Since 2002, I’ve been releasing lists of my top films of the year. From 2002 – 2014, each list is composed of the top 20 movies I saw that calendar year in a theatre. From 2015 onward, the lists are composed of the top films that had a theatrical release that year, regardless of when or where I watched them.

2023

1. 1. 1. The Zone of Interest
      2. Anatomy of a Fall
      3. Oppenheimer
      4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
      5. Barbie
      6. Past Lives
      7. Poor Things
      8. The Holdovers
      9. Killers of the Flower Moon
      10. American Fiction

2022

1. 1. 1. The Banshees of Inisherin
      2. Top Gun: Maverick
      3. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
      4. Babylon
      5. All Quiet on the Western Front
      6. She Said
      7. Navalny
      8. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
      9. The Woman King
      10. Elvis

2021

1. 1. 1. The Mitchells vs the Machines
      2. Don’t Look Up
      3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
      4. tick, tick… BOOM!
      5. Nightmare Alley
      6. The Power of the Dog
      7. Being the Ricardos
      8. West Side Story
      9. Belfast
      10. Dune

Honorable Mentions

Flee
King Richard

2020

In so many ways 2020 was an off year, so rather than create a top films video and a top theatre video (as I usually do), I merged the two into one, and added my favorite TV of the year (since I’ve been homebound nearly all year).

1. 1. 1. Ted Lasso (TV)
      2. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Film)
      3. Hollywood (TV)
      4. Unsolved Mysteries (TV)
      5. The Flight Attendant (TV)
      6. Onward (Film)
      7. Bad Education (Film)
      8. Mrs. America (TV)
      9. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Theatre)
      10. The Morning Show (TV)
      11. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Film)
      12. Hamlet (Theatre)
      13. The Queen’s Gambit (TV)
      14. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Film)
      15. Sound of Metal (Film)

2019

1. Marriage Story
2. Joker
3. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
4. Everybody Knows
5. The Lion King
6. Parasite
7. The Irishman
8. Knives Out
9. The Two Popes
10. Jojo Rabbit

2018

1. Mary Poppins Returns
2. Three Identical Strangers
3. Christopher Robin
4. Black Panther
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
6. Incredibles 2
7. A Star Is Born
8. Vice
9. Ready Player One
10. BlacKkKlansman

2017

1. Get Out
2. The Post
3. I, Tonya
4. Dunkirk
5. The Shape of Water
6. The Disaster Artist
7. Baby Driver
8. Coco
9. Lady Bird
10. Darkest Hour

2016

1. La La Land
2. Silence
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. Sully
5. Fences
6. Lion
7. Nocturnal Animals
8. Moonlight
9. Zootopia
10. Tower

2015

1. The Revenant (also Best Drama, Best Studio Film)
2. Steve Jobs
3. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (also Best Comedy, Best Independent Film)
4. Inside Out (also Best Animated Feature)
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
6. The Hateful Eight
7. The Danish Girl
8. Son of Saul (also Best Foreign Film)
9. Bridge of Spies
10. Love & Mercy
11. Brooklyn
12. My Love, Don’t Cross That River (also Best Documentary)
13. Suffragette
14. Spotlight
15. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
16. The Big Short
17. Carol
18. Where to Invade Next
19. Black Mass
20. Trumbo

Honorable Mentions
(The top films from 2014 I saw in a theatre in 2015)

American Sniper
Nightcrawler
The Salt of the Earth
Still Alice
Wild

2014

1. Interstellar (also Best Drama, Best Studio Film)
2. Birdman (also Best Comedy, Best Independent Film)
3. I Origins
4. Whiplash
5. A Most Violent Year
6. Into the Woods
7. Foxcatcher
8. Citizenfour (also Best Documentary)
9. The Theory of Everything
10. Philomena (2013)
11. The Imitation Game
12. Begin Again
13. Clouds of Sils Maria
14. The Grand Budapest Hotel
15. August: Osage County (2013)
16. Magic in the Moonlight
17. Tales of the Grim Sleeper
18. Unbroken
19. Boyhood
20. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

