The best films of 2018
The full poll – browse all the votes and comments
About our poll
Sight & Sound’s Films of the Year polls aim to be an international gauge of the best new cinema and moving-image art being made and screened around the world.
We ask an international selection of film critics and curators to nominate the five new movie releases that made the biggest impression on them in the previous 12 months, be they films seen at festivals or released in their own country, television/streaming series, web videos or artists’ moving-image works.
We leave the parameters loose because of the vagaries of 21st-century ‘film’ production, distribution and exhibition, as well as what our contributors are able to see when. Some films therefore split their votes over multiple years: Zama, which gained 15 votes this year, was also the fourth best film in our 2017 poll. But we hope there is a virtue in gathering a wider sample of recommendations and enthusiasms.
- See a simple view of our 40 Best Films of 2018
- See all our other 2018 round-ups online
- Browse all our year-end polls and surveys
- Buy a print edition of our Films of 2018 bumper issue
How to use this database
We’ve embedded this year’s poll entries in an Airtable database. Click on one of the first row of tabs to browse by films, voters, directors, genres or countries of production. Beneath those we’ve embedded further different views – galleries, grids and a timeline of UK releases. You can also use the Filter, Group and Sort tools to slice the data your own way – and click on any record to open up a more detailed view. To open up the database in a new full-screen window, click the ‘View larger version’ arrows at the bottom right of the below view.
Read more in our January/February 2019 issue
Sight & Sound January/February 2019 issue
Sight & Sound January/February 2019 issue
The films of the year
Introduction to our films of the year coverage
Introduction to our films of the year coverage
The annual S&S critics’ poll uncovers the strongest field of films in a decade, in a year marked by the fallout from political division, #MeToo and identity politics, as well as the growing influence of Netflix and Amazon in the industry. By Nick James.
Plus:
The year in review
15 critics’ takes on the year in cinema
15 critics’ takes on the year in cinema
- Ryan Gilbey on British cinema
- Maria Delgado on Latin American cinema
- Nick Bradshaw on documentaries
- Naman Ramachandran on Indian cinema
- Birgit Beumers on Russian and Eurasian cinema
- Alex Dudok de Wit on animation
- Nick Pinkerton on American cinema
- Kim Newman on horror
- Jonathan Romney on French cinema
- Pamela Hutchinson on silent cinema
- Lizelle Bischoff on African cinema
- Lisa Kerrigan on television drama
- Tony Rayns on East Asian cinema
- Neil Young on Central and Eastern European cinema
- William Fowler on British artists’ film
- + 40 poll contributors’ comments on the year
Plus:
Alfonso Cuáron on Roma
Where the heart is: an exclusive seven-page interview with the director of our best film of the year
Where the heart is: an exclusive seven-page interview with the director of our best film of the year
Plus: Yorgos Lanthimos on
The Favourite
Disgrace and favour: an interview with the director of the scabrous tale of court intrigue during the reign of Queen Anne in England in the first years of the 18th century.
Disgrace and favour: an interview with the director of the scabrous tale of court intrigue during the reign of Queen Anne in England in the first years of the 18th century.
Plus:
- Matthew Sweet on Stan and Ollie, Laurel & Hardy
- The rise of Alexander Korda, Britain’s only film mogul
- Christina Newland on Robert Redford’s half century on screen
- RaMell Ross on Hale County This Morning, This Evening
- veteran underground filmmakers Luis Ospina
- William Castle on Blu-ray
- Mark Cousins signs off
- The ending of Black Narcissus
- and much more
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