata Mirtahmasb]
16. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lynne Ramsay

Ripe for re-appraisal:  Martha Marcy May Marlene (Jeff Durkin)

Need to see:  Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman), Alps (Yorgos Lanthimos), Crazy Horse (Frederick Wiseman), Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman), The Day He Arrives (Hong Sang-soo), The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies), Faust (Aleksandr Sokurov), Footnote (Joseph Cedar), George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese), Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve), Habemus Papam (Nanni Moretti), I Wish (Hirokazu Kore-eda), Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog), Keyhole (Guy Maddin), The Kid With a Bike (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne), The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev), Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo), Outside Satan (Bruno Dumont), Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky), Pina (Wim Wenders), The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar), This Must Be the Place (Paolo Sorrentino), The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr), Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola), War Horse (Steven Spielberg), Your Sister’s Sister (Lynn Shelton)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture:  The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film:  The Artist
César Awards, Best Film:  The Artist
Cannes, Palme d’Or:  The Tree of Life
Venice, Golden Lion:  Faust
Berlin, Golden Bear:  A Separation
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic):  Like Crazy (Drake Doremus)
Toronto, Audience Award:  Where Do We Go Now? (Nadine Labaki)
Skandies, Best Film:  The Tree of Life
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film:  The Tree of Life

Monday, October 11, 2010

2010

1. Certified Copy- Abbas Kiarostami
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
3. Exit Through the Gift Shop- Banksy
4. The Social Network- David Fincher
5. Winter’s Bone- Debra Granik
6. Another Year- Mike Leigh
7. Meek’s Cutoff- Kelly Reichardt
8. Inception- Christopher Nolan
9. Somewhere- Sofia Coppola
10. How Do You Know- James L. Brooks
11. The Ghost Writer- Roman Polanski
12. [Wisdom Teeth- Don Hertzfeldt [short]]
13. Carlos- Olivier Assayas
14. True Grit- Joel and Ethan Coen
15. Never Let Me Go- Mark Romanek
16. Cold Weather- Aaron Katz
17. Tabloid- Errol Morris
18. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World- Edgar Wright
19. Toy Story 3- Lee Unkrich
20. Black Swan- Darren Aronofsky

Ripe for re-appraisal: The Arbor (Clio Barnard), Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko), The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira)

Need to see: Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari), The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica), Black Venus (Abdel Kechiche), Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman), Four Lions (Chris Morris), Guest (Jose Luis Guerin), Hahaha (Hong Sang-soo), I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke), A Letter to Elia (Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones), My Joy (Serge Loznitsa), Oki’s Movie (Hong Sang-soo), The Princess of Montpensier (Bertrand Tavernier), Promises Written in Water (Vincent Gallo), Unstoppable (Tony Scott), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Woody Allen)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The King’s Speech
César Awards, Best Film: Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Venice, Golden Lion: Somewhere
Berlin, Golden Bear: Honey (Semih Kaplanoglu)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Winter’s Bone
Toronto, Audience Award: The King’s Speech
Skandies, Best Film: Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film: The Social Network

Saturday, July 3, 2010

2009

1. Dogtooth- Yorgos Lanthimos
2. Up- Pete Docter
3. Inglourious Basterds- Quentin Tarantino
4. Phantoms of Nabua- Apichatpong Weerasethakul [short]
5. Plastic Bag- Ramin Bahrani [short]
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox- Wes Anderson
7. Passing Strange: The Movie- Spike Lee
8. Duplicity- Tony Gilroy
9. Antichrist- Lars von Trier
10. Everyone Else- Maren Ade
11. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench- Damien Chazelle
12. Tetro- Francis Ford Coppola
13. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done- Werner Herzog
14. Stingray Sam- Cory McAbee
15. Father of My Children- Mia Hansen-Løve
16. Humpday- Lynn Shelton
17. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans- Werner Herzog

Ripe for re-appraisal: Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette), The Box (Richard Kelly), Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont), The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh), In the Loop (Armando Iannucci), The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch), A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen), Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)

