Best Movies of 2019 so far

[Chris Knipp]

FILM COMMENT end of year best lists.



Film Comment is the publication of Film Society of Lincoln Center, now renamed Film at Lincoln Center.

Film Comment’s Top 20 Films Released in 2019:
1. Parasite Bong Joon Ho, South Korea
2. The Irishman Martin Scorsese, USA
3. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino, USA/UK/China
4. Transit Christian Petzold, Germany/France
5. Atlantics Mati Diop, France/Senegal/Belgium
6. The Souvenir Joanna Hogg, UK/USA
7. High Life Claire Denis, Germany/France/USA/UK/Poland
8. Ash Is Purest White Jia Zhangke, China
9. Pain and Glory Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
10. Uncut Gems Josh and Benny Safdie, USA
11. Marriage Story Noah Baumbach, USA
12. La Flor Mariano Llinás, Argentina
13. An Elephant Sitting Still Hu Bo, China
14. Long Day’s Journey Into Night Bi Gan, China/France
15. Synonyms Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany
16. Asako I & II Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Japan/France
17. Us Jordan Peele, USA
18. The Image Book Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland
19. Portrait of a Lady on Fire Céline Sciamma, France
20. Ad Astra James Gray, USA

Film Comment’s Top 20 Unreleased Films of 2019:
1. State Funeral Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands/Lithuania
2. Endless Night Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro, Spain
3. To the Ends of the Earth Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan
4. MS Slavic 7 Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell, Canada
5. Present.Perfect. Shengze Zhu, USA/Hong Kong
6. Oh Mercy! Arnaud Desplechin, France
7. Tommaso Abel Ferrara, Italy
8. Bait Mark Jenkin, UK
9. Belonging Burak Çevik, Turkey/Canada/France
10. Midnight in Paris James Blagden and Roni Moore, USA
11. No Data Plan Miko Revereza, USA
12. It Must Be Heaven Elia Suleiman, France/Qatar/Germany/Canada/Turkey/Palestine
13. Wasp Network Olivier Assayas, France/Spain/Brazil
14. So Pretty Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli, USA/France
15. Just 6.5 Saeed Roustayi, Iran
16. Bird Island Sergio da Costa and Maya Kosa, Switzerland
17. What We Left Unfinished Mariam Ghani, Afghanistan/Qatar/USA
18. You Will Die at 20 Amjad Abu Alala, Sudan/France/Egypt/Germany/Norway/Qatar
19. Lina from Lima María Paz González, Chile/Argentina/Peru
20. The Devil Between the Legs Arturo Ripstein, Mexico

The complete list of films and participants can be found on FilmComment.com, on the Film Comment app, and in the January/February issue, which hits newsstands the second week of January.

(Of the first list I've seen all but the Godard. I've seen hardly any of the second list; or maybe only Oh Mercy!