There isn't a more calming opening logo before a film than for Focus Features. When you see it, you just know you are in for some light middlebrow British costume drama, a life-affirming documentary, or a glossy, high-minded genre picture. Regardless of what genre the film is, the chances of it being something high quality with a sturdy sense of craft of beauty are basically a given. Since their creation in 2002 after branching off from USA Films, every year promises at least one terrific feature from Universal's independent distribution arm, including some of the finest films of the 21st Century as a whole.

To celebrate the distributor's 20th anniversary, let's look at 20 of their greatest triumphs, from the sweeping romances to the off-beat comedies. Focus Features has long relationships with many tremendous directors, such as Edgar Wright, Joe Wright, and Ang Lee, but each filmmaker will be limited to just one spot on the list. With that caveat out of the way, let's take an alphabetical look at some of their finest pictures.

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Atonement (2007)

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In a lot of ways, Atonement is the ideal Focus Features presentation. An elegant, gorgeously photographed British period drama on the surface, but the heart of Joe Wright's sophomore feature is something much more complicated and emotionally dense. This story of longing and heartache still cuts to your heart 15 years later, as the pain of the thwarted romance between Keira Knightley and James McAvoy makes you sink further and further down with each passing moment. Wright's dizzying camerawork and knack for capturing lush imagery have never been better on display, and he found the next great star in Saoirse Ronan as the immensely frustrating Briony. While the film was caught in the crosshair of 2007 between the hard-nosed No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, now Atonement can stand on its own as the masterpiece that it is. Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina also made strong bids for this list, but if it is just going to be one Joe Wright film, it will be this one. Also, what can be said about Keira Knightley's green dress that has not already been said?

Brick (2006)

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Before he was making people online go absolutely insane, Rian Johnson began his directorial career with the ultra low-budget neo-noir Brick. Bursting onto the scene the year before at the Sundance Film Festival, this teenage detective story takes all the tropes of the classic noirs of Hollywood's golden age and pulp detective stories and remixes them into a film about high schoolers. Like all of Johnson's work, it is extremely clever, wonderfully made, and never goes where you expect it to. This film also helped turn Joseph Gordon-Levitt from being the kid on a sitcom to an actor to be reckoned with. Focus Features may make their name with more prestigious pictures, but the genre section of their output cannot be ignored. Brick is one of their best entries in that subcategory.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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People are still mad that Brokeback Mountain lost Best Picture to Crash at the Academy Awards, and they have every right to still be angry. Ang Lee's adaptation of the short story by Annie Proulx was a landmark film for queer cinema, both in terms of its cultural impact but also for just being an excellent picture. Rarely are romances in film able to be this heartfelt and honest in their depictions of intimacy. Heath Ledger delivers a masterclass in how to properly convey repression and self-loathing on screen, and he has a formidable on-screen partner in Jake Gyllenhaal. The guitar score by Gustavo Santaolalla is achingly gorgeous and has been endlessly copied ever since. Brokeback Mountain is a special film that captured so much lightning in a bottle, and it should have won Best Picture. Period. Also, almost all the sheep in the film are CG sheep, which is just wild.

Coraline (2009)

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Focus Features has not released many animated films over its 20-year history. Most of them have been the stop-motion films produced by Laika, and easily their best work was their first. Coraline, adapted from the novel by Neil Gaiman, comes to us from stop-motion master Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. This film finds the perfect balance between the fun and the creepy to appeal to people of every age. Coraline came at the onset of the 3D craze and probably utilized the technology better than any film made in the era outside of Avatar. The meticulous craft that goes into making a stop-motion animated feature is on full display here, creating so many indelible, often haunting, images. No matter how technologically wondrous the subsequent Laika films have been, they have never matched the storytelling prowess on display in Coraline to match that visual wizardry. Here, it's just the right balance.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

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The mind of Charlie Kaufman can be filled with existential dread and panic. Filter that through the lens of the playful Michel Gondry, and you have a film that simultaneously traffics in the incredible highs and lows of love. The premise of being able to erase the memories of a particular person from your mind sounds like the set-up of a dystopian science fiction film, but this quirky dramedy explores every facet of relationships, romance, sex, and regret that a film can possibly tackle. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have never been better than they are here, getting to play a range of tones that could span another actor's entire career. There's truly no other film like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it has rightfully joined the ranks as a classic of the 21st Century.

Far from Heaven (2002)

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Todd Haynes' homage to the king of Technicolor melodrama Douglas Sirk is the kind of mid-budget stylistic exercise we do not get to see that often anymore. Haynes perfectly captures the look and feel of films like Imitation of Life and All That Heaven Allows brilliantly while being able to add in all the thematic components those films were not allowed to tackle explicitly. Interracial love and queer love would not have flown in the Hays Code era of the 1950s, but in 2002, placing these things in the context of those older films was pretty radical, especially because of how accurate the homage is. Julianne Moore delivers one of her finest performances surrounded by a great cast of Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, and Viola Davis. Far from Heaven was just Focus Features' fourth release, and it still stands as one of their best.

