While most film publications stick to a fairly typical list of Best of the Year, Film Comment does things a bit differently. Instead of just listing the very best films that 2019 produced, the outlet goes a step further and also does a list of films that arrived at film festivals and haven’t yet been released this year. Because, as we are all well aware, just because a film arrives at a film festival, that definitely doesn’t mean audiences are guaranteed to see it any time soon (if at all).
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2019
The top of the Best Films Released in 2019 list is fairly typical, leading with “Parasite,” “The Irishman,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” However, it’s after you get past the Top 3 that things in Film Comment’s list get really interesting.
“Transit,” from filmmaker Christian Petzold, and “Atlantics,” from Mati Diop, round out the top five, proving that these underseen films deserve a spot amongst the very best the industry offered in the past year. And it’s not just there that Film Comment breaks from the typical Top 10s of 2019.
Films like “La Flor,” “An Elephant Sitting Still,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” and “The Image Book” all show up in the list. If nothing else, the outlet has given folks a to-do list for their upcoming film watching.
On the unreleased side, the films “State Funeral” and “Endless Night” top the list. This section not only shines a light on some films that haven’t been in the conversation much in 2019, but also proves that there is always so many great projects that find it difficult to escape the festival circuit and get the major distribution deals. So, this is a list of films that you should definitely keep an eye out for in the future.
Here’s the full list of Film Comment’s Best Released/Unreleased Films of 2019:
Film Comment’s Top 20 Films Released in 2019:
1. Parasite Bong Joon Ho, South Korea
2. The Irishman Martin Scorsese, USA
3. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino, USA/UK/China
4. Transit Christian Petzold, Germany/France
5. Atlantics Mati Diop, France/Senegal/Belgium
6. The Souvenir Joanna Hogg, UK/USA
7. High Life Claire Denis, Germany/France/USA/UK/Poland
8. Ash Is Purest White Jia Zhangke, China
9. Pain and Glory Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
10. Uncut Gems Josh and Benny Safdie, USA
11. Marriage Story Noah Baumbach, USA
12. La Flor Mariano Llinás, Argentina
13. An Elephant Sitting Still Hu Bo, China
14. Long Day’s Journey Into Night Bi Gan, China/France
15. Synonyms Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany
16. Asako I & II Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Japan/France
17. Us Jordan Peele, USA
18. The Image Book Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland
19. Portrait of a Lady on Fire Céline Sciamma, France
20. Ad Astra James Gray, USA
Film Comment’s Top 20 Unreleased Films of 2019:
1. State Funeral Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands/Lithuania
2. Endless Night Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro, Spain
3. To the Ends of the Earth Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan
4. MS Slavic 7 Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell, Canada
5. Present.Perfect. Shengze Zhu, USA/Hong Kong
6. Oh Mercy! Arnaud Desplechin, France
7. Tommaso Abel Ferrara, Italy
8. Bait Mark Jenkin, UK
9. Belonging Burak Çevik, Turkey/Canada/France
10. Midnight in Paris James Blagden and Roni Moore, USA
11. No Data Plan Miko Revereza, USA
12. It Must Be Heaven Elia Suleiman, France/Qatar/Germany/Canada/Turkey/Palestine
13. Wasp Network Olivier Assayas, France/Spain/Brazil
14. So Pretty Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli, USA/France
15. Just 6.5 Saeed Roustayi, Iran
16. Bird Island Sergio da Costa and Maya Kosa, Switzerland
17. What We Left Unfinished Mariam Ghani, Afghanistan/Qatar/USA
18. You Will Die at 20 Amjad Abu Alala, Sudan/France/Egypt/Germany/Norway/Qatar
19. Lina from Lima María Paz González, Chile/Argentina/Peru
20. The Devil Between the Legs Arturo Ripstein, Mexico