This year, I definitely cut back on both film watching and writing on films released this year in favor of viewing for my podcast. Perhaps because of this general consistency of viewing, despite an even lower number of films that I truly loved than the doldrums of last year, I feel much more enthusiastic about the riches that this film year had to offer. Many of these filmmakers were known quantities, but they seemed to surprise me and reveal heretofore unknown depths or avenues, in ways that augmented their strengths rather than serving as the sole overwhelming asset.

The following list is formed from the reds, oranges, greens, and blues that I have seen at time of writing that were commercially released in New York City in 2018. A list, not the list.

1. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)

2. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)

3. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)

4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)

5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel & Ethan Coen)

6. Bisbee ’17 (Robert Greene)

7. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)

8. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)

9. Un beau soleil intérieur (Claire Denis)

10. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)

11. Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

12. Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)

13. Claire’s Camera (Hong Sang-soo)

14. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)

15. Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski)

16. A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper)

My Top 10 Discoveries During 2018 (for first-time viewings of films made before 2000)

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)
2. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minelli)
3. Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)
4. Late Spring (1949, Yasujiro Ozu)
5. Napoléon (1927, Abel Gance)
6. A Star Is Born (1954, George Cukor)
7. Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
8. Taipei Story (1985, Edward Yang)
9. Gertrud (1964, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
10. That Day, on the Beach (1983, Edward Yang)