This is a dynamic list, so it’ll be updated each time I see a film which had its world premiere in 2009 that is better than at least one of the films already on the list.
- Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
- In Comparison (Harun Farocki)
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos)
- Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
- Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu)
- Happy End (Jean-Marie & Arnaud Larrieu)
- Rapt (Lucas Belvaux)
- Ne change rien (Pedro Costa)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
- Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont)
My Top 10 Discoveries During 2009 (applies to films made before the 21st century; obviously, this list will remain static.)
- Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
- Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
- A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
- Where is the Friend’s Home? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
- Cria Cuervos… (Carlos Saura, 1976)
- Train of Shadows (José Luis Guerín, 1997)
- News From Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977)
- The Nun (Jacques Rivette, 1966)
- Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)
- Benilde, or The Virgin Mother (Manoel de Oliveira, 1975)
Other 2009 films I’ve seen (Alphabetical)
- About Elly (Asghar Farhadi)
- Act of God (Jennifer Baichwal)
- After Last Season (Mark Region)
- Ajami (Yaron Shani & Scandar Copti)
- Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio)
- All Fall Down (Philip Hoffman)
- Amer (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani)
- The Anchorage (Anders Edström & C.W. Winter)
- Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
- Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette)
- Art & Copy (Doug Pray)
- Audition (Nelofer Pazira)
- Avatar (James Cameron)
- The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
- Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski)
- Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson)
- Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat)
- The Box (Richard Kelly)
- Bright Star (Jane Campion)
- Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Brüno (Larry Charles)
- Call of the Wild (Richard Gabai)
- Carcasses (Denis Côté)
- Cat Ladies (Christie Callan-Jones)
- Chloe (Atom Egoyan)
- A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis)
- City of Life and Death (Lu Chuan)
- Clubland (Eric Geringas)
- Coraline (Henry Selick)
- The Cove (Louie Psihoyos)
- Crab Trap (Oscar Ruiz Navia)
- Craneway Event (Tacita Dean)
- Disco and Atomic War (Jaak Kilmi)
- Disorder (Huang Weikai)
- District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
- Double Take (Johan Grimonprez)
- Double Tide (Sharon Lockhart)
- Daniel & Ana (Michel Franco)
- Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi)
- Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)
- Eastern Plays (Kamen Kalev)
- Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (Manoel de Oliveira)
- Eden is West (Costa-Gavras)
- Eighteen (Jang Kun-jae)
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé)
- Everyone Else (Maren Ade)
- The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray)
- Face (Tsai Ming-liang)
- Farewell (Ditteke Mensink)
- The Father of My Children (Mia Hansen-Løve)
- Fig Trees (John Greyson)
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
- The Forest (Piotr Dumala)
- 45365 (Bill Ross VI & Turner Ross)
- Gamer (Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor)
- General Orders No. 9 (Robert Persons)
- The Girl on the Train (André Téchiné)
- The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh)
- Greetings From the Woods (Mikel Cee Karlsson)
- The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude)
- A Hard Name (Alan Zweig)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates)
- Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea)
- The Hole (Joe Dante)
- Humpday (Lynn Shelton)
- I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
- I Am Not Your Friend (György Pálfi)
- I Killed My Mother (Xavier Dolan)
- I Love You Phillip Morris (Glenn Ficarra & John Requa)
- I Shot My Love (Tomer Heymann)
- I Went To the Zoo the Other Day (Luo Li)
- In the Loop (Armando Iannucci)
- Independencia (Raya Martin)
- The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh)
- The Invention of Dr. NakaMats (Astrup Schröder)
- Irene (Alain Cavalier)
- Jackpot (Alan Black)
- Kanikôsen (Sabu)
- Karaoke (Chris Chong Chan Fui)
- Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland)
- Kill Daddy Goodnight (Michael Glawogger)
- Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza)
- The King of Escape (Alain Guiraudie)
- La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (Frederick Wiseman)
- Lebanon (Samuel Maoz)
- The Legacy (Bernard Émond)
- Let Each One Go Where He May (Ben Russell)
- Letters to Father Jacob (Klaus Härö)
- Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
- Like You Know it All (Hong Sang-soo)
- The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
- Lourdes (Jessica Hausner)
- The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)
- Lula, Son of Brazil (Fábio Barreto & Marcelo Santiago)
- Mammoth (Lukas Moodysson)
- Mark (Mike Hoolboom)
- Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa)
- Moloch Tropical (Raoul Peck)
- Moon (Duncan Jones)
- Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
- The Mouth of the Wolf (Pietro Marcello)
- My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (Werner Herzog)
- No One Knows About Persian Cats (Bahman Ghobadi)
- Nothing Personal (Urszula Antoniak)
- Objectified (Gary Hustwit)
- Optical Illusions (Cristián Jiménez)
- Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin)
- Petropolis (Peter Mettler)
- Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve)
- P.opular S.ky (Ryan Trecartin)
- Precious (Lee Daniels)
- A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
- Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
- The Road (John Hillcoat)
- Ruhr (James Benning)
- Samson and Delilah (Warwick Tornton)
- A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- She, a Chinese (Guo Xiaolu)
- Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin)
- Spring Fever (Lou Ye)
- Star Trek (J.J. Abrams)
- Sweet Rush (Andrzej Wajda)
- Symbol (Hitoshi Matsumoto)
- Tales From the Golden Age (Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, & Ioana Uricaru)
- Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)
- The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman)
- To Die Like a Man (João Pedro Rodrigues)
- A Town Called Panic (Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar)
- Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine) – 4.6
- Unmade Beds (Alexis Dos Santos)
- Up (Pete Docter)
- Vincere (Marco Bellocchio)
- Vision (Margarethe Von Trotta)
- Waste Land (Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, & João Jardim)
- Whatever Works (Woody Allen)
- Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
- Whip it (Drew Barrymore)
- White Material (Claire Denis)
- The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
- The Wind Journeys (Ciro Guerra)
- The Wolfberg Family (Axelle Ropert)
- Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat)