2019 Muriel Awards

Best Feature-Length Film

  1. La Flor
  2. Asako I & II
  3. Transit
  4. Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  5. I Heard You Paint Houses
  6. Ash Is Purest White
  7. Grass
  8. Parasite
  9. High Life
  10. Uncut Gems

Best Lead Performance

  1. Laura Paredes, La Flor
  2. Franz Rogowski, Transit
  3. Robert Pattinson, High Life
  4. Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
  5. Zhao Tao, Ash Is Purest White
  6. Pilar Gamboa, La Flor
  7. Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell
  8. Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems
  9. Adam Driver, Marriage Story
  10. Robert De Niro, I Heard You Paint Houses

Best Supporting Performance

  1. Joe Pesci, I Heard You Paint Houses
  2. Agyness Deyn, Her Smell
  3. Margaret Qualley, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
  4. Julia Fox, Uncut Gems
  5. Wang Yuwen, An Elephant Sitting Still
  6. Florence Pugh, Little Women
  7. Asier Etxeandia, Pain and Glory
  8. Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite
  9. Anna Paquin, I Heard You Paint Houses
  10. Mia Goth, High Life

Best Direction

  1. Bi Gan, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  2. Christian Petzold, Transit
  3. Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Asako I & II
  4. Josh & Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems
  5. Claire Denis, High Life

Best Cinematic Moment

  1. Notebook scheming, La Flor
  2. Monet paintings, La Flor
  3. When a woman ascends and descends the stairs, Grass
  4. Motorcycle crash, Asako I & II
  5. Hotel room conversation, Ash Is Purest White
  6. Glass in the train station, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  7. Theatrical monologue, Pain and Glory
  8. Peach montage, Parasite
  9. Final concert, Her Smell
  10. “Being Alive,” Marriage Story

Best Documentary

  1. The Image Book
  2. What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?
  3. Feast of the Epiphany

Best Screenplay

  1. La Flor
  2. Grass
  3. Transit
  4. I Heard You Paint Houses
  5. Asako I & II

Best Ensemble Performance

  1. La Flor
  2. I Heard You Paint Houses
  3. Parasite
  4. Her Smell
  5. Little Women

Best Cinematography

  1. Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  2. Transit
  3. Ash Is Purest White
  4. Her Smell
  5. An Elephant Sitting Still

Best Editing

  1. I Heard You Paint Houses
  2. Asako I & II
  3. Parasite
  4. Uncut Gems
  5. High Life

Best Music

  1. Her Smell
  2. Uncut Gems
  3. Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  4. An Elephant Sitting Still
  5. Asako I & II

Best Cinematic Breakthrough

  1. Bi Gan
  2. Franz Rogowski
  3. Hu Bo
  4. Tom Mercier
  5. Paul Walter Hauser

Best Body of Work

  1. Franz Rogowski
  2. Kim Min-hee
  3. Juliette Binoche
  4. Bobby Cannavale
  5. Adam Driver

Best Youth Performance

  1. Lucy Gallina, I Heard You Paint Houses
  2. Julia Butters, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
  3. Jung Hyun-joon, Parasite

Other remarks:
This is one of the best release years I’ve ever seen for film.

10th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film of 2009

  1. Oxhide II
  2. Orphan
  3. Inglourious Basterds
  4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
  5. Sweetgrass

25th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film of 1994

  1. Chungking Express
  2. Ashes of Time
  3. A Confucian Confusion
  4. Sátántangó
  5. Vive L’Amour

50th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film of 1969

  1. My Night at Maud’s
  2. L’Amour fou
  3. Boy
  4. The Sorrow and the Pity
  5. Une femme douce

Best Films of the 2010s

  1. La Flor
  2. Stray Dogs
  3. Yourself and Yours
  4. Mysteries of Lisbon
  5. Like Someone in Love
  6. Asako I & II
  7. Mountains May Depart
  8. Carol
  9. The Assassin
  10. Transit
  11. Cemetery of Splendour
  12. Silence
  13. Long Day’s Journey Into Night
  14. Martin Eden
  15. Blackhat

Best Performances of the 2010s

  1. Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks: The Return
  2. Laura Paredes, La Flor
  3. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
  4. Rooney Mara, Carol
  5. Zhao Tao, Mountains May Depart
  6. Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice
  7. Luca Marinelli, Martin Eden
  8. Peter Simonischek, Toni Erdmann
  9. Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
  10. Franz Rogowski, Transit

Director of the 2010s (Body of Work)

  1. Hong Sang-soo
  2. Jia Zhangke
  3. Johnnie To
  4. Jean-Luc Godard
  5. Bi Gan

Top 26 of 2019

As I’ve said elsewhere, 2019 was one of the most extraordinary American release years for film I’ve ever seen, benefiting from both a truly fantastic 2018 premiere year and a wonderful slate of American films in 2019. The variety and sheer ingenuity provided so many pleasures and bewitching moments, without ever feeling rote or perfunctory.

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 2019. A list, not the list.

1. La Flor (Mariano Llinás)

2. Asako I & II (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

3. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan)

4. I Heard You Paint Houses (Martin Scorsese)

5. Transit (Christian Petzold)

6. Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)

7. Grass (Hong Sang-soo)

8. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)

9. High Life (Claire Denis)

10. Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie)

11. In My Room (Ulrich Köhler)

12. Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry)

13. An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo)

14. The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard)

15. Hotel by the River (Hong Sang-soo)

16. “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” (Radu Jude)

17. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

18. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)

19. Little Women (Greta Gerwig)

20. Too Late to Die Young (Dominga Sotomayor)

21. What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? (Roberto Minervini)

22. Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)

23. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)

24. 3 Faces (Jafar Panahi)

25. Ad Astra (James Gray)

26. Richard Jewell (Clint Eastwood)

My Top 10 Discoveries During 2019 (for first-time viewings of films made before 2000)

  1. Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974, Jacques Rivette)
  2. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933, Fritz Lang)
  3. The Awful Truth (1937, Leo McCarey)
  4. The Mother and the Whore (1973, Jean Eustache)
  5. Mahjong (1996, Edward Yang)
  6. A City of Sadness (1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
  7. The End of Evangelion (1997, Hideaki Anno)
  8. Out 1: Spectre (1972, Jacques Rivette)
  9. A Confucian Confusion (1994, Edward Yang)
  10. India Song (1975, Marguerite Duras)