The Best Films of the Year (1977 - Present)

• As the seratonin fluctuates, so do I - therefore these are subject to change on a whim.
  
• Recently changed: Added 2007, fixed 2002.
  

2007

1. Time (Kim Ki-Duk)
2. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
3. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-Liang)
4. Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright and Eli Roth)
5. Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
6. Sicko (Michael Moore)
7. Flanders (Bruno Dumont)
8. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
9. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
10. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)

2006

1. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
2. An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)
3. Inside Man (Spike Lee)
4. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
5. Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine)
6. The Child (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
7. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles)
8. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)
9. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
10. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell)

2005

1. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
2. Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)
3. 3-Iron (Kim Ki-Duk)
4. Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney)
5. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
6. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-Liang)
7. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
8. Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Steve Box and Nick Park)
9. A hole in my heart (Lukas Moodysson)
10. Match Point (Woody Allen)

2004

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring (Kim Ki-Duk)
2. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
3. Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess)
4. Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore)
5. The Five Obstructions (Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier)
6. Touching the Void (Kevin Macdonald)
7. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Stephen Hillenburg)
8. Sideways (Alexander Payne)
9. Notre Musique (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Control Room (Jehane Noujaim)

2003

1. Irréversible (Gaspar Noé)
2. Kill Bill, Volume One (Quentin Tarantino)
3. Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin)
4. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
5. Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki)
6. Phone Booth (Joel Schumacher)
7. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
8. School of Rock (Richard Linklater)
9. Demonlover (Olivier Assayas)
10. Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff)

2002

1. What Time Is It There? (Tsai Ming-Liang)
2. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
3. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
4. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke)
5. 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom)
6. Ichi the Killer (Takashi Miike)
7. Visitor Q (Takashi Miike)
8. Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
9. Frailty (Bill Paxton)
10. Time Out (Laurent Cantet)

2001

1. Audition (Takashi Miike)
2. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
3. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
4. Under the Sand (François Ozon)
5. Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter)
6. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
7. The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen)
8. Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain)
9. Va Savoir (Jacques Rivette)
10. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)

2000

1. Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano)
2. Cast Away (Robert Zemeckis)
3. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
4. Taboo (Gohatto) (Nagisa Oshima)
5. Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
6. American Psycho (Mary Harron)
7. Quills (Philip Kaufman)
8. You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
9. Chopper (Andrew Dominik)
10. Human Resources (Laurent Cantet)

1999

1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Fight Club (David Fincher)
3. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter)
5. The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan)
6. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
7. Titus (Julie Taymor)
8. L'Humanite (Bruno Dumont)
9. After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
10. Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (Errol Morris)

1998

1. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
2. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
3. The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg)
4. Your Friends & Neighbors (Neil LaBute)
5. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
6. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley)
7. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
8. Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon)
9. Dark City (Alex Proyas)
10. The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet)

1997

1. In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute)
2. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. The Game (David Fincher)
4. As Good As It Gets (James L. Brooks)
5. Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski)
6. The Wings of the Dove (Iain Softley)
7. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
8. The Apostle (Robert Duvall)
9. Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai)
10. Titanic (James Cameron)

1996

1. Fargo (Joel Coen)
2. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
3. Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh)
4. Shine (Scott Hicks)
5. The English Patient (Anthony Minghella)
6. Shall We Dance? (Masayuki Suo)
7. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky)
8. Conspirators of Pleasure (Jan Svankmajer)
9. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
10. La Promesse (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

1995

1. Heat (Michael Mann)
2. Seven (David Fincher)
3. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
4. Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow)
5. Nixon (Oliver Stone)
6. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai)
7. Shanghai Triad (Zhang Yimou)
8. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
9. Smoke (Wayne Wang)
10. Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach)

1994

1. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
2. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai)
3. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
4. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
5. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
6. Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
7. Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)
8. Nobody's Fool (Robert Benton)
9. Vive L’Amour (Tsai Ming-Liang)
10. Ed Wood (Tim Burton)

1993

1. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg)
2. Naked (Mike Leigh)
3. Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma)
4. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood)
5. The Piano (Jane Campion)
6. Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
7. White (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
8. Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman)
9. Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi)
10. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (Francois Girard)