Need to see: Alamar (Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio), The Army of Crime (Robert Guediguian), Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski), The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray), Face (Tsai Ming-liang), Kinatay (Brilliante Ma. Mendoza), Lebanon (Samuel Maoz), Like You Know It All (Hong Sang-soo), The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa), Min Ye… (Souleymane Cissé), Ne Change Rien (Pedro Costa), Police, Adjective (Corneliu Poromboiu), Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lee Daniels), Survival of the Dead (George A. Romero), Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Hurt Locker
César Awards, Best Film: A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
Venice, Golden Lion: Lebanon (Samuel Maoz)
Berlin, Golden Bear: The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Lee Daniels)
Toronto, Audience Award: Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Skandies, Best Film: Inglourious Basterds
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film: Inglourious Basterds

Saturday, September 27, 2008

2008

1. Synecdoche, New York- Charlie Kaufman
2. Lorna’s Silence- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
3. The Class- Laurent Cantet
4. Che- Steven Soderbergh
5. I Am So Proud of You- Don Hertzfeldt [short]
6. The Hurt Locker- Kathryn Bigelow
7. Rachel Getting Married- Jonathan Demme
8. A Christmas Tale- Arnaud Desplechin
9. Man on Wire- James Marsh
10. The Dark Knight- Christopher Nolan
11. When It Was Blue- Jennifer Reeves
12. Still Walking- Hirokazu Kore-eda
13. WALL*E- Andrew Stanton
14. 35 Shots of Rum- Claire Denis
15. Burn After Reading- Joel and Ethan Coen
16. Two Lovers- James Gray
17. Sita Sings the Blues- Nina Paley
18. Home- Ursula Meier
19. Julia- Erick Zonca
20. Summer Hours- Olivier Assayas
21. In Bruges- Martin McDonough
22. Me and Orson Welles- Richard Linklater
23. The Brothers Bloom- Rian Johnson
24. The Wrestler- Darren Aronofsky
25. Trouble the Water- Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
26. Speed Racer- Larry and Andy Wachowski

Ripe for re-appraisal: The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel), Role Models (David Wain), The Strangers (Bryan Bertino)

Need to see: Ballast (Lance Hammer), The Chaser (Na Hong-jin), Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (Kurt Kuenne), Four Nights With Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski), Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel), Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino), I’m Gonna Explode (Gerardo Naranjo), I’ve Loved You So Long (Philippe Claudel), Jerichow (Christian Petzold), Pontypool (Bruce McDonald), Serbis (Brilliante Mendoza), Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami), Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
César Awards, Best Film: Séraphine (Martin Provost)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: The Class
Venice, Golden Lion: The Wrestler
Berlin, Golden Bear: Elite Squad (José Padilha)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Frozen River (Courtney Hunt)
Toronto, Audience Award: Slumdog Millionaire
Skandies, Best Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film: WALL*E

Sunday, August 5, 2007

2007

1. There Will Be Blood- Paul Thomas Anderson
2. Zodiac- David Fincher
3. No Country For Old Men- Joel and Ethan Coen
4. Silent Light- Carlos Reygadas C.
5. In the City of Sylvia- Jose Luis Guerin
6. Ne Touchez Pas la Hache / The Duchess of Langeais- Jacques Rivette
7. Gone Baby Gone- Ben Affleck
8. Chicago 10- Brett Morgen
9. Rehearsals for Retirement- Phil Solomon [short]
10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford- Andrew Dominik
11. The Secret of the Grain- Abdel Kechiche
12. Joshua- George Ratliff
13. Stuck- Stuart Gordon
14. Profit motive and the whispering wind- John Gianvito
15. The Hunting Party- Richard Shepard
16. Paranoid Park- Gus Van Sant
17. You, the Living- Roy Andersson
18. My Winnipeg- Guy Maddin
19. Shotgun Stories- Jeff Nichols
20. I’m Not There- Todd Haynes
21. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- Julian Schnabel
22. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street- Tim Burton
23. Hot Fuzz- Edgar Wright
24. Ratatouille- Brad Bird
25. A Girl Cut In Two- Claude Chabrol
26. We Own the Night- James Gray
27. Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037- Ben Niles
28. Michael Clayton- Tony Gilroy
29. The Loves of Astrea and Celadon- Eric Rohmer

