Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a festival of scale and intimacy — a crowd-pleasing blockbuster that also feels unmistakably Nolan: rigorous in structure, audacious in spectacle, and quietly human at its center. If any film is going to be remembered as the movie that owned summer 2026, this is it.

Last summer, The New York Times invited readers to assemble their own ballots for a “Readers’ Choice” edition of its list of the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century. For my ballot, I picked 10 somewhat random films from this century that I had watched (several of which have directly influenced my approach to filmmaking) and submitted them for consideration. A few of my choices ultimately appeared on The New York Times’ official list, while others received honorable mentions. Below are the ten films I selected, presented in alphabetical order, along with brief notes on why I consider each one to be among the standout films of the century.

With 2025 about to be a year behind us, here’s a look at my most anticipated films of 2026, ranking from what I’m really most excited about to ones where I’m simply just going to go in with an open mind and see what happens.

Happy New Year everyone! And as my last post of the year, here's my list of the top 10 films of 2023. What were some of your favorites from this year? See you in 2024.