1. An Education: Nick Hornby's sensitive adaptation of journlaist Lynn Barber's excellent memoir of her first boyfriend.
2. Tales From The Golden Age: Portmanteau film with five stories about the horrific final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime in Romania.
3. Fantastic Mr Fox: Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl is full of quirky magic — with a sly George Clooney voicing Mr Fox.
4. Bright Star: Jane Campion's imaginative portrayal of the Keats/Brawne love affair.
5. Disney's A Christmas Carol: Starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

Critics' Choice

Fay Maschler

quote With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun quote

Babbo Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quote This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection quote

Bright Star Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quote Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off quote

Seize The Day

Reader reviews

Film

Squiz, Islington

quote I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd. quote

An Education Theatre

Joe, London

quote I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre. quote

This Much Is True Restaurants

Hiroshi Sugiyama

quote I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto quote

Aqua Kyoto

Star Wars loses best sci-fi crown

By This is London 02.04.07

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Classic sci-fi: But Star Wars has been knocked off the top spot

No1: Serenity topped the poll

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Film classic Star Wars has lost its crown as the world's best sci-fi movie.

George Lucas's Star Wars debut has been usurped by the little-known 2005 title Serenity in a poll of sci-fi favourites.

Gallery: See the top 10 sci-fi films here

Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is third, following 1977 classic Star Wars.

Planet Of The Apes scoops fourth place, followed by Keanu Reeves's film The Matrix and Sigourney Weaver's Alien.

Others in the top ten include Fifties classic Forbidden Planet, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Terminator, which launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's career.

The Michael J Fox time-travelling classic Back to the Future takes tenth place in the SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.

Serenity, about the crew of a spaceship of the same name, was a spin-off from a short-lived US TV series.

SFX magazine editor Dave Bradley said: "Seeing Serenity topple Star Wars as the UK's favourite sci-fi movie is a massive surprise.

"The TV show may have been cancelled, yet the Serenity universe clearly struck a chord with fans, thanks to its likeable characters, witty dialogue and amazing special effects.

"Our list features some really classic movies, many of which, like Serenity, launched to no praise or applause at the box office, but have lived on for many years thanks to the fans, and continue to influence today's films and TV."

The Top Ten

1. Serenity (2005)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Blade Runner (1982)
4. Planet of the Apes (1968)
5. The Matrix (1999)
6. Alien (1979)
7. Forbidden Planet (1956)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
9. The Terminator (1984)
10. Back to the Future (1985)

Reader views (4)

Add your view

Nobody will remember Serenity in three years time let alone thirty . Star Wars is the Sci Fi film classic and that can never change. I really enjoyed Serenity but it is not a great film. It changed nothing.

- Ben, Brighton, East Sussex

hot, I LOVE Serenity and I generally hate outerspace movies so its good in my book.

- Lambman, st. paul, usa

I agree that Star Wars was a great sci-fi film, but the script and acting are nowhere near as good as Serenity. The characters are so much deeper, funnier and more believable. Kudos to the Browncoats for supporting Serenity!

All the movies in the top 10 are really good films.

- Devil, California, United States

Serenity is a fantastic film and was a great TV show as well. It was such a shame it was cancelled. Hopefully there will be a few more Serenity films (even though a couple of major charecters were killed off in the film) Star Wars will always be a classic. But I think the last three films have tarnished its appeal a bit.

- Liz, London