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