Retro Muriels Bonus: Best of the Aughts

Finally, as a last palate cleanser before this year's awards begin, here's my picks for the best of the last decade by category:

Best Picture:
The New World
Waking Life
Audition
8 Women
Dogville
There Will Be Blood
25th Hour
The Son
Synecdoche, New York
Beau Travail

Best Director:
Terrence Malick, The New World
Lars von Trier, Dogville
Takashi Miike, Audition
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Spike Lee, 25th Hour

Best Lead Performance, Female:
Emmanuelle Devos, Gilles’ Wife
Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Carice Van Houten, Black Book
Charlotte Rampling, Under the Sand

Best Lead Performance, Male:
Olivier Gourmet, The Son
Damian Lewis, Keane
Sam Rockwell, Joshua
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom

Best Supporting Performance, Male:
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Nick Nolte, Clean
Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
Ray Winstone, The Proposition
Peter Sarsgaard, Shattered Glass

Best Supporting Performance, Female:
Mia Kershner, The Black Dahlia
Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain
Juliette Binoche, Code Unknown
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Maria Bello, A History of Violence

Best Screenplay:
Synecdoche, New York
The Prestige
Primer
25th Hour
The Secret Lives of Dentists

Best Ensemble Performance:
8 Women
Dogville
Zodiac
Offside
Kings and Queen

Best Cinematography:
The New World (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Beau Travail (Agnès Godard)
Gerry (Harris Savides)
In the Mood for Love (Christopher Doyle and Mark-li Ping-bin)
Silent Light (Alexis Zabe)

Best Music:
25th Hour (Terence Blanchard)
There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
Waking Life (Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra)
Birth (Alexandre Desplat)
WALL*E (Thomas Newman)

Best Cinematic Moment (unranked):
25th Hour – last temptation of Monty
Bus 174 – slow motion apprehension gone awry
Caché – “I just wanted you to be present”
Déjà vu – interchronological car chase
Oldboy – hammer time
Ratatouille – Ego’s flashback
Talk to Her – “Shrinking Lover”
We Own the Night – rainstorm ambush
Werckmeister Harmonies – cosmos (opening shot)
You, the Living – honeymoon fantasy
Young @ Heart – “Fix You”