Thursday, July 05, 2007
Slowly working towards respectability...
[Updated 6/17/12 -- Enter the Dragon removed from 1973 list; The Baby removed from 1972 list.]
2011
1) Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
2) A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
3) Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
4) The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
5) Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
6) House of Pleasures (Bertrand Bonello)
7) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8) Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean)
9) Kaboom (Gregg Araki)
10) Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
Not impressed: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius); How I Ended This Summer (Aleksei Popogrebsky); Insidious (James Wan); Point Blank (Fred Cavaye); Rubber (Quentin Dupieux); Super 8 (J.J. Abrams)
2010
1) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
2) Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
3) Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4) Red White & Blue (Simon Fuller)
5) Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
6) Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson)
7) Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
8) Four Lions (Chris Morris)
9) Flooding with Love for the Kid (Zachary Oberzen)
10) Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremaine)
Also of note: Summer Wars (Mamoru Hosoda); Louis C.K.: Hilarious (Louis C.K.)
Not impressed: The American (Anton Corbijin); Animal Kingdom (David Michod); Another Year (Mike Leigh); Buried (Rodrigo Cortes); Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe); The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray); Get Him to the Greek (Nicholas Stoller); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev); I'm Still Here (Casey Affleck); Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz); Looking for Eric (Ken Loach); Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek); Please Give (Nicole Holofcener); The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella); The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey); Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin); Winnebago Man (Ben Steinbauer)
2009
1) Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
2) Up (Pete Docter)
3) The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
4) Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
5) Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)
6) Mock Up on Mu (Craig Baldwin)
7) Antichrist (Lars Von Trier)
8) Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
9) Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)
10) Crank: High Voltage (Neveldine/Taylor)
Also of note: Julia (Erick Zonca); Afterschool (Antonio Campos); Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki)
Not impressed: Adventureland (Greg Mottola); Big Man Japan (Hitoshi Matsumoto); (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb); Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone); Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani); The Hangover (Todd Phillips); I'm Gonna Explode (Gerardo Naranjo); Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke); The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch); Paranormal Activity (Orem Peli); Police, Adjective (Cornelieu Porumboiu); A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen); Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie); Thirst (Park Chan-wook); Tokyo! (Michel Gondry/Leos Carax/Bong Joon-ho); Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)
2008
1) Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
2) The Class (Laurent Cantet)
3) Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
4) My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
5) The Strangers (Bryan Bertino)
6) Stuck (Stuart Gordon)
7) WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
8) The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
9) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
10) Burn After Reading (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Also of note: Profit motive and the whispering wind (John Gianvito); Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme); Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike)
Notable shorts: 1859 (Fred Worden); New York Lantern (Ernie Gehr); Pal/Secam (Dmitry Polovotsky); Presto (Doug Sweetland)
Not impressed: Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry); Che (Steven Soderbergh); The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin); The Fall (Tarsem); Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller); George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (George A. Romero); Hamlet 2 (Andrew Fleming); Heartbeat Detector (Nicolas Klotz); My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-wai); Redbelt (David Mamet); The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer); Snow Angels (David Gordon Green); Tell No One (Guillaume Canet); Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller); Up the Yangtze (Yung Chang); The Visitor (Tom McCarthy); XXY (Lucía Puenzo)
2007
1) Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
2) Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
3) My Kid Could Paint That (Amir Bar-Lev)
4) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
5) Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
6) 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
7) Joshua (George Ratliff)
8) The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmark)
9) No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
10) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Also of note: Fido (Andrew Currie); Superbad (Greg Mottola); Offside (Jafar Panahi)
Notable shorts: Everything Will Be OK (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: Atonement (Joe Wright); Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg); The Exterminating Angels (Jean-Claude Brisseau); Flanders (Bruno Dumont); I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang); Persepolis (Vincent Parronaud & Marjane Satrapi); The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman); Summer '04 (Stefan Krohmer); 300 (Zack Snyder); 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold); 12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneilu Porumboiu); The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
2006
1) Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine)
2) Duck Season (Fernando Eimbcke)
3) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
4) A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
5) The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
6) Bubble (Steven Soderbergh)
7) Down in the Valley (David Jacobson)
8) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles)
9) Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (Kankuro Kudo)
10) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
Notable shorts: Bar Fight (Christy Karacas & Stephen Warbrick); Capitalism: Slavery (Ken Jacobs); Europa 2005, 27 Octobre (Danielle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub); My Dad Is 100 Years Old (Guy Maddin); Phantom Canyon (Stacy Steers)
Not impressed: Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu); Battle in Heaven (Carlos Reygadas); Brick (Rian Johnson); Cars (John Lasseter); Clean (Olivier Assayas); 4 (Ilya Khrjanovsky); The Illusionist (Neil Burger); Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook); La Moustache (Emmanuel Carrère); The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald); Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris); Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer); The Notorious Betty Page (Mary Harron); Thank You for Smoking (Jason Reitman); Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
2005
1) Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki)
2) A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
3) Oldboy (Park Chan-wook)
4) Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)
5) Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
6) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black)
7) Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8) The Aristocrats (Paul Provenza)
9) Keane (Lodge Kerrigan)
10) The Girl from Monday (Hal Hartley)
Also of note: Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho); She's One of Us (Siegrid Alnoy); The White Diamond (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: The Last Farm (Runar Runarsson); The Meaning of Life (Don Hertzfeldt); Rubber Johnny (Chris Cunningham)
Not impressed: Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan); The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard); Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch); Crash (Paul Haggis); Dallas 362 (Scott Caan); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell); The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel); The Intruder (Claire Denis); Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin); Last Days (Gus Van Sant); Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July); Millions (Danny Boyle); My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski); The President's Last Bang (Im Sang-Soo); Shopgirl (Anand Tucker); The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones); Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa); 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
2004
1) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
2) Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)
3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
4) Sideways (Alexander Payne)
5) Dogville (Lars Von Trier)
6) Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)
7) Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)
8) Primer (Shane Carruth)
9) Last Life in the Universe (Pen-ek Ratanruang)
10) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright)
Also of note: Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin); Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess); The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev); Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
Notable shorts: Guard Dog (Bill Plympton); L'Homme Sans Ombre (Georges Schwizgebel); Sombra Dolorosa (Guy Maddin)
Not impressed: An Amazing Couple (Lucas Belvaux); Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar); Blind Shaft (Yang Li); The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass); Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch); Distant (Nurge Bilgi Ceylon); The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci); Festival Express (Bob Smeaton); Garden State (Zach Braff); Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-Liang); I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (Mike Hodges); The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson); Mean Girls (Mark S. Waters); On the Run (Lucas Belvaux); Osama (Siddiq Barmak); The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson); Ray (Taylor Hackford); Strayed (André Téchiné); Undertow (David Gordon Green); A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet); We Don't Live Here Anymore (John Curran)
2003
1) The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris)
2) Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz)
3) All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green)
4) Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
5) Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton)
6) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Joe Dante)
7) Gerry (Gus Van Sant)
8) The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph)
9) Zero Day (Ben Coccio)
10) Friday Night (Claire Denis)
Also of note: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin); Owning Mahowny (Richard Kwietniowski); Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki); Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff); Irreversible (Gaspar Noé); Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen); Down with Love (Peyton Reed); House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman); Mystic River (Clint Eastwood); demonlover (Olivier Assayas); The Backyard (Paul Hough)
Notable shorts: Ward 13 (Peter Cornwell); Wasp (Andrea Arnold)
Not impressed: Bend it Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha); City of God (Fernando Meirelles); Elephant (Gus Van Sant); Freaky Friday (Mark S. Waters); Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson); Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola); The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki); A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest); Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki); The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne); Spider (David Cronenberg); thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke); The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet); 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle); 21 Grams (Alejandro González Iñárritu); Whale Rider (Nikki Caro)
2002
1) Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2) 25th Hour (Spike Lee)
3) Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen)
4) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson)
5) Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
6) Spider-Man (Sam Raimi)
7) The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke)
8) Human Nature (Michel Gondry)
9) Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore)
10) Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
Also of note: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (Ashutosh Gowariker); Hell House (George Ratliff); Wendigo (Larry Fessenden); Signs (M. Night Shyamalan); Scratch (Doug Pray)
Notable shorts: The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Ming-liang); Untitled (Ira Sachs)
