Top Ten Best Movies by Year (2000-2013)

More lists for each year will be uploaded soon.

2013 
1. Her | Spike Jonze
2. Frances Ha | Noah Baumbach
3. Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite
4. 12 Years a Slave | Steve McQueen
5. The Spectacular Now | James Ponsoldt
6. August: Osage County | John Wells
7. Gravity | Alfonso Cuaron
8. Upstream Color | Shane Carruth
9. The Hunt | Thomas Vinterberg
10. Mud | Jeff Nichols

2012
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild | Benh Zeitlin
2. Lore | Cate Shortland
3. Life of Pi | Ang Lee
4. Les Miserables | Tom Hooper
5. Cloud Atlas | Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
6. The Master | Paul Thomas Anderson
7. The Impossible | J.A. Bayona
8. Wreck-It Ralph | Rich Moore
9. Django Unchained | Quentin Tarantino
10. Zero Dark Thirty | Kathryn Bigelow

2011
1. The Artist | Michel Hazanavicius
2. A Separation | Asghar Farhadi
3. Weekend | Andrew Haigh
4. Poetry | Chang-don Lee
5. Moneyball | Bennett Miller
6. A Letter to Momo | Hiroyuki Okiura
7. The Kid with a Bike | Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin | Lynne Ramsay
9. Drive | Nicolas Winding Refn
10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | David Fincher

2010
1. The King's Speech | Tom Hooper
2. Inception | Christopher Nolan
3. Animal Kingdom | David Michod
4. Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold
5. Under the Hawthorn Tree | Yimou Zhang
6. Toy Story 3 | Lee Unkrich
7. Black Swan | Darren Aronofsky
8. Winter's Bone | Debra Granik
9. Rabbit Hole | John Cameron Mitchell
10. Heartbeats | Xavier Dolan

2009
1. A Single Man | Tom Ford
2. The Hurt Locker | Kathryn Bigelow
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo | Niels Arden Oplev
4. Coraline | Christian Alvart
5. The Cove | Louis Psihoyos
6. The White Ribbon | Michael Haneke
7. An Education | Lone Scherfig
8. 500 Days of Summer | Marc Webb
9. Whip It | Drew Barrymore
10. Inglourious Basterds | Quentin Tarantino

2008
1. WALL-E | Andrew Stanton
2. Slumdog Millionaire | Danny Boyle
3. Red Cliff | John Woo
4. Doubt | John Patrick Shanley
5. Gran Torino | Clint Eastwood
6. In Bruges | Martin McDonagh
7. Milk | Gus Van Sant
8. Let the Right One In | Tomas Alfredson
9. The Reader | Stephen Daldry
10. Ponyo | Hayao Miyazaki

2007
1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | Julian Schnabel
2. Atonement | Joe Wright
3. Lust, Caution | Ang Lee
4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Tim Burton
5. There Will Be Blood | Paul Thomas Anderson
6. No Country For Old Men | Ethan and Joel Cohen
7. La Vie en Rose | Olivier Dahan
8. Ratatouille | Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
9. 3:10 to Yuma | James Mangold
10. Sicko | Michael Moore

2006
1. Babel | Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
2. Pan's Labyrinth | Guillermo del Toro
3. The Lives of Others | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
4. The Departed | Martin Scorsese
5. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time | Mamoru Hosoda
6. Little Miss Sunshine | Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
7. An Inconvenient Truth | Davis Guggenheim
8. Curse of the Golden Flower | Yimou Zhang
9. Borat | Larry Charles
10. No Regret | Hee-il Leesong

2005
1. Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee
2. Memoirs of a Geisha | Rob Marshall
3. Pride and Prejudice | Joe Wright
4. Howl's Moving Castle | Hayao Miyazaki
5. The Constant Gardener | Fernando Meirelles
6. The Proposition | John Hillcoat
7. Crash | Paul Haggis
8. Transamerica | Duncan Tucker
9. V for Vendetta | James McTeigue
10. North Country | Niki Caro

2004
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Michel Gondry
2. Downfall | Oliver Hirschbiegel
3. A Very Long Engagement | Jean-Pierre Jeunet
4. 2046 | Kar Wai Wong
5. Hotel Rwanda | Terry George
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Alfonso Cuaron
7. Kill Bill Volume 2 | Quentin Tarantino
8. Mean Girls | Mark Waters
9. The Incredibles | Brad Bird
10. Sideways | Alexander Payne

2003
1. Lost in Translation | Sofia Coppola
2. Master and Commander: Far Side of the World | Peter Weir
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Peter Jackson
4. Oldboy | Park Chan-Wook
5. The Triplet's of Belleville | Sylvain Chomet
6. The Station Agent | Thomas McCarthy
7. Kill Bill Volume 1 | Quentin Tarantino
8. Finding Nemo | Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
9. Big Fish | Tim Burton
10. Monster | Patty Jenkins

2002
1. Chicago | Rob Marshall
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Peter Jackson
3. Road to Perdition | Sam Mendes
4. Hero | Yimou Zhang
5. City of God | Fernando Meirelles
6. Dark Water | Hideo Nakata
7. Far From Heaven | Todd Haynes
8. The Pianist | Roman Polanski
9. The Hours | Stephen Daldry
10. 28 Days Later | Danny Boyle

2001
1. Millennium Actress | Satoshi Kon
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Peter Jackson
3. Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki
4. In the Mood for Love | Kar Wong Wai
5. Y Tu Mama Tambien | Alfonso Cuaron
6. Mulholland Drive | David Lynch
7. Amelie | Jean-Pierre Jeunet
8. Bridget Jones's Diary | Sharon Maguire
9. Donnie Darko | Richard Kelly
10. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Chris Colombus

2000
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Ang Lee
2. Gladiator | Ridley Scott
3. Billy Elliot | Stephen Daldry
4. Requiem for a Dream | Darren Aronofsky
5. Memento | Christopher Nolan
6. Traffic | Steven Soderbergh
7. Almost Famous | Cameron Crowe
8. Chicken Run | Peter Lord, Nick Park
9. Cast Away | Robert Zemeckis
10. Erin Brockovich | Steven Soderbergh


The weird thing about making these lists is that some years are far better than others. The years 2001, 2002 and 2003 produced a number of 5 Star masterpieces, whereas the years 2006, 2009 and 2010 were not as impressive for me. I have plenty more films to watch, so these lists are far from 'definitive.' I'd appreciate any recommendations in the comments. All I really want is to discover great cinema.

Thanks for reading!