Other notable shorts: Madame Tutli-Putli (Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski), Framing (Bert Gottschalk), Don't (Edgar Wright)


Ripe for re-appraisal: Redacted (Brian De Palma), Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong), Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola)

Need to see: Angel (Francois Ozon), The Banishment (Andrei Zvyagintsev), Chouga (Darezhan Omirbaev), La France (Serge Bozon), Glory to the Filmmaker! (Takeshi Kitano), Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara), Import Export (Ulrich Seidl), It’s a Free World… (Ken Loach), The Mourning Forest (Naomi Kawase), Nightwatching (Peter Greenaway), The Sun Also Rises (Jiang Wen), Tout Est Pardonne (Mia Hansen-Løve), The Tracey Fragments (Bruce McDonald)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Atonement (Joe Wright)
César Awards, Best Film: The Secret of the Grain
Cannes, Palme d’Or: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
Venice, Golden Lion: Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Tuya’s Marriage (Wang Quan’an)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Padre Nuestro (Christopher Zalla)
Toronto, Audience Award: Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
Skandies, Best Film: There Will Be Blood
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film: No Country for Old Men

2006

1. Everything Will Be OK- Don Hertzfeldt [short]
2. The Prestige- Christopher Nolan
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts- Spike Lee
4. Children of Men- Alfonso Cuaron
5. Lake of Fire- Tony Kaye
6. The Host- Bong Joon-ho
7. The Departed- Martin Scorsese
8. Interkosmos- Jim Finn
9. Offside- Jafar Panahi
10. Syndromes and a Century- Apichatpong Weersethakul
11. Time- Kim Ki-duk
12. Once- John Carney
13. Day Night Day Night- Julia Loktev
14. Black Book- Paul Verhoeven
15. Requiem- Hans-Christian Schmid
16. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan- Larry Charles
17. Inside Man- Spike Lee
18. Broken Trail- Walter Hill
19. Private Fears in Public Places- Alain Resnais
20. Lady Chatterley- Pascale Ferran
21. The Black Dahlia- Brian De Palma

Notable shorts: More Than Meets the Eye: Remaking Jane Fonda (Scott Stark), Silk (Luther Price)

Ripe for re-appraisal: Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa), Crank (Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor), Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)

Need to see: Belle Toujours (Manoel de Oliveira), Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (Takashi Miike), Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (Jasmila Zbanic), Klimt (Raul Ruiz), Poison Friends (Emmanuel Bourdieu), Private Property (Joachim Lafosse), Todo todo teros (John Torres)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The Departed
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Queen (Stephen Frears)
César Awards, Best Film: Lady Chatterley
Cannes, Palme d’Or: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
Venice, Golden Lion: Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Grbavica (Jasmila Žbanić)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Quinceañera (Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer)
Toronto, Audience Award: Bella (Alejandro Gomez Monteverde)
Skandies, Best Film: The Departed
Muriel Awards, Best Feature Film: The Departed

2005

1. The New World- Terrence Malick
2. Caché- Michael Haneke
3. A History of Violence- David Cronenberg
4. A Tale of Cinema- Hong Sang-soo
5. Dave Chappelle's Block Party- Michel Gondry
6. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu- Cristi Puiu
7. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang- Shane Black
8. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story- Michael Winterbottom
9. Brick- Rian Johnson
10. The Matador- Richard Shepard
11. Who’s Camus Anyway?- Mitsuo Yanagimachi
12. The Proposition- John Hillcoat
13. Domino- Tony Scott
14. Grizzly Man- Werner Herzog
15. King Kong- Peter Jackson
16. L’Enfant- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
17. Batman Begins- Christopher Nolan
18. Through the Forest- Jean-Paul Civeyrac
19. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 ½- William Greaves

Notable shorts: Instructions For a Light and Sound Machine (Peter Tscherkassky), Total Power- Dead Dead Dead (Stephanie Barber), Dipping Sause (Luther Price), 9 (Shane Acker), Rabbit (Run Wrake)