2013

1. The Place Beyond the Pines (also Best Drama, Best Independent Film)
2. Gravity (also Best Studio Film)
3. The Wolf of Wall Street (also Best Comedy)
4. Captain Phillips
5. Her
6. The Broken Circle Breakdown (also Best Foreign Film)
7. The Past
8. 12 Years a Slave
9. Star Trek into Darkness
10. The Great Gatsby
11. The Impossible (2012)
12. Dallas Buyers Club
13. How to Survive a Plague (2012) (also Best Documentary)
14. Blue Is the Warmest Color
15. Fruitvale Station
16. Saving Mr. Banks
17. Blue Jasmine
18. Frozen (also Best Animated Feature)
19. Lee Daniels’ The Butler
20. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

2012

1. Zero Dark Thirty (also Best Drama, Best Studio Film)
2. Argo
3. Les Misérables
4. Lincoln
5. Killer Joe (also Best Independent Film)
6. Anna Karenina
7. Beasts of the Southern Wild
8. Amour (also Best Foreign Film)
9. Wreck-It Ralph (also Best Comedy, Best Animated Feature)
10. Django Unchained
11. Rise of the Guardians
12. Life of Pi
13. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
15. Moonrise Kingdom
16. Frances Ha
17. The Paperboy
18. The Intouchables
19. The Gatekeepers (also Best Documentary)
20. The Dark Knight Rises

Honorable Mentions

The Artist (2011)
Casting By
Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Polisse (2011)

2011

1. Blue Valentine (also Best Drama, Best Independent Film)
2. Another Earth
3. Hugo (also Best Studio Film)
4. Moneyball
5. The Ides of March
6. Hanna
7. Carnage (also Best Comedy)
8. Warrior
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin
10. My Week with Marilyn
11. Attack the Block (also Best Foreign Film)
12. Shame
13. The Adventures of Tintin (also Best Animated Feature)
14. Midnight in Paris
15. The Skin I Live In
16. Into the Abyss (also Best Documentary)
17. Machine Gun Preacher
18. Pariah
19. Rango
20. War Horse

Honorable Mentions

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
Jane Eyre

2010

1. Inception (also Best Drama, Best Studio Film)
2. Toy Story 3 (also Best Animated Feature)
3. Waiting for “Superman” (also Best Documentary)
4. The Social Network
5. Black Swan (also Best Independent Film)
6. Made in Dagenham (also Best Foreign Film)
7. The King’s Speech
8. The Fighter
9. Crazy Heart (2009)
10. The Ghost Writer
11. Soundtrack for a Revolution (2009)
12. True Grit
13. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
14. Winter’s Bone
15. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
16. The Kids Are All Right
17. Another Year
18. I Love You Phillip Morris (also Best Comedy)
19. Peepli Live
20. Get Low

Honorable Mentions

127 Hours
The Last Station (2009)
Rabbit Hole

2009

1. (500) Days of Summer (also Best Comedy, Best Independent Film)
2. A Single Man (also Best Drama)
3. Broken Embraces (also Best Foreign Film)
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Inglourious Basterds (also Best Studio Film)
6. The Burning Plain
7. Frost/Nixon (2008)
8. The Hurt Locker
9. The Road
10. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
11. Up in the Air
12. Last Chance Harvey (2008)
13. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
14. Mammoth
15. Star Trek
16. The September Issue (also Best Documentary)
17. In the Loop
18. Revolutionary Road (2008)
19. Man on Wire (2008)
20. Fantastic Mr. Fox (also Best Animated Feature)

Honorable Mentions

Art & Copy
Creation
Julie & Julia
Which Way Home
The Young Victoria

2008

1. WALL-E (also Best Animated Feature, Best Comedy)
2. Doubt (also Best Drama)
3. Milk (also Best Independent Film)
4. Australia (also Best Studio Film)
5. The Wrestler
6. The Fall
7. There Will Be Blood (2007)
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) (also Best Foreign Film)
9. The Dark Knight
10. The Reader
11. Slumdog Millionaire
12. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
13. The Orphanage (2007)
14. The Duchess
15. Changeling
16. Transsiberian
17. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
18. Cadillac Records
19. Synecdoche, New York
20. W.

