The best films of 2023 – all the votes

Critic, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
3. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
4. Sunday (Shokir Kholikov, Uzbekistan)
5. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
6. Dear Jassi (Tarsem Singh, India, Canada, US)
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
8. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, US)
9. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
10. Omen (Augure) (Baloji, Belgium, Netherlands, D. R. Congo, France, South Africa)

It was a great year for film and this list could look so different tomorrow…

Critic, Mexico/US

1. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
2. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
3. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, US)
4. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
6. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
7. Unicorn Wars (Alberto Vázquez, Spain, France)
8. Godland (Volaða Land) (Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden)
9. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
10. Joyland (Saim Sadiq, Pakistan, US)

Animation once again stood out as a medium that can be utilised to express ideas in all genres and tones. Besides The Boy and the Heron and Unicorn Wars listed here, there was My Love Affair with Marriage, Robot Dreams, They Shot the Piano Player, Suzume. It was also a very strong year for debut features, including Past Lives, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Joyland, Huesera, Earth Mama, Fremont, Reality, Rye Lane, among others.

Critic and curator, UK

1. An Asian Ghost Story (Bo Wang, Netherlands, China)
2. Coconut Head Generation (Alain Kassanda, France, Nigeria)
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
4. Efforts of Nature (Morgan Quaintance, UK)
5. Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory, Iran, UK)
6. Milisuthando (Milisuthando Bongela, South Africa, Colombia)
7. Nowhere Near (Miko Revereza, Philippines)
8. Our Body (Claire Simon, France)
9. Ramona (Victoria Linares, Dominican Republic)
10. The Trial (Ulises de la Orden, Argentina, Italy, France, Norway)

As I type this, news is filtering through of the deaths of hundreds of people in a hospital in Palestine from a bomb blast. In this moment of seeming never-ending crisis, of all types, the cinema that to me is responding best to what is needed of the art right now is primarily non-fiction. Nine of the ten films on my list can be classified as such and the tenth, Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, is really an essay. The films range widely in length, from 17 to 177 minutes, and from more recognisably documentary forms to creatively hybrid and even abstract works. Duration and so-called accessibility don’t enter the equation – and, concomitantly, neither do the dictates of capital through what is acceptable in commercial terms – when the world is on fire.

Programmer (Toronto International Film Festival), Canada

1. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
2. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
3. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
4. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
7. Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)
8. Orlando: My Political Biography (Paul Preciado, France)
9. M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone, US, New Zealand)
10. Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli, US)

Programmer-at-large, BFI Southbank, UK

1. That They May Face the Rising Sun (Pat Collins, Ireland, UK)
2. On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant) (Nicolas Philibert, France, Japan)
3. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
5. Igor Levit – No Fear (Regina Schilling, Germany)
6. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
7. The Goldman Case (Cédric Kahn, France)
8. Black Box (Aslı Özge, Germany, Belgium)
9. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam, Belgium, Cameroon)
10. Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Bianca Stigter, Netherlands, UK)

My viewing habits have changed in the last few years. I watch fewer films now, and I firmly resist the hype of must-see movies, which means I usually come to them very late (when all the hubbub has died down) or even miss them completely. (It doesn’t matter so very much these days.) So this is probably a rather strange list; but I imagine the top four or five would have made my top ten even if I’d seen more movies… including all those must-sees.

Critic, USA

1. Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium, Netherlands, France)
2. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden)
3. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal)
4. Twilight (Szürkület) (György Fehér, Hungary)
5. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
6. Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, US)
7. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, UK)
8. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)
9. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
10. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)

Critic and scholar, UK

1. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
2. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Germany, Argentina)
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
4. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
5. Orlando: My Political Biography (Paul Preciado, France)
6. The Shadowless Tower (Zhang Lu, China)
7. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
8. Allensworth (James Benning, US)
9. A Prince (Un Prince) (Pierre Créton, France)
10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam, Belgium, Cameroon)

Programmer (BFI and more) and critic, Belgium

1. All You Need is Death (Paul Duane, Ireland)
2. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
3. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, France)
4. The Five Devils (Léa Mysius, France)
5. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, Germany, US)
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
7. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (André Øvredal, US, UK, Canada, India, Germany)
8. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
9. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France)
10. Vincent Must Die (Stéphan Castang, France, Belgium)

Critic and programmer, UK

1. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
4. Where the Devil Roams (John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, US)
5. Abruptio (Evan Marlowe, US)
6. You’ll Never Find Me (Indianna Bell, Josiah Allen, Australia)
7. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
8. Brooklyn 45 (Ted Geoghegan, US)
9. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)
10. The Moor (Chris Cronin, UK)

While this was not the intention behind my selection, even a cursory look at these ten picks shows a certain thematic pattern: a focus on characters caught up in a toxic system that they have inherited, and/or their own legacy of trauma and loss. Several close runners-up too – Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Todd Field’s Tár, Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul, Andrey M Paounov’s January, Babak Jalali’s Fremont – similarly feature characters haunted, and paralysed, by their pasts. I cannot say whether this is merely a sign of what is currently preoccupying my own mind, or whether it reflects a kind of negative nostalgia through which the world is now travelling, and which it is exploring through some excellent, if uncomfortable, cinema.

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)
4. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
5. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
6. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
7. Red Rooms (Pascal Plante, Canada)
8. Maestro (Bradley Cooper, US)
9. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders, Japan, Germany)
10. Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)

It’s been a fun year. Some great filmmakers have made good films; some good film makers have made great ones. Nolan made his masterpiece and comic book movies are beginning to feel decidedly tired. We also said goodbye to Indiana Jones perhaps two films too late but it was worth it to give Harrison Ford effectively a lap of honour.

Writer, critic and broadcaster, UK

1. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
2. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. Pearl (Ti West, US, Canada, New Zealand)
5. Your Fat Friend (Jeanie Finlay, US, UK)
6. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
7. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
8. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
9. Stopmotion (Robert Morgan, UK)
10. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)

Critic, UK

1. Apolonia, Apolonia (Lea Glob, Denmark, Poland, France)
2. Queendom (Agniia Galdonova, US, France)
3. Anselm (Wim Wenders, Germany)
4. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
5. Anhell69 (Theo Montoya, Colombia, Romania, France, Germany)
6. The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi, Chile)
7. Songs of Earth (Margreth Olin, Norway)
8. Your Fat Friend (Jeanie Finlay, US, UK)
9. Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)
10. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)

Journalist, producer, writer and director, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
5. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
6. Vincent Must Die (Stéphan Castang, France, Belgium)
7. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
8. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
9. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
10. In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, UK)

Writer and programmer, UK

1. Variety (UK re-release) (Bette Gordon, US)
2. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
3. Your Fat Friend (Jeanie Finlay, US, UK)
4. You Were My First Boyfriend (Cecilia Aldarondo, US)
5. The Taste of Mango (Chloe Abrahams, US, UK)
6. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
7. Chasing Chasing Amy (Sav Rodgers, US)
8. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
9. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
10. Joyland (Saim Sadiq, Pakistan, US)

Critic, USA

1. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
6. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
7. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
8. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
9. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell, US)
10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig, US)

Year-round programmer, Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
2. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden)
3. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
6. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
7. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
8. His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs, US)
9. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, US)
10. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)

In the exhibition sector, the most exciting development I have seen is a significant resurgence in cinephilia, especially in seeing ‘classics’ on the biggest screen possible (I think Nolan and Gerwig’s films could be counted among them), and that this audience includes a younger demographic than we saw pre-Covid. And while I don’t wish failure on anyone, you won’t find me crying over signs that the comic book / superhero franchise era is on the way out. Best nonfiction films: Pictures of Ghosts, Four Daughters, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. Face-off of the year: Robert De Niro vs Lily Gladstone.

Curator, UK

1. A Prince (Un Prince) (Pierre Créton, France)
2. Room in a Crowd (John Torres, Philippines)
3. Everything Worthwhile Is Done with Other People (Rehana Zaman & EWiDwOP Collective, UK)
4. Self-portrait: 47 Km 2020 (Zhang Mengqi, China)
5. A Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser, US, Mexico)
6. The Echo (El Eco (Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, Germany)
7. Grace (Ilya Povolotsky, Russia)
8. Para la coca (Laura Huertas Millán, Colombia, France)
9. A Radical Duet (Onyeka Igwe, UK)
10. Our Body (Claire Simon, France)

Critic and curator, USA

1. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, US)
2. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. Mountains (Monica Sorelle, US)
5. Milisuthando (Milisuthando Bongela, South Africa, Colombia)
6. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
7. The Taste of Mango (Chloe Abrahams, US, UK)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Jeff Rowe, US, Japan, Canada)
9. Terrestrial Verses (Alireza Khatami, Ali Asgari, Iran)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

Podcaster (90 Minutes or Less Film Fest) and marketing manager, UK

1. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
6. You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener, US)
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
8. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders, Japan, Germany)
9. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
10. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Sam Wrench, UK)

Film festivals came back in a big way, and it was electrifying to see such a diverse range of voices on the big screen this year. 2023 was also the year that studios stepped up in a big way, where original films triumphed over franchises, with releases like Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie. Taylor Swift also emerged as a cinematic power with the release of the Eras Tour film!

Critic, UK

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
2. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, US)
3. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
5. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
6. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
7. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
8. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
9. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
10. Occupied City (Steve McQueen, UK, Netherlands, US)

Associate editor, Sight and Sound, UK

1. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
2. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
3. A Prince (Un Prince) (Pierre Créton, France)
4. The Bridge (Mark Leckey, UK)
5. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
6. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
7. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
8. Shadow of Fire (Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan)
9. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams, US)
10. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)

Director and writer, UK

1. Anqa (Helin Celik, Spain, Austria)
2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
3. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
4. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
5. Bobi Wine: the People’s President (Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, UK)
6. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
7. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
8. Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France)
9. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
10. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)

As cinemas closed this year, for the first time in my life as a moviegoer I felt that this might end. Each time I went to the pictures, I thought: “try to remember this feeling.” But then, as I filmed for a new project, I met young movie fans in Egypt, Japan, America, Bosnia and other many places. For them, the movie infatuation was just beginning. My movie infatuation is just beginning. As in recent years, many of the best films in 2023 had female protagonists.

Critic and researcher, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
3. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Sam Wrench, UK)
4. Maestro (Bradley Cooper, US)
5. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
6. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
7. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
8. This Is Going to Be Big (Thomas Charles Hyland, Australia)
9. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
10. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, US)

It was Taylor Swift, not Barbenheimer, that saved cinema in 2023.

Critic and curator, USA

1. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
2. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
3. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
5. Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, France, Portugal)
6. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
7. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
8. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
9. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
10. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)

A list serendipitously split between the year’s major trends – autumnal works by aging masters; films situated (both formally and thematically) on the precipice of the future; and the reemergence of the New Argentine Cinema – to which I might add three additional examples: Philippe Garrel’s Le Grand Chariot, Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft, and Martín Rejtman’s La Práctica.

Cinema curator (Barbican), UK

1. Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
2. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
3. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
6. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
7. Unicorns (Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd, US, Sweden, UK)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. Arturo a los 30 (Martín Shanly, Argentina)
10. The Taste of Mango (Chloe Abrahams, US, UK)

2023 has been the best year for film in a very long time, packed with visionary films that took bold risks, featuring remarkable performances, such as Yûko Tanaka’s grief-stricken school principal in Monster, Thomas Schubert’s ornery writer in Afire and Emma Stone’s career-refining comedy masterclass in Poor Things.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster was my favourite film of the year, although its winning of the Queer Palm at Cannes was a surprise given that its gay undertones were so subtle.

