The Class
"A film about the exchange of ideas; a quicksilver battle of wits which debates everything, from the merits of African football to Plato to the correct definition of the word 'skank'. Humbling, affecting and utterly gripping" - Wendy Ide

The Dark Knight
"Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar looks in the bag. The film is bleak and brilliant. Batman is Hamlet and Ledger is a sensation as the Joker. The late legend doesn’t just steal the film, he murders it in style" - James Christopher

Gomorrah
"Matteo Garrone’s startling film, Gomorrah, about the criminal underworld in Naples, is one of these rare movies that can alter our perception of life" - James Christopher

Man On Wire
"The American director James Marsh has created one of the greatest heist films of all times. Two things make his gripping docudrama so different: it’s all true, and the only thing stolen is air" - Cosmo Landesman

There Will Be Blood
"Paul Thomas Anderson's movie about the scramble for oil is a masterclass in how the West was truly sold. It's a marvellously entertaining soap: a sort Dickens does Dallas, without the sex or swimming pools" - James Christoper

Time and Winds
"The kind of movie that was invented for the word “ineffable”. It is, at a guess, about life’s relentless march, about death, rebirth, and the hollow limits of religion in the face of overwhelming nature. when you’ve got it you’ve got it for good" - Kevin Maher

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
"Every frame of this Romanian drama set in the 1980s about two female students trying to arrange an illegal abortion is brilliantly thought out" - James Christopher

35 Shots of Rum
"Essentially a film about love and family, a slow-burning pleasure that is as much about what is not said and not shown as what is" - Wendy Ide

Alexandra
"Aleksandr Sokurov’s strange and dusty fable charts the unlikely visit of an old Russian woman to her grandson’s desert garrison in Chechnya" - Edward Porter

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
"A wonderful, warm, moving film that speculates on our capacity for perseverance in the face of failure" - Arion McNicoll

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of 2009
• The 100 Worst Movies of 2009
• The 100 Best Films of the Decade