Ripe for re-appraisal: The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang)

Need to see: Duelist (Lee Myung-se), The Forsaken Land (Vimukthi Jayasundara), Indio Nacional (Raya Martin), Mary (Abel Ferrara), Seven Swords (Tsui Hark), Shanghai Dreams (Wang Xiaoshuai), The Sun (Aleksandr Sokurov), Takeshis' (Takeshi Kitano)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Crash (Paul Haggis)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
César Awards, Best Film: The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: L’Enfant
Venice, Golden Lion: Brokeback Mountain
Berlin, Golden Bear: U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Mark Domford-May)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Forty Shades of Blue (Ira Sachs)
Toronto, Audience Award: Tsotsi (Gavin Hood)
Skandies, Best Film: Grizzly Man

2004

1. Kings and Queen- Arnaud Desplechin
2. Before Sunset- Richard Linklater
3. Innocence- Lucile Hadzilhalilovic
4. KiLL BiLL: vol 2- Quentin Tarantino
5. Tropical Malady- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
6. Keane- Lodge Kerrigan
7. Primer- Shane Carruth
8. Birth- Jonathan Glazer
9. Gilles' Wife- Frederic Fonteyne
10. Tony Takitani- Jun Ichikawa
11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- Michel Gondry
12. The Intruder- Claire Denis
13. Duck Season- Fernando Eimbcke
14. 2046- Wong Kar-wai
15. Tomorrow We Move- Chantal Akerman
16. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou- Wes Anderson
17. Nobody Knows- Hirokazu Kore-eda
18. Moolaadé- Ousmane Sembene
19. Kung Fu Hustle- Stephen Chow
20. The Incredibles- Brad Bird
21. The Manchurian Candidate- Jonathan Demme
22. Million Dollar Baby- Clint Eastwood
23. I [heart] Huckabees- David O. Russell

Notable shorts: Valise (Lewis Klahr), Two Minutes to Zero (Lewis Klahr), Ryan (Chris Landreth), Overtime (Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland, Damien Ferrie)

Ripe for re-appraisal: All the Ships at Sea (Dan Sallitt), The Holy Girl (Lucretia Martel), Notre Musique (Jean-Luc Godard), A Visit to the Louvre (Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet)

Need to see: The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (Pirjo Hongasalo), 10th District Court: Moments of Trial (Raymond Depardon), Darwin's Nightmare (Hubert Sauper), Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows), Evolution of a Filipino Family (Lav Diaz), The Gate of the Sun (Yousry Nasrallah), Izo (Takashi Miike), Lenten Light Conversions (Lynn Marie Kirby), Mouse Heaven (Kenneth Anger), Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs), Zebraman (Takashi Miike)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)
César Awards, Best Film: Games of Love and Chance (Abdel Kechiche)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore)
Venice, Golden Lion: Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Head-On (Fatih Akin)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Primer
Toronto, Audience Award: Hotel Rwanda (Terry George)
Skandies, Best Film: Dogville (Lars Von Trier)

2003

1. Dogville- Lars Von Trier
2. KiLL BiLL: vol. 1- Quentin Tarantino
3. Cowards Bend the Knee- Guy Maddin
4. The Five Obstructions- Jørgen Leth and Lars Von Trier
5. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King- Peter Jackson
6. Histoire de Marie et Julien- Jacques Rivette
7. Not on the Lips- Alain Resnais
8. Fast Film- Virgil Widrich [short]
9. Stuck on You- Peter and Bobby Farrelly
10. Los Angeles Plays Itself- Thom Andersen
11. The Company- Robert Altman
12. A Mighty Wind- Christopher Guest
13. Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman- Takeshi Kitano
14. Capturing the Friedmans- Andrew Jarecki
15. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World- Peter Weir
16. L’Esquive (Games of Love and Chance)- Abdel Kechiche
17. The Corporation- Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott
18. All the Real Girls- David Gordon Green
19. Finding Nemo- Andrew Stanton
20. Mystic River- Clint Eastwood
21. Shattered Glass- Billy Ray
22. Oldboy- Chan-wook Park
23. American Splendor- Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
24. School of Rock- Richard Linklater