Not impressed: About Schmidt (Alexander Payne); Catch Me if You Can (Steven Spielberg); Dogtown and Z-Boys (Stacy Peralta); The Good Girl (Miguel Artera); The Grey Zone (Tim Blake Nelson); Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus); The Isle (Kim Ki-duk); Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair); Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay); My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Joel Zwick); The Ring (Gore Verbinski); The Rules of Attraction (Roger Avery); Secretary (Steven Shainberg); The Son's Room (Nanni Moretti); Storytelling (Todd Solondz); Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Shohei Imamura)
2001
1) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2) Memento (Christopher Nolan)
3) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
4) Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann)
5) Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter)
6) Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
7) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
8) Visitor Q (Takashi Miike)
9) Audition (Takashi Miike)
10) Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)
Also of note: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg); Tuvalu (Veit Helmer); Training Day (Antoine Fuqua); The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen); Chain Camera (Kirby Dick)
Not impressed: The Anniversary Party (Alan Cumming & Jennifer Jason Leigh); Bully (Larry Clark); Chopper (Andrew Dominik); The Claim (Michael Winterbottom); The Deep End (Scott McGehee & David Siegel); Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat); Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone (Chris Columbus); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell); Lost and Delirious (Léa Pool); A Matter of Taste (Bernard Rapp); The Princess and the Warrior (Tom Tykwer); The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson); Session 9 (Brad Anderson); Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson); Songcatcher (Maggie Greenwald); The Tailor of Panama (John Boorman); The Widow of St. Pierre (Patrice Leconte)
2000
1) Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
2) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen)
3) State and Main (David Mamet)
4) Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
5) Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
6) Hamlet (Michael Almereyda)
7) George Washington (David Gordon Green)
8) American Psycho (Mary Harron)
9) Traffic (Stephen Soderbergh)
10) The Target Shoots First (Christopher Wilcha)
Also of note: The Foul King (Ji Woon Kim); Chicken Run (Nick Park); An Affair of Love (Frédéric Fonteyne); Gladiator (Ridley Scott); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee); Collectors (Julian P. Hobbs); Final Destination (James Wong)
Notable shorts: Camera (David Cronenberg); The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin); Play (Anthony Minghella); Rejected (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: American Pimp (Albert & Allen Hughes); The Cell (Tarsem Singh); Chuck & Buck (Miguel Artera); The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi); Dr. T and the Women (Robert Altman); East is East (Damien O'Donnell); Judy Berlin (Eric Mendelsohn); Meet the Parents (Jay Roach); Mifune (Søren Kragh-Jacobsen); Nurse Betty (Neil LaBute); Shower (Yang Zhang); Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen); Time Code (Mike Figgis); Time Regained (Raoul Ruiz); X-Men (Bryan Singer)
1999
1) Fight Club (David Fincher)
2) South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker)
3) Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4) Cabaret Balkan (Goran Paskaljevic)
5) Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
6) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
7) The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)
8) Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter)
9) Hands on a Hard Body (S.R. Bindler)
10) The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella)
Also of note: Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen); Ravenous (Antonia Bird); American Beauty (Sam Mendes); The Straight Story (David Lynch); eXistenZ (David Cronenberg); Genghis Blues (Roko Belic); Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar); Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer); The Minus Man (Hampton Fancher); Show Me Love (Lukas Moodysson); The Insider (Michael Mann); Titus (Julie Taymor); Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Julio Medem); Limbo (John Sayles); The Winslow Boy (David Mamet); Three Kings (David O. Russell); The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez); Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce); Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
Notable shorts: Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky); Nos Enfants (Siegrid Alnoy); When the Day Breaks (Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby)
Not impressed: Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders); The Cider House Rules (Lasse Hallström); Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike); Dogma (Kevin Smith); Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold); I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noé); Man on the Moon (Milos Forman); The Thomas Crown Affair (John McTiernan)
1998
1) Affliction (Paul Schrader)
2) Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo)
3) Funny Games (Michael Haneke)
4) Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
5) Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)
6) A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
7) The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet)
8) Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
9) Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)
10) Happiness (Todd Solondz)
Also of note: Antz (Eric Darnell & Tim Johnson); John Carpenter's Vampires (John Carpenter); The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan); Running Time (Josh Becker); Men with Guns (John Sayles); Dark City (Alex Proyas); Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar); Pleasantville (Gary Ross); Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski); Primary Colors (Mike Nichols); There's Something About Mary (Peter & Bobby Farrelly)
Not impressed: The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg); A Civil Action (Steven Zaillian); Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam); Henry Fool (Hal Hartley); Les Misérables (Billie August); Life of Jesus (Bruno Dumont); Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman); See the Sea (François Ozon); Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes); Your Friends and Neighbors (Neil LaBute)
1997
1) Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2) Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Kirby Dick)
3) Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)
4) L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
5) In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute)
6) The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
7) Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell)
8) Face/Off (John Woo)
9) Sunday (Jonathan Nossiter)
10) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach)
Also of note: Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas); Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen); Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino); Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld); Eye of God (Tim Blake Nelson); Good Will Hunting (Gus van Sant); Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons); Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow); Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith); Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson); Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode)
Notable shorts: Geri's Game (Jan Pinkava); Immer Zu (Janie Geiser); Lily and Jim (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: The Boxer (Jim Sheridan); Cop Land (James Mangold); Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa); The Game (David Fincher); Gattaca (Andrew Niccol); Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage); Winter Sleepers (Tom Tykwer)
1996
1) Fargo (Joel Coen)
2) Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
3) Freeway (Matthew Bright)
4) The Frighteners (Peter Jackson)
5) Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton)
6) Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky)
7) Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne)
8) Tromeo & Juliet (Lloyd Kaufman)
9) Bound (Andy & Larry Wachowski)
10) The People vs. Larry Flynt (Milos Forman)
Also of note: Conspirators of Pleasure (Jan Svankmajer); Scream (Wes Craven); Forgotten Silver (Peter Jackson); Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi); Kingpin (Peter & Bobby Farrelly); Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes); Swingers (Doug Liman); Flirting with Disaster (David O. Russell)
Notable shorts: A Close Shave (Nick Park); Genre (Don Hertzfeldt); A Summer Dress (François Ozon)
Not impressed: Kissed (Lynne Stopkewich); My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into an Argument (Arnaud Desplechin); Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit); Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
1995
1) Toy Story (John Lasseter)
2) Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
3) Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
4) Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
5) Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
6) The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer)
7) Babe (Chris Noonan)
8) A Pure Formality (Giuseppe Tornatore)
9) Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
10) Se7en (David Fincher)
Ineligible but belongs in #3 slot: Neon Genesis Evangelion (Hideaki Anno)
Also of note: The City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro); The Kingdom (Lars von Trier); Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri); Thesis (Alejandro Amenábar); Heat (Michael Mann); Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii); Crimson Tide (Tony Scott); Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
Not impressed: The Doom Generation (Gregg Araki); Mallrats (Kevin Smith); Safe (Todd Haynes); Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow)
1994
1) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
2) Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori)
3) Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)
4) The Last Seduction (John Dahl)
5) Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
6) Drunken Master II (Liu Chia-Liang)
7) Cold Water (Olivier Assayas)
8) The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
9) True Lies (James Cameron)
10) Serial Mom (John Waters)
Also of note: Cobb (Ron Shelton); Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee)
Not impressed: Death and the Maiden (Roman Polanski); Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis); The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner)
1993
1) Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)
2) Naked (Mike Leigh)
3) Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian)
4) In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen)
5) Freaked (Tom Stern & Alex Winter)
6) Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
7) The Fugitive (Andrew Davis)
8) The Piano (Jane Campion)
9) The Music of Chance (Phillip Haas)
10) Fearless (Peter Weir)
Also of note: True Romance (Tony Scott); Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld)
Notable shorts: The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park)
Not impressed: Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer); Heaven and Earth (Oliver Stone)
1992
1) Dead Alive (Peter Jackson)
2) Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
3) The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
4) Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
5) Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
6) Hard-Boiled (John Woo)
7) Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
8) Of Mice and Men (Gary Sinise)
9) Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker)
10) The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann)
Also of note: Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro); My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn); A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner); Hoffa (Danny DeVito)
Notable shorts: Food (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara); Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven); Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola); Careful (Guy Maddin); Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce); Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch)
1991
1) Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
2) The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
3) The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
4) The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
5) Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)
6) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
7) Wax, or: The Discovery of Television Among the Bees (David Blair)
8) The Commitments (Alan Parker)
9) La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
10) Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)
Also of note: Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston); Trust (Hal Hartley); City Slickers (Ron Underwood)
Notable shorts: Adam (Peter Lord); Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (Stan Brakhage); A Grand Day Out (Nick Park); Push Comes to Shove (Bill Plympton)
