Best Movies of 2008

Editor: Piero Scaruffi
Best movies of all time | Back to the Cinema page
Best of the decade | Best of 2007 | Best of 2009
The following list averages the opinions of my favorite critics plus mine.

Foreign movies show sometimes a year later, so if you can't find a title, check last year's ratings.

This page is obsolete. Please check this list: Best of the 2000s
8.2 Sion Sono: Love Exposure
7.5 Majid Majidi Avaze Gonjeshk Ha/ Song of Sparrows
7.4 Lucrecia Martel: La Mujer Sin Cabeza/ Headless Woman
7.3 Charlie Kaufman: Synecdoche New York
7.3 Ari Folman: Waltz with Bashir
7.3 Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Uc Maymum/ Three Monkeys
7.3 Tatia Rosenthal: $9.99
7.2 Sergey Dvortsevoy: Tulpan
7.2 Mariano Llinas: Extraordinary Stories
7.2 Albert Serra: El Cant dels Ocells/ Birdsong
7.2 Mike Leigh: Happy-Go-Lucky
7.2 Lisandro Alonso: Liverpool
7.2 Arnaud Desplechin: Un Conte de Noel/ A Christmas Tale
7.2 Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Tokyo Sonata (2008)
7.1 Hayao Miyazaki: Ponyo
7.1 Graham Reznick: I Can See You
7.1 Jonathan Demme: Rachel Getting Married
7.1 Sebastian Doggart: Courting Condi
7.1 Hirokazu Kore-eda: Still Walking
7.0 Yoji Yamada: Kabei
7.0 Nandita Das: Firaaq
7.0 Jean-Francois Richet: Mesrine
7.0 Noah and Logan Miller: Touching Home
7.0 Malgorzata Szumowska: 33 sceny z zycia/ 33 Scenes from Life
7.0 Miguel Gomes: Our Beloved Month of August
7.0 Alex Rivera: Sleep Dealer
7.0 Ruben Ostlund: Involuntary
7.0 Kanji Nakajima: Kuron wa Kokyo o Mezasu/ The Clone Returns Home
7.0 Lav Diaz: Melancholia
7.0 Rustem Abdrashev: The Gift to Stalin
7.0 Steve McQueen: Hunger
7.0 Barry Jenkins: Medicine for Melancholy
7.0 Ramin Bahrani: Goodbye Solo
7.0 Michael Keaton: The Merry Gentleman
7.0 Bouli Lanners: Eldorado
7.0 Pablo Larrain: Tony Manero
7.0 Fernando Eimbcke: Lake Tahoe
7.0 Karen Shakhnazarov: The Vanished Empire
7.0 Na Hong-jin: The Chaser
7.0 Nina Paley: Sita Sings the Blues
7.0 Gabriele Salvatores: Come Dio Comanda
7.0 Karin Albou: The Wedding Song
7.0 Laurent Cantet: Entre les Murs/ The Class
7.0 Michel Gondry: Be Kind Rewind
7.0 Sean Baker: Prince of Broadway
7.0 Andrew Stanton: Wall-E
7.0 Azazel Jacobs: Momma's Man
7.0 Henrik Ruben Genz: Terribly Happy
7.0 Gianni Di Gregorio: Mid-August Lunch
7.0 Tomas Alfredson: Lat den Ratte Komma In
7.0 Matteo Garrone: Gomorrah
7.0 Claire Denis: 35 Rhums/ 35 Shots of Rum
7.0 Radu Muntean: Boogie (2008)
7.0 Wachowski Brothers: Speed Racer
7.0 Guy Ritchie: Rocknrolla
7.0 Kelly Reichardt: Wendy and Lucy
6.9 Valery Todorovsky: Hipsters
6.9 Paolo Sorrentino: Il Divo
6.9 Gabriele Muccino: Seven Pounds
6.9 Eran Kolirin: The Band's Visit
6.9 Nadine Labaki: Caramel
6.9 Yoshihiro Nishimura: Tokyo Gore Police
6.9 Brian Goodman: What Doesn's Kill You
6.9 Agnes Jaoui: Let It Rain
6.9 Rodrigo Garcia: Passengers
6.8 Vincenzo Natali: Splice
6.8 Susanne Bier: Things We Lost in the Fire (2008)
6.8 Shimit Amin: Chak De! India (2008)
6.8 Florian Gallenberger: John Rabe
