2012 turned out to be a big year for movies -- 'The Avengers' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' helped make superhero movies cool again, while 'Cloud Atlas' and 'Life of Pi' painted mind-blowing visual effects on the screen, and Ben Affleck and Quentin Tarantino debuted their latest projects. For famed film critic Roger Ebert, it was a busy time as well, having written a personal record of 300 movie reviews in 12 months. But which one of all these films did he pick as the absolute best of 2012?

Being that it's the end of the year and all, Ebert put together his "Top 10" list of the best films of 2012 and he gave the top spot to...

... 'Argo'! In the Ben Affleck-directed film based on true events, which was recently nominated for a total of 5 Golden Globe awards, six American diplomatic personnel become fugitives during the Iran hostage crisis and it's up to a team of CIA agents masquerading as a fake movie crew to travel to the Middle East and extract them.

"This film takes first place on my best movie list because it is above all else a movie -- pure, strong and sound," wrote Ebert on the Sun-Times. "It has the classic values of a Hollywood thriller." Other flicks that made the cut were 'Argo's' fellow 2013 Golden Globe nominees 'Life of Pi,' 'Lincoln' and 'Flight,' but how well did they fare under Ebert's critical eye?

Here are Roger Ebert's Top 10 Movies of 2012:

1. 'Argo,' Directed by Ben Affleck
2. 'Life of Pi,' Directed by Ang Lee
3. 'Lincoln,' Directed by Steven Spielberg
4. 'End Of Watch,' Directed by David Ayer
5. 'Arbitrage,' Directed by Nicholas Jarecki
6. 'Flight,' Directed by Robert Zemeckis
7. 'The Sessions,' Directed by Ben Lewin
8. 'Beasts of the Southern Wild,' Directed by Benh Zeitlin
9. 'Oslo, August 31st,' Directed by Joachim Trier
10. 'A Simple Life,' Directed by Ann Hui

Did any or all of your favorites make the cut? In case you need justification for any of his picks, click on over to the Sun-Times to read Ebert's full analysis.

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