Year-End Lists

Sight & Sound Poll: The 50 Best Films of 2019 (a poll of 100 contributors published by Sight & Sound Magazine)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. The Souvenir
   Joanna Hogg
2. Parasite
   Bong Joon-ho
3. The Irishman
   Martin Scorsese
4. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
   Quentin Tarantino
5. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
   Céline Sciamma
6. Pain and Glory
   Pedro Almodóvar
7. Atlantics
   Mati Diop
8. Bait
   Mark Jenkin
9. Us
   Jordan Peele
10. Vitalina Varela
    Pedro Costa
11. High Life
    Claire Denis
12. Uncut Gems
    Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
13. Monos
    Alejandro Landes
14. Marriage Story
    Noah Baumbach
15. For Sama
    Waad Al-Khateab and Edward Watts
16. Midsommar
    Ari Aster
17. The Lighthouse
    Robert Eggers
18. Happy as Lazzaro
    Alice Rohrwacher
19. Hustlers
    Lorene Scafaria
20. Martin Eden
    Pietro Marcello
21. Beanpole
    Kantemir Balagov
22. Border
    Ali Abbasi
23. Transit
    Christian Petzold
24. A Hidden Life
    Terrence Malick
25. The Farewell
    Lulu Wang
26. The Hottest August
    Brett Story
27. Ad Astra
    James Gray
28. Varda by Agnès
    Agnès Varda
29. I Was at Home, But
    Angela Schanelec
30. In Fabric
    Peter Strickland
31. Knives Out
    Rian Johnson
32. Booksmart
    Olivia Wilde
33. Ash is Purest White
    Jia Zhang-ke
34. Synonyms
    Nadav Lapid
35. Zombi Child
    Bertrand Bonello
36. America
    Garrett Bradley
37. No Data Plan
    Miko Revereza
38. Eighth Grade
    Bo Burnham
39. Joker
    Todd Phillips
40. Ray & Liz
    Richard Billingham
41. Hale County This Morning, This Evening
    RaMell Ross
42. I Lost My Body
    Jérémy Clapin
43. Holiday
    Isabella Eklöf
44. Honeyland
    Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
45. Rocks
    Sarah Gavron
46. Rose Plays Julie
    Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
47. If Beale Street Could Talk
    Barry Jenkins
48. Just Don't Think I'll Scream
    Frank Beauvais
49. The Favourite
    Yorgos Lanthimos
50. The Mule
    Clint Eastwood

This list summarizes other lists, including these:

• Sight & Sound Poll: B. Ruby Rich: The Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Caitlin Quinlan: Ten Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Christina Newland: The Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Elena Lazic: Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Erika Balsom: Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Jonathan Rosenbaum: Ten Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Simran Hans: The Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: So Mayer: The Best Films of 2019
• Sight & Sound Poll: Vadim Rizov: The Best Films of 2019

Smithsonian: Favorite Books of 2019, as selected individually by Smithsonian scholars

[see also 2018]

• Searching for Black Confederates

  The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth
  Kevin M. Levin
• The Greatest Beach

  A History of the Cape Cod National Seashore
  Ethan Carr
• Peary's Arctic Quest

  Untold Stories from Robert E. Peary’s North Pole Expeditions
  Susan Kaplan and Genevieve LeMoine
• Solitary

  Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope
  Albert Woodfox
• Sea People

  The Puzzle of Polynesia
  Christina Thompson
• With the Fire on High
  Elizabeth Acevedo
• Illusions of Emancipation

  The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery
  Joseph P. Reidy
• Extinct Monsters to Deep Time

  Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls
  Diana E. Marsh
• We Return Fighting

  World War I and the Shaping of Modern Black Identity
  Kinshasha Holman Conwill (editor)
• Gods of the Upper Air

  How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century
  Charles King
• The Collected Schizophrenias
  Esmé Weijun Wang
• Zora and Langston

  A Story of Friendship and Betrayal
  Yuval Taylor
• The Only Woman in the Room
  Marie Benedict
• The Uninhabitable Earth

  Life After Warming
  David Wallace-Wells
• Empire's Tracks

  Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad
  Manu Karuka

Jordan Cronk: Top 20 Films of 2019, as submitted to the Film Comment poll and limited to U.S. theatrical releases

[see also The Ten Best Experimental Films of 2022 • Top Ten Films of 2022 • Top Ten Films of 2021 • Top Ten Films of 2020 • The 50 Best Films of the 2010s • Top 20 Films of 2018 • Top Ten Films of 2017]

