5) United 93 (Winner: The Departed)

4) City of God (Winner: LOTR: The Return of the King)

3) Vertigo (Winner: Gigi)

2) Psycho (Winner: The Apartment)

1) The Seven Samurai (Winner: Around the World in 80 Days)

Thank you to everyone who cast their votes in our difficult Top Five this week. Oscar fans know that a fair amount of the time, the wrong picture wins Best Picture, but sometimes the best picture isn't even nominated.

For my money, it's happened two years in a row, with United 93 making our list and Zodiac not. I'm leaving Zodiac off the list because there really were a lot of great films in 2007 and Zodiac was so bungled by its studio that it really didn't stand much of a chance of standing out late in the year. I still think it's the best film from top to bottom of 2007, and I feel that over time, it will take on a following not unlike The Shawshank Redemption. That movie, of course, got nominated for Best Picture.

City of God is not only a personal favorite but, like Zodiac, a popular choice for this poll. Hyperbole aside, it may be remembered as the best film this decade. I believe it's the best crime movie I've ever seen, in any language. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Director, Screenplay and Cinematography...three pretty important components of any Best Picture.

Interestingly, when you look at our list, three of the five were nominated for Best Director, and usually, that means a Best Picture nod as well. Only Vertigo and Seven Samurai missed the boat. That's OK; Kurosawa and Hitchcock really didn't contribute much to the culture of cinema...aside from being arguably the two greatest directors who ever lived.

Both Vertigo and Samurai did get nominations for Best Set Decoration, in case you're wondering. How about that, though: Two of the Mt. Rushmore directors have a combined six nominations for Best Director. And not that I think the IMDB list of the greatest films of all time is incredibly accurate, those two men are responsibly for just under 10% of the top 100 films of all time.

But yes, Vertigo, which is Hitch's artistic high point, was ignored, as was Psycho, perhaps his most unpredictable and certainly most imitated film. It was also the film that got the most votes and most number one votes in our poll. I would argue that these two movies are his best directed, but my personal favorite film, Rear Window, was also left out in the cold in a Best Picture race, even though it's another of Hitchcock's Best Director nominations.

Why Seven Samurai at number one? If you have to ask, you haven't seen it. There might be ten or twelve movies ever made that are in its league.