Favourite films: 1930-2012

Some years ago I laboured over a list detailing my favourite film picks, decade by decade. Here's a slimmed-down list of my favourite films for each year from 1930 to 2012.

I should note that to me, the most important thing about a particular film is that I find it engaging on an emotional level, rather than appreciating a film for its intellectual or artistic achivement (sometimes, the two coincide). Obviously, I don't consider these films peers to each other - each is simply the film I most enjoyed from the particular calendar year.

I should also note I find it extremely challenging to list films from the 1970s; despite being the decade which birthed me, I find the 70s to be the least-interesting era of filmmaking. To each his own.

1930: All Quiet on the Western Front
1931: City Lights
1932: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
1933: Duck Soup
1934: It Happened One Night
1935: The 39 Steps
1936: Modern Times
1937: The Prisoner of Zenda
1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood
1939: Gunga Din
1940: Fantasia
1941: The Maltese Falcon
1942: Casablanca
1943: Shadow of a Doubt
1944: Arsenic and Old Lace
1945: Dead of Night
1946: It's a Wonderful Life
1947: Miracle on 34th Street
1948: Rope
1949: The Third Man
1950: Sunset Blvd.
1951: Scrooge
1952: Ikiru
1953: The Big Heat
1954: Rear Window
1955: The Ladykillers
1956: The Wrong Man
1957: 12 Angry Men
1958: Vertigo
1959: North by Northwest
1960: Psycho
1961: One, Two, Three
1962: To Kill a Mockingbird
1963: The Great Escape
1964: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1965: The Sound of Music
1966: What's Up, Tiger Lily?
1967: Wait Until Dark
1968: Rosemary's Baby
1969: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1970: Patton
1971: And Now for Something Completely Different
1972: Deliverance
1973: Serpico
1974: Dark Star
1975: The Man Who Would Be King
1976: Murder by Death
1977: The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
1978: Magic
1979: Being There
1980: The Empire Strikes Back
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1983: A Christmas Story
1984: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
1985: Ran
1986: Aliens
1987: The Untouchables
1988: Die Hard
1989: Glory
1990: Dances with Wolves
1991: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992: My Cousin Vinny
1993: Gettysburg
1994: Leon: The Professional
1995: Die Hard: With a Vengeance
1996: Star Trek: First Contact
1997: Grosse Pointe Blank
1998: Dark City
1999: Fight Club
2000: Chicken Run
2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002: About a Boy
2003: X-Men 2: X-Men United
2004: Shaun of the Dead
2005: Serenity
2006: The Lives of Others
2007: Hot Fuzz
2008: The Dark Knight
2009: Avatar
2010: Toy Story 3
2011: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
2012: The Avengers