Skandies: 20 Best Films of 2011 [a poll of about 40 cinephiles]

1. The Tree of Life — Terrence Malick
2. A Separation — Asghar Farhadi
3. Margaret — Kenneth Lonergan
4. Certified Copy — Abbas Kiarostami
5. House of Pleasures (aka House of Tolerance) — Bertrand Bonello
6. Drive — Nicolas Winding Refn
7. Melancholia — Lars von Trier
8. Meek’s Cutoff — Kelly Reichardt
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
10. Martha Marcy May Marlene — Sean Durkin
11. Tuesday, After Christmas — Radu Muntean
12. Of Gods and Men — Xavier Beauvois
13. The Arbor — Clio Barnard
14. Putty Hill — Matthew Porterfield
15. Beginners — Mike Mills
16. Moneyball — Bennett Miller
17. Take Shelter — Jeff Nichols
18. Shame — Steve McQueen
19. Hugo — Martin Scorsese
20. We Need to Talk About Kevin — Lynne Ramsay

Cinema Scope: Top Ten Films of 2011

[see also 2017, 2014, 2013, 2012]

1. This is Not a Film — Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
2. The Turin Horse — Béla Tarr
3. House of Pleasures [L’Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close] [House of Tolerance] — Bertrand Bonello
4. Dreileben — Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf, Christoph Hochhäuser
5. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
6. The Tree of Life — Terrence Malick
7. Kill List — Ben Wheatley
8. It’s the Earth Not the Moon — Gonçalo Tocha
9. Sleeping Sickness — Ulrich Köhler
10. The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

Special Mentions

• 4:44 Last Day on Earth — Abel Ferrara
• The Color Wheel — Alex Ross Perry
• Drive — Nicolas Winding Refn
• Outside Satan — Bruno Dumont
• Take Shelter — Jeff Nichols
• Margaret — Kenneth Lonergan
• Policeman — Nadav Lapid
• Target — Alexander Zeldovich
• Two Years at Sea — Ben Rivers

Dennis Harvey: Favorite Films of 2011, as published by San Francisco Bay Guardian, alphabetically

[see also 2012]

Documentaries

• American Teacher — Vanessa Roth & Brian McGinn
• The Arbor — Clio Barnard
• Buck — Cindy Meehl
• The Last Lions — Dereck Joubert
• My Perestroika — Robin Hessman
• Nostalgia for the Light — Patricio Guzmán
• Pianomania — Robert Cibis & Lilian Franck
• Pina — Wim Wenders
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure — Matthew Bate
• Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle for Expression — Max Good
• We Were Here — David Weissman & Bill Weber

Narrative Features

• The Artist — Michel Hazanavicius
• Ceremony — Max Winkler
• Certified Copy — Abbas Kiarostami
• The Descendants — Alexander Payne
• Drive — Nicolas Winding Refn
• Happy, Happy — Anne Sewitsky
• Hugo — Martin Scorsese
• I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive — Claude Miller & Nathan Miller
• Incendies — Denis Villeneuve
• Machotaildrop — Corey Adams & Alex Craig
• The Mill and the Cross — Lech Majewski
• The Names of Love — Michel Leclerc
• Oka! — Lavinia Currier
• Rango — Gore Verbinski
• A Separation — Asghar Farhadi
• The Strange Case of Angelica — Manoel de Oliveira
• Tucker and Dale vs. Evil — Eli Craig
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Weekend — Andrew Haigh
• Young Adult — Jason Reitman

Sean Burns: Top 10 Films of 2011, as published by Philadelphia Weekly

[see also 2018, 2017, 2012]

1. Drive — Nicolas Winding Refn
2. Hugo — Martin Scorsese
3. Carnage — Roman Polanski
4. Melancholia — Lars von Trier
5. Meek’s Cutoff — Kelly Reichardt
6. Shame — Steve McQueen
7. Certified Copy — Abbas Kiarostami
8. Martha Marcy May Marlene — Sean Durkin
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin — Lynne Ramsay
10. Midnight in Paris — Woody Allen

Matt Prigge: Top Ten Films of 2011, as published by Philadelphia Weekly [more commentary]

[see also 2016, 2015, 2012]

1. House of Pleasures (aka House of Tolerance) — Bertrand Bonello
2. Margaret — Kenneth Lonergan
3. A Separation — Asghar Farhadi
4. Drive — Nicolas Winding Refn
5. The Tree of Life — Terrence Malick
6. Certified Copy — Abbas Kiarostami
7. Rubber — Quentin Dupieux
8. Martha Marcy May Marlene — Sean Durkin
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
10. Tuesday, After Christmas — Radu Muntean

Almost!

• Meek’s Cutoff — Kelly Reichardt
• Putty Hill — Matthew Porterfield
• The Arbor — Clio Barnard
• Hugo — Martin Scorsese
• Contagion — Steven Soderbergh
• The Future — Miranda July
• Cold Weather — Aaron Katz
• Bellflower — Evan Glodell
• Shit Year — Cam Archer
• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol — Brad Bird