There was glorious LGBTQ+ representation in cinemas throughout the year, particularly the passionate gay fling subplot in Christian Petzold’s Afire, the against-the-odds queer romance at the centre of Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s Unicorns and the messy, relatable protagonist in Martín Shanly’s delightful comedy Arturo a los 30.

Critic, curator and academic, UK

1. La práctica (The Practice) (Martín Rejtman, Argentina, Chile, Germany, Portugal)
2. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
3. 20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Spain)
4. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
5. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
6. Memory (Michel Franco, Mexico, US)
7. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
8. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
9. Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

No one makes films quite like Argentina’s Martín Rejtman: absurdist dialogue, droll delivery, strange coincidences, and visual gags combine to provide a narrative where the hapless protagonist always finds satisfaction out of reach. La práctica’s tale of a yoga teacher whose life unravels alongside his marriage sees Rejtman move from Buenos Aires to Santiago Chile but the signature traits are all there – the eccentric characters, witty scenarios, and sharp reflections on the limitations of a self-help culture where you are never quite in control. Populated by a range of wonderful and eccentric characters – think Preston Sturges meets Yasujirō Ozu — this is 96 minutes of cinematic joy. My film of the year.

This was a vintage year for Argentine cinema. The Delinquents is a delicious Borgesian heist movie navigating a series of playful intersecting narratives. Rodrigo Moreno’s two leads, Morán (Daniel Elías) and Román (Esteban Bigliardi), are bank clerks in Buenos Aires. The former decides that he has had enough of the grind and drudgery of this day-to-day job and decides to rob the bank where he works, recruiting Román as the accomplice that he will pass the cash onto to hide. The mood of the film recalls Stoll and Rebella’s Whiskey in some way but with Rivette’s love of digression and lots of glorious game-play and doubling. I loved the ambition of the film – it moves across a range of genres from the prison movie to the buddy comedy – and just when you think you are settling in, it moves pulls the rug from under the viewer’s feet and moves into a very different space. Engaging, witty, and ambitious.

Mariano Llinás’s Clorinda Testa was another Argentine gem this year.

Fifty years after the release of Spirit of the Beehive, and 30 years after The Quince Tree Sun, Víctor Erice was back with his fourth feature, a haunting tale that intersects with his three previous films in its focus on cinema, memory and loss. This is a film about cinema – about the pleasures of sitting in a cinema, about cinemas that are closing or closed, about the ways in which cinema provides deceptive fictions that mislead and seduce. Cinema becomes a means of remembering, a way of forging consciousness, the ways in which the past makes sense and can be put together. And when Ana Torrent comes on screen and reaches out to the child Ana she played in Spirit of the Beehive, the past and present touch in a moment of cinematic magic.

20,000 Species of Bees feels like another film in discussion with Spirit of the Beehive. Hard to believe this is Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s first film – about family dynamics set in the Basque Country where Ane takes her three children to stay with her mother and aunt as she aims to kickstart her career as a sculptor. The film observes, with care and patience, the evolving family dramas with hidden secrets emerging in unsettling ways. A film about identity where Ane’s journey is juxtaposed with that of her child Cocó; Sofía Otero’s Berlin Festival award-winning performance as Cocó is nothing short of outstanding in a coming-of-age film that feels original and different, with a lean screenplay that avoids unnecessary exposition and a focus on feminine energy and solidarity that the bee symbolism reinforces.

Lila Avilés follows her debut feature, The Chambermaid, with the richly ambitious Tótem, centring on a birthday party for 27-year-old artist Tona. Seen through the eyes of his daughter Sol, the film captures the busy chaos as the family come together; aunt Alejandra trying to exorcise bad spirits from the house with the help of an animated mystic working with branches and a bread roll on a stick; grumpy father Roberto who can only communicate using an electrolarynx; and the children who are trying to do their own thing. There’s a lovely attention to detail, a gorgeous soundscape and a sense of the strangeness perceived by Sol as she tries to find time with her father. Avilés finds magic in the everything and humour in the most devastating of circumstances.

Past Lives spoke to me as a a gorgeous film about romance and loss. For those of us from migrant cultures who have left people and possibilities behind, who navigate different identities and languages, this is a poignant, sensitive work with heartbreaking moments and an electric dynamic between its three leads.

Memory gave me a different Michel Franco. The capacity to unsettle and ask questions is still there but this is a less abrasive film than New Order or Sundown. Peter Saarsgard and Jessica Chastain play former school colleagues who encounter each other after a school reunion – he is suffering from dementia, she a recovering alcoholic traumatised by past events. This is perhaps his most compassionate film, one that raises a series of issues about (non) reliable narration and who the viewer can trust and why. The film features Franco’s usual long takes with that focus on character revelations that leave the viewer shocked – usually because revelations come when least expected. It’s a film that confirms the singularity of vision, the emotional depth and the construction of complex characters that has marked all his work to date.

Justine Triet’s reenvisaging of the courtroom drama in Anatomy of a Fall demonstrates the pervasive misogyny that underpins so many existing social structures. I loved the mystery, the danger and the precision of a film that asks a series of questions about credibility, reliability and truth.

Women Talking also struck me as a profound film about how to deal with the most difficult of circumstances. How secrets emerge, what justice looks like and how consensus is reached; how might a different future be envisaged and what does it look like. A film unafraid to do debate – over time – to examine what female agency might look like and how voices interact and layer to look at what revenge, empathy and freedom really means. I loved the film’s patience, its interrogation of what implication looks like and its focus on faith and safety.

How I have missed the cool, clinical eye of Jonathan Glazer. And Zone of Interest is terrific. Scratch beneath the surface and the masked horrors peer through – slowly but surely. The systems in place to ensure the efficient operation of evil, the banality of evil, the ways in which ideologies operate and sustain themselves, the ways in which people turn away from the realities they create. Both terrifying and brilliant in its dissection of how regimes operate. Indeed most of my favourite films this year – from Zone of Interest to Felipe Carmona’s Penal Cordillera and Felipe Gálvez’s The Settlers – have interrogated how systems are constituted and operate.

Film critic and researcher, Sight and Sound, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. Strange Way of Life (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, France)
3. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
4. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal)
5. Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)
6. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
7. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
8. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
9. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
10. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)

Animation critic, UK

1. 27 (Flóra Anna Buda, France, Hungary)
2. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, US)
3. Chicken for Linda! (Linda veut du poulet!) (Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach, France, Italy)
4. Eeva (Morten Tsinakov, Lucija Mrzljak, Estonia, Croatia)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
6. Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) (Alice Winocour, France)
7. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
8. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
9. La Saison pourpre (The Purple Season) (Clémence Bouchereau, France)
10. Spring (Pernille Kjær, Denmark, France)

This year, I spent many happy evenings in the (now bedbug-infested) repertory cinemas of Paris. I also dipped repeatedly into the peerless – yet largely unknown – online archive of the National Film Board of Canada, where countless classic animated (and documentary and other) films can be streamed for free. All this took precedence over new movies: I saw relatively few in 2023.

Full disclosure: 27 and Chicken for Linda! are co-produced by Miyu Productions, with which I worked on a separate project this year. I was not involved in the production of either film.

Film and TV editor, the Skinny, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
4. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
5. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, US)
6. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
7. Theatre Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, US)
8. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
9. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
10. No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky, US)

Critic, Ireland

1. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
2. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
3. The Killer (David Fincher, US)
4. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
6. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, US)
7. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
8. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
9. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

So many I haven’t seen yet! Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest etc. Still, I think it’s been a good year.

Editorial assistant, Sight and Sound, UK

1. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani, Switzerland, Georgia)
2. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
3. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
4. The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi, Chile)
5. In Water (Mul-an-e-seo) (Hong Sangsoo, South Korea)
6. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
7. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, US)
8. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
9. Walk Up (Hong Sangsoo, South Korea)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

Listed in alphabetical order – with the note that The Zone of Interest is the best film of the year. An honourable mention for Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl shorts (dumped, in fine Netflix tradition, with very little fanfare): if they were one film, it would probably have made this list. His finest work in years.

Critic and writer, UK

1. Samsara (Lois Patiño, Spain)
2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
3. Silence of Reason (Kumjana Novakova, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
4. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
5. The Angel of Forms (Rushnan Jaleel, Netherlands, France)
6. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
7. Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory, Iran, UK)
8. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
9. The Trial (Ulises de la Orden, Argentina, Italy, France, Norway)
10. Quiet As It’s Kept (Ja’Tovia Gary, US)

The films just keep coming! I’ve tried to stick to films that premiered in 2023, so no R.M.N (Mungiu) Darkness Darkness Burning Bright (Rouard), or Exhibition (Clark).

Awards editor, Screen International, UK

1. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
2. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
3. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
4. Femme (Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, UK)
5. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
6. Rye Lane (Raine Allen Miller, UK)
7. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)
8. 20 Days In Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Ukraine)
9. The Mission (Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss, US)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

When commissioning a filmmaker to adapt an existing story, it’s almost a given now for producers and executives to say: of course, make it your own… and then that new authorship inevitably becomes part of the resulting film’s publicity communication. Still, having now read the original 1987 Japanese novel that inspired Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, I’m even more impressed with his tremendously personal, compassionate film. In the case of Hit Man, Glen Powell and Richard Linklater began with a 2001 Texas Monthly article, fashioning a glorious ride of a movie that deserves to make Powell a star.

With Barbie, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach took a piece of monumentally famous IP with barely any narrative content embedded in it, and created what must surely rank as 2023’s biggest leap from source material to compellingly original screen story. Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping made a mark with their 2021 short Femme, winning a British Independent Film Award, but – for my money – take an extraordinary leap forward with their same-named (similarly themed, but differently plotted) feature, with a lot to say about modern masculinity.

My top 10 for 2023 is an all-over-the-map grab bag of films, slaloming through genres – original and existing stories, fact and fiction. It’s arguably a bonkers list, but, hey, they all impacted me in different ways, and sometimes for very personal reasons.

Film critic, UK

1. Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley, UK)
2. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
3. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
4. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
5. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
6. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
7. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
8. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
9. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
10. Shabu (Shamira Raphaela, Netherlands)

Writer and filmmaker, UK

1. Babylon (Damien Chazelle, US)
2. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
3. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
4. Blue Bag Life (Lisa Selby, Rebecca Lloyd-Evans, Alex Fry, UK)
5. Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley, UK)
6. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, UK)
7. Hoard (Luna Carmoon, UK)
8. M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone, US, New Zealand)
9. Scala Club Cinema (Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, UK)
10. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)

What a fun year to be in the audience of a cinema! Every one of these, here expressed A-Z, made me jump, gasp, bark with laughter, or choke back tears. And I’ve still got a bunch of new releases yet to catch up on, in addition to several of my top 10 I’ll see again (and again, and again, and again, in the case of number 9).

