The best films of the 2010s (as picked by some of our favourite filmmakers and actors)

The star of ‘Doctor Strange’ picks ‘Cold War’ (2018) 

‘It was such a sad and achingly honest story of love and how destructive and tragic it can be. It was beautifully shot and used all the power of cinema in its framing and acting without words – and when the words came they were arresting and surprising and dangerous and unexpected. It’s painfully romantic, as well as being painful. It’s really truly great cinematic storytelling. I was completely immersed in that world and that relationship. [Director] Pawel Pawlikowski is an incredible filmmaker.’

The star of ‘Lady Bird’ picks ‘Bridesmaids’ (2011)

‘I love that everyone’s funny and really different in it. There’s never a joke that doesn’t land. I like that it’s about the friendship of the girls and the marriage and even the relationship with Chris O’Dowd is kind of a secondary thing. I really love seeing two pals get a kick out of each other. Something like that hadn’t really been done in that way and it’s so brilliant that it was as successful as it was. I feel like the girls in comedy have changed: they paved the way for the rest of us I feel. I’m so bad: whenever anyone asks me what my favourite film is, it’s always “Sister Act” and “Dirty Dancing” and “Bridesmaids”. It’s never, like, “Citizen Kane”.’

The director of ‘Diego Maradona’ picks ‘The Raid’ (2011)

‘It’s a dead simple and perfectly-formed action film about a group of elite cops: “See that tall building? Go inside, go to the top floor, kill the bad guy.” That’s it! But right from the opening shot I thought: I’m in the hands of a great director – someone who knows the culture and who knows exactly what they are doing. It features these incredible Indonesian martial arts fight sequences but was written, directed and edited by a Welshman, Gareth Evans. It’s fresh, fun and frantic. Pure cinema, in other words.’

The director of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ picks ‘The Death of Stalin’ (2017) and ‘Get Out’ (2017)

‘I really loved “The Death of Stalin” because it was smart. Also, I loved the decision to let the actors use their normal accents, because it didn’t make any difference to me. I was still shocked and I still found it fascinating and enthralling. The other film I really loved was “Get Out”, which was the only film in my entire life that I’ve actually yelled the title of the film at the film: “Get out!”’

The writer-director of ‘It Comes at Night’ picks ‘The Tree of Life’ (2011)

“It’s one of my favourite films of all time. I have a personal attachment to it because I was involved with a bit of the second-unit photography in the birth-of-the-universe sequence and small aspects of post-production. I remember feeling humbled when I watched this towering achievement – humbled that I had any small part to do with it. I saw the film five or six times in the theatre. I cried like a baby and was in awe of its transcendence. The film feels like an honest depiction of family and life and grasping for our place in the entirety of existence. “The Tree of Life” is easily the most moving and religious experience I’ve ever had in a cinema.’

The writer-director of ‘Baby Driver’ picks ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)

‘In an age where the majority of studio movies feel like reheated pizza, something like “Mad Max: Fury Road” seems like a miracle. Here, the creator himself George Miller – at the time, 71 years old – returns to his own property 30 years later with an itch to scratch. He’s had this idea of a modern version of pure cinema rattling around in his head for all that time and it explodes onto the screen in epic style. Like a twenty-first-century “Stagecoach”, this is a real motion picture. I saw it three nights in a row, my mouth agape in wonder, envy and astonishment.’

The co-writer-director of ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ picks ‘The Lobster’ (2015)

‘To me, this film is perfection. It’s got everything: an earnest love story that’s dripping with loneliness, a laugh-out-loud comedy laced in tragedy, and, most importantly, it’s deeply honest, with so much to say about the world we live in. Not to mention, I very much prefer a sadder, fatter Colin Farrell.’

The director of ‘Skyfall’ picks ‘The Social Network’ (2010) and ‘Boyhood’ (2014)

‘I have two films of the decade: the first is David Fincher’s “The Social Network”. It’s incredibly prescient – a film about how the world has changed and will change, about the personal behind the political, about greed and revenge. The other best film, Rick Linklater’s “Boyhood”, is about the things that really matter.’

The star of ‘Pain and Glory’ picks ‘Force Majeure’ (2014)

‘This is a movie that surprised me very much. It was fabulous. You could see the pulse of the director [Ruben Östlund] in a way that is not anxious, it takes time. I remember thinking: What’s going on here? Nothing’s happening. And suddenly this event happens and you laugh a little bit – okay, it’s not important – but then how this little thing opens and opens until you have this crisis and the family is totally dysfunctional. Oh my God, the tragedy that is coming for them. It was brilliant observation of the human spirit and putting the finger on how we behave with each other. When a moment like that comes, it opens the door for the truth.’

The co-writer-director of ‘The Death of Stalin’ picks ‘The Master’ (2012)

‘I’m a big Paul Thomas Anderson fan and with “The Master”, he’s prepared to take this big, ambitious subject of this cult and make you almost believe Philip Seymour Hoffman’s cult leader – you can see the charisma and how his philosophy kind of connects with people. Because that’s how cults grow: 10 percent of what they’re saying sounds reasonable, so you block out the other 90 percent. I liked the ambiguous way it’s portrayed: it wasn’t nasty and fake. It’s more complicated than that and yet it can be destructive.’

