As of January 2018, here are the 500 films I love the most, in all languages, of every kind, listed in chronological order.

• A Trip to the Moon (Méliès, 1902)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1920)
• Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
• The General (Keaton/Bruckman, 1926)
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
• Un Chien Andalou (Buñuel, 1929)
• M. (Lang, 1931)
• Vampyr (Murnau, 1932)
• Duck Soup (McCarey, 1933)
• King Kong (Cooper/Schoedsack, 1933)
• It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934)
• L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934)
• Ruggles of Red Gap (McCarey, 1935)
• The 39 Steps (Hitchcock, 1935)
• Top Hat (Sandrich, 1935)
• A Night at the Opera (Wood, 1935)
• Sabotage (Hitchcock, 1936)
• The Awful Truth (McCarey, 1937)
• The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock, 1938)
• Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 1938)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (Curtiz/Keighley, 1938)

• You Can’t Take It With You (Capra, 1938) Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Lifemay be his best-known piece of socially-conscious storytelling, but another Jimmy Stewart collaboration outdoes it in bruising truthfulness and emotional power.
• The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939)
• Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (Capra, 1939)
• The Shop Around The Corner (Lubitsch, 1940)
• Pinocchio (Ferguson/Hee, 1940)
• The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940)
• Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940)
• His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)
• The Great McGinty (Sturges, 1940)
• Christmas in July (Sturges, 1940)
• Fantasia (Various, 1940)
• The Grapes of Wrath (Ford, 1940)
• Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
• Dumbo (Sharpsteen, 1941)
• The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)

• Sullivan’s Travels (Sturges, 1941) If Howard Hawkes invented the fast, snarky dialogue that inspired everyone from Paddy Chayefsky to Aaron Sorkin, Preston Sturges perfected it. Throughout his career, he transformed the perception of male and female roles in American cinema, and did so in hilarious fashion. Travels, a major influence on The Coen Brothers, is a marvellous Hollywood satire.
• Saboteur (Hitchcock, 1942)
• Road to Morocco (Butler, 1942)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles, 1942)
• Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
• The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942)
• To Be Or Not To Be (Lubitsch, 1942)
• The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Sturges, 1944)
• Laura (Preminger, 1944)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Meet Me In St. Louis (Minnelli, 1944)
• I’ll Be Seeing You (Dieterie, 1944)
• A Canterbury Tale (Powell/Pressburger, 1944)

• State Fair (Lang, 1945) A story of jam-making contests and short summer flings, Rodger and Hammerstein’s gentlest musical is a surprisingly melancholy piece on youth and yearning.
• Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945)
• The Clock (Minnelli, 1945)
• Yolanda & The Thief (Minnelli. 1945)
• Ziegfeld Follies (Various, 1945)
• Anchors Aweigh (Sidney, 1945)
• The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946)
• Great Expectations (Lean, 1946)
• It’s A Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946)
• A Matter of Life and Death (Powell/Pressburger, 1946)
• Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
• My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946)
• Odd Man Out (Reed, 1947)
• Rope (Hitchcock, 1948)
• Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)
• The Pirate (Minnelli, 1948)
• Oliver Twist (Lean, 1948)
• Easter Parade (Walters, 1948)
• Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges, 1948)

• On The Town (Donen/Kelly, 1949) Sinatra, Kelly and Munshin are three sailors with one free day in New York City. Sex, partying and urban chaos ensue… but in a charming, clean 1940s way.
• The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
• Whisky Galore! (Mackendrick, 1949)
• Take Me Out To The Ball Game (Berkeley, 1949)
• Harvey (Koster, 1950)
• Father of the Bride (Minnelli. 1950)
• Summer Stock (Walters, 1950)
• Ace in the Hole (Wilder, 1951)
• The Lavender Hill Mob (Crichton, 1951)
• The Man in the White Suit (Mackendrick, 1951)
• Alice in Wonderland (Geronimi/Jackson, 1951)
• A Place in the Sun (Stevens, 1951)
• An American in Paris (Minnelli, 1951)
• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Lewin, 1951)
• Singin’ in the Rain (Donen/Kelly, 1952)
• The Quiet Man (Ford, 1952)
• Hans Christian Andersen (Vidor, 1952)
• I Confess (Hitchcock, 1953)
• Roman Holiday (Wyler, 1953)
• The Band Wagon (Minnelli, 1953)
• Lili (Walters, 1953)
• The Titfield Thunderbolt (Crichton, 1953)
• From Here To Eternity (Zinnemann, 1953)
• Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
• On The Waterfront (Kazan, 1954)
• Brigadoon (Minnelli, 1954)
• It Should Happen To You (Cukor, 1954)
• Sabrina (Wilder, 1954)