Honorable Mentions

Be Kind Rewind
Flash of Genius
Married Life (2007)

2007

1. Across the Universe (also Best Musical, Best Studio Film)
2. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) (also Best Foreign Film)
3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
4. Atonement (also Best Drama)
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Charlie Wilson’s War (also Best Comedy)
7. 3:10 to Yuma
8. Volver (2006)
9. Juno (also Best Independent Film)
10. Black Snake Moan (2006)
11. Dreamgirls (2006)
12. Children of Men (2006)
13. Blood Diamond (2006)
14. Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
15. Hairspray
16. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
17. American Gangster
18. Gone Baby Gone
19. Into the Wild
20. Michael Clayton

Honorable Mentions

The Darjeeling Limited
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Ratatouille (also Best Animated Feature)

2006

1. Stranger Than Fiction (also Best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Studio Film)
2. An Inconvenient Truth (also Best Documentary, Best Independent Film)
3. Match Point (2005) (also Best Foreign Film)
4. The Prestige
5. A Prairie Home Companion (also Best Musical)
6. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
7. For Your Consideration
8. The Departed
9. Bobby
10. Babel
11. All the King’s Men
12. Little Miss Sunshine
13. The New World (2005)
14. Shut up & Sing
15. Hollywoodland
16. The Pursuit of Happyness
17. Half Nelson
18. The Last King of Scotland
19. Flags of Our Fathers
20. Munich (2005)

Honorable Mentions

Marie Antoinette
A Scanner Darkly (also Best Animated Feature)
Syriana (2005)

2005

1. Rent (also Best Drama, Best Independent Film, Best Musical)
2. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
3. Crash (2004)
4. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
5. Good Night, and Good Luck.
6. Vera Drake (2004) (also Best Foreign Film)
7. Pride & Prejudice (also Best Comedy)
8. Bad Education (2004)
9. The Squid and the Whale
10. Millions (2004)
11. Memoirs of a Geisha (also Best Studio Film)
12. The Sea Inside (2004)
13. Everything Is Illuminated
14. The Producers
15. Paper Clips (2004) (also Best Documentary)
16. Capote
17. The Family Stone
18. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
19. Proof
20. Broken Flowers

Honorable Mentions

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
Beyond the Sea (2004)
A History of Violence
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Madagascar (also Best Animated Feature)
Shopgirl

2004

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also Best Independent Film)
2. I Heart Huckabees (also Best Comedy)
3. Garden State
4. The Passion of the Christ (also Best Drama)
5. Maria Full of Grace (also Best Foreign Film)
6. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (also Best Studio Film)
7. Dogville (2003)
8. Mystic River (2003)
9. 21 Grams (2003)
10. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
11. Shrek 2 (also Best Animated Feature)
12. Finding Neverland
13. Closer
14. City of God (2003)
15. Fahrenheit 9/11
16. Super Size Me (also Best Documentary)
17. Ray
18. The Polar Express
19. De-Lovely
20. Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Honorable Mentions

In America (2003)
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2003

1. Adaptation. (2002) (also Best Comedy)
2. Big Fish
3. Chicago (2002)
4. The Pianist (2002) (also Best Drama)
5. Cold Mountain
6. The Hours (2002)
7. Matchstick Men
8. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
9. Love Actually (also Best Foreign Film)
10. Seabiscuit
11. Finding Nemo (also Best Animated Feature)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
13. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
14. Whale Rider (2002)
15. Gangs of New York (2002)
16. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
17. The Human Stain
18. Thirteen
19. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
20. Lost in Translation

Honorable Mentions

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Pieces of April
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

2002

1. Bowling for Columbine (also Best Documentary)
2. Y Tu Mamá También (2001) (also Best Drama, Best Foreign Film)
3. Monster’s Ball (2001)
4. Gosford Park (2001) (also Best Comedy)
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
6. Frida
7. Far from Heaven
8. Possession
9. Road to Perdition
10. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
11. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
12. Minority Report
13. In the Bedroom (2001)
14. Lovely and Amazing (2001)
15. Real Women Have Curves
16. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (also Best Animated Feature)
17. The Good Girl
18. Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
19. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
20. Sunshine State