Writer and editor, Ireland

1. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, UK)
2. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
3. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
4. Typist Artist Pirate King (Carol Morley, UK)
5. Sunlight (Claire Dix, Ireland)
6. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
7. Pray for Our Sinners (Sinéad O’Shea, Ireland)
8. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
9. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
10. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)

Critic and programmer (Berlinale), Germany

1. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
2. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
3. Mother and Daughter or The Night Is Never Complete (Lana Gogoberidze, Georgia)
4. Smiling Georgia (Luka Beradze, Georgia)
5. Playland (Georden West, US)
6. The Gullspång Miracle (Maria Fredriksson, Sweden, Denmark, Norway)
7. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
8. The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, UK, US)
9. Apolonia,Apolonia (Lea Glob, Denmark, Poland, France)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
3. Godland (Volaða Land) (Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden)
4. Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)
5. Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan, US, Japan, China)
6. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
7. Maestro (Bradley Cooper, US)
8. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
9. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
10. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)

Critic, UK

1. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
2. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
3. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, US)
4. The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa, US)
5. Pressure (1976; 2023 revival) (Horace Ové, UK)
6. Your Fat Friend (Jeanie Finlay, US, UK)
7. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
8. Eileen (William Oldroyd, US, UK, South Korea)
9. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
10. My Friend Lanre (Leo Regan, UK)

One of this year’s highlights was the restoration of Horace Ove’s new-to-me classic Pressure, a film that is so bold and dynamic and intellectually stimulating, I can hardly believe it got made. When I looked into it, I discovered it almost wasn’t. I’ve put it on this list, my way of planting its flag in the sand.

Critic, USA

1. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
2. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
6. Orlando: My Political Biography (Paul Preciado, France)
7. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
8. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
9. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
10. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)

Margot Robbie and Léa Seydoux are beautiful and talented, but watching a woman’s unchanging face for two hours becomes monotonous. The Beast is a French intellectual’s version of Barbie in reverse: she starts as a human and becomes a doll.

Critic, UK

1. Babylon (Damien Chazelle, US)
2. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
3. The Five Devils (Léa Mysius, France)
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
5. BlackBerry (Matt Johnson, Canada)
6. Smoking Causes Coughing (Quentin Dupieux, France, Monaco)
7. They Cloned Tyrone (Juel Taylor, US)
8. Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Steven Soderbergh, US)
9. The Covenant (Guy Ritchie, UK, Spain, US)
10. The Menu (Mark Mylod, US)

Critic and author, USA

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
3. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
5. Unrest (Unrueh) (Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland)
6. Shttl (Ady Walter, Ukraine, France)
7. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
8. Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
9. La práctica (The Practice) (Martín Rejtman, Argentina, Chile, Germany, Portugal)
10. Kidnapped (Marco Bellocchio, Italy, France, Germany)

Academic and critic, UK

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
2. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
3. Broker (Hirokazu Koreeda, South Korea)
4. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
5. Love Life (Kôji Fukada, Japan, France)
6. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
7. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
8. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
9. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
10. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, US)

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
5. Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)
6. Godland (Volaða Land) (Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden)
7. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
8. Broker (Hirokazu Koreeda, South Korea)
9. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
10. Alcarràs (Carla Simón, Spain, Italy)

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
3. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
4. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
5. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
6. Reality (Tina Satter, US)
7. Housekeeping for Beginners (Goran Stolevski, North Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo)
8. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
9. The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green, Australia, UK)
10. Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse (Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson, US)

Critic, UK

1. A Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser, US, Mexico)
2. Stone Town (Jing Guo & Dingding Ke, China)
3. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
4. Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (Isaac Julien, US)
5. Alcarràs (Carla Simón, Spain, Italy)
6. Q (Jude Chehab, Lebanon, US)
7. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
8. The Dam – Ali Cherri (Ali Cherri, France, Sudan)
9. Doors (Christian Marclay, UK)

Writer and critic, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
6. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
7. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)
8. On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant) (Nicolas Philibert, France, Japan)
9. Goodbye Julia (Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan, Egypt, France)
10. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)

Given the circumstances of strikes, coming out of Covid etc., a remarkably high quality year for cinema. Barbenheimer didn’t make my list because I’m not keen on lecture movies, though both films (Barbie and Oppenheimer) are excellent, imaginative pieces of work. An ecstatic classic highlight for me was seeing Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight in Bologna. I wish more cinema could levitate us like that.

Writer and critic, USA

1. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
2. Art College 1994 (Liu Jian, China)
3. On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant) (Nicolas Philibert, France, Japan)
4. Allensworth (James Benning, US)
5. Reality (Tina Satter, US)

Critic and programmer, UK

1. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland, Italy)
2. The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, UK, US)
3. Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium, Netherlands, France)
4. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, Germany, US)
5. Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)
6. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France)
7. A Dog Called Discord (Mark Jenkin, UK)
8. Knit’s Island (Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h, France)
9. Scream VI (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, US, Canada)
10. (, )

I didn’t see as many new films this year, but EO completely blew me away and rediscovering Jerzy Skolimowski’s earlier work for a discussion on his films at BFI Southbank was a real highlight, along with some other repertory titles played at Cinema Rediscovered, especially the premiere of Bette Gordon’s Variety.

Writer and film historian, UK

1. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. The Old Oak (Ken Loach, UK, France, Belgium)
5. Klokkenluider (Neil Maskell, UK)
6. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
7. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
8. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
9. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
10. The Wonder (Sebastián Lelio, Ireland, UK, US)

Critic, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. Me Captain (Io Capitano) (Matteo Garrone, Italy, Belgium, France)
3. Goodbye Julia (Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan, Egypt, France)
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
6. Polite Society (Nida Manzoor, UK)
7. Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse (Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson, US)
8. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
9. Bye Bye Tiberias (Lina Soualem, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar, France)
10. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)

After doing the ‘greatest ever’ list for Sight and Sound not too long ago, figuring out the top ten of 2023 is a complete breeze. Still, every year it’s a small agony and not being able to sincerely include more documentaries and horror films is particularly painful given how often I think they are underserved on these lists. But there were plenty of pleasant surprises in 2023, and if you’d told me in 2022 that a Tim Story comedy nearly cracked my top 10, I would not have believed you.

Critic, UK, France

1. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
2. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
3. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
4. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
6. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
7. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
8. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)
9. In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, UK)
10. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)

Academic and critic, USA, Switzerland

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
2. Last Things (Deborah Stratman, US, Portugal, France)
3. Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
4. Orlando: My Political Biography (Paul Preciado, France)
5. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
6. A Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser, US, Mexico)
7. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
8. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
9. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
10. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)

Editor and critic, USA

1. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
2. Dry Ground Burning (Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta, Brazil, Portugal)
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
4. A Prince (Un Prince) (Pierre Créton, France)
5. The Face of the Jellyfish (Melisa Liebenthal, Argentina)
6. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
7. Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie, Canada)
8. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Germany, Argentina)
9. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
10. Camping du Lac (Éléonore Saintagnan, Belgium)

And some remarkable shorts/mid-length films/installation works worth mentioning: Sunshine State (Steve McQueen), Laberint Sequences (Blake Williams), Abattoir, USA! (Aria Dean), Horror Vacui (Boris Poljak), Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke (Tomonari Nishikawa), Spark from a Falling Star (Ross Meckfessel), NYC RGB (Viktoria Schmid)

Critic (Variety, the Observer, Film of the Week), UK

1. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
2. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
3. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
4. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
5. Housekeeping for Beginners (Goran Stolevski, North Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo)
6. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
7. Milisuthando (Milisuthando Bongela, South Africa, Colombia)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

This was a particularly punchy, vigorous year for queer filmmaking: I thrilled to the physical, proudly erotic negotiation of polysexual relations in Sachs’ febrile love triangle; Andrew Haigh’s return to gay romance, with an outwardly expressive emotionalism that feels new to him; the raucous, volatile queering of the domestic family drama in Stolevski’s wonderful film, a tonal counterpart to his lovely, pastel-delicate gay coming-of-ager Of An Age earlier this year; even the incidental sexual fluidity, for all but the protagonist, so essential to the comedy of Petzold’s return to form.

All that plus the brash comic energy of Sebastian Silva’s Rotting in the Sun and Emma Seligman’s Bottoms; layered trans portraiture in 20,000 Species of Bees and the documentaries Kokomo City and Orlando: My Political Biography; the clash of gay masculinities in sparky British debut Femme, and so on, and so forth. With queer lives again under fire in the political sphere, filmmakers are responding not with defensive message movies, but with emphatic statements of being.

Academic and critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, UK, US)
4. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden)
5. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
6. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
7. A Year in a Field (Christopher Morris, UK)
8. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
9. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

Filmmaker, writer, curator, UK

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
2. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
3. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, US)
4. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
6. The Möbius Trip (Simone Smith, UK)
7. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
8. Kill (Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, India)
9. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, US)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

Critic and curator, Italy

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
2. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
3. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
4. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
5. In Water (Mul-an-e-seo) (Hong Sangsoo, South Korea)
6. Only the River Flows (Wei Shujun, China)
7. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
8. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
9. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
10. A Good Place (Katharina Huber, Germany)

Critic, Italy

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
3. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
4. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
5. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
6. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, US)
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
8. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
9. Housekeeping for Beginners (Goran Stolevski, North Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo)
10. House of the Seasons (Oh Jung-min, South Korea)

A good but not great year, with plenty of absorbing films but few that will still be fresh even in ten years time. Three new-to-me directors really struck a chord: Pham Thien An, Goran Stovelski and Oh Jung-min.

Critic, Australia

1. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. Don Juan (Serge Bozon, France, Belgium)
3. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland, Italy)
4. Indivision AKA Birdland (Leïla Kilani, France, Morocco)
5. Estertor (Sofía Jallinsky, Basovih Marinaro, Argentina)
6. Fair Play (Chloe Domont, US)
7. Coma (Bertrand Bonello, France)
8. Reality (Tina Satter, US)
9. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France)
10. Mother (Niki Caro, US)

Reviews editor, Sight and Sound, UK

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
2. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
3. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
4. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
5. Under the Fig Trees (Erige Sehiri, Tunisia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Qatar)
6. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, US)
7. The Damned Don’t Cry (Fyzal Boulifa, France, Belgium, Morocco)
8. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Germany, Argentina)
9. Earth Mama (Savannah Leaf, US)
10. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)

Critic and writer, UK

1. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
4. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
6. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
7. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
8. Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium, Netherlands, France)
9. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
10. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)

I only attended a few film festivals in 2023; Cannes, London Film Festival and the inaugural BFI Film on Film Festival. The latter was a real treat where I saw The Swimmer (Frank Perry) on the big screen and was introduced to Citizens Band (Jonathan Demme) thanks to the hard work of The Badlands Collective (and the projectionists who were applauded at every screening). I also adored watching the re-release of Variety (Bette Gordon) on a separate occasion.

Back to the present and Cannes and LFF 2023 where I was struck by the recurring themes of the complexity of freedom and identity, the desire for connection, the banality of evil and the insidious nature of greed. All the films in my list touch on one or more of these themes. And there were plenty more films that on another day I may have included such as The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno), Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki), Priscilla (Sofia Coppola), All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh), Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) and Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi).

There are three great debuts on my list. Talk To Me really surprised me as a brutal and visually creative depiction of modern life in the digital age. How to Have Sex is a gloriously confident debut from Molly Manning Walker that boldly confronts consent, attraction and peer pressure. Past Lives is devastatingly perceptive on the difficult choices and paths we must follow in life and love. I know Close made waves on the festival circuit in 2022 but it broke my heart in 2023 on my first ever visit to the Mockingbird Cinema in Birmingham so I included it on my list.

