The Playlist: 25 Best Films of 2018
- You Were Never Really Here — Lynne Ramsay
- First Reformed — Paul Schrader
- Hereditary — Ari Aster
- Annihilation — Alex Garland
- Burning — Lee Chang-dong
- Roma — Alfonso Cuaron
- Eighth Grade — Bo Burnham
- The Favourite — Yorgos Lanthimos
- Leave No Trace — Debra Granik
- Suspiria — Luca Guadagnino
- Paddington 2 — Paul King
- First Man — Damien Chazelle
- If Beale Street Could Talk — Barry Jenkins
- Mandy — Panos Cosmatos
- Shoplifters — Hirokazu Kore-eda
- A Quiet Place — John Krasinski
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor? — Morgan Neville
- Sorry to Bother You — Boots Riley
- Wildlife — Paul Dano
- The Death of Stalin — Armando Iannucci
- Private Life — Tamara Jenkins
- A Star Is Born — Bradley Cooper
- BlacKkKlansman — Spike Lee
- The Rider — Chloé Zhao
- Black Panther — Ryan Coogler
- Blindspotting — Carlos López Estrada
- Vice — Adam McKay
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? — Marielle Heller
- Cold War — Pawel Pawlikowski
- Crazy Rich Asians — Jon M. Chu
Just a point or two from cracking the top 25
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout — Christopher McQuarrie
- Widows — Steve McQueen
- Thunder Road — Jim Cummings
- Thoroughbreds — Cory Finley
- Love, Simon — Greg Berlanti
- Incredibles 2 — Brad Bird
- Let the Sunshine In — Claire Denis
- The Tale — Jennifer Fox
- Custody — Xavier Legrand
- Claire’s Camera — Hong Sang-soo
- Game Night — John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
- Upgrade — Leigh Whannell
- Madeline’s Madeline — Josephine Decker
- 1985 — Yen Tan
- Araby — João Dumans and Affonso Uchôa
- Foxtrot — Samuel Maoz
- Minding the Gap — Bing Liu
- Vox Lux — Brady Corbet
- Museo — Alonso Ruizpalacios
- This Is Congo — Daniel McCabe