Hey everyone. Sorry I made a whole thread for this, but I figured it is quite long and detailed and others have made threads for much less.
And so, I present to everyone, my top picks of 2004. Might I note, I will be constantly editing it since it will take me a few more months to catch up and watch all the films I wanted to in 2004.


Top 50 Films of 2004


1. Before Sunset (A+)
2. Kill Bill (A+)
3. The Aviator (A)
4. Million Dollar Baby (A)
5. The Passion of the Christ (A)
6. Dogville (A)
7. Sideways (A)
8. Fahrenheit 9/11 (A-)
9. Ray (A-)
10. Closer (A-)
10. Bad Education (A-)


12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (A-)
13. Collateral (B+)
14. The Sea Inside (B+)
15. Hero (B+)
16. Vera Drake (B+)
17. Garden State (B+)
18. Saved! (B+)
19. Shrek 2 (B+)
20. The Notebook (B+)
21. Hotel Rwanda (B+)
22. Kinsey (B+)
23. Spider-Man 2 (B+)
24. The Clearing (B+)
25. Friday Night Lights (B+)


26. The Bourne Supremacy (B+)
27. Spanglish (B)
28. Finding Neverland (B)
29. Mean Creek (B)
30. Touching the Void (B)

Top 65+ Coming Soon


Note: For the following categories, the names mentioned under Honorable Mentions are in no particular order whatsoever.

Best Actor

1. Jamie Foxx, Ray
2. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator
3. Ethan Hawke, Before Sunset
4. Gael Garcia Bernal, Bad Education
5. Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
6. Paul Giamatti, Sideways
7. Jude Law, Closer
8. Colin Farrell, A Home at the End of the World
9. Jamie Foxx, Collateral
10. Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda

Honorable Mentions

Liam Nesson, Kinsey
Paul Bettany, Dogville
Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside
Adam Sandler, Spanglish
Topher Grace, In good Compant
Sean Penn, The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Robert Redford, The Clearing
Ryan Gosling, The Notebook
Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ
Jon Hedder, Napoleon Dynamite
Tom Cruise, Collateral
Johnny Depp, Finding Neverland
Zach Braff, Garden State


Best Actress

1. Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
2. Julie Delpy, Before Sunset
3. Uma Thurman, Kill Bill
4. Annette Benning, Being Julia
5. Hillary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
6. Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Nicole Kidman, Dogville
8. Julia Roberts, Closer
9. Paz Vega, Spanglish
10. Cataline Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace


Honorable Mentions

Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera
Ziyi Zhang, House of Flying Daggers
Jena Malone, Saved!
Tae Leoni, Spanglish
Audery Tauttou, A Very Long Engagement
Rachel McAdams, The Notebook
Jennifer Garner, 13 Going on 30
Helen Mirren, The Clearing
Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village


Best Supporting Actor

1. David Carradine, Kill Bill
2. Clive Owen, Closer
3. Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
4. Thomas Hayden Church, Sideways
5. Freddie Highmore, Finding Neverland
6. Peter Sarsgaard, Kinsey
7. Willem Dafoe, The Clearing
8. Alan Alda, The Aviator
9. Philip Davis, Vera Drake
10. Dustin Hoffman, Meet the Fockers

Honorable Mentions

Dallas Roberts, A Home at the End of the World
Lucas Black, Friday Night Lights
James Garner, The Notebook
Tamar Novas, The Sea Inside
Alberto Jimenez, The Sea Inside


Best Supporting Actress

1. Cate Blanchet, The Aviator
2. Natalie Portman, Closer
3. Maia Morgenstern, The Passion of the Christ
4. Virginia Madsen, Sideways
5. Kate Winslet, Finding Neverland
6. Laura Linney, Kinsey
7. Patricia Clarkson, Dogville
8. Mandy Moore, Saved!
9. Sharon Warren, Ray
10. Natalie Portman, Garden State

Honorable Mentions

Regina King, Ray
Sissy Spacek, A Home at the End of the World
Robin Wright Penn, A Home at the End of the World
Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda
Daryl Hannah, Kill Bill
Liv Tyler, Jersey Girl
Cloris Leechman, Spanglish
Kate Beckinsale, The Aviator
Naomi Watts, The Sassination of Richard Nixon
Jada Piniket Smith, Collateral
Julie Christie, Finding Neverland
Catherine Zeta-Jones, The Terminal
Rachel McAdams, Mean Girls
Gena Rowlands, The Notebook
Barbara Streisand, Meet the Fockers
Mabel Rivera, The Sea Inside
Belen Rueda, The Sea Inside
Sandra Oh, Sideways
Kerry Washington, Ray


Best Director

1. Quentin Tarrantino, Kill Bill
2. Martin Scorsese, The Aviator
3. Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
4. Mel Gibson, The Passion of the Christ
5. Pedro Almodovar, Bad Education
6. Richard Linklater, Before Sunset
7. Mike Nichols, Closer
8. Alexander Payne, Sideways
9. Lars Von Trier, Dogville
10. Taylor Hackford, Ray

Honorable Mentions

Micheal Mann, Collateral
Micheal Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11
Micheal Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Marc Forster, Finding Neverland
Alejandro Amenabar, The Sea Inside
Zhang Yimou, House of Flying Daggers
Zach Braff, Garden State


Best Screenplay

1. Before Sunset
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Kill Bill
4. Sideways
5. Bad Education
6. Closer
7. Dogville
8. Million Dollar Baby
9. Garden State
10. Vera Drake

Honorable Mentions

The Aviator
Collateral
Saved!
The Incredibles
Finding Neverland
Mean Girls


Best Ensemble Cast

1. Closer
2. Dogville
3. Sideways
4. Ray
5. The Aviator
6. The Sea Inside
7. Vera Drake
8. Spanglish
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10. The Notebook


Best Editing

1. Fahrenheit 9/11
2. Kill Bill
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Bad Education
5. Closer
6. Before Sunset
7. Collateral
8. Sideways
9. The Passion of the Christ
10. Million Dollar Baby


Best Cinematography

1. The Passion of the Christ
2. Kill Bill
3. Collateral
4. Before Sunset
5. Hero
6. House of Flying Daggers
7. Dogville
8. Sideways
9. The Aviator
10. Million Dollar Baby


Best Production Design/Art Direction

1. The Phantom of the Opera
2. The Aviator
3. The Passion of the Christ
4. House of Flying Daggers
5. Kill Bill
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
7. Before Sunset
8. Collateral
9. The Notebook
10. Vera Drake


Best Visual Effects

1. The Day After Tomorrow
2. The Aviator
3. The Bourne Supremacy
4. Spider-Man 2
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
7. Hero
8. House of Flying Daggers
9. Kill Bill
10. The Passion of the Christ


Best Score or Sountrack

1. Kill Bill
2. The Aviator
3. The PAssion of the Christ
4. Closer
5. Finding Neverland
6. Bad Education
7. Before Sunset
8. Dogville
9. The Sea Inside
10. The Incredibles

Very interesting list. I'll take a closer lok tomorrow. I am glad you appreciate Kill Bill that much and even though I strongly disagree on The Passion of the Christ, I certainly respect your opinion

Big thumbs up for putting Helen Mirren in The Clearing on the list =D> My favorite performance of the year. Very under appreciated

I think that whole film is very under-appreciated.

I hope people can look past the #1's and #2's which are indeed alot of the commercialized 'bests of the year' as well and see how diverse some of my lists are. I really try to go back and think over every film I have seen for great performances.

Concerning other categories....

I don't usually do sound or sound editing because I never really take notice of it in almost any film I watch or I just wouldn't be able to distinguish among many in the year.
I haven't heard alot of the songs from each movie but in a month or so, I'll have that category up too, after I have heard songs from enough movies.
Actually, the most difficuly category for me to complete every year is Score and that is because I have a REALLY hard time remembering scores for films. some like Far From Heaven, The Hours, LOTR really stick with you, but others I sometimes forget 2 days after seeing the movie. That's why it takes time to search for scores online either by background music on respective movies' sites and sampling them or if it must come down to it, downloading some soundtrack songs.

As for Ensemble Cast.... I think this is one of my favorite categoies because first, it's easy to think of and remember and second, because it really gives attention to the great performances that are overlooked either by a great number of strong performances (like some categories this year) as well as size and scope of the film; it also plays tribute to acting that is made stronger when combined with other actors. I consider an ensemble cast 4 or more central or dominantly supporting characters.

I hope you all enjoy my lists...

