Films are powerful postcards—providing a fresh perspective on familiar places and transporting us to those we might otherwise never visit. Critic Sarah Kerr picks the best of this year's bumper crop—and we give you a chance to weigh in with your favorites

Related article : The best 50 travel films of all time (Sept. 2005)

Last September, Condé Nast Traveler reached back in time to pick the greatest travel movies ever made in "Around the World in 50 Films." In this issue, we introduce the Travies—our annual compendium of the year's top travel films. All 32 were released in U.S. theaters between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006, and each is a privileged lens through which to view the wider world. Among the settings are opulent manor houses (Pride & Prejudice) and glaring salt flats (The World's Fastest Indian), a remote tropical island (Reel Paradise) and a vast tundra (Mountain Patrol: Kekexili), a windy spot near the southern tip of the world (El Perro) and the world's leading capitals (in films too numerous to mention). Occasionally, a real-life setting proved impractical for filmmaking, so another stepped in; when the beauty or unique character of one of these gallant impostors showed through—as the Canadian Rockies did when playing Brokeback Mountain's 1963 Wyoming—we salute the understudy. Of course, every award worth its statuette needs a No. 1, so see below for our choice for the year's top travel film. But why not judge for yourself? Take our online poll, which lists all of the films released this year that delivered vivid snapshots and trenchant dispatches from around the globe. Vote for those you found most transporting—and be entered for the chance to win five nights for two at the JW Marriott Cancún Resort & Spa. Polls close on September 30, 2006. Look for the results in our December 2006 issue.

Brokeback Mountain (Canadian Rockies)
Ang Lee is known as an actor's director, gently coaxing performers to do less than they're used to. But Lee may have an even rarer feel for landscapes. Where other directors try to quicken the audience's pulse, he asks us to slow our hectic minds, just as we do in real life when moved by nature. Lee's film version of Annie Proulx's short story officially keeps the 1963 Wyoming setting that's so key to the tale of two ranch hands thwarted in love. In fact, Lee shot the film in the Canadian Rockies, around Canmore and Kananaskis Country, southeast of Banff National Park. The slow-to-modernize towns symbolize the low expectations and social pressures that keep the two men apart, while up in the mountains is a sheltered space of ecstatic beauty they can claim as their own. Always drawn to opposites, Lee balances the film's grasp of the fleeting with reminders of nature's patterns and eternal rhythms. There's an austere, almost abstract beauty to the horizontal tree line; the verticality of tall, thin pines; and the flock of sheep heading downhill like a water droplet. And the campsite the two men retreat to is an uncommon thing in film: a believable paradise. DVD