For those who are new to this blog and these lists, a close group of cinephile friends have an exclusive club where we pool our favorite films and put together consensus lists. This usually requires me to see a few additional films for the upcoming year, fewer from the 1970s and on, and more for the 1950s and earlier. We go backwards every decade by a year number. We just finished the ‘5 movies, so we traveled from 2005 to 1935 in several months. Now we are back to the top, looking at 2006 now, 1996 next, and so on.

I would call 2006 a particularly good year for film, both in the USA and abroad, although I was surprised by how prominent American titles were. There were some acclaimed foreign films that I liked, but did not love enough to include on my list, such as Volver, Syndromes and a Century, and The Host, yet I have a couple more obscure foreign titles that I encourage people go out to see.

2006 had some tough movies to cut. It was a good year for documentary, and you’ll notice that two made my list. Both of them happen to be quite depressing. Another depressing documentary that just barely made my list was Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple. Some good and underrated comedies also missed my list, such as The Devil Wears Prada (not a film I expected to like), Clerks II, and the toilet humor of Grandma’s Boy. Those last two are guilty pleasures, and I had only two are guilty pleasures and overshadowed by Borat. A couple other close shaves were The Queen, The Last King of Scotland and Sweeney Todd.

The top five of this year is especially strong, and my top three could all contend for favorites of the decade. Children of Men not only had an engaging, thought-provoking and politically relevant plot, but it was also a groundbreaking film from a directorial and photography perspective. Yes, I like long tracking shots, and it had two of my favorites.

1. Children of Men
2. Inland Empire
3. Letters from Iwo Jima
4. The Lives of Others
5. When the Levees Broke
6. Paprika
7. 12:08: East of Bucharest
8. Borat
9. The Prestige
10. The Namesake
11. A Scanner Darkly
12. This is England
13. The Departed
14. United 93
15. The Fall
16. Pan’s Labyrinth
17. Casino Royale
18. Babel
19. Apocalypto
20. The Bridge