6.8 Nash Edgerton: The Square
6.8 Philippe Claudel: I've Loved You So Long
6.8 David Mamet: Redbelt
6.8 Will Ferrell: Semi-Pro
6.8 William Maher: Sleepwalking
6.8 Kentaro Otani: Nana
6.8 Chris Eigeman: Turn the River
6.8 Terence Davies: Of Time and the City
6.8 Jay Duplass: Baghead
6.8 Pierre Yameogo: Delwende
6.8 Randall Miller: Nobel Son
6.7 Giuseppe Tornatore: The Unknown Woman
6.7 Chris Kraus: Four Minutes
6.7 Silvio Soldini: Days and Clouds
6.7 Gus VanSant: Milk
6.6 Takeshi Kitano: Akiresu to Kame/ Achilles and the Tortoise
6.6 Courtney Hunt: Frozen River
6.6 Mitchell Lichtenstein: Teeth
6.6 Yojiro Takita: Okuribito/ Departures
6.6 Danny Boyle: Slumdog Millionaire
6.6 Takeshi Kitano: Akiresu to Kame
6.5 Manoel de Oliveira: Do Visivel ao Invisivel
6.5 Bruce McDonald: Pontypool
6.5 Abbas Kiarostami: Shirin
6.5 Haile Gerima: Teza
6.5 Semih Kaplanoglu: Sut
6.5 Oshii Mamoru: The Sky Crawlers
6.5 Barbet Schroeder: Inju La Bete dans l'Ombre
6.8 Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker
6.5 Werner Schroeter: Une Nuit de Chien
6.5 Yu Lik-wai: Plastic City
6.5 So Yong Kim: Treeless Mountain
6.5 Lance Hammer: Ballast
6.5 Laurin Federlein: Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness
6.5 Xiaogang Feng: If You Are the One
6.5 Abbas Kiarostami: Shirin
6.5 Peter Ho-Sun Chan: The Warlords
6.5 Cyrus Nowrasteh: The Stoning of Soraya M.
6.5 Clark Gregg: Choke
6.5 Sam Garbarski: Irina Palm
6.5 Adam Brooks: Definitely Maybe
6.5 Baltasar Kormakur: Jar City
6.5 Paulo Morelli: City of Men
6.5 H. S. Miller: Anamorph
6.5 Ira Sachs: Married Life
6.5 Roger Donaldson: The Bank Job
6.5 Baz Luhrmann: Australia
6.5 Ronald Bronstein: Frownland
6.5 Jiri Menzel: I Served the King Of England
6.5 Stephen Chow: CJ7
6.5 Kimberly Peirce: Stop Loss
6.5 Tom McCarthy: The Visitor
6.5 Chen Shi-Zheng: Dark Matter
6.5 Noam Murro: Smart People
6.5 Celine Sciamma: Water Lilies
6.5 Shira Geffen: Jellyfish
6.5 Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne: Le Silence de Lorna
6.5 Kornel Mundruczo: Delta
6.5 John Stevenson & Mark Osborne: Kung Fu Panda
6.5 Dennis Dugan: You Don't Mess with the Zohan
6.5 Guy Maddin: My Winnipeg
6.5 Christopher Nolan: The Dark Knight
6.5 Nicolas Philibert: Back to Normandy
6.5 Jon Knautz: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
6.5 Jeffrey Nachmanoff: Traitor
6.5 Wayne Wang: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
6.5 Peter Sollett: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
6.5 Santiago Otheguy: La Leon
6.5 Malcolm Lee: Soul Men
6.5 Damian Harris: Gardens of the Night
6.5 Jose Luis Guerin: In the City of Sylvia
6.5 Elissa Down: The Black Balloon
6.5 Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen: The Tale of Despereaux
6.5 Declan Recks: Eden
6.5 Alexey Balabanov: Cargo 200
6.5 Haile Gerima: Teza
6.5 Martin Koolhoven: Winter in Wartime
6.5 Darren Lynn Bousman: Repo The Genetic Opera
6.4 Philippe Garrel: J'Entends Plus la Guitare
6.4 Olivier Assayas: Summer Hours
6.4 Annemarie Jacir: Salt of the Sea