@Dr. Lecter
I knew you weren't fond of Passion though I never really asked or read about your opinion of the film and I will remind you in a month's time I will have good commentary for at least my top 10 films. But I'll just say a few things for the Passion, not to try to convert you, but just to express my opinion. Starting off, I don't consider myself Christain nor an athiest (though I am in religious limbo right now). The Passion of the Christ had almost no spiritual affect on me, it was rather much more of an emotional and humane experience. Yes, I do admit it is probably the most shallow of my top 10 films and by that I mean there isn't as much depth than the average person can comprehend knwing what the bible is about at the least. however, direction, acting, cinematography, and design more than make up for it. Yes, it is hard for some people to bare and I though at times it dragged on a little too much repetitive torture and falling but it is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful film I have ever seen. Almost flawlessly shot and amazingly executed. Also being a passio project itself helps it. I do always look at original films in a bit of a better light than an equally good but adapted film. Some may see it unfair but little things like that do make a difference. As for Passion, I have come to notice that it is with personal and passionate projects that alot of directors/screenwriters falter and are found with many flaws, but Mel Gibson delivered beyond expectation and for that it is #4 on my list.

Yeah, great call. She is absolutely amazing in The Clearing.

she was actually on my top ten till Paz Vega bumped her off, but I'm thinking of placing her back on #10 because I really didn't see Moreno's performance to be as good as everyone is saying. It was great, but I have to really think about it. So, at this point Helen Mirren is defintely the #11 if there was a position.

Good to see TPOTC get some love.
I personaly dont care what anyone says,to me its the best film of the year by far.

This is what opinions are for.

I'll elaborate on The Passion later.

If you have a knack for crucifications, sure... :wink:

Just remember cinema is not about lists. I know you know this. But it's not necessarily a great thing in my eyes to endlessly catalog opinions about art.

Re: Passion of the Christ.

To me it has a huge amount of flaws. Minus all the political climate around it. And more than a little misguided in both it's "historical accuracy" if there is such a thing about this story and the details and focus of the corresponding Biblical chapters.

But as a film, it achieves what it sets out to do, and on top of that, it technically is really well made (cinematography, acting, etc.). And I would have given Hristo Shopov a Best Supporting Actor nod for his Pilate.

Great list. While I don't agree with The Passion of the Christ, I'm glad seeing Kill Bill, Before Sunset and Dogville getting some appreciation.

Very good list for the most part. Didn't think Colin Farrell was all that good in Home at the End of the World, surprised to see Maria Full of grace so low on the list...surprised to see Dogville at #3, but lower on screenplay and director, since the movie would be nothing without the two.

But good nonetheless :wink:

Just saw the movie and I agree completely.

Leo equally deserves it...

You hit on a few buttons that I deliberated alot on recently.

I made the Actor list a week or so ago without too much thought and should analyze it again in a week, but I did think that Farrell gave a great performance.

As for Dogville, I think I should have put the director a bit higher, I think Screenplay is fine where it is. I think it is strongest when all of its features are combined and that is why I have the film itself so high. I think more movies had stronger individual aspects in directing and writing, but Dogville pulls it all off best.

As for Maria Full of Grace. It has been over half a year since I saw it, but you know, I was always baffled at why people were so taken aback by it. It was a great movie and maybe it's better than a few others before it on my list (I'd have to re-view it to adjust it) but I remember it not having too big of an effect on me. I liked it when I saw it but started getting tired of it when alot of others began praising it so much. Same with Catalina, I didn't think she gave one of the very best perfomances of the year and it would be aweful if she gets in the Best Actress nod and Delpy or Thurman miss out.

You know it really is too bad that Jamie Foxx is getting virtually ALL the publicity because I agree, Leonardo gave one of the best performances in the past few years.
Jamie Foxx deserves the title for this year but DiCaprio should get some recognition as well.
While I never thought he was a below-average actor, nothing prepared me for this. this will forever put away all those petty rumors from Titanic that he couldn;t act or what not. His performance in the Aviator is one of the most impressive I have seen in any biopic.

Well, almost a month later, I did change some things around. Sort of re-organized my top 10 and added just a few more names.

I still can't wait to see The Woodsman and The Merchant of Venice. Those are the two I missed that I'm really bummed about. I saw just about everything else I wanted to during the Oscar season. I diodn't think I'd be able to see all those foreign movies (Long Engagement, Sea Inside, Bad Education, The Chorus, Flying Daggers).

I noticed that while you have Before Sunset at #1, you have it quite low on your director/cinematography list.

As dialogue-dependent the film is, this movie is also a major technical direction/cinematography achievement. It may not have been as obvious because they were shootiing for authenticty in a very calculated and planned out filmmaking process.

Camera Movement and Motion: Before Sunset
By Matt Hurwitz
Jul 19, 2004, 13:32
It's been nine years since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) spent their romantic evening walking through Vienna and talking about life in Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise. The two ultimately left each other as the sun rose, leaving audiences wondering what could have happened if... The three have re-teamed for Warner Independent Pictures' Before Sunset. The long-awaited sequel places the now-married Jesse back in Celine's Paris, the two inadvertently reconnecting for a quick day's visit (or maybe longer?).

Director Linklater also reconnected with his director of photography, Lee Daniel, who shot the first film, in 1995. The two have a long history together, collaborating on Linklater's Slacker and Dazed and Confused, as well as founding the Austin Film Society in the director's Texas home base.

Like the first film, Sunset is fairly dialogue-heavy (the film was co-written by the director and his two co-stars). It features long, continuous takes shot on Steadicam as the two meander their way through the streets of Paris. "I wanted them to appear as they would in real life, just walking and talking as people normally do," explains Linklater. "It was important that the Steadicam not be obvious or stand out."

"The walking-and-talking aspect of the film was probably the greatest challenge," adds Daniel. For Sunrise, Daniel served as the main camera operator, augmented by some Steadicam. "The first film was probably 40 percent Steadicam; this one's about 70 to 80 percent." He notes, "Rick and I are both of the opinion that we don't use Steadicam unless it's the absolute best. Nothing blows a shot worse than a shifting horizon."

Daniel convinced New York-based Steadicam veteran Jim McConkey (Field of Dreams, Eyes Wide Shut and Linklater's School of Rock) to join the Sunset team. "He's one of a handful of A-list Steadicam operators around the globe. I told him, 'Think of it as a vacation. You'll be in Paris. It's only a two-week shoot.' It was no vacation; I think we burned him out," says Daniel.

McConkey was supplemented by a mostly French crew, including B Camera operator Pierre Morel, himself a top French cinematographer. "I think the French were a bit taken aback by our work method, with our 12- and 13-hour days," notes Daniel, recalling two-hour lunch breaks on the first days of the 15-day shoot. "Unfortunately, there was no translation of the script, so the French crew didn't really understand what the actors were talking about. But the crew was very sensitive and some actually did go back and watch the first film to get familiar with the premise."

Let's Go for a Walk

Without a doubt, the signature look for Before Sunset is the walk-and-talk. "We did that in Slacker, and I think Rick liked it quite a bit," says Daniel. "I read the script and realized we were going to be going through the streets of Paris, right in the middle of the Latin quarter, and thought, 'Wow, this is like My Dinner With Andre on wheels."

Linklater and his team got the process down quickly for photographing the long walk/talk scenes in consistent natural light. Scouting was an important part of each scene, with the two actors meandering through warm, relaxed locations in varying light conditions. "There was a lot of planning and coordinating," says the director. "It wasn't just a matter of planning scenes to work on a performance level; we also had to coordinate them geographically." Daniel notes, "We tried our best to keep it in real space, so Parisians would appreciate it."

Besides pre-shoot rehearsal days, the director would rehearse three or four takes, walking with the actors with a director's finder while the light was still in the "unfavorable" range, introducing the Steadicam operators into the picture only as the afternoon light window approached. "Rick is really rehearsal-intensive, so we wanted to avoid burning out the Steadicam operators," says Daniel. "I try to get in as many takes as possible," explains Linklater, crediting operator McConkey for holding up during the sometimes 15-page scenes. "He has an ox's stamina. He's incredible."

With long scenes and narrow, three-hour light windows, such shots would sometimes span more than one day's shooting. "The light was really our guide," says Daniel. "It was all about setting our locations and doing light studies. What time of day would give us the best light? We thought along the lines of Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven: just wait 'til magic hour."