• The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955) Charles Laughton’s only directorial effort gives the Hunchback of Notre Dame actor a 100% record of brilliance. Robert Mitchum is at his most terrifying as a murderous preacher on the trail of two children, but it’s Stanley Cortez’s black-and-white cinematography that gives the film its haunting heart.
• To Catch A Thief (Hitchcock, 1955)
• Kismet (Minnelli, 1955)
• Rebel Without A Cause (Ray, 1955)
• Carousel (King, 1955)
• The Ladykillers (Mackendrick, 1955)

• The Searchers (Ford, 1956) John Ford directed many a classic western, but few have the soulfulness- and resulting longevity- of this dark adventure, with John Wayne at his most troubled– and his very best.
• The Ten Commandments (DeMille, 1956)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock, 1956)
• 23 Paces to Baker Street (Hathaway, 1956)
• Funny Face (Donen, 1957)
• 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957)
• Silk Stockings (Mamoulian, 1957)
• Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick, 1957)
• Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
• Gigi (Minnelli, 1958)
• Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958)
• Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959)

• Bell, Book and Candle (Quine, 1958) James Stewart, Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon lead one of cinema’s finest casts in this supernatural rom-com. Novak plays a witch; Lemmon her warlock brother; Stewart the bumbling neighbour she enchants. Magical in every sense, this is an under-recognised gem.

• North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959) Nobody does it better than Hitch, and North is film history’s seminal thriller. Without it, there would likely be no Bond, Bourne or Indy. The mesmerising duo of Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint star opposite a fabulously evil James Mason in an epic chase picture; every frame of which gleams with perfection.
• Les quatre cents coups (Truffaut, 1959)
• Ben-Hur (Wyler, 1959)
• Darby O’Gill & The Little People (Stevenson, 1959)
• The Apartment (Wilder, 1960)
• Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
• Breathless (Godard, 1960)
• L’avventura (Antonioni, 1960)
• Bells Are Ringing (Minnelli, 1960)
• A Taste of Honey (Richardson, 1961)
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Edwards, 1961)
• To Kill A Mockingbird (Mulligan, 1962)
• Ivanovo detstvo (Tarkovsky, 1962)
• What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (Aldrich, 1962)
• La Jetée (Marker, 1962)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford, 1962)
• The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
• Charade (Donen, 1963)
• The Pink Panther (Edwards, 1963)
• The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (Minnelli, 1963)
• The Sword in the Stone (Reitherman, 1963)
• Irma la Douce (Wilder, 1963)

• Mary Poppins (Stevenson, 1964) Walt Disney’s finest achievement, Poppins is a timeless tale of fatherhood and breaking rules, with songs penned to perfection by the Sherman Brothers and sensational performances from Julie Andrews, Dick van Dyke and David Tomlinson.
• The World of Henry Orient (Roy Hill, 1964)
• My Fair Lady (Cukor, 1964)
• Good Neighbour Sam (Swift, 1964)
• Goldfinger (Hamilton, 1964)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)
• The Great Race (Edwards, 1965)
• Pierrot le Fou (Godard, 1965)
• Film (Schneider, 1965)
• That Darn Cat! (Stevenson, 1965)

