nonfilms:

2018 was an excellent year for cinema. No list can ever properly capture the individual experience or impact that a work of art can award a spectator, but the following selections were the films that truly spoke to us or continued to haunt our minds long after leaving the theater.

1. Chained for Life (dir. Aaron Schimberg, USA)  
2. 24 Frames (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
   
3. Burning (dir. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea)  
4. La Casa Lobo (dir. Cristóbal León & Joaquin Cociña, Chile)
   
5. First Reformed (dir. Paul Schrader, USA)  
6. An Elephant Sitting Still (dir. Hu Bo, China)
   
7. The Strange Ones (dir. Lauren Wolkstein & Christopher Radcliff, USA)
   
8. Bisbee ‘17 (dir. Robert Greene, USA)  
9. Zama (dir. Lucrecia Martel, Argentina)  
   
10. Madeline’s Madeline (dir. Josephine Decker, USA)
    
11. The Other Side of the Wind (dir. Orson Welles, USA)  
12. My First Film (dir. Zia Anger, USA)
    
13. The Favourite (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/USA)  
14. The Image Book (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, France)
    
15. Scarred Hearts (dir. Radu Jude, Romania/Germany)  
16. The Wild Boys (dir. Bertrand Mandico, France)
    
17. Cold War (dir. Paweł Pawlikowski, Poland)  
18. Wildlife (dir. Paul Dano, USA)
    
19. November (dir. Rainer Sarnet, Estonia)  
20. Fingerilla (dir. Micah Vassau, USA)
    
21. The Grand Bizarre (dir. Jodie Mack, USA)  
22. You Were Never Really Here (dir. Lynne Ramsay, UK/USA)
    
23. If Beale Street Could Talk (dir. Barry Jenkins, USA)  
24. Shoplifters (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
    
25. Birds Without Feathers (dir. Wendy McColm, USA)  
26. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening (dir. RaMell Ross, USA)
    
27. Insects (Hmyz) (dir. Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic)  
28. Bathtubs Over Broadway (dir. Dava Whisenant, USA)
    
29. Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico/USA)  
30. Dead Souls (dir. Wang Bing, China)
    

Although it was produced in 1980, Bill Gunn’s Personal Problems remained unaired for decades since. Thanks to Kino Lorber, it was finally released theatrically this year, as well as a 4K restoration fo his feature film Ganja & Hess.

The other massively overlooked piece of film history that was finally awarded a new restoration, and thus an entirely new audience, is Wanda (1971), the sole directorial feature from Barbara Loden.

Other recommended feature films: Mandy, Thunder Road, Icepick to the Moon, Sorry To Bother You, M/M, Nancy, Man on Fire, A Feast of Man, Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Milford Graves Full Mantis, Lowlife, Shoot the Moon Right Between the Eyes, Black Panther, Support the Girls, Cam, Rodents of Unusual Size, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Negro Terror, Happy as Lazarro, Taste of Cement, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, BlacKkKlansman, Isle of Dogs, Three Identical Strangers, Vox Lux, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs