This year's top 10 lists by the film critics of The Hollywood Reporter illustrate the increasing difficulty we all have at arriving at such decisions. I know more time went into making these torturous determinations than into writing reviews of some of the year's movies.

What made it so troublesome this year -- what compelled me to constantly revise and rethink this list -- is what makes moviegoing vastly more interesting than even a decade ago. Whereas once a critic could cobble together a decent list of Hollywood, indie and foreign pictures, today entries from the fields of animation and documentary also force their way onto most critics' lists. Every single top 10 list by The Hollywood Reporter's film critics contains either documentaries or cartoons or both.

"Finding Nemo," the stunningly beautiful and fanciful animated film from Pixar via the Walt Disney Co., appears on three critics' lists, while three documentaries -- "Capturing the Friedmans," "The Fog of War" and "Spellbound" -- found their way onto at least one critic's list. Soon, perhaps, animation and documentaries will require their own top 10 lists.

Five films appear on three of the four critics' lists: Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's startling feature debut, "American Splendor"; Andrew Jarecki's controversial documentary "Capturing the Friedmans"; Peter Jackson's final installment of his awesome trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"; Sofia Coppola's droll study in isolation "Lost in Translation"; and Clint Eastwood's masterful examination of violence "Mystic River."

As happened last year, no single film made it onto every list. And, again as happened in 2002, several highly touted Oscar contenders failed to make a single list. I speak only for myself when I say that such films as "Cold Mountain," "The Last Samurai," "Kill Bill-Vol. 1" and "The Human Stain" failed to make my list not because I did not admire the filmmaking skill and extraordinary ambitions in these films but because other films simply dazzled me more.

What appears on my list are films that not only transported me to unimagined realms but seem to speak to new possibilities in cinema. Who could have imagined such a dazzling and original comedy of depression as "American Splendor"? Did anyone expect Coppola to make such a delightful comedy of alienation as "Lost in Translation"? A film like "Mystic River" is not entirely unexpected from Eastwood, yet he made this film, in the words of Taiwanese director Edward Yang, in "the eased, relaxed, comfortable and confident strokes of a master."

In the documentary category, "Capturing the Friedmans," a troubling study in ambiguity, proved once again how elusive and perhaps illusory the search for "truth" can be. Meanwhile, "Fog of War," from veteran documentarian Errol Morris, which grew out of 20 hours of interviews with Robert S. McNamara, may well change a few minds about that controversial political figure so long connected with the American disaster in Vietnam.

Then there is "The Return of the King" looming over 2003. Against all odds, Jackson succeeded in visualizing J.R.R. Tolkien's classic of the imagination for a global audience that demanded fidelity to the book's letter and spirit as well as movie magic unlike any we have witnessed before.

My greatest struggle came in trying to find a way to get such films as "The Man Without a Past," "Girl With a Pearl Earring," "Man on the Train," "Finding Nemo," "Sweet Sixteen" and "The Triplets of Belleville" on my list. These too are films that overflow with the joy of telling stories on film.

The critics' lists follow:

KIRK HONEYCUTT
1. American Splendor
2. In America
3. 21 Grams
4. In This World
5. Lost in Translation
6. Fog of War
7. Divine Intervention
8. Mystic River
9. Capturing the Friedmans
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

FRANK SCHECK
1. Mystic River
2. Finding Nemo
3. House of Sand and Fog
4. The Station Agent
5. Lost in Translation
6. Capturing the Friedmans
7. Seabiscuit
8. Spellbound
9. 21 Grams
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

SHERI LINDEN
1. Lost in Translation
2. In This World
3. American Splendor
4. Finding Nemo
5. The Fog of War
6. Capturing the Friedmans
7. The Barbarian Invasions
8. Raising Victor Vargas
9. Marooned in Iraq
10. Girl With a Pearl Earring

MICHAEL RECHTSHAFFEN
1. In America
2. Finding Nemo
3. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
4. American Splendor
5. The Station Agent
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
7. Pieces of April
8. The Barbarian Invasions
9. Mystic River
10. City of God