6.4 Joshua-Michael Stern: Swing Vote
6.4 Jessica Yu: Ping Pong Playa
6.4 David Koepp: Ghost Town
6.4 Tom Gustafson: Were the World Mine
6.4 Yen Tan: Ciao
6.4 Catherine Breillat: Bluebeard
6.3 Jean-Stephane Sauvaire: Johnny Mad Dog
6.3 Jose Padilha: Elite Squad
6.3 Amos Gitai: One Day You'll Understand
6.2 Darnell Martin: Cadillac Records
6.1 Darren Aronofsky: The Wrestler
6.1 Jia Zhangke: 24 City
6.0 Christian Petzold: Jerichow
6.0 Jia Zhangke: Cry Me a River
6.0 Christopher Zalla: Sangre de Mi Sangre
6.0 David Fincher: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6.0 Jerome Salle: The Heir Apparent - Largo Winch
6.0 James Ivory: The City of Your Final Destination
6.0 Ron Howard: Frost/Nixon
6.0 Neil Burger: The Lucky Ones
6.0 Gregory Hoblit: Untraceable
6.0 Jieho Lee: The Air I Breathe
6.0 Jeff Lowell: Over Her Dead Body
6.0 Stefan Ruzowitzky: The Counterfeiters
6.0 Paul Andrew Williams: London to Brighton
6.0 Christopher Rowley: Bonneville
6.0 Bharat Nalluri: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
6.0 Roland Emmerich: 10,000 BC Human Civilization - The Prequel
6.0 Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino: Dr Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
6.0 Nicolas Klotz: Heartbeat Detector
6.0 Michael Radford: Flawless
6.0 Daniele Luchetti: My Brother is an Only Child
6.0 Pierre Salvadori: Priceless
6.0 Santosh Sivan: Before the Rains
6.0 Xavier Gens: Frontier(s)
6.0 Anna Biller: Viva
6.0 Steven Conrad: The Promotion
6.0 Anand Tucker: When Did You Last See Your Father
6.0 Martin Hynes: The Go-Getter
6.0 Claude Lelouch: Roman de Gare
6.0 Garth Jennings: Son of Rambow
6.0 Jeremy Podeswa: Fugitive Pieces
6.0 Jon Favreau: Iron Man
6.0 Nicholas Stoller: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
6.0 Oren Jacoby: Constantine's Sword
6.0 Rob Minkoff: The Forbidden Kingdom
6.0 James Gray: Two Lovers
6.0 Noboru Iguchi: The Machine Girl
6.0 Tom Kalin: Savage Grace
6.0 Night Shyamalan: The Happening
6.0 Carlos Brooks: Quid Pro Quo
6.0 Cecilia Miniucchi: Expired
6.0 Peter Tolan: Finding Amanda
6.0 Peter Berg: Hancock
6.0 Kunal Kohli: Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
6.0 Jason Freeland: Garden Party
6.0 Karl Skogland: The Stone Angel
6.0 Brad Anderson: Transsiberian
6.0 Kirk DeMicco: Space Chimps
6.0 Julian Jarrold: Brideshead Revisited
6.0 Alex Holdridge: In Search of a Midnight Kiss
6.0 Guillaume Canet: Tell No One
6.0 Ben Stiller: Tropic Thunder
6.0 Eric Rohmer: Les Amours d'Astree et de Celadon/ The Romance of Astrea and Celadon
6.0 ANdrew Fleming: Hamlet 2
6.0 Paul Anderson: Death Race
6.0 Alan Hall: Towelhead
6.0 Chris Eska: August Evening
6.0 Andrea Staka: Fr„ulein
6.0 Ed Harris: Appaloosa
6.0 Neil Labute: Lakeview Terrace
6.0 Raja Gosnell: Beverly Hills Chihuahua
6.0 Oliver Stone: W
6.0 John Moore: Max Payne
6.0 Marianna Palka: Good Dick
6.0 Seth Grossman: The Elephant King
6.0 Stewart Wade: Tru Loved
6.0 Kevin Smith: Zack and Miri Make a Porno
6.0 Toby Wilkins: Splinter
6.0 Mabrouk El Mechri: JCVD
