I collected approximately 15 “Best Films of 2004” lists and combined them into one meta-list.  Here are the results.  The numbers in bold indicate how many of the original lists the movie was on.  An asterisk means I’ve seen it.

13
Sideways – Alexander Payne*

9 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michel Gondry*
Million Dollar Baby – Clint Eastwood*

8  
Before Sunset – Richard Linklater*
Kinsey – Bill Condon*
Maria Full of Grace – Joshua Marson

5    
The Aviator – Martin Scorcese*
Bad Education – Pedro Almodóvar*
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban – Alfonso Cuarón
House of Flying Daggers – Yimou Zhang*
The Incredibles – Brad Bird*
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 – Quentin Tarantino*
Ray – Taylor Hackford*
Vera Drake – Mike Leigh*

4         
Bright Leaves – Ross McElwee
Good Bye, Dragon Inn – Ming-liang Tsai*
Hero – Yimou Zhang*
Hotel Rwanda – Terry George*
Moolaadé – Ousmane Sembene
A Very Long Engagement – Jean-Pierre Jeunet

3
The Brown Bunny – Vincent Gallo
Closer – Mike Nichols*
Collateral – Michael Mann*
DiG! – Ondi Timoner
The Door in the Floor – Tod Williams*
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle – Danny Leiner
Farenheit 9-11 – Michael Moore*
Infernal Affairs – Wai-keung Lau & Alan Mak*
The Saddest Music in the World – Guy Maddin*

2         
13 Going on 30 – Gary Winick
Anatomy of Hell – Catherine Breillat
The Big Red One (1980) – Samuel Fuller*
Blind Shaft – Yang Li
Bon Voyage – Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Control Room – Jehane Noujaim*
A Dirty Shame – John Waters
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones – Jim Fields & Michael Gramaglia
Garden State – Zach Braff*
Hellboy – Guillermo del Toro
I Heart Huckabees – David O. Russell*
The Hunting of the President – Nickolas Perry & Harry Thomason
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Mike Hodges
I’m Not Scared – Gabriele Salvatores
Last Life in the Universe – Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Mayor of the Sunset Strip – George Hickenlooper
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster – Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky
The Motorcycle Diaries – Walter Salles*
Mr. 3000 – Charles Stone III
Osama – Siddiq Barmak*
The Passion of the Christ – Mel Gibson
The Sea Inside – Alejandro Amenábar*
Stage Beauty – Richard Eyre
The Story of the Weeping Camel – Byambasuren Davaa & Luigi Falomi
Tarnation – Jonathan Caouette*
Time of the Wolf – Michael Haneke
Touching the Void – Kevin Macdonald*