My favorite films of 2008 (notably absent - the incredibly overrated and downright annoying Rachel Getting Married):
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, dir. Cristian Mungiu
2. Paranoid Park, dir. Gus Van Sant
3. Happy-Go-Lucky, dir. Mike Leigh
4. Encounters at the End of the World, dir. Werner Herzog
5. Man on Wire, dir. James Marsh
6. A Christmas Tale, dir. Arnaud Desplechin
7. Milk, dir. Gus Van Sant
8. Wall-E, dir. Andrew Stanton
9. Step Brothers, dir. Adam McKay
10. Synechdoche, New York, dir. Charlie Kaufman
Near miss: Burn After Reading.
Films I haven't seen that might've counted: Che, Doubt, Frozen River, W., The Wrestler, My Winnipeg.