• The Sound of Music (Wise, 1965) Debatably the greatest stage musical of them all, Rodger and Hammerstein’s Austrian epic was filmed with remarkable ambition and heart, with Julie Andrews leading a phenomenal ensemble cast.
• Batman: The Movie (Martinson, 1966)
• Au hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966)
• Blow-Up (Antonioni, 1966)
• Monkeys, Go Home! (McLaglen, 1967)
• Playtime (Tati, 1967)
• The Jungle Book (Reitherman, 1967)
• Barefoot in the Park (Saks, 1967)
• The Gnome-Mobile (Stevenson (1967)
• Cool Hand Luke (Rosenberg, 1967)
• Doctor Doolittle (Fleischer, 1967)
• Luv (Donner, 1967)
• The Producers (Brooks, 1967)
• The Graduate (Nichols, 1967)
• Casino Royale (Various, 1967)
• The Party (Edwards, 1968)
• Stolen Kisses (Truffaut, 1968)
• Planet of the Apes (Schaffner, 1968)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
• The Odd Couple (Saks, 1968)

• Finian’s Rainbow (Coppola, 1968) Fred Astaire is unarguably one of the greatest movie stars of all time, and this- his final musical- is one of the genre’s true classics. The Irish characters won our Irish hearts, but the reward of multiple viewings reveals poignant anti-racism themes. Despite what you might have been led to believe, this is Coppola’s finest film.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Hughes, 1968)
• Kes (Loach, 1968)
• The April Fools (Rosenberg, 1969)
• Take The Money & Run (Allen, 1969)
• Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger, 1969)
• Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969)
• The Sterile Cuckoo (Pakula, 1969)
• The Out-of-Towners (Hiller, 1970)
• Bed & Board (Truffaut, 1970)
• Little Big Man (Penn, 1970)
• Death in Venice (Visconti, 1971)
• Flight of the Doves (Nelson, 1971)
• Klute (Pakula, 1971)
• Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Stuart, 1971)

• Bedknobs & Broomsticks (Stevenson, 1971) Angela Lansbury may be best known for starring on Murder, She Wrote, but her greatest role will always be as Eglantine Price, the kindly witch (in training) who takes in three foster children during World War II. From the creators of Mary Poppins, this (equally glorious) forgotten musical has David Tomlinson (Poppins‘ Mr Banks), extended animated sequences and some of the best songs ever performed on screen.
• Harold and Maude (Ashby, 1971)
• Silent Running (Trumbull, 1972)
• The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
• Man of La Mancha (Hiller, 1972)
• Avanti! (Wilder, 1972)
• Badlands (Malick, 1973)
• Robin Hood (Reitherman, 1973)
• Paper Moon (Bogdanovich, 1973)
• The Optimists of Nine Elms (Simmons, 1973)
• The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
• The Little Prince (Donen, 1974)
• The Towering Inferno (Guillerman, 1974)
• Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
• That’s Entertainment! (Haley, 1974)
• The Godfather: Part II (Coppola, 1974)
• Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet, 1975)
• The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
• Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
• Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
• Network (Lumet, 1976)
• Obsession (De Palma, 1976)
• Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)

• Star Wars (Lucas, 1977) Where, oh where, would Hollywood be withoutStar Wars? The foundation for almost every blockbuster made since, Lucas’ original is a near-perfect fairytale with impeccable wit, heart and spectacle.
• Pete’s Dragon (Chaffey, 1977)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977)
• The Deer Hunter (Cimino, 1978)
• Marathon Man (Schlesinger, 1978)
• Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978)
• Superman (Donner, 1978)
• Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
• Love On The Run (Truffaut, 1979)
• Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)

• Being There (Ashby, 1979) An early premonition of Donald Trump’s political career, this peculiar tragicomedy sees career-best Peter Sellers as a simpleton gardener elevated to political power through a series of mishaps. A startlingly moving adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński’s novel.
• The Muppet Movie (Frawley, 1979)
• Ordinary People (Redford, 1980)
• The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
• Airplane! (Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker, 1980)
• The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
• The Elephant Man (Lynch, 1980)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
• Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)
• Tootsie (Pollack, 1982)
• The King of Comedy (Scorsese, 1982)
• Zelig (Allen, 1983)
• Return of the Jedi (Marquand, 1983)
• Local Hero (Forsyth, 1983)
• Blood Simple (Coen, 1984)
• Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)
• Top Secret! (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, 1984)
• Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (Spielberg, 1984)
• Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)
• After Hours (Scorsese, 1985)
• Hannah & Her Sisters (Allen, 1986)
• La Rayon Vert (Rohmer, 1986)
• Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
• Something Wild (Demme, 1986)
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Hughes, 1986)
• Raising Arizona (Coen, 1987)
• Withnail & I (Robinson, 1987)
• Wings of Desire (Wenders, 1987)
• Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Hughes, 1987)
• Beetlejuice (Burton, 1988)
• Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988)
• Say Anything… (Crowe, 1989)
• Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Cameron, 1991)

