Film Inquiry Consensus Top 10 Best of the Decade (2010s)

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015 – USA)
2. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010 – USA)
3. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012 – USA)
4. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017 – USA)
5. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011 – USA)
6. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019 – South Korea)
7. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015 – UK)
8. (TIE)
   • Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014 – USA)
   • Inside Llewyn Davis (The Coen Brothers, 2013 – USA)
   • Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016 – USA)
   • Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017 – USA)
   • The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro, 2017 – USA)
   • You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2017 – UK)
9. (TIE)
   • A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017 – USA)
   • A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011 – Iran)
   • The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014 – USA)
10. (TIE)
    • Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016 – USA)
    • O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016 – USA)

It’s unclear to say anything definitive about what the 2010s decade has represented in cinema, so we will leave that to the prophets of the future, who in retrospect will look back and glean a clearer picture of what secrets this moment in the history of our beloved visual medium holds. What we can say however is that cinema has been good to us, like always, and its existence, its diversity, and its egalitarianism as a subjective art continue to exist.

Biases are there. Much of the consensus picks for Film Inquiry remain predominantly male, predominantly white, and predominantly western. It is important that we at Film Inquiry have looked upon this collection of lists as not only a remembrance of the great cinema we have watched over these last ten years but a critical eye for the movies we may have missed. Whether they be inherent to ourselves or forced upon us by the structural obstacles of capitalism, this collection of Best of the Decade is an indicator of where cinema has been the past ten years, and where it can go in the future.

Individual Writers Lists:

Aaron Berry

1. This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, 2011)
2. Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)
3. Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
4. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
5. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
6. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
7. The Forgotten Colours of Dreams (Johnny Clyde, 2018)
8. Field N***** (Khalik Allah, 2015)
9. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
10. Cloud Atlas (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer, 2012)

Honorable mentions: 20^th Century Women (2016), The Act of Killing (2012), Ash is Purest White (2019), Blue Valentine (2010), House of Tolerance (2011), The Master (2012), Meek’s Cutoff (2010), Neon Parallel 1996 (2015), Norte, The End of History (2013)

Alex Lines

1. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
2. John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)
3. The World of Kanako (Tetsuya Nakashima, 2014)
4. The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011)
5. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2018)
6. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2018)
7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
8. Sleepless Night (Frédéric Jardin, 2011)
9. Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
10. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

Honorable Mentions: Bad Genius (2017), Glory (2016), Green Room (2015), Killing Them Softly (2012), Moonlight (2016), The Mule (2018), The Nice Guys (2016), Our Day Will Come (2010)

Alistair Ryder

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
2. BPM (Robin Campillo, 2017)
3. The Wolf of Wall-Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
4. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
5. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
6. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
7. Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2017)
8. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019)
9. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010)
10. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)

Amanda Jane Stern

1. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)
2. Sorry Angel (Christophe Honoré, 2018)
3. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
4. God’s Own Country (Francis Lee, 2017)
5. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
6. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
7. Princess Cyd (Stephen Cone, 2017)
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
9. BlacKKKlansman (Spike Lee, 2018)
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti & Rodney Rothman, 2018)

Honorable Mentions: The Favourite (2018), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Holy Motors (2012), Moonlight (2016), Rocketman (2019)

Andrew Stover

1. A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017)
2. Madeline’s Madeline (Josephine Decker, 2018)
3. Birdman (or, the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñáritu, 2014)
4. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufmann & Duke Johnson, 2015)
5. An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo, 2019)
6. Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014)
7. Under the Skin (Johnathan Glazer, 2013)
8. The VVitch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
9. Drive (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011)
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

Honorable Mentions: Phantom Thread (2017), Sing Street (2016), Shoplifters (2018), The Tree of Life (2011)