1. La Flor
   Mariano Llinás
2. The Image Book
   Jean-Luc Godard
3. The Irishman
   Martin Scorsese
4. Long Day's Journey Into Night
   Bi Gan
5. High Life
   Claire Denis
6. An Elephant Sitting Still
   Hu Bo
7. Synonyms
   Nadav Lapid
8. What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire?
   Roberto Minervini
9. Transit
   Christian Petzold
10. Coincoin and the Extra-Humans
    Bruno Dumont
11. Angela's Diaries: Two Filmmakers
    Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi
12. A Hidden Life
    Terrence Malick
13. Hotel by the River
    Hong Sang-soo
14. End of the Century
    Lucio Castro
15. Ash is Purest White
    Jia Zhang-ke
16. Asako I & II
    Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
17. Diamantino
    Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt
18. In My Room
    Ulrich Köhler
19. The Plagiarists
    Peter Parlow
20. The Wandering Soap Opera
    Raoul Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento

The Skinny: Top Ten Albums of 2019

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. Ghosteen
   Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2. Two Hands
   Big Thief
3. All Mirrors
   Angel Olsen
4. Cuz I Love You
   Lizzo
5. Crushing
   Julia Jacklin
6. I Am Easy to Find
   The National
7. U.F.O.F.
   Big Thief
8. Magdalene
   FKA twigs
9. When I Get Home
   Solange
10. Titanic Rising
    Weyes Blood

Stephanie Zacharek: The 10 Best Movies of 2019, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. Pain and Glory
   Pedro Almodóvar
2. The Irishman
   Martin Scorsese
3. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
   Quentin Tarantino
4. Marriage Story
   Noah Baumbach
5. Little Women
   Greta Gerwig
6. Parasite
   Bong Joon-ho
7. Knives Out
   Rian Johnson
8. Dolemite Is My Name
   Craig Brewer
9. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
   Marielle Heller
10. Hustlers
    Lorene Scafaria

Honorable Mentions

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  Céline Sciamma
• The Beach Bum
  Harmony Korine
• Ad Astra
  James Gray
• Booksmart
  Olivia Wilde
• American Factory
  Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Birds of Passage
  Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
• 1917
  Sam Mendes
• Gloria Bell
  Sebastián Lelio
• Motherless Brooklyn
  Edward Norton

The New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2019

[see also The 10 Best Books of 2023 • 100 Notable Books of 2023 • The 10 Best Books of 2022 • 100 Notable Books of 2022 • The 10 Best Books of 2021 • 100 Notable Books of 2021 • The 10 Best Books of 2020 • 100 Notable Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Books of 2019 • 10 Best Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2016 • 10 Best Books of 2015 • The 10 Best Books of 2014 • The 10 Best Books of 2013 • 100 Notable Books of 2012 • 10 Best Books of 2012 • 100 Notable Books of 2011 • Ten Best Books of 2011]

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

  The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
  Shoshana Zuboff
• American Spy
  Lauren Wilkinson
• Antisocial

  Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation
  Andrew Marantz
• Audience of One

  Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America
  James Poniewozik
• Bangkok Wakes to Rain
  Pitchaya Sudbanthad
• Becoming
  Michelle Obama
• The Beneficiary

  Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father
  Janny Scott
• The Body in Question
  Jill Ciment
• Bottle of Lies

  The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
  Katherine Eban
• The British Are Coming

  The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
  Rick Atkinson
• Cherokee, America
  Margaret Verble
• The Club

  Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
  Leo Damrosch
• The Conservative Sensibility
  George F. Will
• The Crowded Hour

  Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century
  Clay Risen
• Deaf Republic
  Ilya Kaminsky
• Disappearing Earth
  Julia Phillips
• Ducks, Newburyport
  Lucy Ellmann
• The Dutch House
  Ann Patchett
• The Education of an Idealist
  Samantha Power
• Exhalation
  Ted Chiang
• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
  Neal Stephenson
• Fleishman Is in Trouble
  Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• Full Throttle
  Joe Hill
• Furious Hours

  Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
  Casey Cep
• Girl
  Edna O’Brien
• The Godmother
  Hannelore Cayre
• The Gone Dead
  Chanelle Benz
• Good Talk

  A Memoir in Conversations
  Mira Jacob
• Grace Will Lead Us Home

  The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness
  Jennifer Berry Hawes
• The Grammarians
  Cathleen Schine
• Grand Union
  Zadie Smith
• Growing Things
  Paul Tremblay
• The Guarded Gate

  Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America
  Daniel Okrent
• Guest House for Young Widows

  Among the Women of ISIS
  Azadeh Moaveni
• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

  Native America from 1890 to the Present
  David Treuer
• The Heavens
  Sandra Newman
• Horizon
  Barry Lopez
• How to Be an Antiracist
  Ibram X. Kendi
• How We Fight for Our Lives
  Saeed Jones
• If

  The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years
  Christopher Benfey
• The Impeachers

  The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
  Brenda Wineapple
• In Byron's Wake

  The Turbulent Lives of Lord Byron's Wife and Daughter: Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace
  Miranda Seymour
• In Hoffa's Shadow

  A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth
  Jack Goldsmith
• The Institute
  Stephen King
• Know My Name
  Chanel Miller
• Kochland

  The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America
  Christopher Leonard
• Last Day
  Domenica Ruta
• The Last Whalers

  Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life
  Doug Bock Clark
• The Lost Art of Scripture

  Rescuing the Sacred Texts
  Karen Armstrong
• Lost Children Archive
  Valeria Luiselli
• Lot
  Bryan Washington
• Maid

  Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
  Stephanie Land
• Mama's Last Hug

  Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves
  Frans de Waal
• Maggie Brown & Others
  Peter Orner
• The Man Who Saw Everything
  Deborah Levy
• Margaret Thatcher

  The Authorized Biography: Herself Alone
  Charles Moore
• The Mastermind

  Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal
  Evan Ratliff
• The Memory Police
  Yoko Ogawa
• Midnight in Chernobyl

  The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
  Adam Higginbotham
• Mostly Dead Things
  Kristen Arnett
• Mrs. Everything
  Jennifer Weiner
• The Need
  Helen Phillips
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead
• Night Boat to Tangier
  Kevin Barry
• No Visible Bruises

  What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
  Rachel Louise Snyder
• Normal People
  Sally Rooney
• Nothing to See Here
  Kevin Wilson
• Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
  Andrew Miller
• The Octopus Museum
  Brenda Shaughnessy
• The Old Drift
  Namwali Serpell
• Optic Nerve
  Maria Gainza
• Our Man

  Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
  George Packer
• The Parisian
  Isabella Hammad
• The Problem with Everything

  My Journey Through the New Culture Wars
  Meghan Daum
• Rabbits for Food
  Binnie Kirshenbaum
• Red at the Bone
  Jacqueline Woodson
• The Revisioners
  Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
• Rusty Brown
  Chris Ware
• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• Separate

  The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
  Steve Luxenberg
• The Shadow King
  Maaza Mengiste
• She Said

  Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
  Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
• She Was Like That

  New and Selected Stories
  Kate Walbert
• Solitary

  Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope
  Albert Woodfox
• Spring
  Ali Smith
• Stony the Road

  Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
  Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• The Testaments
  Margaret Atwood
• Thick

  And Other Essays
  Tressie McMillan Cottom
• The Topeka School
  Ben Lerner
• The Tradition
  Jericho Brown
• Trick Mirror

  Reflections on Self-Delusion
  Jia Tolentino
• Underland

  A Deep Time Journey
  Robert Macfarlane
• The Uninhabitable Earth

  Life After Warming
  David Wallace-Wells
• The Unwinding of the Miracle

  A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After
  Julie Yip-Williams
• The War Before the War

  Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
  Andrew Delbanco
• Westside
  W.M. Akers
• What You Have Heard Is True

  A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
  Carolyn Forché
• Women Talking
  Miriam Toews
• Women's Work

  A Reckoning with Work and Home
  Megan K. Stack
• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom

Revolver Magazine: 25 Best Albums of 2019

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017]

1. Fear Inoculum
   Tool
2. We Are Not Your Kind
   Slipknot
3. Deserted
   Gatecreeper
4. A Different Shade of Blue
   Knocked Loose
5. Gold & Grey
   Baroness
6. Atonement
   Killswitch Engage
7. Satan Spits on Children of Light
   Devil Master
8. Nest
   Brutus
9. Divided by Darkness
   Spirit Adrift
10. Rammstein
    Rammstein
11. Macro
    Jinjer
12. End of Suffering
    Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes
13. Birth of Violence
    Chelsea Wolfe
14. Blood Year
    Russian Circles
15. The Nothing
    Korn
16. Sermon
    Une Misère
17. Samsara
    Venom Prison
18. Pretty Buff
    Angel Du$t
19. Failed Entertainment
    Fury
20. The Language Of Injury
    Ithaca
21. Metawar
    3Teeth
22. The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds
    SeeYouSpaceCowboy...
23. The Act
    The Devil Wears Prada
24. Suffer On
    Wicca Phase Springs Eternal
25. Hidden History of the Human Race
    Blood Incantation

