We look into the new stars (Julia Roberts, Keanu Reeves), the new star directors (Paul Thomas Anderson), the blockbusters (Titanic) and the classics (Goodfellas) of a pivotal period in movie history.

• Week 1: The blockbusters. Movies set new box office records and found new audiences in China. Titanic became the highest grossing production ever.
• Week 2: The new classics. Goodfellas, Boogie Nights and Office Space are just three of the 90s best films of lasting value.
• Week 3: The new female stars. Julia Roberts became the most popular actress of the era and was closely trailed by Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock and others.
• Week 4: The new male stars. Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Jim Carrey, and Keanu Reeves joined the reigning superstars Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Week 5: The new star directors. Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and the Coen Brothers pleased critics and cult audiences with innovative movies.
• Week 6: The return of the rom-com. Writer-director Nora Ephron showed there was new life in an old genre with Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.
• Week 7: The business side of a highly profitable decade. The multiplex boom of the 1980s and early 1990s gave moviemakers a record number of screens to showcase their work and the rise of the DVD made it hard to lose money on almost any film.
• Week 8: 1999 gives 1939 a run for its money. Critics see the last 12 months of the decade as one of the greatest years in film history, with a slate that included a host of landmark movies, including American Beauty, Fight Club and The Sixth Sense.