Not impressed: Mindwalk (Bernt Amadeus Capra); Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott)
1990
1) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
2) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton)
3) Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)
4) Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
5) La Discrète (Christian Vincent)
6) Bullet in the Head (John Woo)
7) Cry-Baby (John Waters)
8) Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen)
9) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
10) Sonny Boy (Robert Martin Carroll)
Notable shorts: Creature Comforts (Nick Park); The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (Jan Svankmajer); Glaze of Cathexis (Stan Brakhage); The Wiseman (Bill Plympton)
Not impressed: The Disenchanted (Benoît Jacquot); The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan); Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall)
1989
1) Glory (Edward Zwick)
2) Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte)
3) The Killer (John Woo)
4) Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
5) Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
6) Heathers (Michael Lehmann)
7) Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe)
8) Roger and Me (Michael Moore)
9) Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson)
10) When Harry Met Sally... (Rob Reiner)
Also of note: Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson); Batman (Tim Burton); The Bear (Jean-Jacques Annaud); The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements & John Musker)
Notable shorts: How to Kiss and 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (Bill Plympton); You Take Care Now (Ann Marie Fleming)
Not impressed: Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir); Wicked City (Yoshiaki Kawajiri)
1988
1) My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
2) A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
3) A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton)
4) Alice (Jan Svankmajer)
5) A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
6) Dangerous Liasons (Stephen Frears)
7) Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
8) Eight Men Out (John Sayles)
9) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis)
10) Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker)
Also of note: Beetlejuice (Tim Burton); Monkey Shines (George A. Romero); The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker); Die Hard (John McTiernan); The Vanishing (George Sluizer); The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan)
Notable shorts: Tin Toy (John Lasseter)
Not impressed: Apartment Zero (Martin Donovan)
1987
1) The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
2) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (Sam Raimi)
3) RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven)
4) The Hidden (Jack Sholder)
5) Raising Arizona (Joel Coen)
6) Lethal Weapon (Richard Donner)
7) Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle)
8) Wall Street (Oliver Stone)
9) No Way Out (Roger Donaldson)
10) The Big Easy (Jim McBride)
Also of note: Stagefright (Michele Soavi); The Untouchables (Brian de Palma)
Notable shorts: The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: The Stepfather (Joseph Ruben)
1986
1) Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
2) Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)
3) Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
4) Aliens (James Cameron)
5) Platoon (Oliver Stone)
6) Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan)
7) The Fly (David Cronenberg)
8) Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)
9) From Beyond (Stuart Gordon)
10) At Close Range (James Foley)
Notable shorts: Luxo Jr. (John Lasseter)
Not impressed: Top Gun (Tony Scott)
1985
1) Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
2) Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)
3) Vampires in Havana (Juan Padrón)
4) My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström)
5) After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
6) Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton)
7) Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
8) Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
9) A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
10) The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
Also of note: Come and See (Elem Klimov); Prizzi's Honor (John Huston); To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin); Lost in America (Albert Brooks); Mask (Peter Bogdanovich)
Notable shorts: Broken Down Film (Osamu Tekuza); The Manhattan Love Suicides (Richard Kern)
Not impressed: Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack); The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon); Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky); What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar)
1984
1) Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman)
2) Blood Simple (Joel Coen)
3) Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
4) The Terminator (James Cameron)
5) This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)
6) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)
7) 1984 (Michael Radford)
8) Amadeus (Milos Forman)
9) Top Secret! (David Zucker & Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker)
10) Gremlins (Joe Dante)
Not impressed: Dim Sum: a little bit of heart (Wayne Wang)
1983
1) Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2) L'Argent (Robert Bresson)
3) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
4) Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
5) The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
6) The 4th Man (Paul Verhoeven)
7) Zelig (Woody Allen)
8) The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
9) Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
10) Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)
Notable shorts: Down to the Cellar (Jan Svankmajer); Narcissus (Norman McLaren)
Not impressed: La Nuit de Varennes (Ettore Scola); Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman)
1982
1) Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker)
2) The Road Warrior (George Miller)
3) Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel)
4) Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
5) Tenebrae (Dario Argento)
6) A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (Woody Allen)
7) Burden of Dreams (Les Blank)
8) The Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen)
9) The Thing (John Carpenter)
10) Vice Squad (Gary Sherman)
Notable shorts: Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway)
1981
1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
2) Gallipoli (Peter Weir)
3) An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)
4) Blow Out (Brian de Palma)
5) Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
6) Dead & Buried (Gary Sherman)
7) Excalibur (John Boorman)
8) For Your Eyes Only (John Glen)
9) Scanners (David Cronenberg)
10) Enter the Ninja (Menahem Golan)
Not impressed: Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski); Escape from New York (John Carpenter); Nighthawks (Bruce Malmuth); Possession (Andrezj Zulawski)
1980
1) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
2) The Empire Strikes Back (Irving Kershner)
3) Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
4) Airplane! (David Zucker & Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker)
5) God's Angry Man (Werner Herzog)
6) The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie)
7) Inferno (Dario Argento)
8) Superman II (Richard Lester & Richard Donner)
9) Stardust Memories (Woody Allen)
10) Motel Hell (Kevin Connor)
Notable shorts: The Fall of the House of Usher (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard)
1979
1) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2) Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis)
3) Camera Buff (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
4) Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
5) Manhattan (Woody Allen)
6) The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (Chuck Jones & Phil Monroe)
7) The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
8) Phantasm (Don Coscarelli)
9) Alien (Ridley Scott)
10) Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
Not impressed: ...And Justice for All (Norman Jewison); Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (Russ Meyer); The Brood (David Cronenberg); Winter Kills (William Richert)
1978
1) Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
2) Halloween (John Carpenter)
3) Eraserhead (David Lynch)
4) The Driver (Walter Hill)
5) Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
6) The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Liu Chia-liang)
7) Pirahna (Joe Dante)
8) Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)
9) Interiors (Woody Allen)
10) The Whole Shootin' Match (Eagle Pennell)
Notable shorts: LMNO (Robert Breer); A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (Peter Greenaway)
Not impressed: The Fury (Brian de Palma); Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman); National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)
1977
1) Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
2) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
3) That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel)
4) Star Wars (George Lucas)
5) Strozsek (Werner Herzog)
6) The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert)
7) House (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
8) Suspiria (Dario Argento)
9) Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis)
10) Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
Notable shorts: Dear Phone (Peter Greenaway); La Soufrière (Werner Herzog)
1976
1) Up! (Russ Meyer)
2) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
3) The Front (Martin Ritt)
4) Carrie (Brian De Palma)
5) Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
6) Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
7) Network (Sidney Lumet)
8) Silent Movie (Mel Brooks)
9) The Opening of Misty Beethoven (Radley Metzger [as Henry Paris])
10) Massacre at Central High (Rene Daalder)
Not impressed: Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman); God Told Me To (Larry Cohen); In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima); Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May); The Omen (Richard Donner)
1975
1) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones)
2) Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
3) Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantel Akerman)
4) Female Trouble (John Waters)
5) Deep Red (Dario Argento)
6) Love and Death (Woody Allen)
7) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
8) Shivers (David Cronenberg)
9) Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen)
10) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel)
Not impressed: Tommy (Ken Russell)
1974
1) A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
2) The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
3) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)
4) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)
5) The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)
6) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)
7) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
8) Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (Yoshiyuki Kuroda)
9) Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
10) The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: The Virgin Sacrifice (J.X. Williams)
Not impressed: Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey); The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani)
1973
1) Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)
2) Badlands (Terence Malick)
3) Sleeper (Woody Allen)
4) O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson)
5) Amarcord (Federico Fellini)
6) The Crazies (George A. Romero)
7) Charley Varrick (Don Siegel)
8) The Last Detail (Hal Ashby)
9) Heavy Traffic (Ralph Bakshi)
10) Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg)
Not impressed: Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio); Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn)
1972
1) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
2) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel)
3) Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby)
4) Goodbye CP (Kazuo Hara)
5) Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
6) Deliverance (John Boorman)
7) Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito)
8) Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito)
9) Pink Flamingos (John Waters)
10) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Also of note: Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock); Bad Company (Robert Benton)
Not impressed: Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank); Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (Woody Allen); Greaser's Palace (Robert Downey); Last House on the Left (Wes Craven)
1971
1) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)
2) Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
3) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)
4) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart)
5) The French Connection (William Friedkin)
6) Bananas (Woody Allen)
7) The Hospital (Arthur Hiller)
8) Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado)
9) The Telephone Book (Nelson Lyon)
10) Duel (Steven Spielberg)
Also of note: Pretty Maids All in a Row (Roger Vadim); And Now for Something Completely Different (Ian MacNaughton); Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols); The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg)