Typically, Linklater would shoot a master with McConkey on Steadicam, spotted by camera assistants guiding his steps and running iris pulls (via remote control). "That was a very challenging aspect of the picture," notes Daniel. "I would walk with them as they passed in and out of shadows, giving the assistants hand signals: stop here, stop there. As much as a two-stop iris pull, actually. The assistants were terrific-they did more iris pulling than they did focus pulling."

Accompanying the camera crew as they walked was the show's gaffer, French veteran Jean-Pierre Baronski, who would suspend from a boom pole a battery-powered 400 W "Joker" HMI China ball to light the actors' faces. "That Joker was really the hero of the film," says Daniel. The sight of the entourage in action was apparently something to behold. "As many times as I've seen it, watching all of these people walking backward still cracks me up!"

The master was followed by medium two-shots. "We'd do one long take, when they're walking down a long garden path, for example, then come back and cover it with two cameras a little later in the day or the next day," explains Daniel. Singles were often photographed on "bazookas," pairs of monopodic stands allowing two-camera crossing shots for the pair of actors in discussion. "Rick really likes two-camera work. We got a great deal of coverage that way, but he ended up just using most of the master shots."

Daniel shot using lightweight 35mm Panavision Millennium XLs, which were supplied by Panavision Alga in Paris. The cinematographer enlisted Fuji 250D for both exteriors and interiors. "I did some tests. It has a tendency to go green/blue, a little cool. I found that a good combination of warming filters-Tiffen Antique 1 and Antique 2-and a black stocking net behind the lens compensated for that quite well. The Fuji proved to be very versatile." Daniel also utilized Tiffen Ultracon low-contrast filters in cases where the actors were passing through bright sunlight while the shadow of a building was behind them. "It really helps lighten up those blacks, so it's not so contrasty."

Due to the lengthy walk/talk shots, the production team typically used 400-foot film magazines to lighten the load on the Steadicam operators, though 1,000-foot magazines were used whenever possible. "We often shot well over 20,000 feet of film per day," recalls Daniel.

The longest of the walk-and-talks is an impressive 17-minute scene, which was achieved with many mag changes. The scene begins with the actors outdoors, walking some distance along city streets; the camera follows them into a cafe, where they sit down to continue their conversation at a table. "I was particularly proud of that shot," says Linklater. "We originally had them sitting in the cafe for a half hour but then decided to have them get up and around."

Inside the cafe, the pair was lit by a single 18K, placed outside the location's window on a scaffold 25 feet in the air. Daniel says, "I was always proud of the fact that we used very little lighting on the first film. On this film, that 18K was one of only half a dozen or so lights we used. We would just use natural light, if possible, with bounce boards to fill in the eyes, if necessary. If we had good lighting conditions, we didn't use any lights at all."

In another tricky move, the camera follows Hawke and Delpy as they climb a small spiral staircase to Delpy's apartment (in what Linklater calls Hawke's character's "walk of shame," as he considers abandoning his family in America to stay with his French love). As the pair passes from level to level up the stairs, the camera follows them in an identically-rotating spiral movement, from the bottom landing to the top.

The shot was achieved with an ingenious rig devised by French key grip Daniel Morit. "We built a three-story camera lift using an aluminum truss in the center of the spiral stairway, where there had previously been a small, two-person passenger lift," explains Daniel. The truss suspended a round plywood disc, on which was placed a Hothead and a video assist monitor. Using a rope and pulley system, the device was operated by a team of three-McConkey, Morit and American grip Ferrell Shinnick-one at the fourth floor to turn the camera as it rose, one to raise it and the third to operate the Hothead.

"I was really glad Lee pressed for that," says Linklater. "I knew that would be an important shot, and it turned out to be quite effective." Adds Daniel, "It was an added expense, and Ethan and Rick went to bat for me and helped me get it done." Coming up with that device and other pieces of small-scale applied ingenuity was the essence of the production for Daniel. "That's guerrilla filmmaking at its finest."

Please consider ranking them a bit higher on your Director/Cinematogrpahy list.

Wow. You don't know how grateful I am that you found and posted that article.
I have yet to read it as I am in a rush right now, but it will defintely make me re-consider that aspect of the film as well as (if possible) make fall more in love with the film.

He deserves it more.

I heavily disagree on Farrell. He definately wasn't that good.

Nope