o introduce my Top Ten films of 2006, I need to explain that my Top Ten lists are not lists of what I consider to be the ten best films of any given year. They are lists of my favourite ten films of any given year. Whether acknowledged or not, I think most film critics do this, though perhaps they equate the two. I do not equate the two. I believe The Queen and Pan’s Labyrinth were two of the ten best films made in 2006, but they did not impact me enough for either to make my top ten of the year. The impact a film has on me personally is the most important criterion for my favourite films.

a review by Vic Thiessen

The 19th of May saw the release of this year’s first potential blockbuster and it has evangelicals and Catholics around the world recommending boycotts amidst accusations that the film is deliberately undermining Christianity and fatally deceiving millions of people. Is this film the vanguard of a movement to destroy Christianity or is it an opportunity to dialogue with people who are searching for truth, people who (like the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century) feel they have been misled by the church and that Christianity lacks integrity?

by Vic Thiessen
LMC Director

For me, 2005 was a great year for film (much better, at least, than 2003 and 2004). My three favourite films of the year are all better, in my opinion, than most of the films of the past decade. Here are my top ten, with mini-reviews for each.

1. Joyeux Noel – Christmas in the trenches in 1914. This is what film-making was meant to do. Glorious. For more information, see my review: Merry Christmas: The Perfect Remembrance Day Film on the Anabaptist Network website.