Jonathan Rosenbaum: Top 10 Films of 2012, as submitted to the IndieWire Poll

[see also 2020, 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011]

1. The Turin Horse — Béla Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky
2. The Forgotten Space — Allan Sekula and Noël Burch
3. Bernie — Richard Linklater
4. The Hunter — Rafi Pitts
5. The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
6. Unforgivable — André Téchiné
7. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
8. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
9. The Deep Blue Sea — Terence Davies
10. Gerhard Richter Painting — Corinna Belz

As Submitted to the Village Voice Poll

1. The Turin Horse — Béla Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky
2. Bernie — Richard Linklater
3. The Forgotten Space — Allan Sekula and Noël Burch
4. The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
5. Far from Afghanistan — John Gianvito, Travis Wilkerson, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, and Soon-Mi Yoo
6. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
7. Unforgivable — André Téchiné
8. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
9. Keyhole — Guy Maddin
10. The Deep Blue Sea — Terence Davies

David Thomson: 5 Best Movies of 2012 (as extracted from his review of Amour in The New Republic)

1. Amour — Michael Haneke

Also Suggested

• The Loneliest Planet — Julia Loktev
• Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
• Dreams of a Life — Carol Morley
• Oslo, August 31st — Joachim Trier

Jaime Christley: 15 Favorite Films of 2012

1. The Unspeakable Act — Dan Sallitt
2. Like Someone in Love — Abbas Kiarostami
3. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
4. Flight — Robert Zemeckis
5. Apologize [video] — Louis C.K.
6. Looper — Rian Johnson
7. Resident Evil: Retribution — Paul W.S. Anderson
8. Passion — Brian De Palma
9. Not Fade Away — David Chase
10. Cloud Atlas — Lana & Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
11. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet — Alain Resnais
12. Prometheus — Ridley Scott
13. The Last Time I Saw Macao — João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
14. No — Pablo Larraín
15. Django Unchained — Quentin Tarantino

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

[see also 2019, 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 & Agnes Hranitzky

Michael Sicinski: Top 12 Films of 2012 (limited to “poll-eligible” films)

[see also The 30 Best Avant-Garde Feature Films of the Decade, Top 30 Experimental Films of 2018, Top 50 Films of 2018, Top 25 Films of 2017, Top 10 Films of 2016, Top 12 Films of 2014, Top 10 Films of 2013]

1. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
2. Almayer’s Folly — Chantal Akerman
3. Elena — Andrey Zvyagintsev
4. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
5. Keyhole — Guy Maddin
6. This is Not a Film — Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
7. Keep the Lights On — Ira Sachs
8. Two Years at Sea — Ben Rivers
9. Let the Bullets Fly — Jiang Wen
10. The Day He Arrives — Hong Sang-soo
10. In Another Country — Hong Sang-soo
10. Oki’s Movie — Hong Sang-soo

Dan Sallitt: Favorite 18 Films of 2012 (limited to films that played at least one week in Manhattan for the first time in 2012)

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017]

1. The Day He Arrives — Hong Sang-soo
2. Michael — Markus Schleinzer
3. The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
4. Alms for a Blind Horse — Gurvinder Singh
5. Amour — Michael Haneke
6. This Must Be the Place — Paolo Sorrentino
7. Generation P — Victor Ginzburg
8. The Loneliest Planet — Julia Loktev
9. Attenberg — Athina Rachel Tsangari
10. Tabu — Miguel Gomes
11. Neighboring Sounds — Kleber Mendonça Filho
12. The Deep Blue Sea — Terence Davies

Runners-up

• Bernie — Richard Linklater
• The Avengers — Joss Whedon
• Goodbye First Love — Mia Hansen-Løve
• Happy Few [Four Lovers] — Antony Cordier
• Artificial Paradises — Yulene Olaizola
• Killing Them Softly — Andrew Dominik

Cinema Scope: Top 15 Films of 2012

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011]

1. Leviathan — Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel
2. Tabu — Miguel Gomes
3. Holy Motors — Leos Carax
4. The Master — Paul Thomas Anderson
5. Django Unchained — Quentin Tarantino
6. Viola — Matías Piñeiro
7. The Last Time I Saw Macao — João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
8. Differently, Molussia — Nicolas Rey
9. Neighboring Sounds — Kleber Mendonça Filho
10. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson

Honourable Mentions

• Barbara — Christian Petzold
• Bestiaire — Denis Côté
• Cosmopolis — David Cronenberg
• In Another Country — Hong Sang-soo
• Room 237 — Rodney Ascher

Anthony Lane: 8 Best Films of 2012 (as extracted from his year-end roundup in The New Yorker, with some reflection of their implied order, and omitting the films that Lane describes as “lustreless” save for a particular performance)

• The Turin Horse — Béla Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky
• Holy Motors — Leos Carax
• The Kid with a Bike — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
• The Master — Paul Thomas Anderson
• Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
• Skyfall — Sam Mendes
• Looper — Rian Johnson
• Argo — Ben Affleck

Kristopher Tapley: Top 10 Films of 2012, as published by HitFix

[see also 2011]

1. The Grey — Joe Carnahan
2. Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
3. Looper — Rian Johnson
4. Django Unchained — Quentin Tarantino
5. Amour — Michael Haneke
6. Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
7. Zero Dark Thirty — Kathryn Bigelow
8. Argo — Ben Affleck
9. The Queen of Versailles — Lauren Greenfield
10. The Master — Paul Thomas Anderson

Dennis Harvey: Top 25 Narrative Films of 2012 (alphabetically, as published by The San Francisco Bay Guardian, which also includes his top 10 documentaries)

[see also 2011]

• Beasts of the Southern Wild — Benh Zeitlin
• Bernie — Richard Linklater
• The Eye of the Storm — Fred Schepisi
• Fat Kid Rules the World — Matthew Lillard
• Footnote — Joseph Cedar
• Girl Walk // All Day — Jacob Krupnick
• Hermano — Marcel Rasquin
• Holy Motors — Leos Carax
• The Hunter — David Nettheim
• In Darkness – Agnieszka Holland — pictured
• Keep the Lights On — Ira Sachs
• Klown — Mikkel Nørgaard
• Life of Pi — Ang Lee
• Lincoln — Steven Spielberg
• The Master — Paul Thomas Anderson
• Michael — Markus Schleinzer
• Moonrise Kingdom — Wes Anderson
• Natural Selection — Robbie Pickering
• Oslo, August 31st — Joachim Trier
• Safety Not Guaranteed — Colin Trevorrow
• Silver Linings Playbook — David O. Russell
• Sister — Ursula Meier
• Skyfall — Sam Mendes
• 21 Jump Street — Phil Lord and Chris Miller
• Wreck-It Ralph — Rich Moore