Notable shorts: The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage); Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr)
Not impressed: The Blood on Satan's Claw (Piers Haggard); Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin van Peebles); Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian); W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)
1970
1) M*A*S*H (Robert Altman)
2) Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles & David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin)
3) The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)
4) Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson)
5) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer)
6) Performance (Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg)
7) Husbands (John Cassavetes)
8) El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
9) Zatoichi: The Festival of Fire (Kenji Misumi)
10) Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: Quarry (Richard P. Rogers)
Not impressed: Catch-22 (Mike Nichols); The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle); Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni)
1969
1) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
2) My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer)
3) The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester)
4) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
5) A Touch of Zen (King Hu)
6) Z (Costas-Gavras)
7) Hamlet (Tony Richardson)
8) A Gentle Woman (Robert Bresson)
9) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
10) Land Raiders (Nathan Juran)
Notable shorts: Intervals (Peter Greenaway); Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger)
Not impressed: Burn! (Gillo Pontecorvo); Dillinger Is Dead (Marco Ferreri); Me and My Brother (Robert Frank); The Milky Way (Luis Buñuel); Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
1968
1) Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
3) if.... (Lindsay Anderson)
4) Vixen! (Russ Meyer)
5) Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
6) Faces (John Cassavetes)
7) Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli)
8) Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)
9) Samaritan Zatoichi (Kenji Misumi)
10) Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
Notable shorts: The Flat (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Pretty Poison (Noel Black); Shame (Ingmar Bergman); Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim/Louis Malle/Federico Fellini); Witchfinder General [AKA The Conqueror Worm] (Michael Reeves)
1967
1) Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel)
2) Wavelength (Michael Snow)
3) Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)
4) David Holzman's Diary (Jim McBride)
5) The Producers (Mel Brooks)
6) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
7) Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi)
8) La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer)
9) Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)
10) Bedazzled (Stanley Donen)
Notable shorts: The Big Shave (Martin Scorsese); The Craven Sluck (Mike Kuchar); Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage); Report (Bruce Conner)
Not impressed: Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard); Wait Until Dark (Terence Young); Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
1966
1) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
2) Fighting Elegy (Seijun Suzuki)
3) Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod)
4) Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
5) Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni)
6) The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
7) The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto)
8) What's Up, Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen & Senkichi Taniguchi)
9) The King of Hearts (Philippe de Broca)
10) Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki)
Notable shorts: Breakaway (Bruce Conner); Patriotism (Masaki Domoto & Yukio Mishima); Tramway (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Not impressed: Kill, Baby... Kill! (Mario Bava); The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura); A Report on the Party and the Guests (Jan Nemec)
1965
1) Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer)
2) The War Game (Peter Watkins)
3) Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa)
4) Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)
5) Sins of the Fleshapoids (Mike Kuchar)
6) Simon of the Desert (Luis Buñuel)
7) The Shop on Main Street (Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos)
8) Mudhoney (Russ Meyer)
9) Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles)
10) Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (Kazuo Mori)
Notable shorts: A Game with Stones (Jan Svankmajer); Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger); Ten Second Film (Bruce Conner); Vivian (Bruce Conner)
Not impressed: Repulsion (Roman Polanski); Tattooed Life (Seijun Suzuki)
1964
1) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
2) Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)
3) Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard)
4) A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone)
5) Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
6) Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
7) Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
8) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
9) Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson)
10) Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Bryan Forbes)
Also of note: A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester)
Notable shorts: The Peaches (Michael Gill)
Not impressed: The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman); Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
1963
1) From Russia with Love (Terence Young)
2) The Servant (Joseph Losey)
3) The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
4) Charade (Stanley Donen)
5) The Haunting (Robert Wise)
6) Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
7) Zatoichi: On the Road (Kimiyoshi Yasuda)
8) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
9) High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
10) Black Sabbath (Mario Bava)
Notable shorts: The Bakery Girl of Monceau (Eric Rohmer); The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad); Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard); Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)
1962
1) The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
2) Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
3) To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
4) The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
5) The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
6) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
7) Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
8) Dr. No (Terence Young)
9) Burn, Witch, Burn! (Sidney Hayers)
10) The Tale of Zatoichi (Kenji Misumi)
Notable shorts: La Jetée (Chris Marker); Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller); Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey); Jules and Jim (François Truffaut); Mondo Cane (Paolo Cavera & Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi)
1961
1) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)
2) 101 Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi & Hamilton Luske & Wolfgang Reitherman)
3) The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
4) Blast of Silence (Allen Baron)
5) West Side Story (Robert Wise)
6) A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
7) Viridiana (Luis Buñuel)
8) Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
9) Black Sunday (Mario Bava)
10) Curse of the Werewolf (Terence Fisher)
Not impressed: Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards); Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi); Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
1960
1) The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
2) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
3) The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis)
4) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
5) Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer)
6) Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut)
7) Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
8) Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
9) L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
10) Zazie Dans le Métro (Louis Malle)
1959
1) The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
2) Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)
3) Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
4) Shadows (John Cassavettes)
5) Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
6) Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa)
7) The Immoral Mr. Teas (Russ Meyer)
8) Nazarín (Luis Buñuel)
9) House on Haunted Hill (William Castle)
10) The Mouse That Roared (Jack Arnold)
Notable shorts Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher)
1958
1) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
2) Giants and Toys (Yasuzo Masumura)
3) Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)
4) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
5) Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)
6) The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
7) Buchanan Rides Alone (Budd Boetticher)
8) The Lineup (Don Siegel)
9) The Lovers (Louis Malle)
10) Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher)
Notable shorts: A Movie (Bruce Conner); Véronique and Her Dunce (Eric Rohmer)
Not impressed: Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli); Fiend Without a Face (Arthur Crabtree); Ivan the Terrible, Part II (Sergei Eisenstein); A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker)
1957
1) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
2) Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
3) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
4) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
5) 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
6) The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
7) Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
8) The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
9) 3:10 to Yuma (Delmer Daves)
10) Decision at Sundown (Budd Boetticher)
Notable shorts: A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer)
1956
1) A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
2) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
3) Bigger Than Life (Nicolas Ray)
4) Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
5) Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville)
6) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
7) Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)
8) The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa)
9) I Vampiri (Riccardo Freda)
10) Three Bad Sisters (Gilbert Kay)
Not impressed: The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy); Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (Hiroshi Inagaki); The Searchers (John Ford)
1955
1) Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
2) Rififi (Jules Dassin)
3) Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimo & Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske)
4) The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick)
5) The Court Jester (Melvin Frank & Norman Panama)
6) The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Buñuel)
7) Lola Montes (Max Ophüls)
8) The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)
9) All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
10) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Notable shorts: Blinkety Blank (Norman McLaren)
Not impressed: The Big Combo (Joseph Lewis); Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick); Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer); Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Hiroshi Inagaki)
1953
1) Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
2) Beat the Devil (John Huston)
3) The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
4) Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
5) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
6) The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls)
7) Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
8) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
9) The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland)
10) The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
1949
1) White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
2) The Set-Up (Robert Wise)
3) The Window (Ted Tetzlaff)
4) Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin)
5) Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
6) The Third Man (Carol Reed)
7) Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa)
8) I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller)
9) Thirst (Ingmar Bergman)
10) Follow Me Quietly (Richard Fleischer)
Notable shorts: Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren); Blood of the Beasts (Georges Franju)
1948
1) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
2) Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
3) Key Largo (John Huston)
4) The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
5) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica)
6) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton)
7) Oliver Twist (David Lean)
8) The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod)
9) Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini)
10) A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks)
Not impressed: The Naked City (Jules Dassin)
[Updated 6/17/12 -- Enter the Dragon removed from 1973 list; The Baby removed from 1972 list.]