Arlin Golden

1. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross, 2018)
2. The Burden (Niki Lindroth von Bahr, 2017)
3. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
4. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
5. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
6. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2013)
7. The Interrupters (Steve James, 2011)
8. Jane (Brett Morgan, 2017)
9. A Friendship in Tow/Toe (Atsushi Kuwayama, 2016)
10. The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield, 2012)

Alex Lei

(alphabetical order)

• Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)
• Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
• Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
• Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg, 2012)
• Finding Francis (Nathan Fielder, 2017)
• Hard to Be a God (Aleksei German, 2013)
• The Innkeepers (Ti West, 2011)
• The Other Side (Roberto Minervini, 2015)
• The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
• The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr, 2011)

Bailey Jo Josie

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
2. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
3. The Fighter (David O. Russell, 2010)
4. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
5. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
7. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
8. Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013)
9. Avengers: Endgame (The Russo Brothers, 2019)
10. Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011)

Honorable Mentions: 20^th Century Women (2016), Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012), Frozen (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Hereditary (2018), Interstellar (2014), Never Let Me Go (2010), Rango (2011), The Shape of Water (2017), Spotlight (2015), The To-Do List (2013)

Clement Obropta

1. Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, 2015)
2. Kill Me Please (Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2015)
3. Yara (Abbas Fahdel, 2018)
4. Waste Land (Lucy Walker, 2015)
5. In This Corner of the World (Sunao Katabuchi, 2016)
6. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2015)
8. Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy (Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2017)
9. The Hungry Tide (Tom Zubrycki, 2012)
10. Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016)

Note: “The 2010s, a decade that saw me graduate both high school and college and begin writing about movies for Film Inquiry, yielded many more great movies than I have time to watch, and many more great ones that I haven’t even heard of yet. As it stands, my best-of-the-decade list would comprise mostly American or British work — Inside Llewyn Davis, Paddington 2, A Ghost Story, The Other Side of the Wind, Grand Budapest Hotel, Love & Mercy, Kong: Skull Island, Birdman, Youth, and The Trip would all be on that list, though in a different order. But while those are all movies that I love, very few of them show me new worlds or characters radically different from myself. Where’s the immediacy and excitement of cinema? So in the spirit of rolled-sleeves cinephilia, I’d like to instead construct a separate list, my top 10 most transportive films of the decade. Many of these were the most exciting moviegoing experiences I had these past 10 years, as expert filmmakers, writers, actors, and documentary subjects illuminated for me a culture I’d not intimately known before. They’re the best examples of the unifying, empathetic power of cinema to invite cultures and peoples together. These stories come from around the globe, from Turkey to Brazil, Japan to Kiribati. Some of them show us journeys into the heart of darkness, others unhurried walks into the Scottish countryside. Some win us over with peaceful valley quietude, some with black-and-white vampire tales, and some with cats. Lots and lots of cats.”

Emily Wheeler

1. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
2. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
3. Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2015)
4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
5. Columbus (Kogonada, 2017)
6. How to Survive a Plague (David France, 2012)
7. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
8. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
9. Logan (James Mangold, 2017)
10. Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog, 2011)

Honorable Mentions: Black Swan (2010), The Innkeepers (2011), The Nightingale (2019), Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Note: “Culling favorites from an entire decade of movies is too large a task for my brain to handle, so I whittled it down with a firm rule: I only included movies I’ve felt compelled to revisit. I don’t rewatch these religiously, but they’ve stuck in my head like reverb, echoing in a way that’s never allowed me to put them down. There’s mullings over family (A Separation, Mommy, Columbus, Certified Copy), meditations on societal failures (The Lobster, How to Survive a Plague, Certain Women, Into the Abyss) existential crises (Upstream Color, Logan) and five million other things that struck a chord, but that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? These stayed with me, and that kind of personal response to 10+ movies is impossible to explain in a couple of paragraphs.”

