Year-End Lists

Film Comment: 50 Best Films of 2012

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011]

1. Holy Motors
   Leos Carax
2. The Master
   Paul Thomas Anderson
3. Moonrise Kingdom
   Wes Anderson
4. This is Not a Film
   Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
5. Amour
   Michael Haneke
6. The Turin Horse
   Béla Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky
7. The Kid with a Bike
   Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
8. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
   Nuri Bilge Ceylan
9. Lincoln
   Steven Spielberg
10. Zero Dark Thirty
    Kathryn Bigelow
11. Tabu
    Miguel Gomes
12. The Deep Blue Sea
    Terence Davies
13. Bernie
    Richard Linklater
14. Beasts of the Southern Wild
    Benh Zeitlin
15. Cosmopolis
    David Cronenberg
16. Barbara
    Christian Petzold
17. The Loneliest Planet
    Julia Loktev
18. Silver Linings Playbook
    David O. Russell
19. Oslo, August 31st
    Joachim Trier
20. Neighboring Sounds
    Kleber Mendonça Filho
21. Django Unchained
    Quentin Tarantino
22. Almayer’s Folly
    Chantal Akerman
23. Magic Mike
    Steven Soderbergh
24. Argo
    Ben Affleck
25. Attenberg
    Athina Rachel Tsangari
26. The Color Wheel
    Alex Ross Perry
27. Rust and Bone
    Jacques Audiard
28. Killer Joe
    William Friedkin
29. Looper
    Rian Johnson
30. Life of Pi
    Ang Lee
31. A Man Vanishes
    Shohei Imamura
32. Skyfall
    Sam Mendes
33. The Gatekeepers
    Dror Moreh
34. Elena
    Andrey Zvyagintsev
35. Haywire
    Steven Soderbergh
36. Damsels in Distress
    Whit Stillman
37. Abendland
    Nikolaus Geyrhalter
38. Two Years at Sea
    Ben Rivers
39. How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
    David France
40. Keep the Lights On
    Ira Sachs
41. A Burning Hot Summer
    Philippe Garrel
42. Miss Bala
    Gerardo Naranjo
43. Footnote
    Joseph Cedar
44. Compliance
    Craig Zobel
45. Alps
    Yorgos Lanthimos
46. Kill List
    Ben Wheatley
47. Farewell, My Queen
    Benoît Jacquot
48. In Another Country
    Hong Sang-soo
49. The Dark Knight Rises
    Christopher Nolan
50. The Day He Arrives
    Hong Sang-soo