• Barton Fink (Coen, 1991) A neurotic John Turturro and a blow-hard John Goodman meet in a hotel as Turturro’s eponymous screenwriter struggles to script a wrestling picture. Biblical drama ensues. The Coen Brothers’ second best film and, in Fink, their most timelessly-appealing protagonist.
• Beauty & The Beast (Trousdale/Wise, 1991)
• The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
• Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)
• Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley, 1992)
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Lynch, 1992)
• Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (Selick, 1993)
• True Romance (Scott, 1993)
• Six Degrees of Separation (Schepisi, 1993)
• Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993)
• Dazed & Confused (Linklater, 1993)
• Forrest Gump (Zemeckis, 1994)
• The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)
• The Hudsucker Proxy (Coen, 1994)
• Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
• The Santa Clause (Pasquin, 1994)
• Dumb & Dumber (Farrelly, 1994)
• Reality Bites (Stiller, 1994)
• Speed (de Bont, 1994)
• Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)

• Se7en (Fincher, 1995) Serial killer dramas are rarely this unforgettable. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman hunt the sadistic John Doe across an unnamed rainswept city. A stunningly cold film, building towards a heated desert-set finale.
• Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995)
• Billy Madison (Davis, 1995)
• La Haine (Kasovitz, 1995)
• Heat (Mann, 1995)
• Fargo (Coen, 1996)
• The Cable Guy (Stiller, 1996)
• Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996)
• Happy Gilmore (Dugan, 1996)

• Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996) Danny Boyle’s trip through Edinburgh youth culture and substance abuse is a riveting and riotous piece of British cinema. The timeless appeal of its antiheroes even produced an overdue sequel in 2017.
• Bottle Rocket (Anderson, 1996)
• Mother & Son (Sokurov, 1997)
• Face/Off (Woo, 1997)
• Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami, 1997)
• A Simple Wish (Ritchie, 1997)
• The Truman Show (Weir, 1998)
• The Big Lebowski (Coen, 1998)
• Rushmore (Anderson, 1998)
• The Thin Red Line (Malick, 1998)
• The Matrix (Wachowski, 1999)
• The Iron Giant (Bird, 1999)
• Big Daddy (Dugan, 1999)
• Toy Story 2 (Lassester, 1999)
• The Green Mile (Darabont, 1999)

• American Beauty (Mendes, 1999) Sam Mendes rips away the walls of a suburban home and reveals the dark secrets within. Kevin Spacey leads an extraordinary cast, while Thomas Newman’s career-best score provides the heartbreaking soul of this exceptional modern classic.
• Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
• Being John Malkovich (Jonze, 1999)
• Bringing Out The Dead (Scorsese, 1999)
• Magnolia (Anderson, 1999)
• Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (Lucas, 1999)
• The Wind Will Carry Us (Kiarostami, 1999)

• Thomas and the Magic Railroad (Allcroft, 2000) The first film I saw in a cinema (consciously), Railroad is a charming mashup of Thomas the Tank Engine and the US series Shining Time. The first of several Alec Baldwin-starring family films on this list.
• Almost Famous (Crowe, 2000)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen, 2000)
• Memento (Nolan, 2000)
• American Psycho (Harron, 2000)
• Shrek (Adamson/Jenson, 2001)
• Ghost World (Zwigoff, 2001)