Faisal Al-Jadir

1. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2017)
2. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
3. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
4. The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Witt, 2016)
5. Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
6. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (The Coen Brothers, 2018)
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
8. The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
9. Wild Tales (Damián Szifron, 2014)
10. A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013)

Honorable mentions: 45 Years (2015), Amour (2012), The Babadook (2014), Clash (2016), Enemy (2013), Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), The Irishman (2019), Kill List (2011), Logan (2017), Get Out (2017), Rams (2015), The Shape of Water (2017), Sicario (2015), Tyrannosaur (2011), Wajib (2017), Whiplash (2014), The VVitch (2015)

Jake Tropila

1. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch, 2017)
2. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
3. Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
4. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
5. The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011)
6. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
7. Under the Skin (Johnathan Glazer, 2013)
8. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
9. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
10. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

Honorable Mentions: 13 Assassins (2010), The Act of Killing (2012), Drive (2011), The Duke of Burgundy (2014), The Florida Project (2017), Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), House of Tolerance (2011), Le Havre (2011), The Lobster (2015), Looper (2012), Melancholia (2011), O.J.: Made in America (2016), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), The Other Side of the Wind (2018), Nocturama (2016) , Personal Shopper (2016), The Rover (2014), Skyfall (2012), Toni Erdmann (2016), World of Tomorrow (2015).

Note: “What you read above were the films that haunted, thrilled, engaged, inspired, and stuck with me over these last ten years. Compiling a “Best of Decade” list is a daunting task. For one, I have not seen every film released in the last ten years, so there are bound to be blind spots (some of them potential favorites). There’s also the matter of representation: do I choose what I believe to be the zenith of cinema from this time period, or do I stick with my gut and go with personal favorites? The resulting list was a loose combination of the two, as this is all a purely subjective exercise that lacks any ‘correct answer’. I have also consciously bent the rules for what constitutes a feature film, as you saw with my #1 ‘film’ of the decade. Truth be told that pick was the single greatest piece of artistic expression I had experienced in the last ten years, and I will reckon with anyone to honor it a spot on my list.”

Jay Ledbetter

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
2. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
3. O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)
4. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2018)
5. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
6. Uncut Gems (The Safdie Brothers, 2019)
7. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
8. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)
9. Manchester By the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010)

Honorable Mentions: Her (2013), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), The Lost City of Z (2018), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Phantom Thread (2017)

Kristy Strouse

1. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
2. Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
3. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)
6. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
7. 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
8. Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)
9. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
10. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

Honorable Mentions: Avengers: Endgame (2019), Before Midnight (2013), Birdman (or, the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), Boyhood (2014), The Cabin in the Woods (2011), Call Me by Your Name (2017), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Drive (2011), Ex Machina (2014), A Ghost Story (2017), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014), Her (2013), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Interstellar (2014), The Invitation (2015), La La Land (2016), Ladybird (2017), Leave No Trace (2018), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Marriage Story (2019), The Master (2012), Phantom Thread (2017), Prisoners (2013), The Revenant (2015), The Shape of Water (2017), Shutter Island (2010), Whiplash (2013), The VVitch (2015), The Wolf of Wall-Street (2013)

Note: “I had a very difficult time coming up with only ten favorites for the decade. I tried to find a balance between what I thought was the best but were also personal ones that stood out. That’s why I have so many honorable mentions. It’s also challenging because there are films this year that I haven’t seen yet, that could easily make the list! There has been such a diverse group of amazing films in the past ten years, so it makes it really challenging to only choose ten! I think there’s probably about a hundred more that I could focus on, but I think I’ve probably said to many as it is. I don’t really have a favorite out of those ten, and on any given day one might seem more prominent and inspiring than another. Such is re-discovering beauty of film. All I can say is: it’s been a wonderful decade of movies!”

