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Sight & Sound Names ‘Roma’ the Best Film of 2018

"Burning," "Cold War," and "First Reformed" were recognized as well.
(L to R) Marco Graf as Pepe, Daniela Demesa as Sofi, Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, Marina De Tavira as Sofia, Diego Cortina Autrey as Toño, Carlos Peralta Jacobson as Paco in Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Photo by Carlos Somonte
"Roma"
Photo by Carlos Somonte

Sight & Sound has unveiled its annual film poll, and the winner is unlikely to come as a surprise: “Roma,” whose awards-season dominance continues unabated. Alfonso Cuarón‘s black-and-white drama, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and has also been named the best film of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, has emerged as 2018’s most well-received cinematic offering — at least among critics.

Rounding out the top five are Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” (which wasn’t released in the UK until this year), Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” (which was LAFCA’s Best Picture runner-up), Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” and Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.”

More than 160 critics, programmers, and academics participated in the poll. The full results:

1. “Roma”

2. “Phantom Thread”

3. “Burning”

4. “Cold War”

5. “First Reformed”

6. “Leave No Trace”

7. “The Favourite”

= “You Were Never Really Here”

9. “Happy as Lazzaro”

= “Zama”

11. “The Image Book”

12. “If Beale Street Could Talk”

13. “BlacKkKlansman”

14. “The Other Side of the Wind”

= “Shirkers”

= “Shoplifters”

17. “Sorry to Bother You”

18. “Faces Places”

= “The Rider”

= “Western”

21.” La Flor”

= “Hereditary”

= “High Life”

= “Isle of Dogs”

= “Madeline’s Madeline”

= “120 BPM”

= “Transit”

Last year’s edition was topped by “Get Out” and “Twin Peaks: The Return,” a TV series that many critics chose to pay a backhanded compliment to by claiming it as a movie.

“Roma” has received three Golden Globe nominations — Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay — and been chosen as Mexico’s entry for the Academy Awards. The nine-film shortlist will be announced on December 17.

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