20 Years Later — The Best Films of 2006

It’s staggering how much cinema had evolved by 2006—a pivotal year poised right at the intersection of the fading analog age and the accelerating digital future.

Two decades on, the films of 2006 now feel like cultural artifacts from a world both distant and eerily familiar. This was a year when filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood interrogated violence and the mythology of war, while mainstream Hollywood found renewed energy in prestige dramas, sprawling international co-productions, and political thrillers steeped in post-9/11 anxiety.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” ultimately took Best Picture at the Oscars and delivered the long-overdue Best Director win for the legendary filmmaker. A brutal, operatic crime saga about identity and corruption inside the Boston police and the Irish mob, it remains one of the defining American films of the decade, and that’s despite it not even belonging in Scorsese’s top five.

On the Oscar acting side, Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) and Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”) walked away with gold—the latter delivering one of the most electrifying and terrifying performances of the 21st century as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men” quietly redefined the modern sci-fi film—not with spectacle alone, but with haunting realism and astonishing technical craft. Its long takes, documentary immediacy, and bleak vision of a collapsing society have only grown more prophetic with time. It was admired on release, but its reputation has only expanded in the years since.

Also twenty years ago, Wong Kar-wai presided over the Cannes jury, awarding the Palme d’Or to Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” a historical drama about the Irish War of Independence and the bitter civil conflict that followed. Critics were deeply divided at the time, and still are. Meanwhile, Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director at Cannes for “Babel,” a sweeping, globe-spanning drama about interconnected lives and the breakdown of communication in a fractured modern world.

If there was a film that crystallized the anxieties of the decade, it might be Paul Greengrass’s “United 93,” a harrowing, near-documentary recreation of the doomed September 11 flight. Shot with staggering restraint and immediacy, it was a great film, a hard watch, that didn’t demand repeat viewings — which is why its stock seems to have semi-faded these last two decades.

Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro delivered “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a dark fantasy masterpiece that fused fairy tale imagery with the brutal reality of post-Civil War Spain. Few films have blended imagination and political allegory so seamlessly.

The year also gave us one of the most important reinventions of a blockbuster franchise. “Casino Royale,” directed by Martin Campbell, rebooted the Bond series with Daniel Craig at the helm — a raw, grounded intensity that reshaped the character for the 21st century. Some called it “James Bourne” at the time.

At the opposite end of the tonal spectrum was A Prairie Home Companion,” the gentle and quietly poignant final film from director Robert Altman. Adapted from Garrison Keillor’s beloved radio show, the film unfolds backstage during the program’s fictional final broadcast. It’s one of the most tender late-career films ever made by a major director — a sweet swan song.

At the box office, it was the year of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “The Da Vinci Code,” and “Casino Royale,” massive hits that reshaped the blockbuster landscape. And “Borat” became a cultural phenomenon, proving that outrageous comedy could still become a major event while skewering politics, media, and American culture itself.

The 10 Best Films of 2006

1. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)

2. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)

3. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu)

4. Borat (Larry Charles)

5. United 93 (Paul Greengrass)

6. Apocalypto (Mel Gibson)

7. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)

8. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

9. Babel (Alejandro G. Inarritu)

10. Little Miss Sunshine (Farris/Dayton)

Also worth remembering— Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Children, L’Enfant, Prairie Home Companion, Inside Man, The Prestige, Marie Antoinette, The Descent, V For Vendetta, The Illusionist, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Hard Candy, Crank, Alpha Dog

What are your favorite films of 2006? Post your list in the comments—whether it’s personal, chaotic, or carefully curated. I’ve added mine above to get things started.