AS I WRITE THIS, WE’RE JUST

ten days into a new year and a new decade. Can I still say happy new year? Oh, sod it: happy new year! As is customary as time, events and movies past begin to recede in the rearview mirror, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the 21st century so far. Much is made of the chaos and even ugliness we’ve seen, but we’ve also had plentiful moments of beauty, lyricism and hope. And this applies to cinema as much as the so-called real world.

It has been a seismic two decades, the ground shifting beneath our feet pretty much constantly. From the people who create our movies, to the ways they’re made, to how we watch them, nothing is as it was. And I think our world is wider, richer and more radical for it.

None of this is to say that our task was easy. And that task was to draw up the 100 movies we’ve loved most since the century began. So we did what anyone faced with such a large responsibility would do: we shared the pain/pleasure. We invited you to submit your lists too, and the definitive 100 you’ll find from page 75 is based on both our votes and yours. Democracy in action!

Over 35 wonderful pages, we celebrate the movies and their makers: featuring your thoughts, essays from critics and brand-new interviews with directors themselves. See our social channels and empireonline.com for a ton more content you won’t want to miss.

What a start to the year. And we have to say, we’re feeling pretty damn excited for 2020. Beauty, lyricism and hope. We’ll take that.

See you next month.