So here it is! The not-really-awaited-but-still-here-anyway CultOfCinema.com Review of 2009 is finally online! Slightly above this miniature blurb, you will see our top 10 films of the past year, going by UK release dates, and the one striking thing about it is the UK dominance. We have three entries in this final ten (sure, so do America, but you’d expect that); Duncan Jones’ debut sci-fi “Moon”, Armando Ianucci’s political comedy “In the Loop”, and Jane Campion’s Keats biopic “Bright Star”. Further down the list, films like “Sleep Furiously” and – of course – “Slumdog Millionaire” also picked up support, suggesting a stellar year for British film on the whole. European cinema, as could be expected, flourished too. The four remaining films all hail from the continent, with “Let the Right One In” – the Swedish Vampire flick – coming in just short at number two.

But the slightly surprising winner is “Where The Wild Things Are”, Spike Jonze’s film which, according to the director, was about childhood rather than aimed at kids. This surprisingly excellent film picked up great support, finishing in the top ten for four of the five contributors who submitted a list (mine was the only one where it is absent, and it still finished securely within my top twenty). This, coupled with the fact that Pixar’s “Up” finished in fourth position and the even more surprising fact that “Cloudy With the Chance of Meatballs” managed to climb to eleventh (just missing the final cut by a single point), suggests that 2009 was a great year to be a child.

But the really interesting selections come from the individual lists, which you can access by clicking the initials of the individual contributors at the top of the page. There will always be flaws in aggregated lists, but the individual ones reflect the opinions and tastes of one particular selector, and are accompanied by articles regarding the year in film, from the Oscars to Avatar. And, in case you’re wondering, the reason why I selected those three pictures that appear at the top of each article is because they are all blue. Ha! Get it? I’ll get my coat… JB.