Luke Parker

1. Manchester By the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Morgan Neville, 2018)
3. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)
6. A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017)
7. Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
8. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
9. Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2017)
10. The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019)

Manon de Reeper

1. The Handmaiden (Chan-Wook Park, 2016)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
3. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
5. The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
   
6. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
   
7. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
   
8. The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
   
9. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)
10. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
    

Honorable Mentions: The Book of Eli (2010), Inception (2010), Snowpiercer (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), The Conjuring (2013), Fruitvale Station (2013), Under the Skin (2013), Ex Machina (2014), Whiplash (2014), What We Do In The Shadows (2014), Selma (2014), The Babadook (2014), Mustang (2015), The Invitation (2015), The Fits (2015), Moonlight (2016), Mudbound (2017), God’s Own Country (2017), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Fast Color (2018), The Favourite (2018), Black Panther (2018), Us (2019), The Farewell (2019), Clemency (2019), Hustlers (2019)

Mark McPherson

1.  Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
2. Birdman (or, the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñáritu, 2014)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
4. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
5. Inside Out (Pete Doctor, 2015)
6. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2018)
7. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)
8. Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
9. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
10. Silence (Marin Scorsese, 2016)

Melody Rice

1. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, 2015)
2. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
3. Lemonade (Beyoncé Knowles et al., 2016)
4. No Home Movies (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
5. Under the Skin (Johnathan Glazer, 2013)
6. A Quiet Passion (Terrence Davies, 2016)
7. Good Time (The Safdie Brothers, 2017)
8. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr, 2011)
9. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
10. Bernie (Richard Linklater, 2011)

Honorable mentions: The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Anomalisa (2015), Blindspotting (2018), Coco (2017), The Florida Project (2017), La La Land (2016), The Look of Silence (2014), In This Corner of the World (2016), Under the Skin (2013), Your Name (2016)

 

Owen Butler

1. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
3. BladeRunner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
4. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019)
5. Waves (Trey Edward Shultz, 2019)
6. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
7. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
8. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
9. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
10. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)

Honorable Mentions: A Ghost Story (2017), Drive (2011), First Man (2018), It Comes At Night (2017), Lady Bird (2017), Mommy (2014), Parasite (2019), Roma (2018), Swiss Army Man (2016), Whiplash (2014)

 

Patrick Crossen

1. The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro, 2017)
2. What We Do in the Shadows (Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement, 2014)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
4. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
5. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
6. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore, 2014)
7. Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)
8. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
9. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
10. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018)

Honorable Mentions: About Time (2013), The Lobster (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Swiss Army Man (2016)

Note: “Is this another opportunity to continue my role as the herald of Guillermo del Toro? I’ll take it! The Shape of Water had me hooked from the first scene when del Toro sat us down on his lap and let us know that he was going to tell us the fairly-tale of a voiceless princess. His reverence toward monsters was perfectly paired with his lesser-talked about reverence towards love, which del Toro maintains is still something this world needs. The Shape of Water is the culmination of Del Toro’s dedication to the fantastic and weird, all told through his 2-hour aquatic dream sequence that leaves the viewer believing in something more. It’s awe-inspiring cinema that wants you to leave the theater looking at the world with hope and magic. My number 2 selection: Taika Waititi found the perfect blend of comedy and horror with What We Do in the Shadows. While the film is hysterical, I’m always appreciative of how seriously he took the vampiric elements. The special effects are so grounded and perfectly realized that it makes you feel like this documentary is 100% real. Long live the 2010s!”

Reyzando Nawara

1. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2013)
3. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
4. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019)
5. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)
6. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
7. Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
8. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
9. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
10. Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2014)