Other notable shorts: ( ) (Morgan Fisher), Das Rad (Chris Steiner/Arvid Uibel/Heidi Wittlinger)

Ripe for re-appraisal: The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo), Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi), Sexual Dependency (Rodrigo Bellott), Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke), Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)

Need to see: At Five in the Afternoon (Samira Makhmalbaf), Bright Future (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), No Rest For the Brave (Alain Guiraudie), Raja (Jacques Doillon), Son Frere (Patrice Chereau), A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Ji-woon), Tous ces belle promesses (Jean-Paul Civeyrac), Vibrator (Ryuichi Hiroki)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
César Awards, Best Film: The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
Venice, Golden Lion: The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Berlin, Golden Bear: In This World (Michael Winterbottom)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): American Splendor
Toronto, Audience Award: Zatoichi
Skandies, Best Film: Irreversible (Gaspar Noe)

2002

1. 8 Women- François Ozon
2. 25th Hour- Spike Lee
3. Le Fils (The Son)- Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
4. Irreversible- Gaspar Noë
5. Punch-Drunk Love- Paul Thomas Anderson
6. Russian Ark- Aleksandr Sokurov
7. The Secret Lives of Dentists- Alan Rudolph
8. Talk to Her- Pedro Almodovar
9. Spider- David Cronenberg
10. Bus 174- José Padilha
11. Gerry- Gus Van Sant
12. The Good Thief- Neil Jordan
13. Turning Gate- Hong Sang-soo
14. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers- Peter Jackson
15. Femme Fatale- Brian De Palma
16. Hero- Zhang Yimou
17. All or Nothing- Mike Leigh
18. Blissfully Yours- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
19. *Corpus Callosum- Michael Snow
20. May- Lucky McKee
21. Cherish- Finn Taylor
22. Gangs of New York- Martin Scorsese
23. Far From Heaven- Todd Haynes
24. The Weather Underground- Sam Green and Bill Siegel
25. Man on the Train- Patrice Leconte
26. The Pianist- Roman Polanski
27. Roger Dodger- Dylan Kidd
28. Bloody Sunday- Paul Greengrass

Notable shorts: Daylight Moon (Lewis Klahr), 31 (Lorna Simpson), Ten Thousand Years Older (Werner Herzog), Int. Trailer. Night (Jim Jarmusch)

Ripe for re-appraisal: demonlover (Olivier Assayas)


Need to see: Ana and the Others (Celina Murga), Blue Gate Crossing (Yee Chin-yen), Daughter From Danang (Gail Dolgin and Vincente Franco), Dead or Alive: Final (Takashi Miike), Decasia (Bill Morrison), Ken Park (Larry Clark and Ed Lachman), Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang), The Uncertainty Principle (Manoel de Oliveira), Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhang-ke)


Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Chicago (Rob Marshall)

BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Pianist
César Awards, Best Film: The Pianist
Cannes, Palme d’Or: The Pianist
Venice, Golden Lion: The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan)
Berlin, Golden Bear: (tie) Spirited Away and Bloody Sunday
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (Rebecca Miller)
Toronto, Audience Award: Whale Rider (Niki Caro)
Skandies, Best Film: 25th Hour

2001

1. Waking Life- Richard Linklater
2. The Royal Tenenbaums- Wes Anderson
3. Mulholland Drive- David Lynch
4. The Man Who Wasn't There- Joel Coen
5. Gosford Park- Robert Altman
6. What Time Is It There?- Tsai Ming-liang
7. Spirited Away- Hayao Miyazaki
8. The Piano Teacher- Michael Haneke
9. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence- Steven Spielberg
10. Monsters, Inc.- Pete Docter
11. Y Tu Mama Tambien- Alfonso Cuaron
12. Trouble Every Day- Claire Denis
13. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner- Zacharias Kunuk
14. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring- Peter Jackson
15. Donnie Darko- Richard Kelly
16. Pulse- Kiyoshi Kurosawa
17. Va Savoir- Jacques Rivette
18. Ghost World- Terry Zwigoff
19. Things Behind the Sun- Allison Anders

