The 20 best films of 2014

The best films of the year – the overground, the underground, the widely released and the still emerging, from oldtimers and first-timers – as chosen by 112 of our international contributors and colleagues.

See also:

☞ all the votes and comments in browsable form

☞ our January 2015 issue with reflections on the past year in action, horror, mainstream adult drama and silent cinema

Now online: The best films of 2016!

Sight & Sound contributors
Updated:

Boyhood (2014)

1. Boyhood

Richard Linklater, USA

Richard Linklater’s film hinges on the tension between past, present and future and wears its long production and philosophical heft lightly. It feels as effortless as breathing. Precious little happens, yet everything does.

— Ryan Gilbey

Read Ashley Clark’s review

Watch kogonada’s video essay The long conversation: Richard Linklater on cinema and time

 

 

Goodbye to Language (Adieu au langage, 2014)

2. Goodbye to Language 3D

(Adieu au langage) Jean-Luc Godard, France

Godard’s retina-invigorating ciné-poem… the densest but also the most cinema-bending film on the Riviera, one which made the entire audience squint, blink and panic in unison.

— Isabel Stevens, S&S July 2014

☞ Read Nick Pinkerton’s review

☞ Read Nick Roddick’s Cannes blog post
 Ah Dieu, puns Jean-Luc Dogard

 

Leviathan (2014)

=3. Leviathan

Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia

Balances the universality the director has always striven for with a brilliantly etched microcosm of the lawlessness that grips Russia today, where patronage, profiteering and power are intertwined.

— Ian Christie, S&S December 2014

☞ Read Ryan Gilbey’s review

☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s Cannes blog post Big fish to fry

 

Horse Money (Cavalo dinheiro, 2014)

=3. Horse Money

(Cavalo Dinheiro) Pedro Costa, Portugal

Brazen when it comes to bending cinema’s usual rules about the time and space(s) that characters occupy… a collision between cinematic history and authentic stories of suffering.

— Jason Anderson, S&S December 2014

 

Under the Skin (2013)

5. Under the Skin

Jonathan Glazer, United Kingdom/USA/Switzerland

I’ve been waiting most of my life for a film that combined the sensibilities of Tarkovsky and Norman J. Warren. Under the Skin was worth the wait. It still haunts me, and I suspect it always will.

— Matthew Sweet

☞ Read Samuel Wigley’s review

☞ Read Away from the picture: Mica Levi on her Under the Skin soundtrack

 

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2013)

6. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson, USA/Germany

Anderson’s most complete fabrication yet, a fanatically
and fantastically detailed, sugar-iced, calorie-stuffed, gleefully overripe Sachertorte of a film.

— Philip Kemp, S&S March 2014

☞ Read Philip Kemp’s review

 

Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu, 2014)

7. Winter Sleep

(Kis uykusu) Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Germany

Without doubt a formidably achieved, intellectually substantial drama… when Winter Sleep comes alive, it is as
powerful and suggestive as any Ceylan film.

— Jonathan Romney, S&S December 2014

☞ Read Jonathan Romney’s review

 

The Tribe (Plemya, 2014)

8. The Tribe

(Plemya) Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine

Set in a school for deaf teenagers, it reimagines the language of sight and sound (or the absence of sound) in cinema to startlingly original effect; you watch and listen in a way that’s entirely fresh and unfamiliar.

— Jonathan Romney

 

Ida (2013)

=9. Ida

Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland/Denmark/France/United Kingdom

A spare, haunting piece of minimalism… crafted with deceptive simplicity, riven with uncertainty… its indelible images are a stark reminder of Bazin’s dictum that film itself is a kind of miracle.

— Catherine Wheatley, S&S October 2014

☞ Read Catherine Wheatley’s review

 

Jauja (2014)

=9. Jauja

Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark/USA

Jauja is such a marvellous experience: it shows that film is a medium that can lock up a history (or memories or dreams or nightmares) inside it, then release it in all the splendour of Patagonian skies.

— Kong Rithdee

☞ Read Adrian Martin’s review

☞ Read Thirza Wakefield’s London Film Festival blog post Viggo goes west

 

Mr. Turner

=11. Mr. Turner

Mike Leigh, France/United Kingdom/Germany

☞ 

 

National Gallery (2014)

=11. National Gallery

Frederick Wiseman, France/USA

☞ Read Michael Atkinson’s review

☞ Read Isabel Stevens’ Cannes blog post Behind the scenes at the museum

 

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

=11. The Wolf of Wall Street

Martin Scorsese, USA

☞ Read Nick Pinkerton’s review

 

 

Whiplash (2014)

=11. Whiplash

Damien Chazelle, USA

☞ Read Calum Marsh’s review

 

 

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

15. The Duke of Burgundy

Peter Strickland, United Kingdom/Hungary

☞ Read Kim Newman’s review

 

 

Birdman (2014)

=16. Birdman

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, USA

 

 

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit, 2014)

=16. Two Days, One Night

Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France/Italy/The Netherlands

☞ Read Tony Rayns’s review

 

Citizenfour (2014)

=18. Citizenfour

Laura Poitras, USA/South Africa/United Kingdom/Germany

☞ Read Nick Bradshaw’s review

 

The Look of Silence (2014)

=18. The Look of Silence

Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark / Finland / UK / Indonesia / Norway

☞ Read Nick James’s Venice blog post Hearts and minds and mumblings

☞ Read Robert Greene’s interview Unacknowledged scripts: Joshua Oppenheimer on The Look of Silence

 

The Wind Rises (2013)

=18. The Wind Rises

Miyazaki Hayao, Japan

☞ Read Andrew Osmond’s review

☞ See The landscape art of The Wind Rises

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