There’s still a few weeks left to go until 2018 concludes, but it feels like the deluge of critics and guilds lists are already upon us. With so many arriving, it can be hard to snuff out the cream of the crop but today brings one worth paying attention to, from Sight & Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine.
With over 160 critics, programmers and academics polled from around the world, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma topped the list. Considering its home base of the U.K., it’s no surprise to see Phantom Thread coming in second, while a trio of 2019 U.S. releases (Claire Denis’ High Life and Christian Petzold’s Transit, and Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book) made the cut, as did an undistributed film: Mariano Llinás’ La Flor.
Check out the list below (which actually includes more than 20 films, due to ties) and see more on their site.
1. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)
2. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
4. Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski)
5. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
6. Leave No Trace (Debra Granik)
7. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
= You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
9. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
= Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
11. The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard)
12. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
13. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)
14. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)
= Shirkers (Sandi Tan)
= Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
17. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley)
18. Faces Places (Agnès Varda, J.R.)
= The Rider (Chloe Zhao)
= Western (Valeska Grisebach)
21. La Flor (Mariano Llinás)
= Hereditary (Ari Aster)
= High Life (Claire Denis)
= Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)
= Madeline’s Madeline (Josephine Decker)
= 120 BPM (Robin Campillo)
= Transit (Christian Petzold)