6.0 Bruce Labruce: Otto Or Up With Dead People
6.0 Ashutosh Gowariker: Jodhaa Akbar
6.0 Raj Kumar: Aamir
6.0 Richie Mehta: Amal
6.0 Rachel Samuels: Dark Streets
6.0 Christophe van Rompaey: Moscow, Belgium
6.0 Bryan Singer: Valkyrie
6.0 Joel Hopkins: Last Chance Harvey
6.0 Catherine Hardwicke: Twilight
6.0 Chris Williams and Byron Howard: Bolt
6.0 Seth Gordon: Four Christmases
6.0 Guillermo Arriaga: The Burning Plain
6.0 John Woo: Red Cliff
6.0 Cagan Irmak: Issiz Adam
6.0 Hong Sang-soo: Bam Gua Nat/ Night and Day
5.8 Steven Soderbergh: Che
5.6 Vicky Cristina: Barcelona (2008)
5.5 Matt Reaves: Cloverfield
5.5 Lucia Puenzo: XXY
5.5 Michael McCullers: Baby Mama
5.5 Paul Weiland: Made of Honor
5.5 Mark Waters: The Spiderwick Chronicles
5.5 Laura Dunn: The Unforeseen
5.5 Justin Chadwick: The Other Boleyn Girl
5.5 Mark Palansky: Penelope
5.5 David Gordon Green: Snow Angels
5.5 Raul Inglis: OSS 117
5.5 Joshua Seftel: War, Inc
5.5 Guillermo del Toro: Hellboy II
5.5 Saul Dibb: The Duchess
5.5 Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig: Night and Weekends
5.5 Laurie Lynd: Breakfast With Scot
5.5 Jose-Ivan Santiago: Talento de Barrio
5.5 Clint Eastwood: Gran Torino
5.5 Paul Schrader: Adam Resurrected
5.5 Rob Schmidt: The Alphabet Killer
5.5 Sam Mendes: Revolutionary Road
5.5 Anthony Byrne: How About You
5.0 Doug Pray: Surfwise
5.0 Joel/Ethan Coen: Burn After Reading
5.0 Spike Lee: Miracle at St. Anna
5.0 Nicolas Winding Refn: Bronson
5.0 Raul Ruiz: La Maison Nucingen/ Nucingen House
5.0 Dennis Lee: Fireflies in the Garden
5.0 Stephen Daldry: The Reader
5.0 Fernando Meirelles: Blindness
5.0 Stuart Townsend: Battle in Seattle
5.0 Tony Leondis: Igor
5.0 Matthew Bonifacio: Amexicano
5.0 Henry Bean: Noise
5.0 Andy Tennant: Fool's Gold
5.0 Eva Aridjis: The Favor
5.0 Helen Hunt: Then She Found Me
5.0 Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg: Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
5.0 Vadim Perelman: The Life Before Her Eyes
5.0 Jon Poll: Charlie Bartlett
5.0 Brett Morgen: Chicago 10
5.0 David Swimmer: Run Fat Boy Run
5.0 Gina Kim: Never Forever
5.0 David Ayer: Street Kings
5.0 Andrew Adamson: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
5.0 Steven Spielberg: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
5.0 Roger Spottiswoode: The Children of Huang Shi
5.0 Stuart Gordon: Stuck
5.0 Clint Eastwood: Changeling
5.0 Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas: Linha de Passe
5.0 Peter Segal: Get Smart
5.0 Marco Schnabel: The Love Guru
5.0 Sarah Gavron: Brick Lane
5.0 Patricia Rozema: Kit Kittredge - An American Girl
5.0 Timur Bekmambetov: Wanted
5.0 Jonathan Levine: The Wackness
5.0 Ric Roman Waugh: Felon
5.0 Phyllida Lloyd: Mamma Mia
5.0 Adam McKay: Step Brothers
5.0 Paul Weiland: Sixty Six
5.0 Randall Miller: Bottle Shock
5.0 Isabel Coixet: Elegy
5.0 Tygve Allister Diesen: Red
5.0 Ben Stassen: Fly Me to the Moon
5.0 David MacKenzie: Mister Foe
5.0 Robert Cary: Save Me
5.0 Darren Jacobs: Humboldt County
