I'm holding my tentative list for the remaining days in the year, but I'm pleased and a little surprised to see that despite my watching a lot more movies on pay-per-view this year than ever before, and thus being rather more behind on average, everything in my top 10 qualifies in 2005 by my old theater-centric criteria that its "first" run at venues near me took place at least in part in 2005, and I think only one opened here in 2004, and that only in mid-December.
Only three American films in my draft top ten, but two of them are #1 and #2.
22 December 05 from Michael Zwirn 1
Looking for recommendations or top 10 lists for 2005 (or, first seen in 2005) films.
Among those in contention for me -- and yes, I got to a lot of these late:
Fallen Angel: Gram Parsons (UK/Germany 2004)
Friday Night Lights (2004)
The Edukators (2004, Germany)
The Merchant of Venice (UK/Italy/Luxembourg 2004)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Nausicaä and the Valley of the Winds (Japan 1984/USA 2004)
Millions (UK, 2004)
Batman Begins (2005)