Finally, a shout out to the films with weirdo women characters that I enjoyed watching thanks to superb performances and carefully crafted screenplays – Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos), May December (Todd Haynes), Hoard (Luna Carmoon), Pearl (Ti West), Eileen (William Oldroyd) and Return to Seoul (Davy Chou).

Critic/editor/broadcaster, UK

1. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
2. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
3. Bottoms (Emma Seligman, US)
4. Eileen (William Oldroyd, US, UK, South Korea)
5. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
6. The Killer (David Fincher, US)
7. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
8. Our River… Our Sky (Maysoon Pachachi, Iraq, France, Kuwait, UK, Germany, UAE, Qatar)
9. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
10. Typist Artist Pirate King (Carol Morley, UK)

So far as I can tell, Licorice Pizza appeared on neither the 2021 nor the 2022 lists – it did not play the festival circuit, but opened late in the year, after the polls closed. By late 2022 it would have felt like old news, and there is just possibly a bias towards things that only film critics have seen. Anyway, I haven’t seen everything.

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
5. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
6. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
7. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. Scrapper (Charlotte Regan, UK)
10. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)

Stellar year for British film. Glazer’s return to directing was always going to be special, and Haigh’s movie is a genuine wonder. But the rise of first-time female directors like Charlotte Regan, and others that didn’t quite make my list but still impressed – Molly Manning-Walker (How To Have Sex), Luna Carmoon (Hoard), Adura Onashile (Girl) – has been really heartening.

Film critic (the i), UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, US)
4. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
5. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
6. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
7. Please Baby Please (Amanda Kramer, US)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols, US)
10. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)

What a year!

Critic, UK

1. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
2. When Evil Lurks (Cuando acecha la maldad) (Demian Rugna, Argentina, US)
3. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)
4. Kubi (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
5. La Morsure (Bitten) (Romain de Saint-Blanquat, France)
6. Pearl (Ti West, US, Canada, New Zealand)
7. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
8. Scala Club Cinema (Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, UK)
9. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
10. To Fire You Come at Last (Sean Hogan, UK, US)

Critic and curator, UK

1. An Asian Ghost Story (Bo Wang, Netherlands, China)
2. The Echo (El Eco (Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, Germany)
3. Home Invasion (Graeme Arnfield, UK)
4. In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, UK)
5. Night Shift (Hugo Radi, Kayije Kagame, Switzerland)
6. Prosinečki (Adrian Duncan, Ireland)
7. Quiet As It’s Kept (Ja’Tovia Gary, US)
8. Samsara (Lois Patiño, Spain)
9. Stephen (Melanie Manchot, UK)
10. Waking Up in Silence (Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko, Ukraine, Germany)

Something that felt particularly notable to me – as someone who writes about them a lot and included five in the ten choices listed above – was the couple of high-profile short films we saw this year. Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life premiered at Cannes before receiving a limited UK theatrical release and Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar made its bow at Venice. Both are now available to stream in the UK, and hopefully they can remind those with a little less familiarity just how creative and enriching the short film format can be.

Beyond those films listed above, 2023 saw shorts like: Bill Morrison’s blistering Incident, which uses found footage to dissect a lethal police shooting in Chicago in 2018; Stephen Vuillemin’s exquisite animation A Kind of Testament, which tells a surreal story about an unsettling online relationship; Cosme Castro and Jeanne Frenkel’s iNTELLIGENCE, which tells of a newspaper employee who discovers his own obituary in the proof copy of tomorrow’s edition; and Alice Brygo’s Ardent Other, which captures the disquieting glow lighting the faces of the shocked crowd as they watch the blaze atop Notre Dame in 2019. These briefer entries in the film canon are more easily overlooked but warrant as much attention as the big features of the year.

Critic, UK

1. Killing Gaza: life under Israel’s bombs and siege (Max Blumenthal, US)

Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal (of the investigative journalist outlet The Grayzone) spoke to terrorised Gazans after Israel’s assault in 2014. Out of the rubble and the grief came the film ‘Killing Gaza: life under Israel’s bombs and siege’. It is a remarkable testimony of the spirit of the Palestinian struggle and the brutality and illegality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, aided and abetted by the USA. With Tacitus, the filmmakers might have said: “They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.

Critic and writer, UK

1. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
2. The Eight Mountains (Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, Italy)
3. Love Life (Kôji Fukada, Japan, France)
4. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden)
5. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal)
6. Hello, Bookstore (A.B. Zax, US)
7. Love According to Dalva (Emmanuelle Nicot, France, Belgium)
8. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland, Italy)
9. Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) (Alice Winocour, France)
10. Fremont (Babak Jalali, US)

It’s sometimes a struggle to come up with 10 worthwhile films for an end-of-year list. But another dozen so-called arthouse titles could have made the 2023 roster. A handful of intriguing documentaries about film also merit mention: A Bunch of Amateurs; Subject; The Super 8 Years; Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me; and Where Is This Street?

Writer, producer and critic, UK

1. Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup, Denmark, Netherlands)
2. M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone, US, New Zealand)
3. The Pigeon Tunnel (Errol Morris, US)
4. Night of the 12th (Dominik Moll, France, Belgium)
5. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
6. The Pale Blue Eye (Scott Cooper, US)
7. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
8. Little Richard: I Am Everything (Lisa Cortés, US)
9. The Creator (Gareth Edwards, US)
10. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)

Inevitably, in terms of festivals, some of these titles were around earlier but came to full release in Britain this year. (I have been out of the country for the release of Killers of the Flower Moon so have no idea if it would be here, had I seen it.) One thing that seems increasingly striking is that the massive proliferation of streaming titles has begun to make movie production feel almost like paperback publishing. This is especially true in a genre like horror where I roughly estimate there are now about four to six times more horror titles a year than even in the heyday of 1960 when Psycho and Peeping Tom premiered within weeks of each other.

Curator, writer and producer, UK, Germany

1. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
2. Our Body (Claire Simon, France)
3. In the Rearview (Maciek Hamela, Poland, France, Ukraine)
4. Lonely Oaks (Vergiss Meyn Nicht) (Fabiana Fragale, Killian Kuhlendahl, Jens Mühlhoff, Germany)
5. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
6. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
7. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
8. Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) (Kaouther Ben Hania, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Tunisia, Cyprus)
9. Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (Cyril Aris, Lebanon, Germany)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

Perhaps as a kind of balm to a turbulent and divided year, in 2023 I’ve been especially drawn to rich, inventive, deeply human documentaries and low-key character-led dramas, the kind of films which seek to complexify and humanise their subjects, highlighting cinema’s unique empathetic power. The one exception has been the all-conquering Barbie, which provided the kind of exquisite smart/silly escapism that we all need sometimes.

Critic and curator, UK

1. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
2. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
3. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
4. Our Body (Claire Simon, France)
5. Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara, Japan)
6. The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa, US)
7. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
10. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Germany, Argentina)

Critic and journalist, UK, India

1. Memory (Michel Franco, Mexico, US)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Paradise (Prasanna Vithanage, Sri Lanka)
4. Something Like an Autobiography (Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bangladesh)
5. Wakhri (Iram Parveen Bilal, Pakistan)
6. Explanation for Everything (Gábor Reisz, Hungary, Slovakia)
7. The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan (Martin Bourboulon, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium)
8. Rye Lane (Raine Allen Miller, UK)
9. Bad Living (João Canijo, Portugal, France)
10. Tiger Stripes (Amanda Nell Eu, Malaysia, Taiwan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Qatar, Indonesia)

Critic, UK, Poland

1. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
2. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
3. Imago (Olga Chajdas, Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic)
4. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
5. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
6. Memory (Michel Franco, Mexico, US)
7. Missing (Will Merrick, Nick Johnson, US)
8. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
9. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
10. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)

A rather weird year for cinema, in which several of the year’s weakest films generated the most attention and acclaim, and any dissenters tended to be dismissed as spiteful contrarians spoiling the joy. Pre-programmed consensus opinion seemed more pervasive than ever in 2023: the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer didn’t signify, as Variety optimistically (and rather offensively) claimed, that “If you build exciting movies, they will come” but rather the triumph of aggressive marketing hype.

Among the genuinely exciting works out there, though, were Alice Rohrwacher’s transcendent La Chimera, in which the writer-director digs deep into the Italian soil – and cinema history – to emerge with a rough and beautiful jewel of a film. Also gradually revealing a moral viewpoint in a surprising place was Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun, a caustic comedy of depression, influencer culture and cross-cultural communication failure that gleefully confounded expectations.

The era-hopping The Beast found Betrand Bonello getting wildly creative on a great Henry James story, while Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers was another instance of inventive adaptation (and time-travel cinema), queering Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel into a very English love story and reckoning with its protagonist’s family past.

Shockingly poignant and powerful at its best, Agnieszka Holland’s The Green Border constituted an intelligent, brave endeavour to examine the EU-Belarus border crisis from several perspectives. Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest was carefully calculated to chill (and succeeded), while Michel Franco delivered his warmest work in Memory. Mother-daughter relations sparked several fine films, from Olga Chajdas’s exhilarating Imago, at once an intimate psychological drama and a vibrant portrait of Poland’s post-punk artistic scene, to Will Merrick and Nick Johnson’s irresistible (and surprisingly emotional) twisty screenlife thriller Missing. And following her quiet, austere debut The Chambermaid (2018), Lila Avilés returned with something entirely different in Tótem, a rich and teeming family portrait.

Alongside runners-up including L’immensità, Blue Jean, Princess, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, How to Have Sex, and Dreams Full of Smoke, I should also mention a pair of vital 2022 releases that I didn’t see in time to include on last year’s list: Todd Field’s TÁR and the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once – two daring and original American films that it’s truly worth celebrating.

Critic, USA

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
• Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk, Australia)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
• May December (Todd Haynes, US)
• Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
• The Pigeon Tunnel (Errol Morris, US)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, US)
• Unrest (Unrueh) (Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland)

List is alphabetical, not ranked. Also: Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, Oppenheimer, Queens of the Qing Dynasty, Pacifiction, Rotting in the Sun, Talk to Me, M3gan, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, The World’s Greatest Sinner, R.M.N., Anatomy of a Fall, The Adults, De humani corporis fabrica, Our Body

Programmer, UK/Mexico

1. Anhell69 (Theo Montoya, Colombia, Romania, France, Germany)
2. Hummingbirds (Estefania “Beba” Contreras, Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, US)
3. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
4. Sambizanga (1972; 2022 restoration) (Sarah Maldoror, Angola, France)
5. Mulberry (Almira Saifullina, Kazakhstan)
6. M20 Matamoros Ejido 20 (Leonor Maldonado, Mexico)
7. Earth Mama (Savannah Leaf, US)
8. Macario (1960; 2023 restoration) (Roberto Gavaldón, Mexico)
9. Lonely Oaks (Vergiss Meyn Nicht) (Fabiana Fragale, Killian Kuhlendahl, Jens Mühlhoff, Germany)
10. Grace (Ilya Povolotsky, Russia)

Critic, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Daaaaaali! (Quentin Dupieux, France)
3. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
4. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
5. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
6. Pearl (Ti West, US, Canada, New Zealand)
7. On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant) (Nicolas Philibert, France, Japan)
8. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
9. Man in Black (Wang Bing, France, US, UK)
10. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)

Critic, USA

1. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
2. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
3. The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
4. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
5. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, US)
6. No Bears (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
7. The Runner (1984) (Amir Naderi, Iran)
8. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
9. The Taking (Alexandre O. Philippe, US)
10. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson, UK, US)

Alphabetical order. Although we tend to embrace the expedient fiction that all films are created equal, my inability to see the latest Radu Jude feature before the October deadline has to weighed against how much easier it was to get to the Anderson, Gerwig, Schrader, and Scorsese. Money talks – and, indeed, canonises.

