Cinema Scope: Top Ten Films of 2017

[see also 2018, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return — David Lynch
2. Western — Valeska Grisebach
3. Zama — Lucrecia Martel
4. On the Beach at Night Alone — Hong Sang-soo
5. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
6. Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
7. Streetscapes [Dialogue] — Heinz Emigholz
8. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc — Bruno Dumont
9. First Reformed — Paul Schrader
10. PROTOTYPE — Blake Williams

Special Mentions

• Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
• Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
• The Day After — Hong Sang-soo
• Good Luck — Ben Russell
• Araby — João Dumans and Affonso Uchôa

Village Voice Film Poll: Best Films of 2017 (as published by The Village Voice, comprised of votes from more than 100 critics)

[see also 2016, 2015, 2012, 2011]

1. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
2. Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
3. Get Out — Jordan Peele
4. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
5. The Florida Project — Sean Baker
6. Dunkirk — Christopher Nolan
7. Personal Shopper — Olivier Assayas
8. Nocturama — Bertrand Bonello
9. A Quiet Passion — Terence Davies
10. The Shape of Water — Guillermo del Toro
11. BPM (Beats Per Minute) — Robin Campillo
12. Twin Peaks: The Return — David Lynch
13. A Ghost Story — David Lowery
14. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — Martin McDonagh
15. Faces Places — Agnès Varda and JR
15. The Lost City of Z — James Gray
17. Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
18. On the Beach at Night Alone — Hong Sang-soo
19. Dawson City: Frozen Time — Bill Morrison
20. The Work — Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous
21. mother! — Darren Aronofsky
22. Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
23. The Post — Steven Spielberg
24. Mudbound — Dee Rees
25. Wormwood — Errol Morris
26. The Big Sick — Michael Showalter
26. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) — Noah Baumbach
28. Marjorie Prime — Michael Almereyda
29. The Square — Ruben Östlund
30. The Death of Louis XIV — Albert Serra
31. Columbus — Kogonada
32. Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Rian Johnson
33. Blade Runner 2049 — Denis Villeneuve
34. The Ornithologist — João Pedro Rodrigues
35. The Killing of a Sacred Deer — Yorgos Lanthimos
36. Raw — Julia Ducournau
36. The Other Side of Hope — Aki Kaurismäki
38. Thelma — Joachim Trier
39. Graduation — Cristian Mungiu
40. The Human Surge — Eduardo Williams
41. Wonder Woman — Patty Jenkins
42. Okja — Bong Joon-ho
43. Baby Driver — Edgar Wright
43. Loveless — Andrey Zvyagintsev
45. I, Tonya — Craig Gillespie
45. Logan — James Mangold
47. Brawl in Cell Block 99 — S. Craig Zahler
47. Kedi — Ceyda Torun
47. The Disaster Artist — James Franco
50. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women — Angela Robinson
50. Song to Song — Terrence Malick
50. Starless Dreams — Mehrdad Oskouei

Dan Sallitt: Favorite Films of 2017, of those “that played at least one week in Manhattan for the first time in 2017, in approximate order of preference”

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2012]

1. Staying Vertical — Alain Guiraudie
2. The Unknown Girl — Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
3. Mister Universo — Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
4. How Heavy This Hammer — Kazik Radwanski
5. Downsizing — Alexander Payne
6. i hate myself :) — Joanna Arnow
7. Hermia & Helena — Matías Piñeiro
8. The Wedding Plan — Rama Burshtein
9. Marjorie Prime — Michael Almereyda
10. Slack Bay — Bruno Dumont
11. Paulina — Santiago Mitre
12. A Ghost Story — David Lowery

Peter Labuza: Favorite Films of 2017 (as discussed on The Cinephiliacs)

[see also 2016]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return — David Lynch
2. Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
3. Rat Film — Theo Anthony
4. Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
5. The Work — Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous
5. Nathan for You: Finding Frances — Nathan Fielder

Keith Uhlich: Favorite Films of 2017 (as discussed on The Cinephiliacs)

[see also 2019, 2018, 2016, 2012, 2011]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return — David Lynch
2. Song to Song — Terrence Malick
3. First Reformed — Paul Schrader
4. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
4. BPM (Beats Per Minute) — Robin Campillo
5. Mosaic — Steven Soderbergh

Daniel Kasman: Top 20 Films of 2017, as submitted to the annual Senses of Cinema World Poll, limited to films that were “new in cinemas.” See also his lists of older films and films not yet released.

