TSPDT - The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films

The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Home

Current Version: January 2010

21st Century Home Summary: The 250 Films The Top 50 Directors Browse by Ranking: 1-50 51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 Previous Titles

The most critically acclaimed film of 2009: "The Hurt Locker"

Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" was (according to our calculations) the most acclaimed film of 2009.

● Brief Overview

° The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films section has undergone its annual renovation, and now incorporates many of 2009's end-of-year critic's lists, and best-of-decade lists.

° The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films section serves as an ongoing companion to our listing of the 1,000 Greatest Films of all time. The 1,000 Greatest Films list, by nature of the sources used and formulas applied - and we believe quite rightly so - leans towards films that have so far stood the so-called ‘test of time'. The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films listing therefore attempts to highlight and honour this century's most critically revered films and act as a sort of 'resting bay' for many great films that will, no doubt, eventually find a spot within the 1,000 Greatest Films part of our website.

° Based on our numbers, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker was 2009's most critically acclaimed film, followed by Oliver Assayas's Summer Hours and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. A total of 34 films came and went which equates, approximately, to a 14% change in the list.

° Close, but no cigar... Some recent films that just missed the cut include 24 City (Jia Zhangke), Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo), The Class (Laurent Cantet), Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood), and District 9 (Neill Blomkamp).

° This is our fifth 21st Century listing, and it once again encompasses 250 films. It is primarily based on critics' year-end lists (from 2000 to 2009), plus it also takes into account mentions given to any films from 2000 onwards that show up in critics' all-time-best-of lists (that are also used for the compilation of our 1,000 Greatest Films list). Additionally this year, it also incorporates many best-of-the-decade lists.

° Please note that 21st Century films that appear in all-time lists (and best-of-decade lists) as opposed to end-of-year-lists are weighted much higher within our formulas.

° We will continue to update this 21st Century listing on an annual basis. The next update will be in January 2011 and will, of course, incorporate 2010's most acclaimed films, and so on and so forth.

° The following six films, made prior to 2000, garnered enough points to make our 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films listing (mainly thanks to many of the 2000 end-of-year lists). However, they have been excluded due to the fact they weren't made this century. They are: Beau travail (Claire Denis; 1998), The Wind Wll Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami; 1999), Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay; 1999), Army in the Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville; 1969), L'Humanite (Bruno Dumont; 1999), and Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett; 1977).

° TSPDT's own recommendations for this century can be found here.

° Note ► Strictly speaking, the 21st Century began on January 1, 2001. Our list, however, also includes films from 2000, and always will!

● Some 21st Century List Numbers

Breakdown by Year

2000 = 34

2001 = 27

2002 = 30

2003 = 27

2004 = 31

2005 = 19

2006 = 28

2007 = 20

2008 = 23

2009 = 11

Breakdown by Country (first listed in credits)

103 = USA

35 = France

25 = United Kingdom

15 = Germany

7 = Japan

6 = Hong Kong

5 = Spain

4 = China, Iran, Romania, Sweden

3 = Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Taiwan

2 = Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, Turkey

1 = Brazil, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Senegal

Breakdown by Continent

North America = 109

Europe = 106

Asia = 31

South America = 3

Africa = 1

Directors with 3-plus films

5 = Gus Van Sant

4 = Joel & Ethan Coen, Clint Eastwood, Michael Haneke, Peter Jackson, Jia Zhangke

3 = Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Tsai Ming-Liang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

See: The Top 50 Directors

● End-of-Decade Lists

Many of the lists below contributed to the composition of our 21st Century list. Some arrived too late to be included in the current edition's number-crunching, but will be applied to the 2011 edition.

● Ain't it Cool News Mr. Beaks presents his top 100 films of the decade!

● Jeffrey M. Anderson (Combustible Celluloid) The decade in review.

● At the Movies (Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott) Best of the decade top 10.

● Michael Atkinson (Zero for Conduct) The top 50 films of the decade.