2011
1) Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
2) A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
3) Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
4) The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
5) Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
6) House of Pleasures (Bertrand Bonello)
7) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8) Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean)
9) Kaboom (Gregg Araki)
10) Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
Not impressed: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius); How I Ended This Summer (Aleksei Popogrebsky); Insidious (James Wan); Point Blank (Fred Cavaye); Rubber (Quentin Dupieux); Super 8 (J.J. Abrams)
2010
1) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
2) Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
3) Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4) Red White & Blue (Simon Fuller)
5) Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
6) Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson)
7) Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
8) Four Lions (Chris Morris)
9) Flooding with Love for the Kid (Zachary Oberzen)
10) Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremaine)
Also of note: Summer Wars (Mamoru Hosoda); Louis C.K.: Hilarious (Louis C.K.)
Not impressed: The American (Anton Corbijin); Animal Kingdom (David Michod); Another Year (Mike Leigh); Buried (Rodrigo Cortes); Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe); The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray); Get Him to the Greek (Nicholas Stoller); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev); I'm Still Here (Casey Affleck); Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz); Looking for Eric (Ken Loach); Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek); Please Give (Nicole Holofcener); The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella); The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey); Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin); Winnebago Man (Ben Steinbauer)
2009
1) Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
2) Up (Pete Docter)
3) The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
4) Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
5) Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)
6) Mock Up on Mu (Craig Baldwin)
7) Antichrist (Lars Von Trier)
8) Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
9) Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)
10) Crank: High Voltage (Neveldine/Taylor)
Also of note: Julia (Erick Zonca); Afterschool (Antonio Campos); Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki)
Not impressed: Adventureland (Greg Mottola); Big Man Japan (Hitoshi Matsumoto); (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb); Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone); Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani); The Hangover (Todd Phillips); I'm Gonna Explode (Gerardo Naranjo); Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke); The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch); Paranormal Activity (Orem Peli); Police, Adjective (Cornelieu Porumboiu); A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen); Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie); Thirst (Park Chan-wook); Tokyo! (Michel Gondry/Leos Carax/Bong Joon-ho); Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)
2008
1) Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
2) The Class (Laurent Cantet)
3) Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
4) My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
5) The Strangers (Bryan Bertino)
6) Stuck (Stuart Gordon)
7) WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
8) The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
9) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
10) Burn After Reading (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Also of note: Profit motive and the whispering wind (John Gianvito); Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme); Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike)
Notable shorts: 1859 (Fred Worden); New York Lantern (Ernie Gehr); Pal/Secam (Dmitry Polovotsky); Presto (Doug Sweetland)
Not impressed: Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry); Che (Steven Soderbergh); The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin); The Fall (Tarsem); Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller); George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (George A. Romero); Hamlet 2 (Andrew Fleming); Heartbeat Detector (Nicolas Klotz); My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-wai); Redbelt (David Mamet); The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer); Snow Angels (David Gordon Green); Tell No One (Guillaume Canet); Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller); Up the Yangtze (Yung Chang); The Visitor (Tom McCarthy); XXY (Lucía Puenzo)
2007
1) Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
2) Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
3) My Kid Could Paint That (Amir Bar-Lev)
4) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
5) Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
6) 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
7) Joshua (George Ratliff)
8) The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmark)
9) No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
10) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Also of note: Fido (Andrew Currie); Superbad (Greg Mottola); Offside (Jafar Panahi)
Notable shorts: Everything Will Be OK (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: Atonement (Joe Wright); Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg); The Exterminating Angels (Jean-Claude Brisseau); Flanders (Bruno Dumont); I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang); Persepolis (Vincent Parronaud & Marjane Satrapi); The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman); Summer '04 (Stefan Krohmer); 300 (Zack Snyder); 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold); 12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneilu Porumboiu); The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
2006
1) Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine)
2) Duck Season (Fernando Eimbcke)
3) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
4) A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
5) The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
6) Bubble (Steven Soderbergh)
7) Down in the Valley (David Jacobson)
8) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles)
9) Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (Kankuro Kudo)
10) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
Notable shorts: Bar Fight (Christy Karacas & Stephen Warbrick); Capitalism: Slavery (Ken Jacobs); Europa 2005, 27 Octobre (Danielle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub); My Dad Is 100 Years Old (Guy Maddin); Phantom Canyon (Stacy Steers)
Not impressed: Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu); Battle in Heaven (Carlos Reygadas); Brick (Rian Johnson); Cars (John Lasseter); Clean (Olivier Assayas); 4 (Ilya Khrjanovsky); The Illusionist (Neil Burger); Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook); La Moustache (Emmanuel Carrère); The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald); Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris); Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer); The Notorious Betty Page (Mary Harron); Thank You for Smoking (Jason Reitman); Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
2005
1) Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki)
2) A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
3) Oldboy (Park Chan-wook)
4) Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)
5) Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
6) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black)
7) Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8) The Aristocrats (Paul Provenza)
9) Keane (Lodge Kerrigan)
10) The Girl from Monday (Hal Hartley)
Also of note: Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho); She's One of Us (Siegrid Alnoy); The White Diamond (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: The Last Farm (Runar Runarsson); The Meaning of Life (Don Hertzfeldt); Rubber Johnny (Chris Cunningham)
Not impressed: Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan); The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard); Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch); Crash (Paul Haggis); Dallas 362 (Scott Caan); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell); The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel); The Intruder (Claire Denis); Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin); Last Days (Gus Van Sant); Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July); Millions (Danny Boyle); My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski); The President's Last Bang (Im Sang-Soo); Shopgirl (Anand Tucker); The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones); Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa); 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
2004
1) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
2) Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)
3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
4) Sideways (Alexander Payne)
5) Dogville (Lars Von Trier)
6) Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)
7) Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)
8) Primer (Shane Carruth)
9) Last Life in the Universe (Pen-ek Ratanruang)
10) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright)
Also of note: Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin); Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess); The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev); Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
Notable shorts: Guard Dog (Bill Plympton); L'Homme Sans Ombre (Georges Schwizgebel); Sombra Dolorosa (Guy Maddin)
Not impressed: An Amazing Couple (Lucas Belvaux); Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar); Blind Shaft (Yang Li); The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass); Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch); Distant (Nurge Bilgi Ceylon); The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci); Festival Express (Bob Smeaton); Garden State (Zach Braff); Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-Liang); I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (Mike Hodges); The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson); Mean Girls (Mark S. Waters); On the Run (Lucas Belvaux); Osama (Siddiq Barmak); The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson); Ray (Taylor Hackford); Strayed (André Téchiné); Undertow (David Gordon Green); A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet); We Don't Live Here Anymore (John Curran)
2003
1) The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris)
2) Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz)
3) All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green)
4) Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
5) Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton)
6) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Joe Dante)
7) Gerry (Gus Van Sant)
8) The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph)
9) Zero Day (Ben Coccio)
10) Friday Night (Claire Denis)
Also of note: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin); Owning Mahowny (Richard Kwietniowski); Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki); Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff); Irreversible (Gaspar Noé); Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen); Down with Love (Peyton Reed); House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman); Mystic River (Clint Eastwood); demonlover (Olivier Assayas); The Backyard (Paul Hough)
Notable shorts: Ward 13 (Peter Cornwell); Wasp (Andrea Arnold)
Not impressed: Bend it Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha); City of God (Fernando Meirelles); Elephant (Gus Van Sant); Freaky Friday (Mark S. Waters); Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson); Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola); The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki); A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest); Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki); The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne); Spider (David Cronenberg); thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke); The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet); 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle); 21 Grams (Alejandro González Iñárritu); Whale Rider (Nikki Caro)
2002
1) Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2) 25th Hour (Spike Lee)
3) Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen)
4) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson)
5) Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
6) Spider-Man (Sam Raimi)
7) The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke)
8) Human Nature (Michel Gondry)
9) Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore)
10) Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
Also of note: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (Ashutosh Gowariker); Hell House (George Ratliff); Wendigo (Larry Fessenden); Signs (M. Night Shyamalan); Scratch (Doug Pray)
Notable shorts: The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Ming-liang); Untitled (Ira Sachs)