Critic, UK

1. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
3. As Mine Exactly (Charlie Shackleton, UK)
4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
5. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani, Switzerland, Georgia)
6. Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, France, Portugal)
7. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
8. Occupied City (Steve McQueen, UK, Netherlands, US)
9. Samsara (Lois Patiño, Spain)
10. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden)

I decided to count 2023 films only, rather than 2022 films I only got to see in 2023 – it pains me to omit The Plains, which would’ve certainly made my 2022 list, and Avatar: The Way of Water, which might’ve done.

Programmer and writer, UK

1. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
2. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
3. Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
4. Fingernails (Christos Nikou, US, UK)
5. The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi, Chile)
6. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
8. The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow, US)
9. Disco Boy (Giacomo Abbruzzese, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland)
10. The Teachers’s Lounge (İlker Çatak, Germany)

Critic, UK

1. Alcarràs (Carla Simón, Spain, Italy)
2. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
3. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, US)
4. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani, Switzerland, Georgia)
5. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
6. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
8. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
9. Unrest (Unrueh) (Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

Critic, UK

1. Gasoline Rainbow (Bill and Turner Ross, US)
2. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
3. Samsara (Lois Patiño, Spain)
4. Our Body (Claire Simon, France)
5. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
6. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina)
7. The Cemetery of Cinema (Thierno Souleyman Diallo, France, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Guinea)
8. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
9. AI: African Intelligence (Manthia Diawara, Portugal, Belgium)
10. Together with Lorenza Mazzetti (Brighid Lowe, UK)

Filmmaker and critic, USA

1. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
2. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Germany, Argentina)
3. The Eight Mountains (Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, Italy)
4. The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani, France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark)
5. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
6. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
7. War Pony (Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, US, UK)
8. A Little Love Package (Gastón Solnicki, Austria, Argentina)
9. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal)
10. Godland (Volaða Land) (Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden)

The possibilities for cinema seem to be expanding. The form a film can take is entering a new and exciting territory with works like Trenque Lauquen and Rotting in the Sun. Film at its best is now pulling further away from television, defining itself by its difference, and finding new and ineffable things to consider and express. It’s a good time to be watching movies.

Journalist, programmer, video essayist, UK

1. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
3. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
4. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
5. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
6. The Monk and the Gun (Pawo Choyning Dorji, Bhutan, Taiwan, France, US)
7. In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, UK)
8. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
9. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

Some key titles that I haven’t yet viewed, but this is still an incredibly strong year, particularly for British (debut) films. Watching Close Your Eyes at its (ludicrous Out of Competition) Cannes premiere, and seeing it as a career summation of one of the great missing filmmakers, was an overwhelming experience.

Critic, UK

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
2. River (Junta Yamaguchi, Japan)
3. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, Germany, US)
4. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)
5. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
6. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
7. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
8. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, US)
9. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An, Vietnam)
10. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)

Since another publication asks me for a list based on UK release dates, my Sight and Sound ballot sticks to films that premiered in 2023. John Wick: Chapter 4 is the best anime adaptation that isn’t actually an anime adaptation.

Programmer, UK

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
2. The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
3. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, France)
4. Notes from Eremocene (Viera Čákanyová, Slovakia, Czech Republic)
5. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
6. This Closeness (Kit Zauhar, US)
7. Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, France, Portugal)
8. The Analogy of Space (Oleksandr Hoisan, Ukraine)
9. Mad Fate (Soi Cheung, Hong Kong)
10. Still Free (Vadim Kostrov, Russia)

I love these movies – some overlooked, some deservedly lauded. This was a very fine year for cinema. Please note: this is a list submitted as of Monday 23 October 2023. Still lots to see.

Critic, broadcaster and host, Girls on Film podcast, UK

1. Typist Artist Pirate King (Carol Morley, UK)
2. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
3. Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin, UK)
4. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
5. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
6. Rye Lane (Raine Allen Miller, UK)
7. Scrapper (Charlotte Regan, UK)
8. Joy Ride (Adele Lim, UK, US)
9. Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (Nina Menkes, )
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)

Critic, India

1. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (Lijo Jose Pellissery, India)
2. Which Colour? (Shahrukhkhan Chavada, India)
3. Mr. Junjun (Niu Niu, China)
4. Fauna (Pau Faus, Spain)
5. Slow Shift (Shambhavi Kaul, India, US)
6. The Film You Are About To See (Maxime Martinot, France)
7. Valli (Manoj Shinde, India)
8. Camping du Lac (Éléonore Saintagnan, Belgium)
9. A House in Jerusalem (Muayad Alayan, Germany, Palestine, Netherlands, UK)
10. Berlin (Atul Sabharwal, India)

Critic, UK

1. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
2. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
3. The Secret Garden (Nour Ouayda, Lebanon)
4. Horse Opera (Moyra Davey, US)
5. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, US)
6. Here (Bas Devos, Belgium)
7. A Prince (Un Prince) (Pierre Créton, France)
8. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, US)
9. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
10. May December (Todd Haynes, US)

Let a hundred gardens blossom…!

Critic, UK

1. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
2. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, US)
3. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
4. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
5. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
6. Earth Mama (Savannah Leaf, US)
7. Reality (Tina Satter, US)
8. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
9. Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)
10. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)

Managing editor, Sight and Sound, UK

1. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
2. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK)
3. Bottoms (Emma Seligman, US)
4. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
5. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
6. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
7. The Killer (David Fincher, US)
8. Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Spain, France)
9. The Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain, France)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)

Critic, UK

1. Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill, Canada, US)
2. Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis, France)
3. Marlowe (Neil Jordan, Ireland, Spain, France, US)
4. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
5. One Fine Morning (Un beau matin) (Mia Hansen-Løve, France, Germany)
6. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
7. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mexico)
8. No Bears (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
9. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland, Italy)
10. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, Canada)

Critic, USA

1. Green Border (Agnieszka Holland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
4. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)
5. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell, US)
6. Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, US)
7. May December (Todd Haynes, US)
8. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
9. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
10. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, US)

The first three films and the fifth film on this list are necessary and extraordinary, the others are simply films I love and they could have been replaced by others. Sad to omit such wonderful first films as Polite Society (Nida Manzoor) and Totem (Lila Avilés).

BFI digital production editor and critic, UK

1. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
4. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
5. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
6. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
7. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
8. Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin, Ireland, New Zealand, US)
9. Femme (Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, UK)
10. Totem (Lila Avilés, Mexico)

Another strong year – although I believe every year has a wealth of cinematic treats, it’s just a question of how far you’re prepared to go to seek out them out. Most notable for me was the strength of new British films, especially debut films directed by women. They may not have quite made the cut in my listed top 10 but Rye Lane, Scrapper, Polite Society and Girl are all worthy of celebration.

Critic, curator, filmmaker, UK

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK, Poland, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. War Pony (Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, US, UK)
4. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
5. Maestro (Bradley Cooper, US)
6. Reality (Tina Satter, US)
7. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, US)
8. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
9. The Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain, France)
10. Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski, France)

Generally a strong year for cinema, from both established names (Scorsese, Nolan, even Glazer) and so many burgeoning talents. My selection is mainly based on films that held some surprise for me, which is rare as I so often feel more stimulated discovering and rediscovering the gems of the past.

Critic, USA

1. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin, US)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, US)
4. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, US)
5. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
6. No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky, US)

Film writer and programmer, UK

1. Man in Black (Wang Bing, France, US, UK)
2. The Trial (Ulises de la Orden, Argentina, Italy, France, Norway)
3. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
4. Still Film (James N. Kienitz Wilkins, US)
5. Grenfell (Steve McQueen, UK)
6. Keeping Time (Darol Olu Kae, US)
7. Nowhere Near (Miko Revereza, Philippines)
8. Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara, Japan)
9. Self-portrait: 47 Km 2020 (Zhang Mengqi, China)
10. Best Secret Place (Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel, France)

“For me, filmmaking is not that complicated.”
— Wang Bing

Professor in film studies (King’s College London), UK

1. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, France)
2. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
3. The Goldman Case (Cédric Kahn, France)
4. Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) (Kaouther Ben Ania, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Tunisia, Cyprus)
5. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
6. Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
7. The Sitting Duck (La Syndicaliste) (Jean-Paul Salomé, France, Germany)
8. Bernadette (Léa Domenach, France)
9. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
10. Yannick (Quentin Dupieux, France)

My list begins with three remarkable films that share a setting in a court of law. All three in different ways show the class, gender and racial biases of justice (in France in this case) but also demonstrate how cinematic a genre based on spatial confinement can be, in part through offering the exhilarating pleasures of great performance and deployment of language. My choices for fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films are portraits of women, all fascinating from widely different genres and directors. My ninth and tenth choices were (good) surprises.

Critic, UK

1. Occupied City (Steve McQueen, UK, Netherlands, US)
2. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
3. Together with Lorenza Mazzetti (Brighid Lowe, UK)
4. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello, France)
5. Music (Angela Schanelec, Germany)
6. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
7. Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)
8. Kokomo City (D. Smith, US)
9. The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux, David Ernaux-Briot, France)
10. Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan, US, Japan, China)

This year I enjoyed documentaries that were either very, very long or very, very short.

Filmmaker and critic, UK

1. Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman, UK)
2. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
3. Haar (Ben Hecking, UK)
4. TÁR (Todd Field, US)
5. Pearl (Ti West, US, Canada, New Zealand)
6. Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse (Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson, US)
7. Tuesday (Daina O Pusic, UK, US)

Five tiny films, one medium film with a big impact, and one massive film with a surprisingly sensitive side. I saw a number of bold British debuts this year, and the inventiveness and sheer swing-for-the-fences of Hardiman and Pusic’s films really spoke to me. Hardiman’s film is a self-assured take on the one-shot gimmick, played for perfection and with a heap of irony; Pusic’s astonishing decision has largely been left out of the marketing, so I’ll simply invite the viewer to meet the third main character for themselves.

Less showy but just as clever is Hecking’s fab Haar, an at turns hilarious and heartwrenching portrait of a woman at a turning point, gorgeously realised in Super 8 in all its lo-fi glory and all the better for it.

A much bigger film with a similar stylistic bent was Across the Spiderverse, which hurt my eyes in the best possible way, a breathless cavalcade of cartoon styles that speaks deeply to the endless possibilities of animation. Still, for all the fun, it’s the emotional core of the movie – a sensitive portrayal of teen friendship, romance and the importance of standing up for your beliefs – that resonated with me.

In genre spaces, Pearl’s devious double act with X allows it room to breath in a very strange take on horror and its cinematic legacy, as well as being probably the best film about Covid-19 yet (despite not featuring it). Come for the pastel, stay for an ending performance that rivals Beau Travail for audience captivation.

