1 - No Country for Old Men - An adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel, following a hunter (Josh Brolin), who discovers dead bodies, a stash of heroin and $2 million in cash on the Rio Grande. Brilliant. -Andrew Hedley

2 - There Will be Blood - P.T. Anderson's instant classic was at once a sprawling epic and a tightly focused character study. This was cinema used to its full potential. -Andrew Hedley

3 - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - The great thing about Peter Jackson's films was that they made Mr Tolkien's work accessible to your average Kiwi while nary a complaint was heard from the usually obsessive fan boys. -James Croot

4 - Oldboy - Adapted from a Japanese manga, it was a twisted tale of revenge that kept you enthralled from the first frame to the last. -Dan Rutledge

5 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - A couple undergo a scientific procedure to erase their memories of each other after things turn sour – to explore the tentative joy of a new relationship. –Andrew Hedley

6 - City of God - The film shone a spotlight on the hardships of being born into poverty and hammered home this brutality again and again with the perils of drugs, gun-toting pre-teens and other hideous forms of violence. -Dan Rutledge

7 - Donnie Darko - It told the mind-bending story of the titular teenager who is plagued by blackouts and bizarre visions that may involve time travel. -Dominic Corry

8 - Lost in Translation - Director Sofia Coppola beautifully homed in on the irony of loneliness in the city, of finding salvation with a stranger, no matter their life story. -Rebecca Barry

9 - The Dark Knight - Superhero movies have grown up dramatically over the decade and The Dark Knight is already, rightly, regarded as one of the best ever made. -Dan Rutledge

10 - Children of Men - Clive Owen was the reluctant protagonist in a grim near-future where no children have been born for many years. -Dominic Corry

11 - Adaptation - A troubled screenwriter writing an adaptation written by a troubled screenwriter writing an adaptation. -Rebecca Barry

12 - Zodiac - Despite its title, David Fincher's film was less about the San Francisco-based killer and more about those trying to stop him. -James Croot

13 - Let the Right One In - A strange mix of romance and beauty, blood and death, this very European vampire tale warmed your heart in places and shocked you with its horror in others. -Dan Rutledge

14 - The Lives of Others - Reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola's 1970s classic The Conversation, Others mixed fascinating procedure with superbly subtle but gripping human drama and a dash of paranoid, political thriller. -James Croot

15 - O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Using cutting edge technology, they bathed the American South in such stunning autumnal yellows that their technique was quickly mimicked by many of the coming decade's masterpieces. - Daniel McClelland

16 - Mulholland Dr. - After the pleasant, heart-warming diversion that was 1999's The Straight Story, David Lynch, weaver of the alluring nightmare, unveiled his most disconcerting film yet in 2001. -Dominic Corry

17 - Moulin Rouge! - Director Baz Luhrmann married high-melodrama, lavish set design and costumes to fabulous renditions of 1970s and '80s staples from the likes of Queen, Elton John and The Police. -James Croot

18 - Pan's Labyrinth - In 1944, Spain was in the midst of a World War and a guerilla-led rebellion against its dictator. While these many horrors go on around her, a young girl is drawn into a more mystical landscape. -Daniel McClelland

19 - The Royal Tenenbaums - If Wes Anderson's earlier films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore) didn't do it, Tenenbaums – the storybook-like tale of a family yearning for past glories – heralded the arrival of an original voice in film comedy. -Paul Scantlebury

20 - WALL-E - Teeming with detail, visually dazzling, and conceptually audacious with little dialogue, this original science-fiction tale served as a warning to mankind. -Andrew Hedley

21 - Inglourious Basterds - Set in an alternate World War II, it chronicled the ultimate Jewish revenge on the Third Reich, partly through the medium of film itself. -Dan Rutledge

22 - Battle Royale - Only the unflinching insanity of Japanese cinema could produce something that sounded so wrong, but played so right. -Dominic Corry

23 - Spirited Away -Miyazaki peppered his story of gods, ghosts and humans with a few morals: gluttony is dangerous, hard work reaps rewards and respect for your elders will get you far. -Daniel McClelland

24 - Apocalypto - Mel's noble quest for authenticity saw Apocalypto spoken in the ancient Maya language and starred a cast of unknown Mexican & Native American actors. -Andrew Hedley

25 - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Brad Pitt, at his laconic and charismatic best, produced 160 minutes of his finest work, while Casey Affleck shone in the true anti-hero role. -James Croot