Not impressed: About Schmidt (Alexander Payne); Catch Me if You Can (Steven Spielberg); Dogtown and Z-Boys (Stacy Peralta); The Good Girl (Miguel Artera); The Grey Zone (Tim Blake Nelson); Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus); The Isle (Kim Ki-duk); Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair); Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay); My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Joel Zwick); The Ring (Gore Verbinski); The Rules of Attraction (Roger Avery); Secretary (Steven Shainberg); The Son's Room (Nanni Moretti); Storytelling (Todd Solondz); Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Shohei Imamura)
2001
1) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2) Memento (Christopher Nolan)
3) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
4) Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann)
5) Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter)
6) Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
7) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
8) Visitor Q (Takashi Miike)
9) Audition (Takashi Miike)
10) Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)
Also of note: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg); Tuvalu (Veit Helmer); Training Day (Antoine Fuqua); The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen); Chain Camera (Kirby Dick)
Not impressed: The Anniversary Party (Alan Cumming & Jennifer Jason Leigh); Bully (Larry Clark); Chopper (Andrew Dominik); The Claim (Michael Winterbottom); The Deep End (Scott McGehee & David Siegel); Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat); Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone (Chris Columbus); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell); Lost and Delirious (Léa Pool); A Matter of Taste (Bernard Rapp); The Princess and the Warrior (Tom Tykwer); The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson); Session 9 (Brad Anderson); Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson); Songcatcher (Maggie Greenwald); The Tailor of Panama (John Boorman); The Widow of St. Pierre (Patrice Leconte)
2000
1) Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
2) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen)
3) State and Main (David Mamet)
4) Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
5) Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
6) Hamlet (Michael Almereyda)
7) George Washington (David Gordon Green)
8) American Psycho (Mary Harron)
9) Traffic (Stephen Soderbergh)
10) The Target Shoots First (Christopher Wilcha)
Also of note: The Foul King (Ji Woon Kim); Chicken Run (Nick Park); An Affair of Love (Frédéric Fonteyne); Gladiator (Ridley Scott); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee); Collectors (Julian P. Hobbs); Final Destination (James Wong)
Notable shorts: Camera (David Cronenberg); The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin); Play (Anthony Minghella); Rejected (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: American Pimp (Albert & Allen Hughes); The Cell (Tarsem Singh); Chuck & Buck (Miguel Artera); The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi); Dr. T and the Women (Robert Altman); East is East (Damien O'Donnell); Judy Berlin (Eric Mendelsohn); Meet the Parents (Jay Roach); Mifune (Søren Kragh-Jacobsen); Nurse Betty (Neil LaBute); Shower (Yang Zhang); Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen); Time Code (Mike Figgis); Time Regained (Raoul Ruiz); X-Men (Bryan Singer)
1999
1) Fight Club (David Fincher)
2) South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker)
3) Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4) Cabaret Balkan (Goran Paskaljevic)
5) Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
6) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
7) The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)
8) Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter)
9) Hands on a Hard Body (S.R. Bindler)
10) The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella)
Also of note: Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen); Ravenous (Antonia Bird); American Beauty (Sam Mendes); The Straight Story (David Lynch); eXistenZ (David Cronenberg); Genghis Blues (Roko Belic); Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar); Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer); The Minus Man (Hampton Fancher); Show Me Love (Lukas Moodysson); The Insider (Michael Mann); Titus (Julie Taymor); Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Julio Medem); Limbo (John Sayles); The Winslow Boy (David Mamet); Three Kings (David O. Russell); The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez); Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce); Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
Notable shorts: Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky); Nos Enfants (Siegrid Alnoy); When the Day Breaks (Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby)
Not impressed: Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders); The Cider House Rules (Lasse Hallström); Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike); Dogma (Kevin Smith); Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold); I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noé); Man on the Moon (Milos Forman); The Thomas Crown Affair (John McTiernan)
1998
1) Affliction (Paul Schrader)
2) Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo)
3) Funny Games (Michael Haneke)
4) Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
5) Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)
6) A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
7) The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet)
8) Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
9) Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)
10) Happiness (Todd Solondz)
Also of note: Antz (Eric Darnell & Tim Johnson); John Carpenter's Vampires (John Carpenter); The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan); Running Time (Josh Becker); Men with Guns (John Sayles); Dark City (Alex Proyas); Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar); Pleasantville (Gary Ross); Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski); Primary Colors (Mike Nichols); There's Something About Mary (Peter & Bobby Farrelly)
Not impressed: The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg); A Civil Action (Steven Zaillian); Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam); Henry Fool (Hal Hartley); Les Misérables (Billie August); Life of Jesus (Bruno Dumont); Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman); See the Sea (François Ozon); Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes); Your Friends and Neighbors (Neil LaBute)
1997
1) Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2) Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Kirby Dick)
3) Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)
4) L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
5) In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute)
6) The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
7) Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell)
8) Face/Off (John Woo)
9) Sunday (Jonathan Nossiter)
10) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach)
Also of note: Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas); Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen); Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino); Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld); Eye of God (Tim Blake Nelson); Good Will Hunting (Gus van Sant); Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons); Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow); Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith); Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson); Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode)
Notable shorts: Geri's Game (Jan Pinkava); Immer Zu (Janie Geiser); Lily and Jim (Don Hertzfeldt)
Not impressed: The Boxer (Jim Sheridan); Cop Land (James Mangold); Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa); The Game (David Fincher); Gattaca (Andrew Niccol); Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage); Winter Sleepers (Tom Tykwer)
1996
1) Fargo (Joel Coen)
2) Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
3) Freeway (Matthew Bright)
4) The Frighteners (Peter Jackson)
5) Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton)
6) Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky)
7) Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne)
8) Tromeo & Juliet (Lloyd Kaufman)
9) Bound (Andy & Larry Wachowski)
10) The People vs. Larry Flynt (Milos Forman)
Also of note: Conspirators of Pleasure (Jan Svankmajer); Scream (Wes Craven); Forgotten Silver (Peter Jackson); Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi); Kingpin (Peter & Bobby Farrelly); Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes); Swingers (Doug Liman); Flirting with Disaster (David O. Russell)
Notable shorts: A Close Shave (Nick Park); Genre (Don Hertzfeldt); A Summer Dress (François Ozon)
Not impressed: Kissed (Lynne Stopkewich); My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into an Argument (Arnaud Desplechin); Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit); Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
1995
1) Toy Story (John Lasseter)
2) Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
3) Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
4) Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
5) Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
6) The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer)
7) Babe (Chris Noonan)
8) A Pure Formality (Giuseppe Tornatore)
9) Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
10) Se7en (David Fincher)
Ineligible but belongs in #3 slot: Neon Genesis Evangelion (Hideaki Anno)
Also of note: The City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro); The Kingdom (Lars von Trier); Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri); Thesis (Alejandro Amenábar); Heat (Michael Mann); Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii); Crimson Tide (Tony Scott); Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
Not impressed: The Doom Generation (Gregg Araki); Mallrats (Kevin Smith); Safe (Todd Haynes); Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow)
1994
1) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
2) Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori)
3) Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)
4) The Last Seduction (John Dahl)
5) Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
6) Drunken Master II (Liu Chia-Liang)
7) Cold Water (Olivier Assayas)
8) The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
9) True Lies (James Cameron)
10) Serial Mom (John Waters)
Also of note: Cobb (Ron Shelton); Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee)
Not impressed: Death and the Maiden (Roman Polanski); Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis); The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner)
1993
1) Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)
2) Naked (Mike Leigh)
3) Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian)
4) In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen)
5) Freaked (Tom Stern & Alex Winter)
6) Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
7) The Fugitive (Andrew Davis)
8) The Piano (Jane Campion)
9) The Music of Chance (Phillip Haas)
10) Fearless (Peter Weir)
Also of note: True Romance (Tony Scott); Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld)
Notable shorts: The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park)
Not impressed: Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer); Heaven and Earth (Oliver Stone)
1992
1) Dead Alive (Peter Jackson)
2) Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
3) The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
4) Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
5) Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
6) Hard-Boiled (John Woo)
7) Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
8) Of Mice and Men (Gary Sinise)
9) Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker)
10) The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann)
Also of note: Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro); My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn); A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner); Hoffa (Danny DeVito)
Notable shorts: Food (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara); Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven); Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola); Careful (Guy Maddin); Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce); Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch)
1991
1) Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
2) The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
3) The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
4) The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
5) Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)
6) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
7) Wax, or: The Discovery of Television Among the Bees (David Blair)
8) The Commitments (Alan Parker)
9) La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
10) Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)
Also of note: Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston); Trust (Hal Hartley); City Slickers (Ron Underwood)
Notable shorts: Adam (Peter Lord); Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (Stan Brakhage); A Grand Day Out (Nick Park); Push Comes to Shove (Bill Plympton)
Not impressed: Mindwalk (Bernt Amadeus Capra); Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott)