Away from big swings, Tár and Past Lives both impressed in their impeccable handle on tone and story, and their remarkable restraint in communicating both to the audience. If Tár was the big bang that started my year, Past Lives is the quiet closing of the door that finishes it – a film that walked with me and followed me home.

Critic, UK

1. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
2. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, US)
3. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
4. Earth Mama (Savannah Leaf, US)
5. Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
6. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
7. Janet Planet (Annie Baker, US)
8. Passages (Ira Sachs, France)
9. Ramona (Victoria Linares, Dominican Republic)
10. Hit Man (Richard Linklater, US)

Academic and critic, UK

1. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
2. Past Lives (Celine Song, US)
3. Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski, France)
4. The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux, David Ernaux-Briot, France)
5. The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green, Australia, UK)
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
7. Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium, Netherlands, France)
8. L’Innocent/The Innocent (Louis Garrel, France)
9. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)
10. A plein temps/Full Time (Eric Gravel, France)

Critic, UK

1. Rye Lane (Raine Allen Miller, UK)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
3. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
4. The Killer (David Fincher, US)
5. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France)
6. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, UK)
7. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, US)
8. Earth Mama (Savannah Leaf, US)
9. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
10. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)

BFI digital features editor, UK

1. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania)
4. Passing Time (Terence Davies, Belgium, UK)
5. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
6. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
7. The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
8. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, US)
9. Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva, US, Mexico)
10. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, France)

Editor-in-chief, Sight and Sound, UK

1. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland, UK, US)
3. Bottoms (Emma Seligman, US)
4. Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, Australia)
5. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, US)
6. Rye Lane (Raine Allen Miller, UK)
7. The Killer (David Fincher, US)
8. El Conde (Pablo Larraín, Chile)
9. Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Spain, France)
10. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)

Critic, curator, maker, UK, Austria

1. Samsara (Lois Patiño, Spain)
2. Crow (Ubu Kung, UK)
3. A Once Lonely Man (John J A Jannone, US)
4. The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, Argentina)
5. YUL20A (Alex MacKenzie, Canada)
6. Snow Crystals (Olivier Perriquet, France)
7. Capsules / Portraits #3 (Jules Bourbon, France)
8. Prije mraka [Before Dark] (Mare Šuljak, Croatia)
9. National Anarchist: Lino Brocka (Khavn, Philippines)
10. Body Legato (Sam Drake, US)

“There is a place called silence, Where no hope or harm can be. It lies below some far horizon, A “Bali Ha’i” for you and me.”
— Passing Time (Terence Davies, 1945-2023)

Mstyslav Chernov

Voted for by: Charles Gant

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren

Voted for by: Maria Delgado

Flóra Anna Buda

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit

Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho, Kevin B Lee, Annabel Bai Jackson

Mark Jenkin

Voted for by: Tara Judah

Katharina Huber

Voted for by: Giovanni Marchini Camia

Muayad Alayan

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Gastón Solnicki

Voted for by: Chris Shields

John J A Jannone

Voted for by: Neil Young

Eric Gravel

Voted for by: Catherine Wheatley

Pierre Créton

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Kieron Corless, Hyun Jin Cho, Laura Staab, Beatrice Loayza

Onyeka Igwe

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho

A.V. Rockwell

Voted for by: Maya Cade, Amy Taubin

Christopher Morris

Voted for by: Roger Luckhurst

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Voted for by: Arjun Sajip, Tom Charity

Evan Marlowe

Voted for by: Anton Bitel

Christian Petzold

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Laura Staab, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Luckhurst, Alex Davidson, Guy Lodge, Christopher Small, Molly Haskell, Tom Charity, Pamela Hutchinson

Manthia Diawara

Voted for by: Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Carla Simón

Voted for by: Caspar Salmon, Pamela Hutchinson, Annabel Bai Jackson

Raven Jackson

Voted for by: Ashley Clark, Simran Hans, Maya Cade, Kelli Weston, Carlos Aguilar

Andrew Haigh

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, James Mottram, Alex Ramon, Sophie Brown, Charles Gant, Guy Lodge, Leigh Singer, Nick James, Arjun Sajip, Jamie Dunn, Maya Cade, Wendy Ide, Carlos Aguilar, Isabel Stevens

Laura Poitras

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit, Kate Stables, Katie McCabe

Paul Duane

Voted for by: Anne Billson

James Benning

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Travis Jeppesen

Cord Jefferson

Voted for by: Kaleem Aftab, Tom Charity

Bo Wang

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Ben Nicholson

Justine Triet

Voted for by: Sam Clements, Anne Billson, Maria Delgado, Michael Atkinson, Catherine Bray, Sophie Brown, Charles Gant, Carmen Gray, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Katherine McLaughlin, Caspar Salmon, Leigh Singer, Anna Smith, Maya Cade, Ryan Gilbey, Elena Lazic, Kevin B Lee, Ginette Vincendeau, Anna Bogutskaya, Sinéad Gleeson

Theo Montoya

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick, Nick Bradshaw

Helin Celik

Voted for by: Mark Cousins

Wim Wenders

Voted for by: Nick Bradshaw

Lea Glob

Voted for by: Carmen Gray, Nick Bradshaw

Kelly Fremon Craig

Voted for by: Maya Cade

Liu Jian

Voted for by: Travis Jeppesen

Martín Shanly

Voted for by: Alex Davidson

Charlie Shackleton

Voted for by: Arjun Sajip

Wes Anderson

Voted for by: Philip Horne, Peter Tonguette, Anton Bitel, Michael Atkinson, Nicolas Rapold, Tom Charity, Henry K. Miller, David Pirie, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Nicole Flattery, Isabel Stevens, Samuel Wigley, Charles Whitehouse

Damien Chazelle

Voted for by: Tim Hayes, Jane Giles

João Canijo

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Greta Gerwig

Voted for by: Philip Horne, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Luckhurst, Jane Giles, Kaleem Aftab, Sophie Brown, Charles Gant, Carmen Gray, Ian Mantgani, Anna Smith, Christina Newland , Mark Cousins, Pamela Hutchinson, David Pirie, John Bleasdale, Rachel Pronger, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Carlos Aguilar, Kevin B Lee, Kate Stables, Ginette Vincendeau, Nicole Flattery, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Voted for by: Brad Stevens

Ari Aster

Voted for by: James Mottram, Kim Newman, Jane Giles, Anton Bitel, Guy Lodge, Caspar Salmon, Henry K. Miller, Elena Lazic

Atul Sabharwal

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Léa Domenach

Voted for by: Ginette Vincendeau

Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel

Voted for by: Matt Turner

Madeleine Gavin

Voted for by: Anna Smith

Asli Özge

Voted for by: Geoff Andrew

Matt Johnson

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Elene Naveriani

Voted for by: Caspar Salmon, Arjun Sajip, Thomas Flew

Lisa Selby, Rebecca Lloyd-Evans, Alex Fry

Voted for by: Jane Giles

Georgia Oakley

Voted for by: Jane Giles, Ryan Gilbey

Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp

Voted for by: Mark Cousins

Sam Drake

Voted for by: Neil Young

Claire Denis

Voted for by: Brad Stevens

Emma Seligman

Voted for by: Henry K. Miller, Mike Williams, Isabel Stevens

Nina Menkes

Voted for by: Anna Smith

Hirokazu Koreeda

Voted for by: Philip Horne, Pamela Hutchinson

Ted Geoghegan

Voted for by: Anton Bitel

Lina Soualem

Voted for by: Leila Latif

Éléonore Saintagnan

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan, Beatrice Loayza

Jules Bourbon

Voted for by: Neil Young

Sav Rodgers

Voted for by: Sophie Brown

Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit

Lukas Dhont

Voted for by: Michael Atkinson, Katherine McLaughlin, Catherine Wheatley, Tara Judah

Victor Erice

Voted for by: Philip Concannon, Maria Delgado, Jordan Cronk, Guy Lodge, Caspar Salmon, Leigh Singer, Arjun Sajip, Amy Taubin, Adrian Martin, Geoff Andrew, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Thomas Flew, Isabel Stevens, Samuel Wigley, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Alain Kassanda

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali

Bertrand Bonello

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Marie Kreutzer

Voted for by: Mark Cousins

Ubu Kung

Voted for by: Neil Young

Quentin Dupieux

Voted for by: Jonathan Romney

Cyril Aris

Voted for by: Rachel Pronger

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel

Voted for by: Anne Billson

Walter Hill

Voted for by: Brad Stevens

Tarsem Singh

Voted for by: Kaleem Aftab

Giacomo Abbruzzese

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross

Radu Jude

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Erika Balsom, Laura Staab, Molly Haskell, Philip Concannon, Jordan Cronk, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Jonathan Romney, Rafa Sales Ross, Christopher Small, Nick James, Tom Charity, J. Hoberman, Geoff Andrew, Kevin B Lee, Kieron Corless, Samuel Wigley, Nick Bradshaw, Beatrice Loayza

Serge Bozon

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Christian Marclay

Voted for by: Annabel Bai Jackson

Kristoffer Borgli

Voted for by: Jason Anderson

Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta

Voted for by: Beatrice Loayza

Savannah Leaf

Voted for by: Kelli Weston, Chloë Roddick, Kate Stables, Katie McCabe , Charles Whitehouse

Morten Tsinakov, Lucija Mrzljak

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit

Morgan Quaintance

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali

William Oldroyd

Voted for by: Simran Hans, Henry K. Miller

Pablo Larraín

Voted for by: Mike Williams

Mark Jenkin

Voted for by: Jane Giles, Michael Atkinson, Sinéad Gleeson

Jerzy Skolimowski

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, David Parkinson, Adrian Martin, Tara Judah

Sofía Jallinsky & Basovih Marinaro

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Lisandro Alonso

Voted for by: Jordan Cronk, Christopher Small, Arjun Sajip

Rehana Zaman & EWiDwOP Collective

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho

Lee Cronin

Voted for by: Lou Thomas

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams, Molly Haskell, Kaleem Aftab, Steph Green, Caspar Salmon, Nick James, Lee Marshall, Ashley Clark, Kieron Corless, Samuel Wigley

Gábor Reisz

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Chloe Domont

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Aki Kaurismäki

Voted for by: Philip Concannon, Jordan Cronk, Carmen Gray, Jonathan Romney, Kelli Weston, Elena Lazic, Jason Anderson, Katie McCabe , Isabel Stevens, Samuel Wigley, Sophia Satchell-Baeza, Charles Whitehouse

Pau Faus

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping

Voted for by: Charles Gant, Lou Thomas

Christos Nikou

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross

Kaouther Ben Hania

Voted for by: Rachel Pronger, Ginette Vincendeau

Babak Jalali

Voted for by: David Parkinson

Bill and Turner Ross

Voted for by: Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Hlynur Pálmason

Voted for by: Steph Green, Pamela Hutchinson, Chris Shields, Carlos Aguilar

Mohamed Kordofani

Voted for by: Leila Latif, Nick James

Ilya Povolotsky

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho, Chloë Roddick

Agnieszka Holland

Voted for by: James Mottram, Alex Ramon, Amy Taubin, J. Hoberman

Steve McQueen

Voted for by: Matt Turner

Ben Hecking

Voted for by: William Webb

Soda Jerk

Voted for by: Nicolas Rapold

A.B. Zax

Voted for by: David Parkinson

Bas Devos

Voted for by: Laura Staab

Azazel Jacobs

Voted for by: Tom Charity

Richard Linklater

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams, Charles Gant, Nick James, Amy Taubin, Kelli Weston, Elena Lazic, Kieron Corless