The ‘Rogue One’ star picks ‘Blade Runner 2049’ (2017)

‘I loved everything about Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049”. Roger Deakins’s cinematography was stunningly beautiful and completely immersive. A brilliantly paced film with a hypnotic and mesmerising musical score. For me it was the perfect companion piece to Ridley Scott’s original. It also packs an incredibly moving performance from Harrison Ford as the ageing Deckard, especially at the film’s finale. I just sat alone in a near-empty cinema and let the whole thing wash over me. Unforgettable.’

The ‘I, Daniel Blake’ director picks ‘The Golden Dream’ (2013)

‘It’s about people from Guatemala going up through Mexico to get through to the United States. It’s a brilliant film by a director called Diego Quemada-Díez, who worked as a camera assistant on “Land and Freedom”.’

The writer-director of ‘Boyhood’ picks ‘The Irishman’ (2019)

‘Having recently seen ‘‘The Irishman” (for a second time) and ‘‘A Hidden Life” in the same week, I was kind of awestruck that here are two American masters, still at the height of their powers, making films that you could draw direct links to the films of theirs that premiered 46 years ago that the same New York Film Festival: ‘‘Mean Streets” and ‘‘Badlands” . More mature, haunting and beautiful works that are definitely future-if-not-instant classics, and so nicely positioned in [Martin] Scorsese and [Terrence] Malick’s bodies of work, as in everything before seems to have led to this expression.’

The ‘Girlhood’ writer-director picks ‘Wolf Children’ (2012)

‘It’s an animated film by [Japanese filmmaker] Mamoru Hosoda and it broke my heart.’

The writer-director of ‘Okja’ picks ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ (2018)

‘Recently I saw this one, by the Italian female director Alice Rohrwacher. As I was watching the film, it already felt like a classic – it felt like I was watching a classic Italian film. It was very moving and beautiful. It came out not that long ago, but I think very soon it will be considered one of the European classics.’

The writer-director of ‘Hotel Artemis’ picks ‘Good Time’ (2017)

‘Some stories are still best-told in the shape of a movie, and the Safdie brothers’ “Good Time” is the absolute proof – because no audience could stand this lysergic, bloody-nosed rollercoaster for more than two hours. Over one brutal night, travelling at the speed of desperation and doused in Sprite-bottle acid, we’re forced to feel the whole thing as viscerally as our protagonist (a never-better Robert Pattinson) – complicit in every morally-dubious decision, adrenalised by every wrong turn and misfortune, but also moved and motivated by the tenderness of a beautifully drawn brotherly bond. The experience is authentic, audacious, surprisingly funny… and like all great movies, tied off with a haunting final image. It’s tough to make any movie – virtually impossible to make a perfect one. But for me, on its own terms, that’s what “Good Time” is.’

The ‘Testament of Youth’ director picks ‘Son of Saul’ (2015)

‘The courage of László Nemes in choosing for his debut film the story of a Sonderkommando in the gas chambers of Auschwitz is matched by his extraordinary premise – to frame at shoulder height Saul’s face as he witnesses the process of killing. Staggeringly, Nemes refuses the epic wide, thereby forcing the audience to imagine mass murder outside the frame.’

The writer-director of ‘The Witch’ picks ‘Burning’ (2018)

‘That was quite a fun experience because at first, you’re like: That was cool – yeah, that was good. And then you’re on the train and you’re like: Fuck, that was good. And then you’re going to bed and you’re like: Damn. And then, the next morning, you’re like: WHOA! Wow.’

The star of ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ picks ‘Bridesmaids’ (2011)

‘I’m thinking of movies I saw maybe five times in the theatre. With “Bridesmaids”, you walked away feeling like: Okay, well, that’s a classic. As opposed to, like: That kind of made me laugh. Or: I felt something. “Bridesmaids” feels like you’re learning a language that you somewhat know but never mastered. It is an important movie. Having women write scripts – for women. The thing I’m currently writing will have a woman director.’

The writer-director of ‘Blue Story’ picks ‘Black Panther’ (2018)

‘This is one of the first films I watched twice in the cinema: I watched it by myself and then I took my son. As a young black man, you don’t really see us in that type of life, as superheroes. You felt really empowered. You don’t always feel proud to be what you are, but everyone watching it just felt proud. It was a moment. Wow, we’re superheroes now. We’re kings.’

The director of ‘Fantastic Four’ picks ‘Mandy’ (2018)

‘To me, indie film doesn’t mean low budget. Indie film means alternative cinema. Cinema which doesn’t emulate formulas of crowdpleasing mainstream movies. Cinema which defies conventional tropes we are used to seeing day in and day out. “Mandy” is the epitome of indie cinema. This utterly original Pacific Northwest psychedelic revenge tale is the greatest uncomfortable experience I’ve had this decade, with Nicolas Cage centre stage giving his most gut-wrenchingly emotional performance of his career outside of “Leaving Las Vegas”, and Linus Roache playing one of the most terrifyingly fucked-up cult leader assholes in the history of movies.’