[see also 2018]

• On the Beach at Night Alone — Hong Sang-soo
• Brawl in Cell Block 99 — S. Craig Zahler
• The Challenge — Yuri Ancarani
• Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
• Get Out — Jordan Peele
• Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back — Tsui Hark
• In This Corner of the World — Sunao Katabuchi
• The Lost City of Z — James Gray
• The Death of Louis XIV — Albert Serra
• Our Time Will Come — Ann Hui
• Nocturama — Bertrand Bonello
• Personal Shopper — Olivier Assayas
• Princess Cyd — Stephen Cone
• A Quiet Passion — Terence Davies
• Rat Film — Theo Anthony
• Resident Evil: The Final Chapter — Paul W.S. Anderson
• Song to Song — Terrence Malick
• Split — M. Night Shyamalan
• Ta’ang — Wang Bing
• Tempestad — Tatiana Huezo

Brian Darr: Top Ten Feature Films of 2017 of commercial US releases, as submitted to the annual Senses of Cinema World Poll, listed alphabetically by original-language title.

See also his “Top Five features undistributed in the USA and first screened in San Francisco in 2017,” “Top Twenty single-channel film and video works of less than feature length,” and “Top ten expanded cinema presentations of 2017.”

[see also 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013]

• Graduation — Cristian Mungiu
• By the Time It Gets Dark — Anocha Suwichakornpong
• Dunkirk — Christopher Nolan
• Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
• Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
• Wet Woman in the Wind — Akihiko Shiota
• Kedi — Ceyda Torun
• Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
• Nocturama — Bertrand Bonello
• Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present — Tyler Hubby

Scout Tafoya: Favorite Films of 2017, with a capsule review of each one

[see also 2018]

1. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
2. Twin Peaks: The Return — David Lynch
3. Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
4. The Rider — Chloé Zhao
5. Zama — Lucrecia Martel
6. A Cure for Wellness — Gore Verbinski
7. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
8. The Young Karl Marx — Raoul Peck
9. Éternité — Tran Anh Hung
10. Contemporary Color — Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
11. Behemoth — Zhao Liang
12. My Happy Family — Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß
13. Wormwood — Errol Morris
14. Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey — Terrence Malick
14. Song to Song — Terrence Malick
15. Faces Places — Agnès Varda and JR
16. Alias Grace — Mary Harron
17. Coco — Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina
18. Beach Rats — Eliza Hittman
19. The Rape of Recy Taylor — Nancy Buirski
20. Marjorie Prime — Michael Almereyda
21. Tour de Pharmacy — Jake Szymanski
22. Sleep Has Her House — Scott Barley
23. Dawson City: Frozen Time — Bill Morrison
24. Mimosas — Oliver Laxe
25. Slack Bay — Bruno Dumont
26. I Called Him Morgan — Kasper Collin
27. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) — Noah Baumbach
28. Let the Sunshine In — Claire Denis
29. The Untamed — Amat Escalante
30. Good Luck — Ben Russell
31. In the Fade — Fatih Akin
32. Blade of the Immortal — Takashi Miike
33. Stronger — David Gordon Green
34. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — Martin McDonagh
35. Pilgrimage — Brendan Muldowney
36. The Beguiled — Sofia Coppola
37. Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 — John Ridley
38. Lady Macbeth — William Oldroyd
39. Operation Avalanche — Matt Johnson
40. On the Beach at Night Alone — Hong Sang-soo
41. Loveless — Andrey Zvyagintsev
42. Endless Poetry — Alejandro Jodorowsky
43. Dark Night — Tim Sutton
44. The Other Side of Hope — Aki Kaurismäki
45. Whose Streets? — Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
46. Strong Island — Yance Ford
47. Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
48. Landline — Gillian Robespierre
49. The Square — Ruben Östlund
50. Split — M. Night Shyamalan
51. Hello Destroyer — Kevan Funk
52. Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer — Joseph Cedar
53. Afterimage — Andrzej Wajda
54. Godless — Scott Frank
55. Guerrilla — John Ridley and Sam Miller
56. Ex Libris: New York Public Library — Frederick Wiseman
57. Princess Cyd — Stephen Cone
58. Thelma — Joachim Trier
59. Jungle — Greg McLean
60. Before We Vanish — Kiyoshi Kurosawa
61. Wasteland No.1 – Ardent, Verdant — Jodie Mack
62. BPM (Beats Per Minute) — Robin Campillo
63. The Labyrinth — Bram Ruiter
64. See You Yesterday — Stefon Bristol
65. Alien: Covenant — Ridley Scott
66. The Salesman — Asghar Farhadi
67. The Assignment — Walter Hill
68. Top of the Lake: China Girl — Jane Campion and Ariel Kleiman
69. Berlin Syndrome — Cate Shortland
70. Ismael’s Ghosts — Arnaud Desplechin
71. T2 Trainspotting — Danny Boyle
72. Lucky — John Carroll Lynch
73. Paint It Black — Amber Tamblyn
74. Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Rian Johnson
75. Gunpowder — J Blakeson
76. It — Andy Muschietti
77. All the Money in the World — Ridley Scott
78. The Big Sick — Michael Showalter
79. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold — Griffin Dunne
80. Logan — James Mangold
81. Get Out — Jordan Peele
82. Logan Lucky — Steven Soderbergh
83. Wind River — Taylor Sheridan
84. Patton Oswalt: Annihilation — Bobcat Goldthwait
85. The Wall — Doug Liman
86. Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot — Barbara McCullough
87. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women — Angela Robinson
88. Nathan for You: Finding Frances — Nathan Fielder
89. Girls Trip — Malcolm D. Lee
90. Okja — Bong Joon-ho
91. American Fable — Anne Hamilton
92. Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo — Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau
93. Kojo — Michael Fequiere
94. The Event — Sergei Loznitsa
95. Pumpkin Movie — Sophy Romvari
95. It’s Him — Sophy Romvari
96. The Daughter — Simon Stone
97. The Great Wall — Zhang Yimou
98. First They Killed My Father — Angelina Jolie
99. Annabelle: Creation — David F. Sandberg
100. The Commune — Thomas Vinterberg

Keith Phipps: Top 16 Films of 2017, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2010s, 2018, 2016, 2014]

1. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
2. Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
3. Get Out — Jordan Peele
4. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
5. The Florida Project — Sean Baker
6. The Shape of Water — Guillermo del Toro
7. Dunkirk — Christopher Nolan
8. Baby Driver — Edgar Wright
9. Mudbound — Dee Rees
10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Rian Johnson
11. The Post — Steven Spielberg
12. Coco — Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina
13. Faces Places — Agnès Varda and JR
14. Personal Shopper — Olivier Assayas
15. Dawson City: Frozen Time — Bill Morrison
16. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) — Noah Baumbach

Charles Bramesco: 25 Best Films of 2017, as posted to Letterboxd

[see also 2019, 2018]

1. Call Me by Your Name — Luca Guadagnino
2. A Ghost Story — David Lowery
3. Baby Driver — Edgar Wright
4. Personal Shopper — Olivier Assayas
5. Phantom Thread — Paul Thomas Anderson
6. The Shape of Water — Guillermo del Toro
7. Manifesto — Julian Rosefeldt
8. The Disaster Artist — James Franco
9. Good Time — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
10. The Florida Project — Sean Baker
11. The Lure — Agnieszka Smoczynska
12. The Square — Ruben Östlund
13. Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig
14. The Beguiled — Sofia Coppola
15. Okja — Bong Joon-ho
16. Logan Lucky — Steven Soderbergh
17. The Killing of a Sacred Deer — Yorgos Lanthimos
18. Graduation — Cristian Mungiu
19. Valerian — Luc Besson
20. A Cure for Wellness — Gore Verbinski
21. Faces Places — Agnès Varda and JR
22. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) — Noah Baumbach
23. Nocturama — Bertrand Bonello
24. Wonderstruck — Todd Haynes
25. Song to Song — Terrence Malick