Sight and Sound reveal results of the Best Films of the Year poll 2023

And there’s absolutely outstanding films here across both the Top 10, and the entire 50!

Dec 15, 2023

4–6 minutes

Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, BFI, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Film, Films of the Year, Films of the Year 2023, Killers of the Flower Moon, May December, Movies, Oppenheimer, Passages, Past Lives, Poor Things, Sight and Sound, The Zone of Interest, UK Films

Of course we’ll all be dosed to the highest levels in polls at this time of year but we like the Sight and Sound one, which is the BFI’s international film magazine, who’ve announced the results of their Best Films of the Year poll 2023!

Martin Scorsese’s period crime opus KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON takes the top spot, as Scorsese charts the complex human relationships at the centre of a grand conspiracy against the Native American Osage Nation in his 26th feature – our review is here!

This riveting drama, which had its UK premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival in October, is one of the unmissable big-screen events of 2023 and marks Scorsese’s first number 1 placement on Sight and Sound’s end of year poll – which is voted for by around 100 of the world’s top film critics.

The full Top 10 in Sight and Sound’s poll are…. undoes envelope…

1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Martin Scorsese)

2. THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Jonathan Glazer)

3. PAST LIVES (Celine Song)

4. POOR THINGS (Yorgos Lanthimos)

=5. BARBIE (Greta Gerwig)

=5. OPPENHEIMER (Christopher Nolan)

7. PASSAGES (Ira Sachs)

8. ANATOMY OF A FALL (Justine Triet)

9. DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (Radu Jude)

10. MAY DECEMBER (Todd Haynes)

Scorsese had this to say:

“I’ve been so heartened by the response to Killers of the Flower Moon. To have been able to make this picture, at this time in my life, and to see it so appreciated by so many, and by the Osage community in particular. . . for me, it’s grace.

“When I was told that it had topped the critics’ poll at Sight and Sound, I have to say that I was moved. The magazine has been so important to me, for such a long time.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve seen the cinema ridiculed in so many different ways. Over the last few years, the ridicule has reached a new level. The cinema has been culturally devalued, from all sides and at a constant pace. Anyone who loves the cinema needs to stand up for it. What I don’t mean is the idea of movies as a kind of cultural messaging delivery service, which can actually play a part in the devaluation. What I do mean is the art of cinema. Period.

“Thank you for your recognition of Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Winner of both the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI prizes at the 76^th Cannes Film Festival, Jonathan Glazer’s THE ZONE OF INTEREST comes in second place. Selected as the UK entry for Best International Feature at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards, Glazer’s most ambitious film to date upends the tropes of a Holocaust drama to depict the pampered life of executioners inhabiting a bubble of bourgeois denial.

PAST LIVES, the outstanding feature directorial debut of Celine Song, follows at number three. A beautiful, deeply romantic modern love story, Song’s profound drama embraces destiny, nostalgia and the immigrant experience. Yorgos Lanthimos’ POOR THINGS, a wild firecracker of a film, lands at number four on Sight and Sound’s list. Winner of the Golden Lion and UNIMED Award for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival, POOR THINGS sees Lanthimos continue his collaboration with Emma Stone, who gives a performance that will help define her place as one of the most thrilling and daring actors of her generation.

Rounding out the top five in a suitably 2023 fashion is a tie between BARBIE (Greta Gerwig) and OPPENHEIMER (Christopher Nolan). Writer director Greta Gerwig brings the world-famous doll to life in BARBIE, a whip smart and riotously fun imagining starring comedic dynamos Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, while Christopher Nolan’s story about the father of the atomic bomb is arguably one of his most daring films yet.

OPPENHEIMER has attracted over 50,000 new bookers to BFI IMAX since opening in July, grossing £2million on just one screen, with audiences travelling from across Europe, the USA and further afield to experience Nolan’s magnum opus in glorious 70MM IMAX, as it was meant to be seen. Nolan will receive a BFI Fellowship in February 2024.

Sight and Sound Editor-in-Chief Mike Williams commented:

“2023 has been huge for cinema. The writers’ and actors’ strikes shone a light on many issues the industry is facing, while the summer box office proved that audiences still have a huge appetite for the theatrical experience. It feels apt that in a year in which the very soul of cinema has been in the spotlight Martin Scorsese, one the greatest filmmakers of all time, should top our annual poll. Killers of the Flower Moon, a story of greed and murder that cuts to the heart of American identity, is a towering achievement deserving of its many plaudits, not least for the powerful central performance of Lily Gladstone. Scorsese has been eloquently advocating for the art and history of cinema for five decades, and in Killers of the Flower Moon he’s added another masterpiece to the canon.”

Sight and Sound’s winter 23/24 issue is available digitally and on newsstands now: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound

The Best Films of the Year poll is voted for by the magazine’s international pool of more than 100 critics, who each choose their top ten films of the year.