• The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001) Anderson cemented his reputation as one of America’s most distinct filmmakers with this dysfunctional family comedy/drama, full of iconic characters and cinema’s greatest falcon.
• The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen, 2001)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Columbus, 2001)
• Ocean’s 11 (Soderbergh, 2001)
• Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, 2001)
• Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) Peter Jackson’s first Middle Earth epic is to date his best. Gandalf, Frodo and their fellow travellers are introduced, run from Ringwraiths and battle a Balrog. A historic blockbuster effort.
• Star Wars Episode II : Attack of the Clones (Lucas, 2002)
• Mr. Deeds (Brill, 2002)
• Insomnia (Nolan, 2002)
• Adaptation (Jonze, 2002)
• Spider-Man (Raimi, 2002)
• Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
• About Schmidt (Payne, 2002)
• Russkiy kovcheg (Sokurov, 2002)
• Big Fat Liar (Levy, 2002)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Columbus, 2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Jackson, 2002)
• X2 (Singer, 2003)
• Finding Nemo (Stanton/Unkrich, 2003)
• School of Rock (Linklater, 2003)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Verbinski, 2003)
• Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
• Elf (Favreau, 2003)

• The Cat in the Hat (Welch, 2003) The universal hatred towards this smart, electric and visually ingenious has baffled us for over a decade. Bo Welch’s Dr. Seuss adaptation is marvellous family comedy, with Mike Myers at his very best as the titular Cat.
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Dante, 2003)
• Anger Management (Segal, 2003)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Jackson, 2003)
• Napoleon Dynamite (Hess, 2004)
• Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)
• Shrek 2 (Adamson/Asbury, 2004)

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Cuarón, 2004) Cuarón’s third entry into the fantastic fantasy franchise is the series’ aesthetic highlight, with a tonal shift from Chris Columbus’ two instalments that nobody saw coming. This established a dark Wizarding World that future directors Mike Newell and David Yates built on brilliantly.
• The Terminal (Spielberg, 2004)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (McKay, 2004)
• Spider-Man 2 (Raimi, 2004)
• Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)
• The Polar Express (Zemeckis, 2004)
• National Treasure (Turteltaub, 2004)
• The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (Hillenburg/Osborne, 2004)

• The Incredibles (Bird, 2004) Brad Bird is the smartest man in modern blockbuster filmmaking, and his originally-conceptualised superhero adventure paved the way for a generation of (deeply inferior) comic-book movies. From fashion designer Edna Mode to uniquely-named villain Syndrome, the richness of The Incredibles‘ cleverness knows no limits.

• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Silberling, 2004) An expressionist visual palette, a soul-wrenching Thomas Newman score and an Oscar-worthy chameleonic performance from Jim Carrey contribute to Unfortunate‘s place as one of the greatest family films in history.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
• Hellboy (del Toro, 2004)
• The Village (Shyamalan, 2004)
• 50 First Dates (Segal, 2004)
• Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (Leiner, 2004)
• Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005)
• War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Newell, 2005)
• King Kong (Jackson, 2005)
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Lucas, 2005)
• Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (Burton, 2005)
• The Da Vinci Code (Howard, 2006)
• Click (Coraci, 2006)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Verbinski, 2006)
• Once (Carney, 2006)
• Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006)
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Charles, 2006)
• The Departed (Scorsese, 2006)
• El laberinto del fauno (Del Toro, 2006)

• The Prestige (Nolan, 2006) Christopher Nolan’s period drama is a magic trick of a film, establishing the story of two feuding illusionists before pulling the rug from beneath the audience’s feet. A stellar closing curtain for the age of ‘big twist’ cinema.
• United 93 (Greengrass, 2006)
• Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007)
• Bridge to Terabithia (Csupó, 2007)
• Spider-Man 3 (Raimi, 2007)
• Knocked Up (Apatow, 2007)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Yates, 2007)
• The Simpsons Movie (Silverman, 2007)
• Shrek The Third (Miller/Hui, 2007)
• Ratatouille (Bird, 2007)
• Juno (Reitman, 2007)
• Reign Over Me (Bender, 2007)
• Stardust (Vaughn, 2007)
• The Darjeeling Limited (Anderson, 2007)
• Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (Helm, 2007)
• Enchanted (Lima, 2007)

• National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Turteltaub, 2007) What Turteltaub’s two Treasure movies lack in originality, they more than compensate for in utter unbelievable entertainment value. Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha and Diane Kruger delve into history to solve conspiracies, with a marvellous supporting cast, and action set-pieces that would make Hitchcock himself proud. We’re still waiting for that third instalment…
• There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007)
• No Country For Old Men (Coen, 2007)
• Religulous (Charles, 2008)
• Step Brothers (McKay, 2008)
• Cloverfield (Reeves, 2008)
• Be Kind Rewind (Gondry, 2008)

• Wall.E (Stanton, 2008) Wall.E is a sweet, charming animated feature. It’s also perhaps the greatest Hollywood depiction of loneliness and isolation, and a terrifying (oft-referenced) omen of technological progress in the decade to follow.

