Sight & Sound are in agreement with the majority of the critical community in naming Roma the best picture of 2018, including myself! The estimable British publication's year-end list is second only to their French counterparts Cahiers du Cinema's in its status as a definitive declaration on the quality of cinema each year, and this year's slate ought to please many who've anticipated it for weeks. You'll notice Phantom Thread nipping at Roma's heels, despite being initially released last year and featuring much more prominently in 2017's awards - its UK release was in January / February of 2018, however, making it eligible for Sight & Sound's list, which you'll notice is refreshingly heavy on the year's underlooked female directors in the upper ranks. Take a look!
1. Roma (Alfonso Cuaron)
2. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Burning (Lee Chang Dong)
4. Cold War (Pawel 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 (Koreeda Hirokazu)
17. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley)
18. Faces Places (JR and Agnes Varda)
= The Rider (Chloe Zhao)
= Western (Valeska Grisebach)