Notable shorts: The Third Memory (Pierre Huyghe)

Ripe for re-appraisal: Freddy Got Fingered (Tom Green), In Praise of Love (Jean-Luc Godard), Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (Jill Sprecher)

Need to see: All About Lily Chou-Chou (Shunji Iwai), Batang West Side (Lav Diaz), Bungee Jumping Of Their Own (Kim Dae-sung), La Cienaga (Lucrecia Martel), Faat Kiné (Ousmane Sembene), Harmful Insect (Akihiko Shiota), I’m Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira), The Jesus Trilogy and Coda (Stan Brakhage), Loin (Andre Techine), Oporto of My Childhood (Manoel de Oliveira), The Orphan of Anyang (Wang Chao), The Road (Darezhan Omirbaev), Roberto Succo (Cedric Kahn), ‘R Xmas (Abel Ferrara), Silence… We’re Rolling (Youssef Chahine), The Sleepy Time Gal (Christopher Munch), Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 PM (Claude Lanzmann), Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun), That Old Dream That Moves (Alain Guirardie), Visitor Q (Takashi Miike), Volcano High (Kim Tae-kyun)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
César Awards, Best Film: Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: The Son’s Room (Nanni Moretti)
Venice, Golden Lion: Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Intimacy (Patrice Chéreau)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): The Believer (Henry Bean)
Toronto, Audience Award: Amélie
Skandies, Best Film: In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)

2000

1. La Commune (Paris, 1871)- Peter Watkins
2. Songs From the Second Floor- Roy Andersson
3. Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys- Michael Haneke
4. Yi Yi: a One and a Two- Edward Yang
5. The Heart of the World- Guy Maddin [short]
6. Eureka- Shinji Aoyama
7. George Washington- David Gordon Green
8. Werckmeister Harmonies- Bela Tarr
9. Rejected- Don Hertzfeldt [short]
10. Esther Kahn- Arnaud Desplechin
11. Requiem For a Dream- Darren Aronofsky
12. ivans xtc.- Bernard Rose
13. Before Night Falls- Julian Schnabel
14. The House of Mirth- Terence Davies
15. Together- Lukas Moodysson
16. Devils on the Doorstep- Jiang Wen
17. Wonder Boys- Curtis Hanson
18. You Can Count on Me- Kenneth Lonergan
19. Under the Sand- Francois Ozon
20. High Fidelity- Stephen Frears
21. Nurse Betty- Neil LaBute
22. Tully- Hilary Birmingham
23. Amores Perros- Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu

Other notable shorts: Play (Anthony Minghella), Engram Sepals (Lewis Klahr)

Ripe for re-appraisal: Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima), Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma), The Yards (James Gray)

Need to see: As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas), Baise-moi (Coralie and Virginie Despentes), The Day I Became a Woman (Marziyeh Meshkini), Dead or Alive 2: Birds (Takashi Miike), Demons (Mario O’Hara), The Foul King (Kim Ji Woon), The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (Stan Brakhage), In Vanda’s Room (Pedro Costa), Jung [War] In the Land of the Mujaheddin (Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati), In Vanda’s Room (Pedro Costa), The Long Holiday (Johan Van Der Kreuken), Platform (Jia Zhang-ke), Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong), El Valley Centro (James Benning), Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors (Hong Sang-soo), Wild Zero (Tetsuro Takeuchi)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Gladiator
César Awards, Best Film: The Taste of Others (Agnès Jaoui)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier)
Venice, Golden Lion: The Circle (Jafar Panahi)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Girlfight (Karyn Kusama) and You Can Count on Me
Toronto, Audience Award: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
Skandies, Best Film: Yi Yi

