Kent Jones Top Tens

All of these lists are sourced from Film Comment, except as noted, and are by (NYC) premiere year.

1996

1. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
   Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
   Thieves (André Téchiné)
   Crash (David Cronenberg)
2. My Sex Life...or How I Got Into an Argument (Arnaud Desplechin)
   My Favorite Season (André Téchiné)
   The Phantom Heart (Philippe Garrel)
   Love's Debris (Werner Schroeter)
   Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
   Vive L'Amour (Tsai Ming-liang)
3. Le Garçu (Maurice Pialat)
   A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
   Kardiogramma (Darezhan Omirbayev)
   A Portrait of Arshile (Atom Egoyan)

1997

1. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
   Kundun (Martin Scorsese)
   The Apostle (Robert Duvall)
2. The Sweet Hereafter/Sarabande (Atom Egoyan)
   Ulee's Gold (Victor Nuñez)
   From Today Until Tomorrow (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)/Seventh Heaven (Benoît Jacquot)
   Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman)
   The River (Tsai Ming-liang)
   Mother and Son (Alexander Sokurov)
   Affliction (Paul Schrader)
   Triste (Nathaniel Dorsky)/The Present (Robert Frank)/If You Stand With Your Back to the Slowing of the Speed of Light in Water (Julie Murray)
3. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)/The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola)

1998

1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
2. Khrustalyov, My Car! (Aleksei German)
3. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. Variations (Nathaniel Dorsky)
5. Late August, Early September (Olivier Assayas)
6. Dr. Akagi (Imamura Shōhei)
7. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley)
8. Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)
9. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (James Ivory)
10. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)

1999 [alphabetical except for first film]

• Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
• American Movie (Chris Smith)
• Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
• Belfast, Maine (Frederick Wiseman)
• Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese)
• Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders)/Negative Space (Chris Petit)/Frontline: "Snitch" (Ofra Bikel)
• eXisTenZ (David Cronenberg)
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch)
• The Letter (Manoel de Oliveira)/Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
• Rosetta (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
• Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
• The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)

2000

1. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
2. Origins of the 21st Century (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Arbor Vitae (Nathaniel Dorsky)
4. Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima)
5. Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr Béla and Hranitzky Ágnes)
6. Platform (Jia Zhangke)
7. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
8. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
9. Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
10. Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng)

2001

1. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
2. Waking Life (Richard Linklater)
3. Domestic Violence (Frederick Wiseman)
4. Loin (André Téchiné)
5. I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira)
6. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
7. Micro Garden (Stan Brakhage)
8. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
9. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann)
10. The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel & Ethan Coen)

2002

• POV: "Afghanistan Year 1380" (Alberto Vendemmiati & Fabrizio Lazzaretti)
• Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
• demonlover (Olivier Assayas)
• Friday Night (Claire Denis)
• Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
• The Son (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
• Spirited Away (Miyazaki Hayao)
• Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
• Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar)
• Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke)

2003

1. Gambling, Gods and LSD (Peter Mettler)
2. Mystic River (Clint Eastwood)
3. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang)
4. Jealousy Is My Middle Name (Park Chan-ok)
5. Ford Transit (Hany Abu-Assad)
6. The Fog of War (Errol Morris)
7. Le Monde vivant (Eugène Green)
8. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
9. A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest)
10. Domestic Violence 2 (Frederick Wiseman)

2004

1. The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (Samuel Fuller)
   The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel)
   Saraband (Ingmar Bergman)
2. The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)
   Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
   Clean (Olivier Assayas)
3. The Garden (Frederick Wiseman)
   Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin)
   Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
   Pin Boy (Ana Poliak)
   Sideways (Alexander Payne)
   Spartan (David Mamet)
   Triple Agent (Eric Rohmer)

2005

1. L'Intrus (Claire Denis)
2. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. The New World (Terrence Malick)
4. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)
5. No Direction Home (Martin Scorsese)
6. A Visit to the Louvre (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
7. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
8. Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-soo)
9. L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
10. Panorama Ephemera (Rick Prelinger)

2006

1. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
2. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
3. Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
4. When the Levees Broke (Spike Leigh)
5. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
6. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
7. Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)
8. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme)
9. The Go Master (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
10. Fast Food Nation (Richard Linklater)

2007

1. Zodiac (David Fincher)
2. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)
6. The Romance of Astrée and Céladon (Éric Rohmer)
7. These Encounters of Theirs (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
8. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
9. Retribution (Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
10. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)

2008

1. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
   RR (James Benning)
   Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin)
   Tokyo Sonata (Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher)
   Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater)
   Generation Kill (Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones)
   The Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel)/Chouga (Darezhan Omirbaev)
3. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)/Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry)
   35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)
   Wall•E (Andrew Stanton)

2009

1. White Material (Claire Denis)
2. Everyone Else (Maren Ade)
3. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
5. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
6. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
7. Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
8. Bright Star (Jane Campion)
9. Pandora's Box (Yeşim Ustaoǧlu)
10. Moloch Tropical (Raoul Peck)

Decade

1. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)
2. Three Times (2005, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. L'Intrus (2004, Claire Denis)
4. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, Wes Anderson)
5. The Garden (2005, Frederick Wiseman)
6. The Son (2002, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
7. RR (2007, James Benning)
8. Summer Hours (2008, Olivier Assayas)
9. A Christmas Tale (2008, Arnaud Desplechin)
10. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel)

2010

1. Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
   The Social Network (David Fincher)
2. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu (Andrei Ujică)
   Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman)
3. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
   Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
   Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
   Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
   True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen)
   Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

2011

• The Descendants (Alexander Payne)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
• Hugo/George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese)
• The Karski Report (Claude Lanzmann)
• The Kid With a Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
• Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
• Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes)
• Seeking the Monkey King (Ken Jacobs)
• The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
• Words of Mercury (Jerome Hiler)

2012

• Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
• Bernie (Richard Linklater)
• Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)
• Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
• In the Stone House (Jerome Hiler)
• Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
• The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
• small roads (James Benning)
• Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)

2013 [alphabetical except for first two films]

• The Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzmann)
• Song + Spring (Nathaniel Dorsky)
• Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
• Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski)
• The End of Time (Peter Mettler)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
• Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
• A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)
• The Wind Rises (Miyazaki Hayao)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

2014

• Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
• Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
• Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve)
• Gone Girl (David Fincher)
• Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
• Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
• Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
• National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)

2015

• The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
• Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg)
• Brooklyn (John Crowley)
• Carol (Todd Haynes)
• Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
• Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
• My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin)
• No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
• A Poem Is a Naked Person (Les Blank)

2016 [alphabetical except for first film]

• Silence (Martin Scorsese)
• 13th (Ava DuVernay)
• Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
• I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck)
• The Lost City of Z (James Gray)
• Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
• Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
• Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
• Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
• Whose Country? (Mohamed Siam)

2019 [FILO, possibly unranked or inaccurate ranking]

1. I Heard You Paint Houses (Martin Scorsese)
2. Ad Astra (James Gray)
3. Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
4. The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch)
5. Oh Mercy! (Arnaud Desplechin)
6. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)
7. Conjuring the Rolling Thunder Re-vue (Martin Scorsese)
8. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
9. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
10. Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)