Films of the year

What will 2009 be remembered for? At the cineplex, it was the year of 3D. Henry Selick's creepy Coraline used it to take us deeper into its laby-rinthine fairytale, while Pixar's Up used 3D to subtly enhance its lighter-than-air story in a film that even made grumpy film critics cry. Meanwhile, James Cameron's Avatar, the self-prophesied revolution in 3D, finally arrived at the end of the year, wafting along on the vapours of its own hot air of hype.

JJ Abrams reinvented Star Trek for the OC generation; Watchmen, after innumerable failed attempts, finally hit the screen like a slap of cold porridge; while District 9, a sci-fi thriller from South Africa (with a little help from Peter Jackson), gave a healthy two fingers to Hollywood and tore a healthy hole too in the box office.

Funny man Judd Apatow disappointed with the eagerly awaited Funny People while shock comedian Sacha Baron Cohen split audiences right down the middle with Brüno. Meanwhile, a small comedy called The Hangover, with a list of actors few had ever heard of, became the smash hit of the year. Harry Potter 6 waved its magic wand but its spell was broken by New Moon, the Twilight sequel, which outdid Harry Potter box-office records, fuelled only by the spending power of teenage girls.

Mickey Rourke, bruised but not broken, jumped back into the ring with The Wrestler, while everybody's favourite gunslinger Clint Eastwood bowed out from acting with guns firmly in holster with his swan-song Gran Torino. In Almodovar's Broken Embraces, Penelope Cruz dialled the temperature to sizzling and reminded us why she is the most sensual movie star on the planet.

Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon wowed the critics at the arthouse but it was Danny Boyle's swooning fantasy Slumdog Millionaire that crossed over into a massive mainstream hit. Meanwhile, a low-key vampire film called Let The Right One In staked a claim to the title of best horror film of the decade.

The best films of 2009

1. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)

Haneke's latest is one of the great films of the decade – a sombre, disquieting masterpiece with a puzzle that goes unsolved. Shot in shivering black and white and with astonishing rigour, Haneke takes German society in the film's grasp and pokes around its psyche in the years before WWI.

2. Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino)

Italian director Sorrentino takes the ambiguous story of the decrepit, shady former Italian prime minister Andreotti and turns it into a high-octane gangster-inflected biographical thriller. A rare example of stylistic excess and bravura filmmaking going hand-in-hand with content.

3. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

This coming-of-age story set in the bleak, concrete environs of a Stockholm suburb in the 1980s is also the best vampire movie in years. It broods with icy atmosphere and an unusual tenderness. It's also a cure for the attention-deficit-disorder Hollywood horrors have instilled in cinemagoers.

4. The Class (Laurent Cantet)

Laurent Cantet's film is beautifully complex yet beguilingly simple. We spend a year in a tough Parisian classroom and it is so naturalistic, you wonder if you are watching a documentary. You don't notice there is even a plot until you find your feelings all caught up in it. You could call it extreme realism.

5. Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)

A marriage of Hollywood with Bollywood; a high pitch of melodrama shot with a realist lens; a coming-of-age comedy that tangos with tragedy; a heart-thumping romance locking fingers with a thriller. Shameless and joyful.

The next best 10

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)

Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)

Bright Star (Jane Campion)

A Serious Man (The Coen Brothers)

The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)

35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)

Two Lovers (James Gray)

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)

A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin)

Brüno (Larry Charles)

Worst film: Antichrist (Lars von Trier)

Runner up: Watchmen (Zack Snyder)

Best Irish film: Waveriders (Joel Conroy)

Most over-rated film: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

Best male performance: Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)

Runner up: Joaquin Phoenix (Two Lovers)

Best female performance: Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces)

Runner up: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Best director: Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon)

Runner up: Laurent Cantet (The Class)

Best new director: Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In)

Best cinematographer: Greig Fraser (Bright Star)

Runner up: Chris Doyle (The Limits of Control)

Best documentary: Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi)

Best animation: Up (Pete Docter & Bob Peterson)

Most embarrassing cinematic moment: Watching Charlotte Gainsbourg's character have an orgasm as she watches her young child jump out of the window in Antichrist. Somebody, please, take the camera away from the very pretentious Lars von Trier.

Most spine-tingling cinematic moment: Tomas Alfredson's skilful and scintillating swimming-pool scene in Let The Right One In.