Walter Chaw: 50 Best Films of 2018, as published by Film Freak Central in ten groups
- Annihilation — Alex Garland
- Shoplifters — Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Private Life — Tamara Jenkins
- Burning — Lee Chang-dong
- First Reformed — Paul Schrader
- The Rider — Chloé Zhao
- Leave No Trace — Debra Granik
- You Were Never Really Here — Lynne Ramsay
- Zama — Lucrecia Martel
- The Wild Pear Tree — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Have a Nice Day — Liu Jian
- The Favourite — Yorgos Lanthimos
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs — Joel & Ethan Coen
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
- At Eternity’s Gate — Julian Schnabel
- The Death of Stalin — Armando Iannucci
- BlacKkKlansman — Spike Lee
- Blaze — Ethan Hawke
- Skate Kitchen — Crystal Moselle
- If Beale Street Could Talk — Barry Jenkins
- Under the Silver Lake — David Robert Mitchell
- Sorry to Bother You — Boots Riley
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? — Marielle Heller
- Madeline’s Madeline — Josephine Decker
- Upgrade — Leigh Whannell
- Hold the Dark — Jeremy Saulnier
- The Great Buddha+ — Huang Hsin-yao
- Game Night — John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
- Support the Girls — Andrew Bujalski
- Suspiria — Luca Guadagnino
- First Man — Damien Chazelle
- Cold War — Pawel Pawlikowski
- Let the Sunshine In — Claire Denis
- The Devil's Doorway — Aislinn Clarke
- Damsel — David Zellner and Nathan Zellner
- Aquaman — James Wan
- The Ritual — David Bruckner
- The Sisters Brothers — Jacques Audiard
- Roma — Alfonso Cuaron
- Blindspotting — Carlos López Estrada
- The Night Eats the World — Dominique Rocher
- The House That Jack Built — Lars von Trier
- Terrified — Demián Rugna
- Bumblebee — Travis Knight
- Apostle — Gareth Evans
- Ismael’s Ghosts — Arnaud Desplechin
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post — Desiree Akhavan
- Halloween — David Gordon Green
- Thunder Road — Jim Cummings
- Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer — various artists