Written By: Emanuel Caros

As a budding film buff, I take pride in seeing a larger quantity of films than most people.  In fact, what little free time I had over the past 12 months was spent at movie theaters all over South Florida.  But in preparing to list my thoughts on the best  films released this year, I was surprised to found out how few I actually saw.  Because of that I am sadly unqualified to make an assertion regarding 2010's best releases while omitting certain films that potentially warrant a spot on such a list.

In place of a top-10 list, I figured a listing of the most noteworthy movies of 2010 would work similarly:
10. 
Animal Kingdom - the foreign import was scarcely shown in the US, but highly regarded as akin to The Godfather.
9. 
Winter's Bone - the tale of a teenage girl in the mid-west bearing the obligations of her deadbeat father as she searches to keep her family afloat is unrelentingly dark and suspenseful, though borderline boring at times.
8. 
True Grit - The Coen Brothers' follow-up to last year's great A Serious Man is a re-make of an old John Wayne classic that possibly one-ups the original.
7. 
Shutter Island - criminally underrated, Scorsese 's suspenseful epic was extremely polarizing upon its release but should become a classic with time.
6. 
The King's Speech - The trailer made this Colin Firth vehicle look like the usual British Oscar bait, but in fact is a surprisingly humorous account of a war-time struggle.
5. 
Inception - Christopher Nolan hasn't made a bad film, and his summer mega-hit was no exception.  Despite a brain-wracking (don't you dare say "mind-blowing") plot involving three stories-within the main story, audiences still came in droves to see this blockbuster.
4. 
Kick-Ass/Scott Pilgrim vs. The World- the tie goes to the two comic book adaptations which elevated the genre to new heights.  Unfortunately at this point the taste of a third Spiderman (and second Fantastic Four) continues to linger in theater-goer's mouths, possibly keeping them from seeing these two films.  Either way, both were flawed, yet AWESOME, in their own right.  
3. 
Exit Through the Gift Shop - The documentary is evolving beyond straight-up talking heads re-telling a story.  The Banksy-directed (er, edited) film about street art involves a twist that outshines Catfish and I'm Still Here by miles.
2.
The Social Network - In the same exclusive group as Nolan, David Fincher has done no wrong.  With "The Facebook Movie" he deviated from his genre-driven themes and made a blockbuster; turning a rapid-firing Aaron Sorkin script into a full-blown wonder.
1. 
Black Swan - Add Darren Aronofsky to the list of the best directors if you haven't already.  2010 seemed to be the year of the director, and Aronofsky's major stepping-out was with this powerful drama set in the world of ballet.  Despite showing his cards too early, Aronofsky's film is gorgeous, and the best film of the year.

Runner's Up:
Enter the Void
Toy Story 3
Mesrine
Buried
The Crazies
Never Let Me Go
Restrepo
I Love You Phillip Morris
Catfish

Any disagreements?  Did we exclude a movie that should've been on this list?  Comment and let us know what you thought was the best of 2010.