My Favourite Films of 2019

Last year, I stupidly said, “Let’s hope that sense and kindness prevails in 2019.” Oh boy!

 

This year I’ll only say, “Let’s hope we just make it through 2020”.

 

Anyway, there were lots of films I missed in 2019, but here are my favourites from those I saw, ordered alphabetically within each rating:

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New releases in 2019, including limited releases, online releases, and festival screenings

10/10

Capernaum [Nadine Labaki]

 

If Beale Street Could Talk [Barry Jenkins]

 

9/10

A Moon for My Father [ Mania Akbari, Douglas White]

 

For Sama [Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts]

 

Happy as Lazzaro [Alice Rohrwacher]

Monos [Alejandro Landes]

 

Pain and Glory [Pedro Almodóvar]

 

Tell Me Who I Am [Ed Perkins]

 

The Souvenir [Joanna Hogg]

 

8/10

América [Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside]

 

Animals [Sophie Hyde]

 

Bergman: A Year in a Life [Jane Magnusson]

 

County Lines [Henry Blake]

 

Eighth Grade [Bo Burnham]

 

Filmfarsi  [Ehsan Khoshbakht]

 

I Lost My Body [Jérémy Clapin] (short)

 

Monsters and Men [Reinaldo Marcus Green]

 

Rocks [Sarah Gavron]

 

Spike Wells – A Love Supreme (2019 version) [Gary Barber, Paul Dutnall]

Sunset [László Nemes]

 

The Dead Ones [Stefan Georgiou] (short)

 

The Flaming Rage Of The Sea [Rosanna Greaves] (short)

 

The Great Hack [Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim]

 

The Irishman [Martin Scorsese] 

 

The Last Black Man in San Francisco [Joe Talbot]

 

Under the Wire [Chris Martin]

 

Woman At War [Benedikt Erlingsson]

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Older films which I discovered for the first time

 

8/10

Apostasy [Daniel Kokotajlo, 2017]

 

Control [Anton Corbijn, 2007]

 

Dark Horse [Todd Solondz, 2011]

 

La Libertad [Laura Huertas Millán, 2017] (short)

 

Orlando [Sally Potter, 1992]

 

Men of the City [Marc Isaacs, 2009]

 

Maborosi [Hirokazu Koreeda, 1995]

 

Sol Negro (Black Sun) [Laura Huertas Millán, 2016]  (short)

 

The Guilty [Gustav Möller, 2018]

 

The Wild Pear Tree [Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2018]

 

Watermark [ Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, 2013]