The Act of Killing (2012)The results of Sight & Sound’s traditional end-of-year poll were published to a frenzy of interest on social media last week – not least because a documentary, The Act of Killing, was voted the best film of the year. With the cat out of the bag, the magazine broke with tradition in asking its readers to vote for their own favourites in the poll’s top 10, as well as to nominate any titles that had been unfairly left out in the cold.
The results are now in and make for surprising reading as the order of the top five films tallies exactly in both polls. Great minds thinking alike? Or were these really the very best five films of 2013?
See the best films of 2013 poll.
The top 10
1. The Act of Killing 160 votes
2. Gravity 89 votes
3. Blue Is the Warmest Colour 72 votes
4. The Great Beauty 42 votes
5. Frances Ha 41 votes
6. Upstream Color 38 votes
=7. Stranger by the Lake 12 votes
=7. The Selfish Giant 12 votes
9. A Touch of Sin 8 votes
10. Norte, the End of History 5 votes
Other – what did they miss?
A total of 70 different films were suggested as deserving of inclusion in the poll. Here’s the top 10:
1. Before Midnight 14 votes
2. 12 Years a Slave 11 votes
3. Spring Breakers 7 votes
4. Only God Forgives 5 votes
5. Leviathan 4 votes
6. Stories We Tell 4 votes
=7. The Place beyond the Pines 3 votes
=7. A Field in England 3 votes
=7. Blue Jasmine 3 votes
=7. Captain Phillips 3 votes