• The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) The Dark Knight is one of the great modern city movies. Batman and The Joker (Christian Bale and Heath Ledger) play cat and mouse across Gotham’s disintegrating infrastructure. This is Heat for the Bush era, the template for all blockbusters since, and features in Ledger’s joker the defining performance of the 21st century.
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Del Toro, 2008)
• Mamma Mia! (Lloyd, 2008)
• Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle, 2008)
• Frost/Nixon (Howard, 2008)
• In Bruges (McDonagh, 2008)
• High School Musical: Senior Year (Ortega, 2008)
• Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (Hurwitz/Schlossberg, 2008)
• Twilight (Hardwicke, 2008)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher, 2008)
• Star Trek (Abrams, 2009)
• Fish Tank (Arnold, 2009)
• A Christmas Carol (Zemeckis, 2009)
• Angels & Demons (Howard, 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Yates, 2009)

• Funny People (Apatow, 2009) Writer/director Apatow and stars Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen are all at their very best in this thoughtful, poignant comedy-drama: a surprisingly dark meditation on middle-age and illness, with delightful sprinkles of Sandlerian silliness.
• Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino, 2009)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson, 2009)
• 2012 (Emmerich, 2009)
• Coraline (Selick, 2009)
• Watchmen (Snyder, 2009)
• Up (Docter, 2009)

• A Serious Man (Coen, 2009) The Coen Brothers have created many classics, but this is their masterpiece. An extraordinarily sad 1960s retelling of The Book of Job, A Serious Man gives Michael Stuhlbarg the role of a career as it explores the place of Judaism in American society. Weird and wickedly wonderful.
• Iron Man 2 (Favreau, 2010)
• Toy Story 3 (Unkrich, 2010)
• Blue Valentine (Cianfrance, 2010)
• Easy A (Gluck, 2010)
• The Social Network (Fincher, 2010)
• Megamind (McGrath, 2010)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Yates, 2010)
• Somewhere (Coppola, 2010)

• Inception (Nolan, 2010) The most breathtaking sci-fi of the 21st century, Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece succeeds with a combination of conceptual brilliance, superb acting and masterful storytelling. Is this a dream?
• Rango (Verbinski, 2011)
• Le Havre (Kaurismäki, 2011)
• Shame (McQueen, 2011)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Bowers, 2011)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Yates, 2011)
• The Descendants (Payne, 2011)

• The Help (Taylor, 2011) Some days you just want to sit and watch The Help. The best actresses of our time — Stone, Spencer, Davis, Spacek, Janney, Chastain — a Thomas Newman score and a deeply cliched but immensely moving story of racism in the south; it’s hard to defend one’s love of The Help other than to say “I love The Help”.

• Hugo (Scorsese, 2011) Martin Scorsese was born to make a children’s film, and with Hugo he delivered the most singular vision of his career, a warm love letter to Paris, trains and the magic of the movies.
• In Time (Niccol, 2011)
• The Muppets (Bobin, 2011)
• Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Condon, 2011)
• Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (Bird, 2011)
• The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)

• Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012) This pre-teen romantic adventure is one of Wes Anderson’s most emotionally-affecting works; a sweet and uncomplicated tale of childhood curiosity, but with Anderson’s typically-astounding visual palette as a plus.
• Ted (MacFarlane, 2012)
• Kid-Thing (Zellner, 2012)
• Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012)
• Silence (Collins, 2012)
• The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012)
• Skyfall (Mendes, 2012)
• Looper (Johnson, 2012)
• Les Misérables (Hooper, 2012)
• Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012)
• Blue Jasmine (Allen, 2013)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lawrence, 2013)
• Joe (Green, 2013)
• The Spectacular Now (Ponsoldt, 2013)
• Before Midnight (Linklater, 2013)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen, 2013)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson, 2014)
• The Fault in Our Stars (Boone, 2014)