1990
1) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
2) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton)
3) Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)
4) Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
5) La Discrète (Christian Vincent)
6) Bullet in the Head (John Woo)
7) Cry-Baby (John Waters)
8) Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen)
9) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
10) Sonny Boy (Robert Martin Carroll)
Notable shorts: Creature Comforts (Nick Park); The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (Jan Svankmajer); Glaze of Cathexis (Stan Brakhage); The Wiseman (Bill Plympton)
Not impressed: The Disenchanted (Benoît Jacquot); The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan); Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall)
1989
1) Glory (Edward Zwick)
2) Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte)
3) The Killer (John Woo)
4) Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
5) Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
6) Heathers (Michael Lehmann)
7) Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe)
8) Roger and Me (Michael Moore)
9) Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson)
10) When Harry Met Sally... (Rob Reiner)
Also of note: Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson); Batman (Tim Burton); The Bear (Jean-Jacques Annaud); The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements & John Musker)
Notable shorts: How to Kiss and 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (Bill Plympton); You Take Care Now (Ann Marie Fleming)
Not impressed: Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir); Wicked City (Yoshiaki Kawajiri)
1988
1) My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
2) A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
3) A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton)
4) Alice (Jan Svankmajer)
5) A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
6) Dangerous Liasons (Stephen Frears)
7) Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
8) Eight Men Out (John Sayles)
9) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis)
10) Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker)
Also of note: Beetlejuice (Tim Burton); Monkey Shines (George A. Romero); The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker); Die Hard (John McTiernan); The Vanishing (George Sluizer); The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan)
Notable shorts: Tin Toy (John Lasseter)
Not impressed: Apartment Zero (Martin Donovan)
1987
1) The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
2) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (Sam Raimi)
3) RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven)
4) The Hidden (Jack Sholder)
5) Raising Arizona (Joel Coen)
6) Lethal Weapon (Richard Donner)
7) Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle)
8) Wall Street (Oliver Stone)
9) No Way Out (Roger Donaldson)
10) The Big Easy (Jim McBride)
Also of note: Stagefright (Michele Soavi); The Untouchables (Brian de Palma)
Notable shorts: The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: The Stepfather (Joseph Ruben)
1986
1) Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
2) Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)
3) Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
4) Aliens (James Cameron)
5) Platoon (Oliver Stone)
6) Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan)
7) The Fly (David Cronenberg)
8) Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)
9) From Beyond (Stuart Gordon)
10) At Close Range (James Foley)
Notable shorts: Luxo Jr. (John Lasseter)
Not impressed: Top Gun (Tony Scott)
1985
1) Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
2) Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)
3) Vampires in Havana (Juan Padrón)
4) My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström)
5) After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
6) Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton)
7) Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
8) Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
9) A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
10) The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
Also of note: Come and See (Elem Klimov); Prizzi's Honor (John Huston); To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin); Lost in America (Albert Brooks); Mask (Peter Bogdanovich)
Notable shorts: Broken Down Film (Osamu Tekuza); The Manhattan Love Suicides (Richard Kern)
Not impressed: Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack); The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon); Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky); What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar)
1984
1) Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman)
2) Blood Simple (Joel Coen)
3) Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
4) The Terminator (James Cameron)
5) This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)
6) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)
7) 1984 (Michael Radford)
8) Amadeus (Milos Forman)
9) Top Secret! (David Zucker & Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker)
10) Gremlins (Joe Dante)
Not impressed: Dim Sum: a little bit of heart (Wayne Wang)
1983
1) Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2) L'Argent (Robert Bresson)
3) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
4) Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
5) The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
6) The 4th Man (Paul Verhoeven)
7) Zelig (Woody Allen)
8) The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
9) Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
10) Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)
Notable shorts: Down to the Cellar (Jan Svankmajer); Narcissus (Norman McLaren)
Not impressed: La Nuit de Varennes (Ettore Scola); Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman)
1982
1) Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker)
2) The Road Warrior (George Miller)
3) Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel)
4) Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
5) Tenebrae (Dario Argento)
6) A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (Woody Allen)
7) Burden of Dreams (Les Blank)
8) The Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen)
9) The Thing (John Carpenter)
10) Vice Squad (Gary Sherman)
Notable shorts: Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway)
1981
1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
2) Gallipoli (Peter Weir)
3) An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)
4) Blow Out (Brian de Palma)
5) Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
6) Dead & Buried (Gary Sherman)
7) Excalibur (John Boorman)
8) For Your Eyes Only (John Glen)
9) Scanners (David Cronenberg)
10) Enter the Ninja (Menahem Golan)
Not impressed: Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski); Escape from New York (John Carpenter); Nighthawks (Bruce Malmuth); Possession (Andrezj Zulawski)
1980
1) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
2) The Empire Strikes Back (Irving Kershner)
3) Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
4) Airplane! (David Zucker & Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker)
5) God's Angry Man (Werner Herzog)
6) The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie)
7) Inferno (Dario Argento)
8) Superman II (Richard Lester & Richard Donner)
9) Stardust Memories (Woody Allen)
10) Motel Hell (Kevin Connor)
Notable shorts: The Fall of the House of Usher (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard)
1979
1) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2) Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis)
3) Camera Buff (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
4) Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
5) Manhattan (Woody Allen)
6) The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (Chuck Jones & Phil Monroe)
7) The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
8) Phantasm (Don Coscarelli)
9) Alien (Ridley Scott)
10) Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
Not impressed: ...And Justice for All (Norman Jewison); Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (Russ Meyer); The Brood (David Cronenberg); Winter Kills (William Richert)
1978
1) Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
2) Halloween (John Carpenter)
3) Eraserhead (David Lynch)
4) The Driver (Walter Hill)
5) Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
6) The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Liu Chia-liang)
7) Pirahna (Joe Dante)
8) Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)
9) Interiors (Woody Allen)
10) The Whole Shootin' Match (Eagle Pennell)
Notable shorts: LMNO (Robert Breer); A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (Peter Greenaway)
Not impressed: The Fury (Brian de Palma); Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman); National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)
1977
1) Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
2) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
3) That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel)
4) Star Wars (George Lucas)
5) Strozsek (Werner Herzog)
6) The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert)
7) House (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
8) Suspiria (Dario Argento)
9) Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis)
10) Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
Notable shorts: Dear Phone (Peter Greenaway); La Soufrière (Werner Herzog)
1976
1) Up! (Russ Meyer)
2) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
3) The Front (Martin Ritt)
4) Carrie (Brian De Palma)
5) Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
6) Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
7) Network (Sidney Lumet)
8) Silent Movie (Mel Brooks)
9) The Opening of Misty Beethoven (Radley Metzger [as Henry Paris])
10) Massacre at Central High (Rene Daalder)
Not impressed: Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman); God Told Me To (Larry Cohen); In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima); Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May); The Omen (Richard Donner)
1975
1) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones)
2) Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
3) Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantel Akerman)
4) Female Trouble (John Waters)
5) Deep Red (Dario Argento)
6) Love and Death (Woody Allen)
7) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
8) Shivers (David Cronenberg)
9) Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen)
10) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel)
Not impressed: Tommy (Ken Russell)
1974
1) A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
2) The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
3) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)
4) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)
5) The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)
6) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)
7) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
8) Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (Yoshiyuki Kuroda)
9) Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
10) The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: The Virgin Sacrifice (J.X. Williams)
Not impressed: Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey); The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani)
1973
1) Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)
2) Badlands (Terence Malick)
3) Sleeper (Woody Allen)
4) O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson)
5) Amarcord (Federico Fellini)
6) The Crazies (George A. Romero)
7) Charley Varrick (Don Siegel)
8) The Last Detail (Hal Ashby)
9) Heavy Traffic (Ralph Bakshi)
10) Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg)
Not impressed: Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio); Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn)
1972
1) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
2) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel)
3) Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby)
4) Goodbye CP (Kazuo Hara)
5) Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
6) Deliverance (John Boorman)
7) Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito)
8) Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito)
9) Pink Flamingos (John Waters)
10) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Also of note: Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock); Bad Company (Robert Benton)
Not impressed: Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank); Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (Woody Allen); Greaser's Palace (Robert Downey); Last House on the Left (Wes Craven)
1971
1) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)
2) Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
3) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)
4) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart)
5) The French Connection (William Friedkin)
6) Bananas (Woody Allen)
7) The Hospital (Arthur Hiller)
8) Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado)
9) The Telephone Book (Nelson Lyon)
10) Duel (Steven Spielberg)
Also of note: Pretty Maids All in a Row (Roger Vadim); And Now for Something Completely Different (Ian MacNaughton); Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols); The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg)
Notable shorts: The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage); Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr)
