It's been a terrific year internationally for cinema, easily the strongest I've seen since 1994. So many of this year's films have been innovative, or memorable, or striking, or just remarkably beautiful, that it's proven impossible to distill a year's worth of highlights into a mere ten choices. Highlights seem to have grouped themselves into threes, though, so I can offer ten triplets of the best moments in film that I've had this year.

The following are chosen from among films that either premiered in 2002, or premiered in 2001 but that I saw for the first time in 2002.