Ang Lee’s haunting Brokeback Mountain is on top of my list. This groundbreaking film instantly became a cultural phenomenon worldwide and already stands as a milestone in the history of cinema. Like a few other exceptional masterpieces over the last decades, it changed the way we look at movies. It was one of the best directed and acted movies in recent years and was indisputably the “most talked about film of the year” and the “most acclaimed film of the decade” - in short, it is a true landmark film.

Heath Ledger rendered an outstanding and unforgettable portrayal of Ennis del Mar - his heart-breaking performance ranks among the most powerful and poignant by a male actor ever seen on the silver screen. Thanks to the brilliant short story by Annie Proulx, the remarkable screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, the sensitive and masterful direction by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain set new standards in American cinema. This film is at once the most lyrical, powerful, inspirational, and yet heart-wrenching film we’ve seen in a long time. It has done what very few films can: it made us feel, it made us think, it made us reflect on the true value & meaning of ours lives.

Brokeback Mountain did not fit the conventional and typical Hollywood mold. The fact that such an exceptional cinematic accomplishment got snubbed for the Best Picture Oscar after an unprecedented and historic sweep in virtually all precursor awards tells much more about the irrelevance, the pettiness & the short-sightedness of the LA-based Academy than it does about the film, especially when considering the fact that the big prize ended up going to a less-than-ordinary and much inferior movie. This incomprehensible and shocking upset clearly demonstrated how important and meaningful Brokeback Mountain was. In the end, this film was probably too good, too profound, simply too honest and truthful for Tinseltown.

Almost two years after its release, there are still references to this remarkable film in newspapers, on television, on the Internet and in various columns around the world on a daily basis. Brokeback Mountain has attained instant cult status and its impact has crossed borders - it is already considered a “reference” and a “timeless classic”. Brokeback Mountain is a movie “that will never grow old”.