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. The result was 100 minutes of compelling cinema, as Grizzly wove heartbreak, horror and plenty of humour (some of it possibly unintentional - the local coroner's two-cents worth had to be seen to be believed), into a fascinating story of a man who seemed to act as if "he was working with people in bear costumes, rather than wild animals". -James Croot

• MORE / TRAILER

This French art-house drama followed the true story of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), who, after suffering a paralyzing stroke at the age of 43 , blinked out his memoir with his left eye. Sounds like an excruciatingly painful watch, doesn’t it? But it couldn’t be further from the truth with this personal, unsentimental, and sensory experience. Beautifully shot in a fragmented, dream-like way to highlight inner psychological nightmares and imaginations, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly proved to be an immersive, life-affirming work of art. -Andrew Hedley

• MORE / TRAILER

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. Great idea! Exiled director Roman Polanski’s brilliant true account of a Polish Jewish musician struggling to survive in World War II Warsaw saw Adrian Brody get rid of his apartment, sell his car, ditch his television, and lose 14kg in preparation for his role as Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman. Still, his self-inflicted torture allowed him to snog Halle Berry whilst picking up an Oscar - Brody was the youngest ever winner of a Best Actor award at twenty-nine. -Andrew Hedley

• MORE / TRAILER

This indie classic had a heart of gold and a skin more scaly and dysfunctional than your own brood. Just about every character in this tale about a wannabe pageant princess has a prominent flaw that only makes them more endearing, particularly Alan Arkin as the heroin-snorting granddad and Toni Collette as the over-worked mother. Bursting with slapstick and a dark, subversive humour, it was part messed-up road trip, part satire of what it means to be a loser in a winner's world. -Rebecca Barry

• MORE / TRAILER

The film that everyone was talking about in 2000 and one that had a profound influence on the structure of some many thrillers since. Guy Pearce has never been better than here, playing a man who is suffering from short-term memory loss while trying to find his wife's killer. Christopher Nolan, probably the most consistent director in Hollywood in the resulting decade, announced his arrival with an audacious premise - the story was delivered in short, bite-size chunks, backwards - that kept audiences guessing and completely enthralled at the same time. Made M. Night Shayamalan's twists look clunky. -James Croot

• MORE

A harrowing masterpiece. 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. The relentless dedication to documentary-style realism meant the film was devoid of music or fancy camerawork - it simply put you in the picture with the actors. There was nothing 'feel-good' about it, but this was an exceptional piece of filmmaking to be marvelled at. -Dan Rutledge

• MORE / TRAILER

The genius of Neill Blomkamp's debut feature (which Peter Jackson helped shepherd into existence) is that the thinking behind it wasn't revolutionary. It took a pretty familiar premise – aliens come to earth in a big spaceship – and just by nudging it ever so slightly to one side, created one of the freshest and most original films of the decade. Blomkamp's background in special effects contributed to the flawless CGI, and the creature and tech design blew all other recent sci-fi films out of the water. Plus there's a remarkable degree of pathos, and some awesomely nasty humour, all on a modest budget. It's been a long time since one film made the possibilities of genre cinema seem so wide open. -Dominic Corry

• MORE / TRAILER

After his brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, French 'cinemagician' Michel Gondry decided to write his own script, based on personal experiences. Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) is an aspiring artist and inventor who struggles to distinguish between his dreams and reality. When he moves back to Paris and falls for his beautiful neighbour (Charlotte Gainsbourg), he starts to become overwhelmed by his dream life and finds it hard to tell it apart from his reality. Gondry’s insistence on using low-fi in-camera effects gave this touching tale a tactile DIY feel, as is it had been assembled from cardboard boxes and pipecleaners. -Andrew Hedley

• MORE / TRAILER

Simon Pegg's deadpan take on the George Romero classic of a similar name spoke volumes about his British countrymen. When zombies come to life and start wreaking havoc, he and his video-gaming best mate are almost too blasé about life to notice. In fact it takes near-apocalypse for his character to appreciate his lot as he goes off in pursuit of his long-suffering girlfriend with a cricket bat for protection. A bloody good parody that poked fun at cinema's funniest monsters. -Rebecca Barry

• MORE / TRAILER

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. Taking inspiration from Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, Alan Moore's Watchmen and American domestic sitcoms of the 1950s, it told the tale of a couple of married superheroes, long since retired due to the outlawing of superheroics, who are forced back into the game when an old nemesis resurfaces. In addition to offering healthy amounts of humour and an impressively complex family dynamic, writer/director Brad Bird proved conclusively that animated CGI action scenes can have all the tension and thrills of live action cinema. -Dominic Corry

• MORE / TRAILER