Retains its magical allure and timeless romanticism —Box Office Magazine

The unforgettable, sublime Audrey Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar in her lead debut in this classic about a European princess pining both for a simple life and a handsome American reporter played by Gregory Peck. This gossamer romance and elegant comedy nabbed 10 Academy Award nominations. (William Wyler, 1953, 120 minutes)

A tremendous human drama, with each stage of its characters’ journey a white-knuckle thriller in miniature —Boston Globe

This eye-opening film follows the hazardous journey of two Afghan boys as they make an unimaginably arduous, multi-stage trip from Pakistan to London. Using non-professional actors and hand-held digital cinematography, director Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo) captures the astonishing trek made by thousands of refugees. (2002, 88 minutes)

The stuff legends are made of about the Walt Whitman of America’s Skid Row. —BBC

A fascinating, revealing and delightful documentary about Los Angeles’ hard-living and drinking Charles Bukowski, subject of the fictional film Barfly and author of seedy seminal works like Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Love Is a Dog from Hell. The film features archival footage of the brutally honest—and sometimes just brutal—Bukowski, abundant amounts of his writing, and interviews with friends and fans including Sean Penn and Bono. (John Dullaghan, 2003, 123 minutes)

A smart, sexy and seriously funny comedy —Rolling Stone

This mind-bending film from the deliciously twisted pen of Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) features stellar performances by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as lovers who opt to have all memories of their courtship erased, only to rue their decisions. Eternal Sunshine is an audacious, touching and droll romance. Entertainment Weekly writes: “Watching Eternal Sunshine, you don’t just watch a love story you fall in love with what love really is.” (Michel Gondry, 2004, 105 minutes)

Easily one of the finest pictures of this or any year —The New York Times

A powerful, clear-eyed drama about the tensions that marked East Pakistan’s violent transition into the nation of Bangladesh in 1971, The Clay Bird focuses on one family to illuminate struggles between Islam and Hinduism, country and city. Originally banned by the Dhaka government for “religiously sensitive” content, the film set box office records when finally released. (Tareque Masud, 2002, 94 minutes)

Consistently hilarious and unforgettable —Film Critic Leonard Maltin

Genius Charlie Chaplin’s final film featuring his beloved Tramp, Modern Times is not only extremely funny (Chaplin as a cog in a giant machine) but also insightful in its capitalist critique (Chaplin as a cog in a giant machine) and shocking in its content (a jailed Chaplin high on coke). Co-starring Paulette Goddard. A newly restored 35-mm print will add to the mirth. (1936, 84 minutes)

Cunningly elegant, hauntingly absurd —Village Voice

Developed from a script by the late master Krzysztof Kieslowski (Decalogue), The Big Animal is a slyly comic allegory about a Polish couple that “adopts” an abandoned, two-humped Bactrian circus camel and thereby becomes the unwilling center of a civic crisis. Shot in evocative, gorgeous black-and-white, the film is a whimsical gem. (Jerzy Stuhr, 2000, 72 minutes)

A harrowing, jaw-dropping tale of survival —Newsweek

In 1985 Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were the first climbers to ascend the formidable west face of the 21,000-foot Siula Grande Mountain in the Andes. On their descent disaster struck, and Yates believed he left Simpson for dead in an icy crevasse. This incredibly gripping docudrama recreates the most inspiring epic survival story in years. (Kevin Macdonald, 2003, 106 minutes)

Dazzling...a true piece of film magic directed with airtight ruthlessness —The New York Times

Both a searing indictment of the human cost of China’s evolving market economy and a nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller, Blind Shaft concerns two scheming coal miners who are led by their miserable circumstances into a world of blackmail and murder. (Li Yang, 2003, 92 minutes)

A revelatory examination...couldn’t be more timely —Newsday

A rare glimpse at life in today’s Iran, full of scenes rarely screened in the West, focused on the conflicts between the adherents of the Islamist regime established by the 1979 revolution against the Shah and those mostly younger or more educated people who find the Imams’ strict constraints oppressive. (Thierry Michel, 2003, 90 minutes)