• Whiplash (Chazelle, 2014) Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning drama is a stunning two-hander between Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons as drum prodigy Andrew and his bullish teacher Fletcher. Both actors are stupendous, while Chazelle’s use of flashy editing and uproarious jazz arrangements make for a breath-halting experience.
• Edge of Tomorrow (Liman, 2014)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Reeves, 2014)
• Muppets Most Wanted (Bobin, 2014)
• Birdman (Iñárritu, 2014)
• Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014)
• Frank (Abrahamson, 2014)

• Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) Christopher Nolan’s Steinbeck/Tarkovsky/Kubrick-riffing outer-space mood poem may be half-an-hour too long (and contain 100% too much Matt Damon), but it’s a knockout of emotional strength; a beautifully-crafted father-daughter relationship at its heart.

• Boyhood (Linklater, 2014) While I was growing up, Richard Linklater was making a movie about the experience of childhood during those years. Boyhood is an almost surreal viewing experience from my perspective, but it’s also one of the most astonishing American filmmaking accomplishments, and an utterly joyful depiction of ordinary lives through a lens of innocence.
• The Judge (Dobkin, 2014)
• Kingsman: The Secret Service (Vaughn, 2015)
• Time Out of Mind (Moverman, 2015)
• Steve Jobs (Boyle, 2015)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams, 2015)
• Me & Earl & The Dying Girl (Gomez-Rejon, 2015)
• Room (Abrahamson, 2015)
• The Revenant (Iñárritu, 2015)
• Bridge of Spies (Spielberg, 2015)

• Inside Out (Docter/Del Carmen, 2015) Pixar’s most recent masterpiece, Inside Out is a psychology (and philosophy) lesson for kids, as we explore the complex world of a child’s mind through colourful, personified “emotions” and a wonderland of thought. Never has the human brain been so fascinating.
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Schaffer/Taccone, 2016)
• I, Daniel Blake (Loach, 2016)
• Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016)
• Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)

• La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) Just three years after Whiplash, Damien Chazelle further cemented his reputation as Hollywood’s hottest young director with this enchanting musical romance. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are a lively and loveable pair, while Justin Hurwitz’s original songs are joyful beyond comparison.
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Edwards, 2016)
• Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016)
• The Boss Baby (McGrath, 2017)
• Dunkirk (Nolan, 2017)
• Atomic Blonde (Leitch, 2017)
• Lucky (Carroll Lynch, 2017)
• Columbus (Kogonada, 2017)

• Call Me By Your Name (Guadagnino, 2017) Luca Guadagnino’s film is a spellbinding, heartbreaking depiction of love and the pain it causes, led by the radiant Timothée Chalamet and the biblically beautiful Armie Hammer. A vivid depiction of an underrepresented kind of romance.
• The Florida Project (Baker, 2017)
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (McDonagh, 2017)
• Lady Bird (Gerwig, 2017)
• Incredibles 2 (Bird, 2018)
• Mission: Impossible — Fallout (McQuarrie, 2018)
• Widows (McQueen, 2018)
• The Old Man & The Gun (Lowery, 2018)
• Mary Poppins Returns (Marshall, 2018)

Top Directors

1. Alfred Hitchcock 16 films

2. Vincent Minnelli 12 films

3. Joel & Ethan Coen 11 films

4. Steven Spielberg 9 films Christopher Nolan 9 films

5. Wes Anderson 7 films

6 films: Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Richard Linklater, Martin Scorsese, Preston Sturges

5 films: Stanley Donen, David Fincher, Robert Stevenson, Francis Ford Coppola, John Ford, Brad Bird

4 films: David Yates, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson, David Lynch, Francois Truffaut

3 films: Stanley Kubrick, Ron Howard, Sam Raimi, Steven Soderbergh, Gore Verbinski, Guillermo Del Toro, Danny Boyle, Paul Thomas Anderson, Terence Malick, Sidney Lumet