So this year, the big movie challenge was to watch 365 films, one for each day. They could be either first time views or repeats, just not the same film in the same year for it to count. Here was my final total, and the best films that were new to me, broken down by genre:

In repeat views this year, I watched 191 different films, most of them old favorites to balance out some of the iffy first time views. As far as FTVs went, I watched 205 new to me films, for a grand total of 396 movies viewed, beating the set challenge by 31. Hurrah!

Narrowing down the best of the first time views was a difficult task, because there were a lot of films that I pegged throughout the year as highlights. 62 films made the cut for the best of the year; here they are broken down by genre, with the top film of each genre in bold:

ACTION: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Bullitt, Rolling Thunder, Massacre Mafia Style

COMEDY: Bernie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Withnail & I, The Lavender Hill Mob, A Slight Case of Murder, The Lemon Drop Kid, Wreck-it Ralph

DOCUMENTARY: Jiro Dreams of Sushi, The Impostor, Kumare, Marwencol, Bully, The Woman Who Wasn’t There, My Amityville Horror, Room 237*, The Thin Blue Line

(*NOTE: Room 237 is tenuously a documentary, more of an exercise in style, yet was hard to slot in under any other category – controversial, it was as fascinating as it was infuriating)

DRAMA: Lawrence of Arabia, The Untouchables, Compliance, Stalag 17, The Defiant Ones, Medium Cool, Rocky Balboa, Dead Weight, I Confess, The Great Waldo Pepper, Broadcast News, Beau Travail, Stablemates, Sleuth

HORROR (this is a big one, and gets two picks for the top spot): Cannibal Apocalypse, Pet Sematary, Tenebre, Deep Red, The Awakening, Burn Witch Burn, Sugar Hill, Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Magic, The Conjuring, You’re Next, Q: The Winged Serpent, Wake In Fright, American Mary, The Baby, Scream 4, Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Wild Zero, Murders at the Zoo, Grabbers, Berberian Sound Studio, ParaNorman

NOIR: Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street, Call Northside 777, The Naked City

SCIENCE FICTION: Looper, Pacific Rim, Paprika, Flash Gordon

Of the eight top films, picking the best first time view of the year was incredibly hard. I’ve ranked them here:

8. Paprika

7. You’re Next

6. Scarlet Street

5. The Impostor

4. Rolling Thunder

3. Wake In Fright

2. Bernie

1. Lawrence of Arabia

And that was…my 2013 in film! Thanks for coming along on this ride, and I look forward to watching even more amazing new-to-me cinema in 2014.

CHEERS!