Jonathan Rosenbaum: Top 10 Films of 2012 (as submitted to the Indiewire poll)

1. The Turin Horse – Béla Tarr
2. The Forgotten Space – Allan Sekula and Noël Burch
3. Bernie – Richard Linklater
4. The Hunter – David Nettheim
5. The Kid with a Bike – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
6. Unforgivable – André Téchiné
7. Holy Motors – Leos Carax
8. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
9. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies
10. Gerhard Richter Painting – Corinna Belz

As Submitted to the Village Voice Poll

1. The Turin Horse – Béla Tarr
2. Bernie – Richard Linklater
3. The Forgotten Space – Allan Sekula and Noël Burch
4. The Kid with a Bike – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
5. Far from Afghanistan – John Gianvito, Travis Wilkerson, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, and Soon-Mi Yoo
6. Holy Motors – Leos Carax
7. Unforgivable – André Téchiné
8. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
9. Keyhole – Guy Maddin
10. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies

David Thomson: 5 Best Movies of 2012 (as extracted from his review of Amour in The New Republic)

1. Amour – Michael Haneke

Also Suggested

• The Loneliest Planet – Julia Loktev
• Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
• Dream of a Life – Carol Morley
• Oslo, August 31st – Joachim Trier

Jaime Christley: 15 Favorite Films of 2012

1. The Unspeakable Act – Dan Sallitt
2. Like Someone in Love – Abbas Kiarostami
3. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
4. Flight – Robert Zemeckis
5. Apologize [video] – Louis C.K.
6. Looper – Rian Johnson
7. Resident Evil: Retribution – Paul W.S. Anderson
8. Passion – Brian De Palma
9. Not Fade Away – David Chase
10. Cloud Atlas – Lana & Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
11. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet – Alain Resnais
12. Prometheus – Ridley Scott
13. The Last Time I Saw Macao – João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
14. No – Pablo Larraín
15. Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino

Steven D. Greydanus: Top 30 Films of 2012 (as published by The National Catholic Register)

10 Films that Stood Out

1. The Kid with a Bike – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
2. Barbara – Christian Petzold
3. Argo – Ben Affleck
4. The Avengers – Joss Whedon
5. The Secret World of Arrietty – Hiromasa Yonebayashi
6. Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
7. Damsels In Distress – Whit Stillman
8. Planet of Snail – Yi Seung-jun
9. I Wish – Hirokazu Koreeda
10. Anna Karenina – Joe Wright

10 Runners-Up (in alphabetical order)

• Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin
• Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
• The Dark Knight Rises – Christopher Nolan
• Elena – Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi – David Gelb
• Les Misérables – Tom Hooper
• Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
• The Queen of Versailles – Lauren Greenfield
• Skyfall – Sam Mendes
• Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow

Honorable Mention

• Arbitrage – Nicholas Jarecki
• A Cat in Paris – Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol
• First Position – Bess Kargman
• For Greater Glory – Dean Wright
• Frankenweenie – Tim Burton
• The Impossible – Juan Antonio Bayona
• Monsieur Lazhar – Philippe Falardeua
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits – Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt
• Ruby Sparks – Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
• The Turin Horse – Béla Tarr

Michael Sicinski: Top 12 Films of 2012 (limited to “poll-eligible” films)

1. Holy Motors – Leos Carax
2. Almayer’s Folly – Chantal Akerman
3. Elena – Andrey Zvyagintsev
4. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
5. Keyhole – Guy Maddin
6. This is Not a Film – Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
7. Keep the Lights On – Ira Sachs
8. Two Years at Sea – Ben Rivers
9. Let the Bullets Fly – Jiang Wen
10. The Day He Arrives – Hong Sang-soo
10. [tie] In Another Country – Hong Sang-soo
10. [tie] Oki’s Movie – Hong Sang-soo

Dan Sallitt: Favorite 18 Films of 2012 (limited to films that played at least one week in Manhattan for the first time in 2012)

1. The Day He Arrives – Hong Sang-soo
2. Michael – Markus Schleinzer
3. The Kid with a Bike – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
4. Alms for a Blind Horse – Gurvinder Singh
5. Amour – Michael Haneke
6. This Must Be the Place – Paolo Sorrentino
7. Generation P – Victor Ginzburg
8. The Loneliest Planet – Julia Loktev
9. Attenberg – Athina Rachel Tsangari
10. Tabu – Miguel Gomes
11. Neighboring Sounds – Kleber Mendonça Filho
12. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies

Runners-up

• Bernie – Richard Linklater
• The Avengers – Joss Whedon
• Goodbye First Love – Mia Hansen-Løve
• Happy Few [Four Lovers] – Antony Cordier
• Artificial Paradises – Yulene Olaizola
• and maybe even Killing Them Softly – Andrew Dominik

Cinema Scope: Top 15 Films of 2012

1. Leviathan – Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel
2. Tabu – Miguel Gomes
3. Holy Motors – Leos Carax
4. The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson
5. Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino
6. Viola – Matías Piñeiro
7. The Last Time I Saw Macao – João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
8. autrement, la Molussie – Nicolas Rey
9. Neighboring Sounds – Kleber Mendonça Filho
10. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson

Honourable Mentions

• Barbara – Christian Petzold
• Bestiaire – Denis Côté
• Cosmopolis – David Cronenberg
• In Another Country – Hong Sang-soo
• Room 237 – Rodney Ascher

Kristopher Tapley: Top 10 Films of 2012 (as published by HitFix)

1. The Grey – Joe Carnahan
2. Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
3. Looper – Rian Johnson
4. Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino
5. Amour – Michael Haneke
6. Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
7. Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow
8. Argo – Ben Affleck
9. The Queen of Versailles – Lauren Greenfield
10. The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson

Dennis Harvey: Top 25 Narrative Films of 2012 (alphabetically, as published by The SF Bay Guardian, which also includes his top 10 documentaries)

• Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin
• Bernie – Richard Linklater
• The Eye of the Storm – Fred Schepisi
• Fat Kid Rules the World – Matthew Lillard
• Footnote – Joseph Cedar
• Girl Walk // All Day – Jacob Krupnick
• Hermano – Marcel Rasquin
• Holy Motors – Leos Carax
• The Hunter – David Nettheim
• In Darkness – Agnieszka Holland – pictured
• Keep the Lights On – Ira Sachs
• Klown – Mikkel Nørgaard
• Life of Pi – Ang Lee
• Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
• The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson
• Michael – Markus Schleinzer
• Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
• Natural Selection – Robbie Pickering
• Oslo, August 31st – Joachim Trier
• Safety Not Guaranteed – Colin Trevorrow
• Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell
• Sister – Ursula Meier
• Skyfall – Sam Mendes
• 21 Jump Street – Phil Lord and Chris Miller
• Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore

David Denby: 10 Best Films of 2012 (as extracted from his year-end roundup in The New Yorker, with some reflection of their implied order)

• Lincoln – Stephen Spielberg
• Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow
• Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin
• Argo – Ben Affleck
• This is 40 – Judd Apatow
• Arbitrage – Nicholas Jarecki
• Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson
• The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson
• Detropia – Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
• The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon
• The Gatekeepers – Dror Moreh