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Bob Mondello's Top Films of 2003

By Bob Mondello
Published December 31, 2003 at 12:00 AM EST

After a record-setting Christmas, Hollywood wraps up the year with more than $9 billion in the till -- the second-biggest box office total in its history. Film reviewer Bob Mondello says a large part of that money was well-earned: some of 2003's most popular movies were also among the year's best. He offers a list of the year's top films, in no particular order:

Top 10 Films of 2003

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson

Finding Nemo, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich

The Barbarian Invasions, directed by Denys Arcand

Capturing the Friedmans, directed by Andrew Jarecki

City of God, directed by Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles

House of Sand and Fog, directed by Vadim Perelman

Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola

21 Grams, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

American Splendor, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini

Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols (HBO)

Other Notable Films

In America, directed by Jim Sheridan

Girl with a Pearl Earring, directed by Peter Webber

Monster, directed by Patty Jenkins

Shattered Glass, directed by Billy Ray

Spellbound, directed by Jeffrey Blitz

My Architect: A Son's Journey, directed by Nathaniel Kahn

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, directed by Errol Morris

Spider, directed by David Cronenberg

Holes, directed by Andrew Davis

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.
See stories by Bob Mondello

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Donate