26 - Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee's film about the tortured relationship between two closeted sheep-herders was simply a beautifully-constructed, devastatingly affecting love story in the most classic sense. -Dominic Corry

27 - Irreversible - It is precisely this manipulation of the audience rather than actors or characters that made Irreversible such a triumph of style and extremely riveting. A provocative and powerful piece of cinema. -James Croot

28 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Ang Lee brought with him a big budget and an elegance that Wu Xia kung fu films had not previously been blessed with. -Dan Rutledge

29 - A History of Violence - David Cronenberg's searing thriller, about a small-town family man who may or may not be hiding from a criminal past, built up the tension with such excruciating precision, it was almost unbearable. -Dominic Corry

30 - Amelie - Despite enough sweetness to rot your teeth and come with an insulin warning, this slice of French whimsy became a worldwide hit and deservedly so. -James Croot

31 - The Incredibles - Pixar's stylish 2004 blockbuster was their first film to feature human characters as its focus, and marked a turning point in the maturity of the stories they were telling. -Dominic Corry

32 - Shaun of the Dead - Simon Pegg's deadpan take on the George Romero classic of a similar name spoke volumes about his British countrymen. -Rebecca Barry

33 - The Science of Sleep - After his brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, French 'cinemagician' Michel Gondry decided to write his own script, based on personal experiences. -Andrew Hedley

34 - District 9 - The genius of Neill Blomkamp's debut feature (which Peter Jackson helped shepherd into existence) is that the thinking behind it wasn't revolutionary. -Dominic Corry

35 - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Shot in that cold, clinical documentary style that European filmmakers always do best, it was a horrifying story of an illegal abortion performed in 1987 during Romania's brutal communist dictatorship. -Dan Rutledge

36 - Memento - The film that everyone was talking about in 2000 and one that had a profound influence on the structure of so many thrillers since. -James Croot

37 - Little Miss Sunshine - This indie classic had a heart of gold and a skin more scaly and dysfunctional than your own brood. -Rebecca Barry

38 - The Pianist - This film marked one of the first times we heard that cool sound effect when there’s an explosion and the character hears the resulting ringing in his ears throughout the next scene. -Andrew Hedley

39 - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - This art-house drama followed the true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), who suffered a paralysing stroke at the age of 43 and blinked out his memoir with his eye. -Andrew Hedley

40 - Grizzly Man - Well known for capturing human obsession at its most extreme in both dramas and documentaries, Werner Herzog found a perfect example in the reformed alcoholic, paranoid, child-like Timothy Treadwell. -James Croot

41 - The Squid and the Whale - Jeff Daniels plays the fallible patriarch of a fractured New York family including Jesse Eisenberg and Laura Linney, and all three put in amazing performances. -Dominic Corry

42 - Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Part one of a two part, 247 minute homage to kung fu and samurai movies, Kill Bill was the story of one woman's bloody quest for revenge told, like most Tarantino films, in titled chapters and non-chronological order. -Dan Rutledge

43 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - From the the stop-frame animated underwater creatures, to the wonderful deadpan gags, to the Seu Jorge/David Bowie soundtrack, there were plenty of stylistic strokes of genius to enjoy here. -Paul Scantlebury

44 - The Descent - Caving was already a freaky pastime, what with all that darkness, claustrophobia and eye-level spiders, before a team of female spelunkers decided to explore a stretch of uncharted Appalachian tunnels. -Rebecca Barry

45 - Pineapple Express - This hilarious action-comedy from the Apatow factory is an unashamed pothead movie filled with dope jokes and side-splitting dialogue. -Dan Rutledge

46 - Requiem for a Dream - The word 'powerful' is used to describe films far too often, but truly deserving of it was this masterpiece from filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler). -Dan Rutledge

47 - Sunshine - A team of scientists encounter problems while on a space-bound mission to restart the sun with a nuclear bomb – and injected it with levels of thoughtfulness most examples of the genre sorely lack. -Dominic Corry

48 - Whale Rider - Before Keisha Castle-Hughes took her clothes off for that angel movie she was cute enough to eat as a heartbroken Maori girl who just wants granddad to love her. -Rebecca Barry

49 - The Bourne Ultimatum - Rather than over-egging the pudding or looking like it had run out of steam, 2007's Ultimatum was the culmination of all that had gone before. -James Croot

50 - Napoleon Dynamite - Whatever it was about Jon Heder's portrayal of the uncoolest kid in school, it brought serious new competition to the canon of nerd cinema. -Rebecca Barry