In Bruges (2008)

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We now live in a world where everyone basically agrees that Colin Farrell is one of our best actors. Between The Batman and After Yang this year (getting released on the same day, no less), his status as an enormously compelling, versatile star is unimpeachable. Back in 2008, though, he had been in a string of leading man roles that didn't use him well and his personal life was in disarray. 2008 comes along, and he stars alongside Brendan Gleeson in this small black comedy about two hitmen from beloved playwright and first-time director Martin McDonagh. Rightfully so, this is what started the Farrell renaissance, letting him play colors and comedy we had never seen from him before. His chemistry with Gleeson is absolutely off the charts impressive, and letting us see the darkness lurking inside him was brave. He won a Golden Globe for the part and should have at least been Oscar-nominated. Over a decade later, In Bruges is this incredible ball of energy, humor, and pathos that still shows you new sides to Farrell every time you watch it.

Lost in Translation (2003)

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If we want to talk about people who should have won Oscars, we have another perfect example with Bill Murray for his performance in Lost in Translation. The sophomore feature from Sofia Coppola was a major risk, precisely because she was unsure if Murray was actually going to show up to filming. He is famously difficult to get ahold of if you want him to be in your film, and while he tacitly agreed to be in Lost in Translation, there was very little communication between the two before shooting started in Japan. Luckily, he did show up and delivered a performance of a lifetime, and his co-star, a young Scarlett Johansson, matches him every step of the way. Lost in Translation is a deeply personal film for Coppola, and you can feel it in every single frame. It is one of the great portraits of loneliness and our desperate need for connection ever put on film.

Loving (2016)

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When you hear the pitch for Loving, a based-on-a-true story film about the Loving vs. Virginia case to overturn the ban on interracial marriage, that sounds like it is going to be the driest, eat-your-vegetables movie you can think of. Thankfully, writer/director Jeff Nichols takes direction from the actual title. This is a love story. This is a film about a marriage. The Lovings, played by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, don't want to be political props or activists. They want to live their normal lives as a happily married couple. While this is most assuredly a political film with an important message, the human story always comes first, making it one of the best examples of this kind of biographical picture in recent memory.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

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It makes sense that Wes Anderson's most gentle movie is the only one distributed by Focus Features. Moonrise Kingdom is a movie about childhood romance and how intense that first burst of love can be. Surrounded by a cavalcade of regular Anderson players are Kara Haywood and Jared Gilman, giving two of the best child performances in a long time. They sell every joke, the romantic chemistry, and the youthful uneasiness of communication with another person. This was Anderson's first film after Fantastic Mr. Fox, and he is now gone full dollhouse with his films, which is my preferred mode of Anderson. People adore The Royal Tennenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but for my money, Moonrise Kingdom is his best, as it finds the best balance between the heart and the humor.

Pariah (2011)

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Coming of age films are a staple of American cinema, but rarely do we get a coming of age film about a dark-skinned, Black butch lesbian. That is the focus of the aptly named Pariah, the directorial debut of Dee Rees. Women like this have been pariahs for the film industry for so long, and frankly, they still are today. So, Focus helping this tiny film breakthrough back in 2011 was an incredible service. The main reason why Pariah leaves a mark is the central performance from Adepero Oduye, who somehow pulls off playing a 17-year-old despite being 32 when they were shooting. In under 90 minutes, Oduye and Rees put you inside this young woman's head perfectly, in tandem with one of the great cinematographers in Bradford Young in one of his first gigs. Pariah is only one of two films on this list to join the Criterion Collection (the other being Moonrise Kingdom), and it is well-placed among those important films.

Phantom Thread (2017)

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I promise you that this is the last romance on this list. Romance is one of Focus Features' specialties, so there were bound to be quite a few on here. Phantom Thread is quite a way to go out. Paul Thomas Anderson's film about a fashion designer and his muse is one of the most unconventional romances of the bunch, delving into codependency and compromise in ways most cinematic love stories will not even touch. Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps deliver strong, firecracker performances with the wild card of Lesley Manville lurking around, always ready to pounce. Phantom Thread is odd, hilarious, disturbing, and beautiful all wrapped together in one of the most beautifully designed and photographed films of the 21st Century. Time may show this to be Anderson's crowning achievement.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

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Coming off of Blue Valentine, writer/director Derek Cianfrance looked poised to be one of our preeminent creators of brutal emotional realism on screen. The Place Beyond the Pines certainly delivered on the brooding in this triptych about the sins of the father affecting the son. While maybe not as successful overall as Blue Valentine, this picture still finds so much beauty in the harshness of life. It showed a wonderful evolution for Cianfrance in scope, visual confidence, and ambition. Starring Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling, this is a film filled with grime and sweat, marking a nice change of pace from the usual Focus Features release, and if you are up that sort of thing, The Place Beyond the Pines is for you. It even gives us perhaps the grimiest Ben Mendelsohn performance, and that is saying something.