5.0 Marc Abraham: Flash of Genius
5.0 Gary Fleder: The Express
5.0 Luke Eberl: Choose Connor
5.0 Alex Kendrick: Fireproof
5.0 Gil Kenan: City of Ember
5.0 Barry Levinson: What Just Happened
5.0 Madonna: Filth and Wisdom
5.0 Baillie Walsh: Flashbacks of a Fool
5.0 Gavin O'Connor: Pride and Glory
5.0 Stephen Higgins: The Matador
5.0 Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath: Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
5.0 David Wain: Role Models
5.0 Abbas Tyrewalla: Jaane Tu
5.0 Aneez Bazmee: Singh is Kinng
5.0 Siddharth Anand: Bachna ae Haseend
5.0 Tarun Mansukhani: Dostana
5.0 Abhishek Kapoor: Rock On
5.0 Alfredo de Villa: Nothing Like the Holidays
5.0 John-Patrick Shanley: Doubt
5.0 Rod Lurie: Nothing but the Truth
5.0 Marc Forster: Quantum of Solace
5.0 Vadim Glowna: House of the Sleeping Beauties
5.0 Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore: Special
5.0 Jonathan Blitstein: Let Them Chirp Awhile
4.9 Bryan Gunnar Cole: Day Zero
4.5 Anne Fletcher: 27 Dresses
4.5 Ridley Scott: Body of Lies
4.5 George Wolfe: Nights in Rodanthe
4.5 Marcel Langenegger: Deception
4.5 Martin McDonagh: In Bruges
4.5 Daniel Waters: Sex and Death 101
4.5 Malcolm Lee: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
4.5 Andrew Jenkins: How to Rob a Bank
4.5 David Ross: The Babysitters
4.5 Gina Prince-Bythewood: The Secret Life of Bees
4.5 Sean Anders: Sex Drive
4.5 Mark Herman: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
4.5 Robert Davi: The Dukes
4.5 Shamim Sarif: I Can't Think Straight
4.0 Tom Vaughan: What Happens in Vegas
4.0 Pete Travis: Vantage Point
4.0 Diane English: The Women
4.0 Callie Khouri: Mad Money
4.0 Larry Bishop: Hell Ride
4.0 Jay Lee: Zombie Strippers
4.0 Jon Avnet: 88 Minutes
4.0 Doug Liman: Jumper
4.0 Robert Luketic: 21
4.0 George Clooney: Leatherheads
4.0 Uwe Boll: Postal
4.0 Louis Leterrier: The Incredible Hulk
4.0 Eric Brevig: Journey to the Center of the Earth
4.0 Chris Carter: X Files - I Want To Believe
4.0 Sanaa Hamri: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
4.0 Mark Pellington: Henry Poole Is Here
4.0 Peter Cattaneo: The Rocker
4.0 Dave Filoni: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
4.0 Jon Avnet: Righteous Kill
4.0 Robert Weide: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
4.0 Josh Safdie: The Pleasure of Being Robbed
4.0 Kenny Ortega: High School Musical 3
4.0 Scott Derrickson: The Day the Earth Stood Still
4.0 Salvatore Stabile: Where God Left His Shoes
4.0 Susan Montford: While She Was Out
4.0 Peyton Reed: Yes Man
4.0 David Frankel: Marley and Me
4.0 Adam Shankman: Bedtime Stories
4.0 Olivier Megaton: Transporter 3
4.0 Lexi Alexander: Punisher: War Zone
3.5 Marc Adler: Delgo
3.5 Michael King: Sex and the City
3.5 Fred Wolf: Strange Wilderness
3.5 David Moreau: The Eye
3.5 The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
3.5 JasonTodd Ipson: Everybody Wants to Be Italian
3.5 Frank Miller: The Spirit
3.0 Tom Putnam: The Hottie and the Nottie
3.0 Brian Robbins: Meet Dave