Honorable mentions: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Social Network (2010), First Reformed (2018), Manchester by the Sea (2016), The Master (2012), Paddington 2 (2018), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Note: “The 2010s have been a roller coaster decade in cinema. From a cerebral Pixar animated Inside Out to a psychedelic folk horror Midsommar, it’s safe to say that we’ve been spoiled with so many great films from filmmakers all over the world who work in various genres So, to narrow them down into a top 10 list is honestly kinda impossible, because it means that I have to leave plenty of phenomenal films. But anyway, to me, it all eventually comes down to not just films that are perfectly crafted, but also films that stay longer with me. There are two divorce films from Asghar Farhadi and Noah Baumbach. And there are also two films from Mia Hansen-Løve, the only director who manages to have two films on my list: Things to Come, the most cerebral and philosophical film of the decade, and Eden, a personal odyssey about the pain of letting go of one’s dreams, which draws some similarities to my second best film in this list, Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. Of course, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, a film that has been helping me to reassess my own life, is not one to leave. But in the end, what tops them all is Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy, a stimulating, subversive romance that talks about art, originality, and its philosophy in a sensual fashion.”

Sean Fallon

1. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
3. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs, 2015)
4. It Follows (David Robert Miller, 2014)
5. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
6. Zero Dark Thirty (Katherine Bigelow, 2012)
7. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
8. The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
9. Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012)
10. Girl Asleep (Rosemary Myers, 2015)

Honorable mentions: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Moonlight (2016), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Us (2019)

Shawn Glinis

1. Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011)
2. Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis, 2017)
3. Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
4. Araby (Affonso Uchoa & João Dumans, 2017)
5. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
6. Inside Llewyn Davis (The Coen Brothers, 2013)
7. A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018)
8. Ex Libris (Frederick Weisman, 2017)
9. O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)
10. Goodbye, First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011)

Soham Gadre

1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
2. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr, 2011)
3. 13 Assassins (Takashi Miike, 2010)
4. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, 2013)
5. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
6. The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki, 2017)
7. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 2018)
8. Mumbai Cha Raja (Manjeet Singh, 2012)
9. Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine, 2011)
10. O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)

Honorable Mentions: 12 Years A Slave (2013), American Honey (2016), Computer Chess (2013), The Dead Nation (2017), Dhobi Ghat (2010), The Duke of Burgundy (2014), The Edge of Tomorrow (2014), In Bloom (2013), Kill List (2013), Heaven Knows What (2014), I Daniel Blake (2016), Midnight in Paris (2011), Miss Lovely (2012), Moneyball (2011), The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012), Rati Chakravyuh (2014), Sicario (2014), Sonchidi (2011), Tale of Tales (2015), Weiner-Dog (2016)

Stephanie Archer

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, 2013)
2. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
3. La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
4. Moana (Ron Clements & John Musker, 2016)
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015)
6. Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
7. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
8. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
9. A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)
10. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

Tynan Yanaga

 (alphabetical order)

• Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
• Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
• Roma (Alfonso Cuaron, 2018)
• Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016)
• Selma (Ana DuVernay, 2014)
• Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018)
• The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
• The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)
• The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
• Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

Honorable Mentions: Brooklyn (2015), Columbus (2015), First Reformed (2017), The Florida Project (2017), Ida (2013), Inside Out (2015), Kid with a Bike (2011), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Museum Hours (2012), Paterson (2016), Phoenix (2014), Short Term 12 (2013), The Spectacular Now (2013), Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2019)

William Hopson

1. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
2. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt, 2012)
3. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
4. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
6. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (The Coen Brothers, 2013)
8. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
9. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
10. War for the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2017)

 Zach Hestand

1. Turbo Kid (François Simmard, Anouk & Yoann-Karl Whissel, 2015)
2. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
3. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
4. Drive (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011)
5. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
6. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, 2018)
7. John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)
8. Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)
9. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)
10. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)

Honorable Mentions: The Raid: Redemption (2011), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Blue Ruin (2013), The Wolf of Wall-Street (2013), The Fake (2013)

Zoe Crombie

1. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
2. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
3. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufmann & Duke Johnson, 2015)
4. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
5. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
6. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
7. I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
8. The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro, 2017)
9. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR, 2017)
10. Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2017)

Honorable Mentions: The Irishman (2019), The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010), You Were Never Really Here (2017)

What do you think about our top 10? And we’re curious to hear about your top 10 of the dcade – please share in the comments bel