● The A.V. Club The best films of the '00s. Plus, almost the best films of the '00s: orphans and personal favorites.

● James Berardinelli (Reel Views) Closing out the decade with another top 10.

● Bloody Disgusting 00's retrospect: Bloody Disgusting's top 20 films of the decade.

● Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) The top 10 key films of the noughties.

● Richard Brody (The New Yorker) Best of the decade.

● Ty Burr (Boston Globe) Top films of the decade.

● The Canadian Press Memento, Mulholland Drive among Canadian Press film favourites of 2000s.

● Channel 4 Film Top 50 best films of the decade.

● Cinema Tropical Poll Lucrecia Martel's 'La Ciénaga' elected best Latin-American movie of the decade.

● Chicago Tribune AP critics David Germain and Christy Lemire pick favorite films of the decade.

● Columbus Alive Decade in review: top 100 movies.

● Complex Lucrecia Martel's 'La Ciénaga' elected best Latin-American movie of the decade.

● David Denby (The New Yorker) The best films of the decade.

● Mike D'Angelo (Listen Eggroll) My top 101 films of the decade. Plus, the Skandies decade recap.

● dGenerate Films The best Chinese-language films of the 2000s.

● Dublin Film Critics Circle Adam & Paul and Hunger are Irish films of the decade for Dublin critics.

● Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) The best films of the decade.

● Entertainment Weekly The 10 best of the decade.

● Fantastic Voyages The 100 films of the decade

● Film Comment David Lynch, P.T. Anderson, David Cronenberg, Wong Kar Wai top Film Comment's 150 best films of the decade.

● Flicks The top 50 films of the decade.

● Filmmaker The 25 best American independent films of the decade.

● Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly) 10 best movies of the decade.

● The Guardian 100 best films of the noughties.

● Kirk Honeycutt (Hollywood Reporter) Top 10 movies of the decade.

● indieWIRE Best of the decade critics survey 2000s.

● The Irish Times There will be rows: Donald Clarke’s top 20 films.

● Glenn Kenny (Some Came Running) My seventy greatest films of the decade.

● Let Mot du Cinephiliaque (Blog) Les meilleurs films de la dernière décennie top 100 2000-2009.

● Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle) Top films of the decade.

● Metacritic The best (and worst) movies of the decade.

● Shawn Levy (The Oregonian) The best of the naughts: top films of the decade.

● Wesley Morris (Boston Globe) Top films of the decade.

● NOW Magazine (Toronto) Top 10 films.

● Paste Magazine The 50 best movies of the decade.

● Paste Magazine The 25 best documentaries of the decade.

● Popdose The best 100 movies of the decade.

● Reverse Shot Best of the decade.

● SciFi Squad The best science fiction films of the decade.

● Richard Roeper & the Movies The 100 best movies of the decade.

● A.O Scott (New York Times) Movies of Influence and Movies of Quality.

● Sight & Sound 30 key films of the decade. Intro here.

● The Sunday Times (Times Online) The best films of the decade.

● Slate The Aught-omatic: An interactive guide to all the "best movies of the decade" lists.

● The Telegraph The 100 films that defined the noughties.

● Time Out London 101 films of the decade.

● Time Out New York Top 50 movies of the decade.

● Times Online The 100 best films of the decade.

● Toronto International Film Festival Cinematheque Thai film tops TIFF list of decade's best.

● Total Film Our top ten films of the decade.

● Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) Peter Travers' 10 best movies of the decade.

● Village Voice Film Poll Best of decade.

● I Check Movies

I Check Movies is a nifty website that helps you to manage your viewing experiences, particularly in relation to the 1,000 Greatest Films listing. "Sign up, create your profile, watch lots of movies, and brag about it." Recommended. I Check Movies have also incorporated TSPDT's Noir and 21st Century lists into their website.

21st Century Home Summary: The 250 Films The Top 50 Directors Browse by Ranking: 1-50 51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 Previous Titles