1999

1. Audition- Takashi Miike
2. The War Zone- Tim Roth
3. Beau Travail- Claire Denis
4. Three Kings- David O. Russell
5. Topsy-Turvy- Mike Leigh
6. Bringing Out the Dead- Martin Scorsese
7. Eyes Wide Shut- Stanley Kubrick
8. Magnolia- P.T. Anderson
9. The Iron Giant- Brad Bird
10. Being John Malkovich- Spike Jonze
11. The Blair Witch Project- Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick
12. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai- Jim Jarmusch
13. Rosetta- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
14. Toy Story 2- John Lasseter et al
15. Humanité- Bruno Dumont
16. Jesus’ Son- Alison Maclean
17. The Wind Will Carry Us- Abbas Kiarostami
18. The Limey- Steven Soderbergh
19. Wonderland- Michael Winterbottom
20. The Insider- Michael Mann
21. Mr. Death- Errol Morris
22. Juha- Aki Kaurismäki
23. The Straight Story- David Lynch
24. American Movie- Chris Smith
25. Girl on the Bridge- Patrice Leconte

Notable shorts: Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky), Elsa Kirk (Lewis Klahr)

Ripe for re-appraisal: An Affair of Love (Frederic Fonteyne), The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski), Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay), Ravenous (Antonia Bird), The Woman Chaser (Robinson Devor)

Need to see: Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike), Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby (Matthew Bright), Genghis Blues (Roko Belic), Human Resources (Laurent Cantet), Kadosh (Amos Gitai), Il Mio Viaggio in Italia (Martin Scorsese), M/Other (Nobuhiro Suwa), Moloch (Aleksandr Sokurov), My Best Fiend (Werner Herzog), A Run For Money (Reha Erdem), Selma, Lord, Selma (Charles Burnett), Sisa (Mario O’Hara), Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: American Beauty (Sam Mendes)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: American Beauty
César Awards, Best Film: Venus Beauty Institute (Tonie Marshall)
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Rosetta
Venice, Golden Lion: Not One Less (Zhang Yimou)
Berlin, Golden Bear: The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Three Seasons (Tony Bui)
Toronto, Audience Award: American Beauty
Skandies, Best Film: Being John Malkovich

1998

1. After Life- Hirokazu Kore-Eda
2. Buffalo '66- Vincent Gallo
3. The Celebration- Thomas Vinterberg
4. Rushmore- Wes Anderson
5. Show Me Love- Lukas Moodysson
6. Dark City- Alex Proyas
7. The Thin Red Line- Terrence Malick
8. Babe: Pig in the City- George Miller
9. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train- Patrice Chéreau
10. Bulworth- Warren Beatty
11. Velvet Goldmine- Todd Haynes
12. Autumn Tale- Eric Rohmer
13. The Lovers of the Arctic Circle- Julio Medem
14. The Big Lebowski- Joel Coen
15. The Dreamlife of Angels- Erick Zonca
16. Alice and Martin- Andre Techine
17. Late August, Early September- Olivier Assayas
18. Last Night- Don McKellar
19. Croupier- Mike Hodges

Notable shorts: Billy's Balloon (Don Hertzfeldt)

Ripe for re-appraisal: Besieged (Bernardo Bertolucci), John Carpenter’s Vampires, Ossos (Pedro Costa), Small Soldiers (Joe Dante), Snake Eyes (Brian DePalma)

Need to see: The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf), Divine [El Evangelio de las Maravillas] (Arturo Ripstein), L’Ennui (Cedric Kahn), Eternity and a Day (Theo Angelopoulos), A Hero Never Dies (Johnnie To), Histoire(s) du Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard), Inquietude (Manoel de Oliveira), Khroustaliov, My Car! (Alexei Guerman), Kirikou and the Sorceress (Michel Ocelot), License to Live (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara), Praise (John Curran), Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux), Three Businessmen (Alex Cox)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love (John Madden)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Shakespeare in Love
César Awards, Best Film: The Dreamlife of Angels
Cannes, Palme d’Or: Eternity and a Day (Theo Angelopoulos)
Venice, Golden Lion: The Way We Laughed (Gianni Amelio)
Berlin, Golden Bear: Central Station (Walter Salles)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): Slam (Marc Levin)
Toronto, Audience Award: Life Is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)
Skandies, Best Film: Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)