Luna Carmoon

Voted for by: Jane Giles

Graeme Arnfield

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson

Moyra Davey

Voted for by: Laura Staab

Oh Jung-min

Voted for by: Lee Marshall

Goran Stolevski

Voted for by: Guy Lodge, Lee Marshall, Wendy Ide

Daniel Goldhaber

Voted for by: Ian Mantgani, David Thompson, Jamie Dunn

Molly Manning Walker

Voted for by: Katherine McLaughlin, Leigh Singer, Anna Smith, Lou Thomas, Simran Hans, Henry K. Miller, John Bleasdale, Wendy Ide, Kate Stables, Anna Bogutskaya, Charles Whitehouse

Estefania “Beba” Contreras, Silvia Del Carmen Castaños

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick

Regina Schilling

Voted for by: Geoff Andrew

Olga Chajdas

Voted for by: Alex Ramon

Naqqash Khalid

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson, Catherine Bray, Leigh Singer, Elena Lazic

Maciek Hamela

Voted for by: Rachel Pronger

Hong Sangsoo

Voted for by: Giovanni Marchini Camia, Thomas Flew

Leïla Kilani

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Brandon Cronenberg

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, Kim Newman, Anton Bitel, Michael Atkinson, Christina Newland , John Bleasdale

Pham Thien An

Voted for by: Sam Clements, Josh Slater-Williams, Patrick Gamble, Alex Davidson, Kaleem Aftab, Guy Lodge, Jonathan Romney, Caspar Salmon, Lee Marshall

Annie Baker

Voted for by: Kelli Weston

Chad Stahelski

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams, Anne Billson, Tara Judah

Adele Lim

Voted for by: Anna Smith

Saim Sadiq

Voted for by: Sophie Brown

Saim Sadiq

Voted for by: Carlos Aguilar

Darol Olu Kae

Voted for by: Matt Turner

Marco Bellocchio

Voted for by: J. Hoberman

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Voted for by: Ian Mantgani

Martin Scorsese

Voted for by: Leila Latif, Philip Horne, James Mottram, Sam Clements, Peter Tonguette, Josh Slater-Williams, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Luckhurst, Molly Haskell, Anne Billson, Philip Concannon, Kaleem Aftab, Catherine Bray, Sophie Brown, Jordan Cronk, Alex Dudok de Wit, Ian Mantgani, Katherine McLaughlin, Nicolas Rapold, Christina Newland , David Thompson, Nick James, Lou Thomas, Ashley Clark, Tom Charity, Catherine Wheatley, Simran Hans, Jamie Dunn, Pamela Hutchinson, Maya Cade, Amy Taubin, Philip Kemp, Mike Williams, Elena Lazic, Kate Stables, Jason Anderson, Nicole Flattery, Anna Bogutskaya, Katie McCabe , Sinéad Gleeson, Samuel Wigley

Max Blumenthal

Voted for by: Rastko Novaković

Neil Maskell

Voted for by: Philip Kemp

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h

Voted for by: Tara Judah

M. Night Shyamalan

Voted for by: Ian Wang, Steph Green

D. Smith

Voted for by: Ian Wang

Takeshi Kitano

Voted for by: Kim Newman

Louis Garrel

Voted for by: Catherine Wheatley

Alice Rohrwacher

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Alex Ramon, Molly Haskell, Steph Green, Lee Marshall, Amy Taubin, Wendy Ide, Thomas Flew, Jason Anderson, Isabel Stevens

Romain de Saint-Blanquat

Voted for by: Kim Newman

Martín Rejtman

Voted for by: Maria Delgado, J. Hoberman

Clémence Bouchereau

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit

Jean-Paul Salomé

Voted for by: Ginette Vincendeau

Catherine Breillat

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Caspar Salmon, Catherine Wheatley, Kelli Weston, Geoff Andrew, Elena Lazic, Kevin B Lee, Kieron Corless, Samuel Wigley, Beatrice Loayza

Deborah Stratman

Voted for by: Kevin B Lee

Lisa Cortes

Voted for by: David Pirie

Fabiana Fragale, Killian Kuhlendahl, Jens Muehlhoff

Voted for by: Rachel Pronger, Chloë Roddick

Emmanuelle Nicot

Voted for by: David Parkinson

Kôji Fukada

Voted for by: Philip Horne, David Parkinson

Gerard Johnstone

Voted for by: Jane Giles, David Pirie, Jason Anderson

Leonor Maldonado

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick

Roberto Gavaldon

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick

Soi Cheung

Voted for by: Christopher Small

Bradley Cooper

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Steph Green, David Thompson, John Bleasdale

Steven Soderbergh

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Rosine Mbakam

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Geoff Andrew

Wang Bing

Voted for by: Matt Turner, Jonathan Romney

Neil Jordan

Voted for by: Brad Stevens

Maryam Tafakory

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Patrick Gamble

Paul Schrader

Voted for by: Peter Tonguette, Laura Staab, Jonathan Rosenbaum

Todd Haynes

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Laura Staab, Molly Haskell, Philip Concannon, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Nicolas Rapold, Rafa Sales Ross, Christina Newland , Simran Hans, Maya Cade, Amy Taubin, J. Hoberman, Ryan Gilbey, Thomas Flew, Kevin B Lee, Nicole Flattery, Katie McCabe , Beatrice Loayza

Matteo Garrone

Voted for by: Leila Latif

Thomas Hardiman

Voted for by: William Webb

Michel Franco

Voted for by: Alex Ramon, Maria Delgado, Naman Ramachandran

Frederick Wiseman

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Philip Concannon, Lee Marshall, Amy Taubin, Thomas Flew

Milisuthando Bongela

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Guy Lodge, Ashley Clark

Will Merrick, Nick Johnson

Voted for by: Alex Ramon

Christopher McQuarrie

Voted for by: Philip Horne, Ian Mantgani

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Voted for by: Alex Davidson, John Bleasdale

Niki Caro

Voted for by: Adrian Martin

Lana Gogoberidze

Voted for by: Carmen Gray

Monica Sorelle

Voted for by: Ashley Clark

Niu Niu

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Almira Saifullina

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick

Angela Schanelec

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Ian Wang, Matt Turner, Laura Staab, Patrick Gamble, Jordan Cronk, Jonathan Romney

Leo Regan

Voted for by: Simran Hans

Lijo Jose Pellissery

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Khavn

Voted for by: Neil Young

Dominik Moll

Voted for by: David Pirie

Hugo Radi, Kayije Kagame

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson

Jafar Panahi

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, Jonathan Rosenbaum

Gene Stupnitsky

Voted for by: Peter Tonguette, Jamie Dunn

Viera Čákanyová

Voted for by: Christopher Small

Miko Revereza

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Matt Turner

Steve McQueen

Voted for by: Ian Wang, Philip Concannon, Arjun Sajip

Baloji

Voted for by: Kaleem Aftab

Nicolas Philibert

Voted for by: Travis Jeppesen, Jonathan Romney, Nick James, Geoff Andrew

Isaac Julien

Voted for by: Annabel Bai Jackson

Mia Hansen-Løve

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, Jamie Dunn, Pamela Hutchinson, Rachel Pronger, Philip Kemp, Annabel Bai Jackson

Wei Shujun

Voted for by: Giovanni Marchini Camia

Christopher Nolan

Voted for by: Tim Hayes, Leila Latif, Philip Horne, James Mottram, Sam Clements, Josh Slater-Williams, Molly Haskell, Anton Bitel, Catherine Bray, Steph Green, Naman Ramachandran, David Thompson, Lou Thomas, Ashley Clark, Henry K. Miller, Amy Taubin, John Bleasdale, Philip Kemp, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Kate Stables, Nicole Flattery, Sinéad Gleeson, Charles Whitehouse

Paul Preciado

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Molly Haskell, Kevin B Lee, Jason Anderson

Rebecca Zlotowski

Voted for by: David Thompson, Catherine Wheatley

Claire Simon

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Caitlin Quinlan, Hyun Jin Cho, Rachel Pronger, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Maysoon Pachachi

Voted for by: Henry K. Miller

Albert Serra

Voted for by: David Parkinson, Michael Atkinson, Chris Shields, Mar Diestro-Dópido

Laura Huertas Millán

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho

Prasanna Vithanage

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Alice Winocour

Voted for by: David Parkinson, Alex Dudok de Wit

Ira Sachs

Voted for by: James Mottram, Caitlin Quinlan, Alex Davidson, Catherine Bray, Alex Dudok de Wit, Guy Lodge, Katherine McLaughlin, Christina Newland , Lou Thomas, Simran Hans, Jamie Dunn, Maya Cade, Chris Shields, Rachel Pronger, Kelli Weston, Ryan Gilbey, Elena Lazic, Ginette Vincendeau, Jason Anderson, Nicole Flattery, Anna Bogutskaya, Sinéad Gleeson

Terence Davies

Voted for by: Samuel Wigley

Celine Song

Voted for by: James Mottram, Sam Clements, David Parkinson, Roger Luckhurst, Molly Haskell, Patrick Gamble, Maria Delgado, Catherine Bray, William Webb, Alex Dudok de Wit, Charles Gant, Carmen Gray, Ian Mantgani, Katherine McLaughlin, Nicolas Rapold, Anna Smith, Mark Cousins, Nick James, Lou Thomas, Lee Marshall, Tom Charity, Catherine Wheatley, Ryan Gilbey, Carlos Aguilar, Kate Stables, Jason Anderson, Anna Bogutskaya, Sinéad Gleeson

Ti West

Voted for by: Kim Newman, William Webb, Jonathan Romney, Anna Bogutskaya

Wim Wenders

Voted for by: Sam Clements, John Bleasdale

Kleber Mendonça Filho

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross, J. Hoberman, Kelli Weston, Kevin B Lee

Georden West

Voted for by: Carmen Gray

Amanda Kramer

Voted for by: Christina Newland

Nida Manzoor

Voted for by: Leila Latif

Yorgos Lanthimos

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Leila Latif, James Mottram, Josh Slater-Williams, Kim Newman, Anne Billson, Alex Davidson, Kaleem Aftab, Catherine Bray, Charles Gant, Steph Green, Katherine McLaughlin, Nicolas Rapold, Rafa Sales Ross, Christina Newland , Mark Cousins, Nick James, Lou Thomas, Lee Marshall, Jamie Dunn, Mike Williams, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Wendy Ide, Nicole Flattery, Anna Bogutskaya, Kieron Corless, Katie McCabe

Sinéad O’Shea

Voted for by: Sinéad Gleeson

Horace Ové

Voted for by: Simran Hans

Mare Šuljak

Voted for by: Neil Young

Sofia Coppola

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams, Christina Newland , Mike Williams, Nicole Flattery, Charles Whitehouse

Adrian Duncan

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson

Jude Chehab

Voted for by: Annabel Bai Jackson

Agniia Galdonova

Voted for by: Nick Bradshaw

Ashley McKenzie

Voted for by: Beatrice Loayza

Ja’Tovia Gary

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson, Patrick Gamble

Cristian Mungiu

Voted for by: David Parkinson, Roger Luckhurst, Michael Atkinson

Victoria Linares

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Kelli Weston

Tina Satter

Voted for by: Travis Jeppesen, David Thompson, Adrian Martin, Wendy Ide, Kate Stables

