From New Orleans to Iraq, France to South America, we crisscross the globe and count down our favorites of the year

By MSN Movies contributors

Welcome to the third annual MSN Movies top 10 films poll. We are continuing our, ahem, long tradition of presenting 10 viewpoints from 10 critics that add up to some sort of hodgepodge representing the best movies of 2009. The method is simple: 10 critics vote for their 10 favorite films. Films are assigned points based on their ranking, and BAM!: We have a list that no one is TOTALLY happy about but sure causes much heated debate, at least among ourselves and hopefully with you as well. The rub this year? Well, for the most part, we all agreed that the top movie of the year was between two films. Wonders never cease.

If you want to jump to the individual lists, you can do so. But we hope you count down the top 10 with us. And then write in and let us know what we missed. -- Dave McCoy, MSN Entertainment

See also: MSN's Decade's Dozen

More:
TimeOut New York's top 50 of the decade
Moviefone's most overrated movies of the year 
UGO's Top 11
Rotten Tomatoes' best of the decade