For a marathon to work, you need a few films that people already love, at least one genuine discovery, and something that sparks a conversation at the end.
Looking back, the 2000s were a golden era for this kind of filmmaking - studios still willing to fund serious work, directors still pushing at the edges of what was expected.
A great drama earns every emotion it asks of you. Nothing is unearned. Nothing is manipulated. You feel it because the film has made you care.
A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung.
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's minister. Jamie has a "to-do" list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon.
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
What makes these films exceptional is their patience. They trust that the slow accumulation of small moments can be more devastating than any single event.
In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.
A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld - The Batman.
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
A film earns your tears by making you believe in its characters first. These films do that work thoroughly, then use it.
The best dramas don't tell you how to feel. They create conditions in which you can't help feeling â deeply, and without warning.