Year-End Lists

Steven D. Greydanus: Top 30 Films of 2012, as published by The National Catholic Register

[see also 2018]

10 Films that Stood Out

1. The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
2. Barbara — Christian Petzold
3. Argo — Ben Affleck
4. The Avengers — Joss Whedon
5. The Secret World of Arrietty — Hiromasa Yonebayashi
6. Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
7. Damsels in Distress — Whit Stillman
8. Planet of Snail — Yi Seung-jun
9. I Wish — Hirokazu Kore-eda
10. Anna Karenina — Joe Wright

10 Runners-Up (in alphabetical order)

• Beasts of the Southern Wild — Benh Zeitlin
• Brave — Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
• The Dark Knight Rises — Christopher Nolan
• Elena — Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi — David Gelb
• Les Misérables — Tom Hooper
• Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
• The Queen of Versailles — Lauren Greenfield
• Skyfall — Sam Mendes
• Zero Dark Thirty — Kathryn Bigelow

Honorable Mention

• Arbitrage — Nicholas Jarecki
• A Cat in Paris — Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol
• First Position — Bess Kargman
• For Greater Glory — Dean Wright
• Frankenweenie — Tim Burton
• The Impossible — Juan Antonio Bayona
• Monsieur Lazhar — Philippe Falardeua
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits — Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt
• Ruby Sparks — Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
• The Turin Horse — Béla Tarr