The 10 Best Films of the 2000s, According to 100+ Directors

Here’s a fun exercise. IndieWire has asked over 100 indie filmmakers to list their best films of the 2000s. The results are very interesting.

Some of the more notable directors asked to participate include Sean Baker, Brady Corbet, Joe Dante, David Lowery, Jane Schoenbrun, Parker Finn, Radu Jude, Bill Hader, Jennifer Kent, Alex Ross Perry, Rodrigo Prieto, and Jeremy Saulnier. You can check out their lists below this piece.

Here are the most mentioned films:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — 34 mentions
No Country For Old Men — 28
Punch-Drunk Love — 28
Children of Men — 28
Mulholland Drive — 24
Zodiac — 21
The Dark Knight — 20
In the Mood For Love — 19
Y Tu Mama Tambien — 17
Lost in Translation — 17
City of God — 16
Spirited Away — 13
Yi Yi — 12
Oldboy — 12

It’s interesting to compare these results to our own critics poll of the 2000s. It seems as though “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (#7) “Oldboy”(#27) and, most particularly, “Punch-Drunk Love” (#46) are much higher valued by the directors.

I’m actually surprised by ‘Eternal Sunshine’ getting the most mentions, but we should note that many of the filmmakers who submitted their lists to IW came from the U.S. indie world, so there is a certain bias there. If you asked European critics to name their best of this decade then I don’t believe ‘Eternal Sunshine’ would be that high.

My own top list of the 2000s would include “There Will Be Blood,” “Zodiac,” “No Country For Old Men,” “Children of Men,” “Cache,” “Oldboy,” “Spirited Away,” and “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.”

I remember, coming off the indie boom of the ‘90s, the 2000s felt like a letdown decade, but looking back on it, it was maybe the last great decade for film as superhero movies and IP franchises would soon invade the multiplexes. It’s a decade that I now look back quite fondly on, and one in which sprung many fascinating young filmmakers.

Here’s a sample of the IndieWire directors lists, which can all be found here.

Sean Baker (writer/director: “Anora”)

“Yi Yi”
“Malèna”
“Together”
“Dog Days”
“Oasis”
“Morvern Callar”
“Dogville”
“Oldboy”
“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”
“Import/Export”

Brady Corbet (writer/director: “The Brutalist”)

“Dancer in the Dark”
“Dogville”
“Caché”
“Shinji Aoyoma’s “Eureka”
“The White Ribbon”
“Three Times”
“Inland Empire”
“Werckmeister Harmonies”
“La Commune”
“L’intrus”
“Birth”
“Mulholland Drive”
“Silent Light”
“The Headless Woman”
“In the Mood for Love”
“Spirited Away”
“Enter the Void”

Joe Dante (director: “Gremlins”)

“Mulholland Drive”
“Children of Men”
“Pan’s Labyrinth”
“Idiocracy”
“Speed Racer”
“Shaun of the Dead”
“Inglorious Basterds”
“Ratatouille”
“Battle Royale”
“Gangs of New York”

Parker Finn (writer/director: “Smile”)

“Requiem for a Dream”
“Catch Me If You Can”
“The Ring”
“24 Hour Party People”
“A Tale of Two Sisters”
“Children of Men”
“Zodiac”
“There Will Be Blood”
“Rachel Getting Married”
“Enter the Void”

Jennifer Kent (writer/director: “The Babadook”)

“In the Mood For Love”
“Elephant”
“Mulholland Drive”
“The White Ribbon”
“Memories of Murder”
“Pan’s Labyrinth”
“You, The Living”
“No Country For Old Men”
“Let The Right One In“
“L’Enfant”

David Lowery (writer/director: “Mother Mary”)

“ELF”
“GERRY”
“CREMASTER 3”
“MARIE ANTOINETTE” 
“THE FOUNTAIN”
“OLD JOY” 
“THE NEW WORLD” 
“SPIRITED AWAY” 
“HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH”
“THERE WILL BE BLOOD”
“NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN”
“ZODIAC”
“THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS” 

Alex Ross Perry (writer/director: “Pavements”) 

“Cremaster 3″  
“Some Kind of Monster”/”Dig!”
“Gerry”/”Last Days”
“The Brown Bunny”/”Primer”  
“Los Angeles Plays Itself”/”A Decade Under the Influence”   
“Fallen”/”Birdsong”
“Daft Punk’s Electroma”/”Southland Tales”   
[“Rec.]”/”Inside”/”Martyrs”

Rodrigo Prieto (director: “Pedro Páramo”)

“Amores Perros”
“In the Mood for Love”
“Brokeback Mountain”
“Lost in Translation”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Punch Drunk Love”
“Children of Men”
“Almost Famous”
“Babel”
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

Jeremy Saulnier (writer/director: “Rebel Ridge”)

“NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN”
“MICHAEL CLAYTON”
“THERE WILL BE BLOOD”
“ZODIAC”
“DONNIE DARKO”
“CITY OF GOD”
“LET THE RIGHT ONE IN”
“THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA”
“IN THE BEDROOM
“THE BOURNE TRILOGY”  

Jane Schoenbrun (writer/director “I Saw the TV Glow”)

“A.I. Artificial Intelligence”
“Elephant”
“Funny Haha”
“Goodbye Dragon Inn” 
“Mulholland Dr.” 
“Old Joy”
“Southland Tales” 
“Stepbrothers”
“The World”
“Yi Yi”

Radu Jude (writer/director: “Don’t Expect Too Much from the End of the World”)

1. “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionaly I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty”
2. “Eloge de l’amour,” “Notre musique,” “Film socialisme”
3. “Star Spangled to Death”
4. “Tale of Cinema”
5. “Inland Empire” by David Lynch
6. “Police, Adjective”
7. “Oh! Uomo”
8. “The Lady and the Duke”
9. “West of the Tracks”
10. “Austerlitz”