Not impressed: The Blood on Satan's Claw (Piers Haggard); Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin van Peebles); Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian); W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)
1970
1) M*A*S*H (Robert Altman)
2) Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles & David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin)
3) The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)
4) Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson)
5) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer)
6) Performance (Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg)
7) Husbands (John Cassavetes)
8) El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
9) Zatoichi: The Festival of Fire (Kenji Misumi)
10) Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog)
Notable shorts: Quarry (Richard P. Rogers)
Not impressed: Catch-22 (Mike Nichols); The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle); Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni)
1969
1) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
2) My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer)
3) The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester)
4) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
5) A Touch of Zen (King Hu)
6) Z (Costas-Gavras)
7) Hamlet (Tony Richardson)
8) A Gentle Woman (Robert Bresson)
9) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
10) Land Raiders (Nathan Juran)
Notable shorts: Intervals (Peter Greenaway); Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger)
Not impressed: Burn! (Gillo Pontecorvo); Dillinger Is Dead (Marco Ferreri); Me and My Brother (Robert Frank); The Milky Way (Luis Buñuel); Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
1968
1) Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
3) if.... (Lindsay Anderson)
4) Vixen! (Russ Meyer)
5) Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
6) Faces (John Cassavetes)
7) Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli)
8) Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)
9) Samaritan Zatoichi (Kenji Misumi)
10) Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
Notable shorts: The Flat (Jan Svankmajer)
Not impressed: Pretty Poison (Noel Black); Shame (Ingmar Bergman); Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim/Louis Malle/Federico Fellini); Witchfinder General [AKA The Conqueror Worm] (Michael Reeves)
1967
1) Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel)
2) Wavelength (Michael Snow)
3) Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)
4) David Holzman's Diary (Jim McBride)
5) The Producers (Mel Brooks)
6) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
7) Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi)
8) La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer)
9) Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)
10) Bedazzled (Stanley Donen)
Notable shorts: The Big Shave (Martin Scorsese); The Craven Sluck (Mike Kuchar); Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage); Report (Bruce Conner)
Not impressed: Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard); Wait Until Dark (Terence Young); Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
1966
1) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
2) Fighting Elegy (Seijun Suzuki)
3) Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod)
4) Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
5) Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni)
6) The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
7) The Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto)
8) What's Up, Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen & Senkichi Taniguchi)
9) The King of Hearts (Philippe de Broca)
10) Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki)
Notable shorts: Breakaway (Bruce Conner); Patriotism (Masaki Domoto & Yukio Mishima); Tramway (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Not impressed: Kill, Baby... Kill! (Mario Bava); The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura); A Report on the Party and the Guests (Jan Nemec)
1965
1) Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer)
2) The War Game (Peter Watkins)
3) Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa)
4) Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)
5) Sins of the Fleshapoids (Mike Kuchar)
6) Simon of the Desert (Luis Buñuel)
7) The Shop on Main Street (Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos)
8) Mudhoney (Russ Meyer)
9) Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles)
10) Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (Kazuo Mori)
Notable shorts: A Game with Stones (Jan Svankmajer); Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger); Ten Second Film (Bruce Conner); Vivian (Bruce Conner)
Not impressed: Repulsion (Roman Polanski); Tattooed Life (Seijun Suzuki)
1964
1) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
2) Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)
3) Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard)
4) A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone)
5) Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
6) Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
7) Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
8) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
9) Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson)
10) Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Bryan Forbes)
Also of note: A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester)
Notable shorts: The Peaches (Michael Gill)
Not impressed: The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman); Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
1963
1) From Russia with Love (Terence Young)
2) The Servant (Joseph Losey)
3) The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
4) Charade (Stanley Donen)
5) The Haunting (Robert Wise)
6) Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
7) Zatoichi: On the Road (Kimiyoshi Yasuda)
8) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
9) High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
10) Black Sabbath (Mario Bava)
Notable shorts: The Bakery Girl of Monceau (Eric Rohmer); The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad); Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard); Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)
1962
1) The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel)
2) Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
3) To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
4) The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
5) The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
6) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
7) Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
8) Dr. No (Terence Young)
9) Burn, Witch, Burn! (Sidney Hayers)
10) The Tale of Zatoichi (Kenji Misumi)
Notable shorts: La Jetée (Chris Marker); Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller); Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey); Jules and Jim (François Truffaut); Mondo Cane (Paolo Cavera & Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi)
1961
1) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)
2) 101 Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi & Hamilton Luske & Wolfgang Reitherman)
3) The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
4) Blast of Silence (Allen Baron)
5) West Side Story (Robert Wise)
6) A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
7) Viridiana (Luis Buñuel)
8) Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
9) Black Sunday (Mario Bava)
10) Curse of the Werewolf (Terence Fisher)
Not impressed: Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards); Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi); Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
1960
1) The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
2) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
3) The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis)
4) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
5) Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer)
6) Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut)
7) Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
8) Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
9) L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
10) Zazie Dans le Métro (Louis Malle)
1959
1) The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
2) Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)
3) Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
4) Shadows (John Cassavettes)
5) Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
6) Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa)
7) The Immoral Mr. Teas (Russ Meyer)
8) Nazarín (Luis Buñuel)
9) House on Haunted Hill (William Castle)
10) The Mouse That Roared (Jack Arnold)
Notable shorts Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage)
Not impressed: Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher)
1958
1) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
2) Giants and Toys (Yasuzo Masumura)
3) Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)
4) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
5) Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)
6) The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
7) Buchanan Rides Alone (Budd Boetticher)
8) The Lineup (Don Siegel)
9) The Lovers (Louis Malle)
10) Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher)
Notable shorts: A Movie (Bruce Conner); Véronique and Her Dunce (Eric Rohmer)
Not impressed: Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli); Fiend Without a Face (Arthur Crabtree); Ivan the Terrible, Part II (Sergei Eisenstein); A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker)
1957
1) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
2) Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
3) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
4) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
5) 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
6) The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
7) Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
8) The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
9) 3:10 to Yuma (Delmer Daves)
10) Decision at Sundown (Budd Boetticher)
Notable shorts: A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer)
1956
1) A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
2) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
3) Bigger Than Life (Nicolas Ray)
4) Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
5) Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville)
6) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
7) Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)
8) The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa)
9) I Vampiri (Riccardo Freda)
10) Three Bad Sisters (Gilbert Kay)
Not impressed: The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy); Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (Hiroshi Inagaki); The Searchers (John Ford)
1955
1) Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
2) Rififi (Jules Dassin)
3) Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimo & Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske)
4) The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick)
5) The Court Jester (Melvin Frank & Norman Panama)
6) The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Buñuel)
7) Lola Montes (Max Ophüls)
8) The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)
9) All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
10) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Notable shorts: Blinkety Blank (Norman McLaren)
Not impressed: The Big Combo (Joseph Lewis); Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick); Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer); Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Hiroshi Inagaki)
1953
1) Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
2) Beat the Devil (John Huston)
3) The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
4) Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
5) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
6) The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls)
7) Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
8) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
9) The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland)
10) The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
1949
1) White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
2) The Set-Up (Robert Wise)
3) The Window (Ted Tetzlaff)
4) Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin)
5) Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
6) The Third Man (Carol Reed)
7) Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa)
8) I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller)
9) Thirst (Ingmar Bergman)
10) Follow Me Quietly (Richard Fleischer)
Notable shorts: Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren); Blood of the Beasts (Georges Franju)
1948
1) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
2) Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
3) Key Largo (John Huston)
4) The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
5) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica)
6) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton)
7) Oliver Twist (David Lean)
8) The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod)
9) Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini)
10) A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks)
Not impressed: The Naked City (Jules Dassin)
