Well not as if my tastes need defending but a good bit of melodrama can go a long way. Obviously looking at arsaib's list I wasn't the only person fond of Crash. To me the film spoke on a timely issue with a nice mixture of compassion and entertainment. As much as I love foreign films, due to my upbringing and location, my greatest exposure is to US releases, and the easiest films to see are mainstream. I completely missed Innocence, if in fact it ever was released in the US. Likewise there are a lot of films I still need to see, but I felt I saw enough to comment on the ten best of the year. 

As for my taste well its always like this. I mean looking at my list from 1980, my two favorite films are Berlin Alexanderplatz and Ordinary People, certainly a contrasting pair. I'm sorry you find my taste for "moronic mainstream films" appalling, but you shouldn't be too quick to dismiss them. Some critics become quite the opposite, movie snobs dismissing first rate films just because they have a large budget and are playing in mainstream theaters. I also don't find much of a stretch including Pride and Prejudice and the Weeping Meadow on the same list. Both films are period pictures with strong female leads shot primarily with long tracking shots, perhaps I only put Pride ahead because it had a sense of humor whereas Angelopoulus' film was almost completly downbeat.

btw where's your list?