Mischa Hayek's picks:

1. Slumdog Millionaire

   A wonderful film, and my pick for Best Movie of 2008, Slumdog Millionaire, codirected by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, tells the remarkable story of three children orphaned during India’s Muslim-Hindu riots of the 1990s, who grow up on their own in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi. The story is told through the eyes of 18-year-old Jamal K. Malik (Dev Patel), as he’s being beaten and tortured at a police station for suspected cheating on the Indian version of the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It’s at the end of Jamal’s first day on the show, and despite having had almost no education, he has been able to amass a small fortune by correctly answering a series of increasingly difficult trivia questions. With only one question remaining, Jamal can walk away with over 60 million rupees. His explanations to his interrogators of how he knew the answers provide windows through which we see, via flashbacks, how Jamal and his older brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), survived the slums, and of the hardships endured by their childhood friend Latika (Freida Pinto), with whom Jamal is now in love.

   Scripted by Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog was based on the award-winning novel Q&A, by former diplomat Vikas Swarup. Slumdog had a very limited American release, to smaller theaters and repertory film houses, in early November 2008, but persistent word-of-mouth finally convinced executives to release it nationwide in late January.

   Slumdog Millionaire may not be of epic length at exactly two hours, but as it traces the lives of the three children through countless trials and dangers over a decade, it feels like a genuine epic. This extraordinary film is one of the best independent releases to come along in ages.

2. Wall-E
   
   
3. Doubt
   
   
4. The Reader
   
   
5. The Wrestler
   
   
6. Rachel Getting Married
   
   
7. Burn After Reading
   
   
8. Tropic Thunder
   
   
9. Shine a Light
   
   
10. Milk

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