Every year brings a new set of expectations. But as the year progresses, expectations can turn into joy, frustration, even misery. For the avid movie fan a new year comes with the salubrious promise of exaltation. Let the WearetheMovies.com team take you through its selection of ten of the finest movies of 2009.

Avatar (James Cameron): When James Cameron took every major award and all the box office loot for his groundbreaking disaster tragedy Titanic, he went into hiding. Avatar sees him return, after a 12-year hiatus, with his first major motion picture (not counting the experimental IMAX documentaries he has worked on during the last decade, including the quasi-narrative film The Ghosts of the Abyss). Avatar is set two centuries in the future and combines themes Cameron is best known for: aliens, machines and sci-fi turned into high pop-art. In the hands of anyone else this would be throwaway pulp; but Jim Cameron has the talent, skills and technology to pull it off, and with zesty style!

Public Enemies (Michael Mann): Even when a Michael Mann movie doesn’t turn out too well (Miami Vice), it still remains watchable for a breathtaking tango between cops and criminals. When Mann is at the top of his game, however (Heat, Collateral), you can expect fierce performances and a hypnotic insider-look into the world of crime. Public Enemies is notable not only for Mann taking his familiar obsession into a historical setting — the American crime scene during the 1930′s — but for also casting Johnny Depp and Christian Bale on opposite sides of the law. Expect fireworks.

The Informant (Steven Soderberg): With Matt Damon as an informant blowing the whistle on his company’s illegal financial activities, don’t expect another Bourne. In the hands of indie champ Steven Soderberg, you never know what to expect, really. He is, after all, the same man who not only made the frolicking Ocean’s trilogy and last year’s anti-biopic Che, but also somber mood pieces like Solaris and Traffic. With his reputation for technical perfection balanced with good entertainment values, Informant can be a real winner.

Up (Pete Docter & Bob Peterson): One word: Pixar. There are animated films, and then there are films by Pixar. As a brand, they are cinema’s equivalent of a quality stamp, and their films come off the assembly line of a factory that discriminates in quality, not quantity. May be this could explain why they have only produced about a dozen films in a decade-and-a-half of activity. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. Expect genuine laughs, inventiveness and on the whole, a terrific time at the movies.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood): Superhero films with a recognizable main star, a strong director coming off of critical acclaim and a great lineup of character actors seem to be a trend that the superhero subgenre has adapted quite well. Wolverine offers perhaps the best use of this combo yet. Hugh Jackman returns to the role that introduced him to the world in an origin story that promises to explore one of Marvel Comics’ best known and most intriguing tales: how the ‘Weapon X’ program changed a man named Logan into a feral, adamantium-laced mutant. Gavin Hood’s track record (he won a Best Foreign Film Academy Award for his debut film Tsotsi) makes this an intriguing film, and worth looking forward to.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam): When not one, but four actors play the same character in a film, you know you just have to see how a director pulls it off. When those actors happen to be Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and the late Heath Ledger, and the story is about a travelling theatre company in a film directed by Terry Gilliam, the manic talent behind 12 Monkeys and Brazil, how can you resist? Yep, neither could we.

The International (Tom Tykwer): These days, financial woes and the big enterprises behind them seem to be offering more scandalous tabloid fodder than your average celebrity. Exploring this theme in a fictional setting is the new film by German wunderkind Tom Tykwer, whose Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of the most artistic filmic explorations of the serial killer genre. Here he teams up with the perennially-cool Clive Owen, who plays an Interpol agent investigation the roots of corruption, and becoming embroiled in it against his better judgment.

The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson): After zestfully exploring the world of Hobbits and then a giant gorilla named King Kong, New Zealand’s most bankable export, director Peter Jackson, returns to what promises to be his roots — drama. Anyone who has ever seen his earlier films (Heavenly Creatures, Braindead) knows that Jackson has a fascination with the morbid. Lovely Bones, a story from the perspective of a dead girl, promises to be both interesting and inventive.

The Road (John Hillcoat): The director of the Australian outback Western Proposition adapts a post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old men. Viggo Mortensen stars in this father-and-son quest through a desolate land, to find something, anything. Expect it to be more realistic and thought-provoking than the hokey Hollywood blockbuster I Am Legend.

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino): Love him or loathe him, there is no denying the cinematic appeal of Hollywood’s most avant-garde stylist. Quentin Tarantino’s track record remained spotless until 2007′s Grindhouse, but since he only made one-half of that film, we may be persuaded to forgive him. Basterds is his take on the overdone WWII/Nazi film genre, but we’re willing to cut Mr. Tarantino some slack and let him awe us with cleverly-constructed improbable situations. Brad Pitt headlines the stellar cast which includes Diane Kruger, Mike Meyers and Michael Fassbender.

Special Mention:

Tree of Life (Terrence Malick): A Terrence Malick film is a rare cinematic event. He rarely makes anything. He spent two decades between 1978′s Days of Heaven and his next film, 1998′s The Thin Red Line. All four films from his acclaimed body of work are unique, unquestionable cinematic classics. 2009 will be a special year because he releases his fifth film, the intriguingly titled Tree of Life. It stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and will be a visual and aural treat. Expect nothing but the very best.

The results were polled by Faizan Rashid, John Murdoch, Kamal Tolani, Shariq Madani and Layth Barzangi.