A Serious Man (2009)

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Time has been enormously kind to A Serious Man, the most autobiographical film from Joel and Ethan Coen. A purposefully obtuse and mystifying film, we have had over a decade of peeling apart the film's layers to discover more and more insights into the worldviews of these master filmmakers. This film is at the heart of the debate on whether or not the Coen Brothers actually hate their characters, based on the trials and tribulations of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg). He goes through so much heartache without ever seeming to deserve any of it that it is easy to see them enjoying the torture. Others see them creating the world as it is, where everything is left up to chance and there's no fate or destiny. The chips will fall where they may. After 13 years, there's still no definitive answer, and their subsequent work only helps bolster that ambiguity. But if you want a prime example of what makes the Coen Brothers thematically interesting as well as crackerjack filmmakers, look no further than A Serious Man.

Talk to Me (2007)

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While most of the films on this list are generally considered modern classics, or at least great films, I wanted to include Kasi Lemmons' biopic about Washington D.C. radio host "Petey" Greene. 2007 was a banner film for cinema, so a totally solid film like Talk to Me could so easily just slip under the radar, which it did. Yet, it features one of the best performances from one of our great actors, Mr. Don Cheadle. He completely electrifies the screen playing a man whose personality is described as "larger than life" feels like underselling. Look, it traffics in a ton of standard biopic tropes, but Cheadle makes it all worthwhile. It may not be a great film, but it is definitely one worth rediscovering.

Thoroughbreds (2018)

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We return to some genre cinema with our next entry. Thoroughbreds is a darkly comic thriller about two teenage girls - sociopathic Amanda (Olivia Cooke) and the enormously privileged Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) - conspiring together to murder the wealthy stepfather that Lily's character hates. Mostly taking place within this gorgeous mansion, Thoroughbreds is some of the most fun I have had in a theater in the last five or so years. It is delicious black, and Cooke and Taylor-Joy are a total blast together. Anton Yelchin also shines as the person they hire to kill the stepdad, and this was sadly the last performance he gave, dying in an accident two weeks after production wrapped. It would be worth seeing for that memorial alone, but thankfully, the rest of the film is excellent as well.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

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Like Atonement, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy seems like it could be an archetypal Focus Features film. A Cold War spy drama filled with a slate of unbelievable British actors, from Gary Oldman to Colin Firth to Tom Hardy. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson makes it anything but ordinary. This version of John le Carré's spy novel is about as cold as you can get. Oldman in the lead role of George Smiley barely talks, and when he does, you have to lean in to hear him. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy hands nothing to you. You have to investigate not just the plot of the film but Smiley's entire demeanor. He holds all his cards close to the vest, and you have to pry open his hand yourself. Admittedly on my first watch, I didn't totally get it, but the film enchants you. It refuses to leave your mind, and it is easily one of the finest spy films of the modern era.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

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In 2018, we all needed a massive hug. We still need one, to be honest. What better way to get that than through this celebration of the life and work of Fred Rogers with Won't You Be My Neighbor? While nothing about this documentary is particularly innovative or groundbreaking, Mr. Rogers is a fascinating individual and an undeniably important figure in the history of television and education in the United States. Sometimes a compelling subject is all you need, and seeing how he has affected the lives of so many people from so many generations will melt the coldest of hearts. The emotional component of Won't You Be My Neighbor? is what makes it a revelatory documentary, not in how it presents the facts of this man's life. Through this film, Fred Rogers' ethos will reach whole new generations after he has long been gone, and for that, it is an important film.

The World's End (2013)

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The finale to Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy may not have the same rabid fanbase as Wright's other works, but it is quite possible that The World's End is the director's best film. This is a rich examination of the fears of aging and confronting the mistakes you have made in the past. Simon Pegg, who co-wrote and starred in all three films of the Cornetto Trilogy, stars as Gary King, a man stuck in arrested development determined to complete a pub crawl that he and his friends failed twenty years earlier. If the Academy were keen enough to nominate comedic performances, Pegg would have been deserving of the honor, digging deep into the character's pure desperation and insecurities. Oh, yeah - he and his buddies (Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Paddy Considine) also have to fight off a hoard of androids replacing all the people in their hometown. It features all the flash bang excitement from Wright's other films but gives it all a weight none of the others match. It may have been a minute since you check out The World's End. Give it another look and see how almost 10 years have aided in making that film so special.

The Book of Henry (2017)

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Every great distributor needs at least one absolute calamity on their books. They need a film so outrageously terrible that every person who sees it has to grab five friends and say, "You have to watch this thing. You are not going to believe it." For Focus Features, that train wreck you can't look away from is The Book of Henry. A misguided effort in every way. A quirky comedy about a boy who wants his mom to murder their neighbor, every line of dialogue boggles the mind. Every story beat makes you scratch your head. Every reveal makes you want to scream out in utter disbelief. And it could not be more entertaining. In order to show that you are a company that takes chances, a giant whiff has to be there. No one never misses.

Focus Features for their 20th year have already lined up some intriguing prospects. They have Robert Eggers' Viking epic The Northman, the Mark Rylance starring spy thriller The Outfit, and the sequel to the company's highest-grossing film domestically, Downton Abbey: A New Era. Plus, there are all the goodies they will surely get from all the film festivals this year. Here's to a wonderful 20th anniversary year for Focus Features and to 20 more terrific years!