Pascal Plante

Voted for by: John Bleasdale

Yui Kiyohara

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Matt Turner

Davy Chou

Voted for by: Roger Luckhurst, Alex Davidson, Michael Atkinson, Katherine McLaughlin, David Thompson, Jamie Dunn, Ryan Gilbey, Nicole Flattery, Annabel Bai Jackson, Charles Whitehouse

Junta Yamaguchi

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams

Pablo Berger

Voted for by: Mike Williams, Isabel Stevens

John Torres

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho

Sebastian Silva

Voted for by: Leila Latif, Alex Ramon, Travis Jeppesen, Catherine Bray, Jamie Dunn, Chris Shields, Ryan Gilbey, Samuel Wigley

Raine Allen Miller

Voted for by: Charles Gant, Naman Ramachandran, Anna Smith, Mike Williams, Charles Whitehouse

Alice Diop

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Philip Horne, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Mark Cousins, Catherine Wheatley, Chris Shields, Rachel Pronger, Kelli Weston, Kate Stables, Ginette Vincendeau, Katie McCabe , Sinéad Gleeson

Sarah Maldoror

Voted for by: Chloë Roddick

Lois Patiño

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson, Patrick Gamble, Neil Young, Arjun Sajip, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Jane Giles and Ali Catterall

Voted for by: Kim Newman, Jane Giles

Charlotte Regan

Voted for by: James Mottram, Anna Smith

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Voted for by: Tara Judah

Zhang Mengqi

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho, Matt Turner

Shamira Raphaela

Voted for by: Ryan Gilbey

Shinya Tsukamoto

Voted for by: Kieron Corless

Kelly Reichardt

Voted for by: Laura Staab, Nicolas Rapold, Amy Taubin

Ady Walter

Voted for by: J. Hoberman

Kristoffer Borgli

Voted for by: Anne Billson, Adrian Martin, Tara Judah

Kumjana Novakova

Voted for by: Patrick Gamble

Kyle Edward Ball

Voted for by: Michael Atkinson

Shambhavi Kaul

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Luka Beradze

Voted for by: Carmen Gray

Quentin Dupieux

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Olivier Perriquet

Voted for by: Neil Young

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Margreth Olin

Voted for by: Nick Bradshaw

Christian Tafdrup

Voted for by: David Pirie

Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson

Voted for by: Leila Latif, William Webb, Wendy Ide

Pernille Kjær

Voted for by: Alex Dudok de Wit

Melanie Manchot

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson

James N. Kienitz Wilkins

Voted for by: Matt Turner

Vadim Kostrov

Voted for by: Christopher Small

Jing Guo & Dingding Ke

Voted for by: Annabel Bai Jackson

Robert Morgan

Voted for by: Anna Bogutskaya

Pedro Almodóvar

Voted for by: Mar Diestro-Dópido

Shokir Kholikov

Voted for by: Kaleem Aftab

Claire Dix

Voted for by: Sinéad Gleeson

Makoto Shinkai

Voted for by: Ian Wang, Steph Green, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Jason Anderson, Nick Bradshaw

Sean Price Williams

Voted for by: Kieron Corless

Danny and Michael Philippou

Voted for by: Kim Newman, Roger Luckhurst, Jane Giles, Anton Bitel, Katherine McLaughlin, Mike Williams, Philip Kemp

Todd Field

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, Tim Hayes, Philip Horne, Philip Concannon, William Webb, Ian Mantgani, Mark Cousins, Pamela Hutchinson, David Pirie, Philip Kemp, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Ryan Gilbey, Ginette Vincendeau

Sam Wrench

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Sam Clements

Jeff Rowe

Voted for by: Ashley Clark

Alireza Khatami, Ali Asgari

Voted for by: Ashley Clark

Pat Collins

Voted for by: Geoff Andrew

Dustin Guy Defa

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Simran Hans

Oleksandr Hoisan

Voted for by: Christopher Small

Rushnan Jaleel

Voted for by: Patrick Gamble

Bertrand Bonello

Voted for by: Leila Latif, Ian Wang, Alex Ramon, Jordan Cronk, Steph Green, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Rafa Sales Ross, Beatrice Loayza

Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Voted for by: David Thompson, Isabel Stevens

Jeff Nichols

Voted for by: Christina Newland

Maryam Touzani

Voted for by: Chris Shields

Hayao Miyazaki

Voted for by: Sam Clements, Ian Wang, Nick Bradshaw, Nicolas Rapold, Leigh Singer, Tom Charity, Maya Cade, Carlos Aguilar, Charles Whitehouse

Mark Leckey

Voted for by: Kieron Corless

William Friedkin

Voted for by: Peter Tonguette

Thierno Souleyman Diallo

Voted for by: Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Guy Ritchie

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Gareth Edwards

Voted for by: David Pirie

Ali Cherri

Voted for by: Annabel Bai Jackson

Fyzal Boulifa

Voted for by: Katie McCabe

Pedro Costa

Voted for by: Jonathan Rosenbaum, Christopher Small, Samuel Wigley

Rodrigo Moreno

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Maria Delgado, Kaleem Aftab, Jordan Cronk, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Jonathan Romney, Arjun Sajip, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Tatiana Huezo

Voted for by: Hyun Jin Cho, Ben Nicholson

Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen

Voted for by: David Parkinson, Chris Shields

Joanna Hogg

Voted for by: Roger Luckhurst, Carmen Gray, Tara Judah

Maite Alberdi

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross, Thomas Flew, Nick Bradshaw

Steven Spielberg

Voted for by: Brad Stevens, Peter Tonguette, Philip Concannon, Ian Mantgani, Mark Cousins, Philip Kemp, Mar Diestro-Dópido, Ryan Gilbey

Melisa Liebenthal

Voted for by: Beatrice Loayza

Joanna Arnow

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross

Maxime Martinot

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Léa Mysius

Voted for by: Tim Hayes, Anne Billson

Cédric Kahn

Voted for by: Geoff Andrew, Ginette Vincendeau

Maria Fredriksson

Voted for by: Carmen Gray

Alexander Payne

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, Philip Horne, Leigh Singer, Mike Williams, Philip Kemp

Eduardo Williams

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Jordan Cronk, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Neil Young, Kevin B Lee, Kieron Corless

David Fincher

Voted for by: Henry K. Miller, Mike Williams, Nicole Flattery, Charles Whitehouse, Isabel Stevens

André Øvredal

Voted for by: Anne Billson

Mark Mylod

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

Voted for by: Charles Gant

Simone Smith

Voted for by: Ian Mantgani

Pawo Choyning Dorji

Voted for by: Leigh Singer

Chris Cronin

Voted for by: Anton Bitel

Ken Loach

Voted for by: Philip Kemp

Scott Cooper

Voted for by: David Pirie

Errol Morris

Voted for by: Nicolas Rapold, David Pirie

Kitty Green

Voted for by: Catherine Wheatley, Wendy Ide

Amir Naderi

Voted for by: Jonathan Rosenbaum

Nour Ouayda

Voted for by: Laura Staab

Zhang Lu

Voted for by: Erika Balsom

Annie Ernaux, David Ernaux-Briot

Voted for by: Ian Wang, Catherine Wheatley

Alexandre O. Philippe

Voted for by: Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chloe Abrahams

Voted for by: Alex Davidson, Sophie Brown, Ashley Clark

Tran Anh Hung

Voted for by: Christopher Small, Lee Marshall, Caitlin Quinlan, Henry K. Miller, John Bleasdale, Elena Lazic

İlker Çatak

Voted for by: Rafa Sales Ross

Martin Bourboulon

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Ulises de la Orden

Voted for by: Jonathan Ali, Matt Turner, Patrick Gamble

Sebastián Lelio

Voted for by: Philip Kemp

Wes Anderson

Voted for by: Jonathan Rosenbaum

Jonathan Glazer

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford, James Mottram, Sam Clements, Alex Ramon, Roger Luckhurst, Molly Haskell, Patrick Gamble, Philip Concannon, Alex Davidson, Maria Delgado, Catherine Bray, Steph Green, Guy Lodge, Ian Mantgani, Katherine McLaughlin, Jonathan Romney, Caspar Salmon, Leigh Singer, Christina Newland , David Thompson, Mark Cousins, Nick James, Lou Thomas, Lee Marshall, Arjun Sajip, Ashley Clark, Tom Charity, Pamela Hutchinson, Maya Cade, John Bleasdale, J. Hoberman, Wendy Ide, Carlos Aguilar, Thomas Flew, Elena Lazic, Jason Anderson, Anna Bogutskaya, Isabel Stevens

Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman

Voted for by: Jamie Dunn

Juel Taylor

Voted for by: Tim Hayes

Kit Zauhar

Voted for by: Christopher Small

Thomas Charles Hyland

Voted for by: Lillian Crawford

Bianca Stigter

Voted for by: Geoff Andrew

Amanda Nell Eu

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Sean Hogan

Voted for by: Kim Newman

Brighid Lowe

Voted for by: Ian Wang, Sophia Satchell-Baeza

Lila Avilés

Voted for by: Josh Slater-Williams, Alex Ramon, Maria Delgado, Guy Lodge, Leigh Singer, Lou Thomas, Rachel Pronger, Chloë Roddick, Wendy Ide, Carlos Aguilar, Thomas Flew

Laura Citarella

Voted for by: Caitlin Quinlan, Erika Balsom, Chris Shields, Katie McCabe , Beatrice Loayza

Daina O Pusic

Voted for by: William Webb

György Fehér

Voted for by: Michael Atkinson

Carol Morley

Voted for by: Anna Smith, Henry K. Miller, Sinéad Gleeson

Erige Sehiri

Voted for by: Katie McCabe

Alberto Vazquez

Voted for by: Carlos Aguilar

Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd

Voted for by: Alex Davidson

Cyril Schäublin

Voted for by: Nicolas Rapold, Caspar Salmon, J. Hoberman

Manoj Shinde

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Bette Gordon

Voted for by: Sophie Brown

Stéphan Castang

Voted for by: Anne Billson, Catherine Bray

Iram Parveen Bilal

Voted for by: Naman Ramachandran

Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko

Voted for by: Ben Nicholson

Hong Sangsoo

Voted for by: Thomas Flew

Riley Keough and Gina Gammell

Voted for by: David Thompson, Chris Shields

Demian Rugna

Voted for by: Kim Newman

John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Voted for by: Anton Bitel

Shahrukhkhan Chavada

Voted for by: Srikanth Srinivasan

Sarah Polley

Voted for by: Maria Delgado, Pamela Hutchinson, Kate Stables, Tara Judah

Quentin Dupieux

Voted for by: Ginette Vincendeau

Nicole Holofcener

Voted for by: Sam Clements

Cecilia Aldarondo

Voted for by: Sophie Brown

Indianna Bell, Josiah Allen

Voted for by: Anton Bitel

Jeanie Finlay

Voted for by: Sophie Brown, Simran Hans, Nick Bradshaw, Anna Bogutskaya

Wang Bing

Voted for by: Erika Balsom, Ian Wang, Jordan Cronk, J. Hoberman

Alex MacKenzie

Voted for by: Neil Young