- Sorry to Bother You — Boots Riley
- Roma — Alfonso Cuaron
- Eighth Grade — Bo Burnham
- A Star Is Born — Bradley Cooper
- Private Life — Tamara Jenkins
- Black Panther — Ryan Coogler
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout — Christopher McQuarrie
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
- Paddington 2 — Paul King
- First Man — Damien Chazelle
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? — Marielle Heller
- Blindspotting — Carlos López Estrada
- Game Night — John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
- If Beale Street Could Talk — Barry Jenkins
- Border — Ali Abbasi
Year-End Lists
Notable, browsable lists. Year-end lists are fingerprints; aggregate statistics are smudges. Therefore, we make no tallies. Follow the link for each list to see essential commentary from its authors, at the source.