50 Best Films of 2013
History was brought to life in the top films in our 14th annual poll. The Coen Brothers’ portrait of a failed Sixties folk singer pulled ahead of Steve McQueen’s harrowing trip back to life under slavery. Not too far behind was The Act of Killing’s exposé of Indonesia’s thriving genocidal legacy, and Andrew Bujalski’s doubly retro experiment in old-school video Computer Chess (plus, further down, Sarah Polley’s tricky family-saga hybrid Stories We Tell). Immersion cinema of a more contemporary sort—from Leviathan and Gravity, to the different deep ends of Spring Breakers and Upstream Color—also came on strong in a lineup featuring fewer foreign-language titles than usual. A note on the poll’s workings: over 100 North American colleagues ranked their favorites in two categories: 1) those that received theatrical runs and 2) those viewed this year but currently with no announced plans for U.S. theatrical distribution. For each ballot, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on.
Readers’ Poll: Readers are invited to stand up and be counted too! All entries will be automatically entered in our contest for free DVDs from the Criterion Collection. We will print the poll results in our March/April issue and publish your comments on the website. Send your ranked list of the year’s 20 best films (plus any rants, raves, and insights) with your name, address, and phone number, to fcpoll [at] filmlinc.com. Deadline: February 3, 2014. First Prize: your choice of Criterion Collection DVDs, up to $200 in value. Second Prize: up to $120. Third & Fourth Prizes: up to $80. The winners, who will be picked by random draw, can select prizes, subject to availability, from the Criterion Collection catalogue.
1. Inside Llewyn Davis
Joel & Ethan Coen, U.S.
2. 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen, U.S.
3. Before Midnight
Richard Linklater, U.S.
4. The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/U.K.
5. A Touch of Sin
Jia Zhang-ke, China
6. Leviathan
Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, France/U.K./U.S.
7. Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón, U.S.
8. Computer Chess
Andrew Bujalski, U.S.
9. Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach, U.S.
10. Upstream Color
Shane Carruth, U.S.
11. Museum Hours |
12. Blue Is the Warmest Color |
13. Bastards |
14. Spring Breakers |
15. Like Someone in Love |
16. Stories We Tell |
17. Her |
18. Nebraska |
19. American Hustle |
20. The Grandmaster |
21. At Berkeley
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22. Beyond the Hills |
23. No |
24. The Great Beauty |
25. Blue Jasmine |
26. All Is Lost |
27. Post Tenebras Lux |
28. Something in the Air |
29. Viola |
30. Fruitvale Station |
31. To the Wonder |
32. Night Across the Street |
33. Room 237 |
34. Faust |
35. Let the Fire Burn |
36. Le Pont du Nord |
37. The Wolf of Wall Street |
38. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet |
39. The Last Time I Saw Macao |
40. The Past |
41. The Square |
42. The |
43. Drug War |
44. Cousin Jules |
45. Much Ado About Nothing |
46. Passion |
47. Short Term 12 |
48. Dallas Buyers Club |
49. Berberian Sound Studio |
50. Captain Phillips |
Don’t see your favorite here? Proceed to the Best Undistributed Films of 2013.