1992

1. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
2. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley)
3. Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benôt Poelvoorde)
4. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
5. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Peter Wintonick and Mark Achbar)
6. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
7. Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-Liang)
8. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
9. Damage (Louis Malle)
10. The Cement Garden (Andrew Birkin)

1991

1. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou)
2. The Lovers on the Bridge (Léos Carax)
3. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
4. The Hours and Times (Christopher Münch)
5. Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
6. Slacker (Richard Linklater)
7. Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse)
8. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
9. Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat)
10. The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

1990

1. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese)
2. Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder)
3. La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson)
4. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton)
5. Awakenings (Penny Marshall)
6. An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion)
7. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Pedro Almodóvar)
8. The King of New York (Abel Ferrara)
9. Wild at Heart (David Lynch)
10. Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)

1989

1. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
2. Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone)
3. Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant)
4. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
5. Say Anything ... (Cameron Crowe)
6. Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand)
7. The Killer (John Woo)
8. sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
9. Kiki’s Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
10. My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan)

1988

1. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
2. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
3. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders)
4. Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore)
5. Talk Radio (Oliver Stone)
6. Things Change (David Mamet)
7. Pelle the Conqueror (Bille August)
8. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
9. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Frank Oz)
10. The Moderns (Alan Rudolph)

1987

1. The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci)
2. Moonstruck (Norman Jewison)
3. Radio Days (Woody Allen)
4. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara)
5. Au Revoir les Enfants (Louis Malle)
6. Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson)
7. House of Games (David Mamet)
8. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)
9. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth)
10. Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé)

1986

1. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
2. Aliens (James Cameron)
3. Tampopo (Juzo Itami)
4. Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri)
5. The Decline of the American Empire (Denys Arcand)
6. Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan)
7. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
8. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky)
9. Ruthless People (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker)
10. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)

1985

1. Come and See (Elem Klimov)
2. Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hector Babenco)
3. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
4. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)
5. The Falcon and the Snowman (John Schlesinger)
6. A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
7. Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky)
8. Lost in America (Albert Brooks)
9. Vagabond (Agnés Varda)
10. The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)

1984

1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
2. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
3. Amadeus (Milos Forman)
4. Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen)
5. Body Double (Brian De Palma)
6. What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar)
7. The Times of Harvey Milk (Robert Epstein)
8. Phenomena (Dario Argento)
9. Choose Me (Alan Rudolph)
10. Repo Man (Alex Cox)

1983

1. Scarface (Brian De Palma)
2. L'Argent (Robert Bresson)
3. El Norte (Gregory Nava)
4. Star 80 (Bob Fosse)
5. Sans soleil (Chris Marker)
6. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
7. Risky Business (Paul Brickman)
8. Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)
9. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)
10. Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer)

1982

1. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
2. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
3. The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)
4. The Atomic Café (Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty)
5. My Favorite Year (Richard Benjamin)
6. Diner (Barry Levinson)
7. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
8. Hammett (Wim Wenders)
9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)
10. Burden of Dreams (Les Blank)

1981

1. Possession (Andrezj Zulawski)
2. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
3. Beau Père (Bertrand Blier)
4. Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson)
5. Tales of Ordinary Madness (Marco Ferreri)
6. Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
7. The Beyond (Lucio Fulci)
8. History of the World – Part I (Mel Brooks)
9. Escape From New York (John Carpenter)
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)

1980

1. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
2. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
3. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
4. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
5. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller)
6. Mon Oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais)
7. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
8. The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie)
9. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino)

1979

1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
3. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
4. Alien (Ridley Scott)
5. Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton)
6. Saint Jack (Peter Bogdanovich)
7. Vengeance Is Mine (Shohei Imamura)
8. The Tempest (Derek Jarman)
9. Real Life (Albert Brooks)
10. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)

1978

1. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
2. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
3. In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (Guy Debord)
4. The Driver (Walter Hill)
5. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Bertrand Blier)
6. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
7. The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski)
8. Genesis of a Meal (Luc Moullet)
9. Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)
10. National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)

1977

1. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel)
2. Hitler, A Film From Germany (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg)
3. Stroszek (Werner Herzog)
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
5. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
6. Rabid (David Cronenberg)
7. Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah)
8. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)
9. The Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis)
10. Saturday Night Fever (John Badham)