The Noughties — or whatever we’re supposed to call the ten-year period just expired — may have been, in general, one dispiriting shit-storm of a decade: global warming, 9/11, Bush/Cheney, Iraq/Afghanistan, the crash of ’08, Tiger Woods — Oy vey!! But sitting down to ponder selections for Pacific Cinémathèque’s decennial “Best of “ program — a tradition we inaugurated back in January 1990, for the best of 1980s, and continued in January 2000, for the best of the 1990s — actually proved to be, well, rather an audaciously hopeful, even heartening experience.

Among these choices — 17 features and 2 shorts (I sought to limit myself to the conventional “Top Ten” list, but couldn’t when there was such abundance) — are mature works by established masters and old favourites (in fact, there were films by Alexander Sokurov, Wong Kar-Wai, and Todd Haynes in our “Best of the 90s” program, and by David Cronenberg and Michael Haneke in our “Best of 80s” ) as well as startling, surprising works by some of the most exciting new and emerging film artists of our times. And, as I struggled with the difficult process of paring down my picks, I certainly couldn’t help but remark, with some wonder (and with all due acknowledgement of the remarkable international emergence of Mexican-born filmmakers), that you could have a pretty decent Best-of-the-Decade list made up entirely, or at least predominantly, of Romanian films. That, surely, must rank as one of the decade’s most unexpected and most noteworthy developments. That, and the fact that cinema — done in by downloads, DVDs, declining interest in film culture et al — is, like poor Mr. Lazarescu (subject of the one of the three fine Romanian features selected), supposed to be dead! But cinema art in the first decade of the 21st century wasn’t even sick in bed (with SARS or swine flu or what have you), not by a long shot — not when you consider the extraordinary achievements — often visionary, frequently challenging, always enthralling — we’re pleased to proffer here.

Vive le cinema! Happy New Decade! Happy viewing!
Jim Sinclair, Executive Director