It's been an epic year for movies.

From James Cameron's return to the big screen with "Avatar," to "Star Trek" re-imagined to the star-studded cast of Rob Marshall's "Nine," Hollywood has been going big guns this year.

Meanwhile over in independent film a new star was born - Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe - the abused, overweight teen who grabs your heart and won't let go in "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire."

And a few foreign language films - "The White Ribbon" and "A Prophet," in particular - simply blew critics' socks off.

We canvassed a diverse group of movie experts to find out what films they thought were the best of 2009.

To read more click here.

VENICE, Italy (CNN) - If you are a kid, have kids or are a kid at heart, you could not do much better than watch the parade of talent on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival Sunday afternoon.

The Pixar directors and George Lucas on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.

The full complement of Pixar movie directors were in town to collect the Lifetime Achievement award which was given to the animation studio.

It was the first time in Venice festival history that an entire studio, rather than just one filmmaker, was honored.

And the man giving the award was none other than George Lucas, who helped create Pixar.

So, to add it all up, on the red carpet Sunday we had:

• John Lasseter, director of the first two "Toy Story" movies as well as "A Bug's Life" and "Cars"
• Peter Docter, director of "Monsters, Inc." and "Up"
• Andrew Stanton, director of "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E"
• Brad Bird, director of "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and prior to joining Pixar, "The Iron Giant"
• Lee Unkrich, director of the upcoming "Toy Story 3"

And then of course George Lucas, director of... oh what did he direct? Oh yeah, "Star Wars." And he created Indiana Jones.

As if that was not enough, they were joined on the red carpet by Woody and Buzz of "Toy Story" and Carl and Russell from "Up."

If from that array of talent there is nothing that has been produced to keep you and your kids entertained for many, many hours, then I think you might be better off heading to a doctor to get your pulse checked.

Do you have a favorite Pixar flick? What do you think it is that makes the studio's movies so special? Tell us in the comments below.