Albumism: The 50 Best Albums of 2019

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017]

1. All Mirrors
   Angel Olsen
2. Jimmy Lee
   Raphael Saadiq
3. Still on My Mind
   Dido
4. Ventura
   Anderson .Paak
5. Norman Fucking Rockwell!
   Lana Del Rey
6. Kiwanuka
   Michael Kiwanuka
7. Remind Me Tomorrow
   Sharon Van Etten
8. Western Stars
   Bruce Springsteen
9. Quiet Signs
   Jessica Pratt
10. Dedicated
    Carly Rae Jepsen
11. This Land
    Gary Clark Jr.
12. Madame X
    Madonna
13. While I'm Livin'
    Tanya Tucker
14. Bandana
    Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
15. YU
    Rosie Lowe
16. I Am Easy to Find
    The National
17. Why Me? Why Not.
    Liam Gallagher
18. Father of the Bride
    Vampire Weekend
19. Colorado
    Neil Young
20. Eve
    Rapsody
21. Psychodrama
    Dave
22. III
    Banks
23. LEGACY! LEGACY!
    Jamila Woods
24. May the Lord Watch
    Little Brother
25. Morning Sun
    The HawtThorns
26. GREY Area
    Little Simz
27. Hyperspace
    Beck
28. Lover
    Taylor Swift
29. Origin
    Jordan Rakei
30. Hello Happiness
    Chaka Khan
31. bi/MENTAL
    Le Butcherettes
32. Giants of All Sizes
    Elbow
33. Cuz I Love You
    Lizzo
34. On the Line
    Jenny Lewis
35. Cause and Effect
    Keane
36. Assume Form
    James Blake
37. forevher
    Shura
38. Heard It In A Past Life
    Maggie Rogers
39. We Get By
    Mavis Staples
40. 50 Foot Woman
    Hannah Williams & The Affirmations
41. LÉON
    LÉON
42. White Noise / White Lines
    Kelsey Waldon
43. One of the Best Yet
    Gang Starr
44. No Words Left
    Lucy Rose
45. Desert Dove
    Michaela Anne
46. When I Get Home
    Solange
47. Lexicon
    Will Young
48. In the End
    The Cranberries
49. TBNH
    The Brand New Heavies
50. i,i
    Bon Iver

Wired UK: The 33 Best Podcasts of 2019, a list that includes their own podcast

• Heavyweight
• The Wired UK Podcast
• Binge Mode: Star Wars
• Brexitcast
• You're Dead to Me
• Call Your Girlfriend
• Citations Needed
• Hit Parade
• The Dream
• The Secret History of the Future
• Ear Hustle
• Against the Rules
• Articles of Interest
• Exponent
• The Week Unwrapped
• The Political Party
• Full Disclosure
• Eat Sleep Work Repeat
• Bombshell
• Believed
• Lovett or Leave It
• 99% Invisible
• The Adam Buxton Podcast
• The Dollop
• How Did This Get Made?
• The Tip Off
• Caliphate
• The Habitat
• Exponential View
• Reply All
• How I Built This
• Ctrl Alt Delete
• No Such Thing As A Fish

Time Magazine: The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2019

[see also The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 • The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 • The 10 Best Fiction Books of the 2010s • The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s • The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2019 • Best Books of 2018 • Top 20 Books of 2017]

1. Say Nothing

   A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
   Patrick Radden Keefe
2. Know My Name
   Chanel Miller
3. The Yellow House
   Sarah M. Broom
4. Underland

   A Deep Time Journey
   Robert Macfarlane
5. In the Dream House
   Carmen Maria Machado
6. Furious Hours

   Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
   Casey Cep
7. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

   Native America from 1890 to the Present
   David Treuer
8. The Collected Schizophrenias
   Esmé Weijun Wang
9. Midnight in Chernobyl

   The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
   Adam Higginbotham
10. This Land Is Our Land

    An Immigrant's Manifesto
    Suketu Mehta