Year-End Lists

Jake Coyle: Best Films of 2018, as published by Associated Press

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. Burning
   Lee Chang-dong
2. Private Life
   Tamara Jenkins
3. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
4. Shoplifters
   Hirokazu Kore-eda
5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
   Joel & Ethan Coen
6. Cold War
   Pawel Pawlikowski
7. The Rider
   Chloé Zhao
8. Paddington 2
   Paul King
9. The Favourite
   Yorgos Lanthimos
10. Zama
    Lucrecia Martel

Honorable mentions

• You Were Never Really Here
  Lynne Ramsay
• The Hate U Give
  George Tillman Jr.
• Eighth Grade
  Bo Burnham
• Black Panther
  Ryan Coogler
• Minding the Gap
  Bing Liu
• Sorry to Bother You
  Boots Riley
• Roma
  Alfonso Cuaron
• Free Solo
  Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
• Support the Girls
  Andrew Bujalski
• Let the Sunshine In
  Claire Denis

Slant Magazine: 25 Best Films of 2018

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
2. Burning
   Lee Chang-dong
3. The Other Side of the Wind
   Orson Welles
4. Let the Sunshine In
   Claire Denis
5. Zama
   Lucrecia Martel
6. Bisbee '17
   Robert Greene
7. 24 Frames
   Abbas Kiarostami
8. If Beale Street Could Talk
   Barry Jenkins
9. Monrovia, Indiana
   Frederick Wiseman
10. The House That Jack Built
    Lars von Trier
11. Western
    Valeska Grisebach
12. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
    Joel & Ethan Coen
13. Paddington 2
    Paul King
14. BlacKkKlansman
    Spike Lee
15. Support the Girls
    Andrew Bujalski
16. The Green Fog
    Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson
17. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
    Travis Wilkerson
18. The Day After
    Hong Sang-soo
19. Golden Exits
    Alex Ross Perry
20. Roma
    Alfonso Cuaron
21. Shoah: Four Sisters
    Claude Lanzmann
22. PROTOTYPE
    Blake Williams
23. Happy as Lazzaro
    Alice Rohrwacher
24. The Favourite
    Yorgos Lanthimos
25. Dead Souls
    Wang Bing

San Jose Mercury News: Top 10 TV Shows of 2018

[see also 2017]

1. Killing Eve
2. The Americans
3. Atlanta
4. Better Call Saul
5. Kidding
6. Homecoming
7. Glow
8. Succession
9. Barry
10. Pose

BuzzFeed: Best Books of 2018, Nonfiction and Fiction, "in no particular order" but numbered as follows.

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019]

Nonfiction

1. Barracoon

   The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
   Zora Neale Hurston
2. The Library Book
   Susan Orlean
3. All You Can Ever Know
   Nicole Chung
4. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
   Alexander Chee
5. Retablos

   Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border
   Octavio Solis
6. Impossible Owls
   Brian Phillips
7. Amateur

   A True Story About What Makes a Man
   Thomas Page McBee
8. The Real Lolita

   The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
   Sarah Weinman
9. Never Ran, Never Will

   Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City
   Albert Samaha
10. Passing for Human

    A Graphic Memoir
    Liana Finck
11. Heartland

    A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
    Sarah Smarsh
12. Heavy

    An American Memoir
    Kiese Laymon
13. Red Card

    How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal
    Ken Bensinger
14. Small Fry
    Lisa Brennan-Jobs
15. Sharp
    Michelle Dean
16. Heart Berries
    Terese Marie Mailhot
17. I Can't Date Jesus

    Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyoncé
    Michael Arceneaux
18. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

    One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
    Michelle McNamara
19. Would You Rather?

    A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out
    Katie Heaney
20. Looking for Lorraine

    The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
    Imani Perry
21. Spying on Whales

    The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
    Nick Pyenson
22. Insomnia
    Marina Benjamin
23. Educated
    Tara Westover

Fiction

1. Severance
   Ling Ma
2. Freshwater
   Akwaeke Emezi
3. Belly Up
   Rita Bullwinkel
4. There There
   Tommy Orange
5. Circe
   Madeline Miller
6. Insurrecto
   Gina Apostol
7. A Place for Us
   Fatima Farheen Mirza
8. The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
   Katya Apekina
9. The Overstory
   Richard Powers
10. The Incendiaries
    R.O. Kwon
11. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
    Ottessa Moshfegh
12. My Sister, the Serial Killer
    Oyinkan Braithwaite
13. The House of Broken Angels
    Luis Alberto Urrea
14. Confessions of the Fox
    Jordy Rosenberg
15. The Wildlands
    Abby Geni
16. An American Marriage
    Tayari Jones
17. Friday Black
    Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
18. Kudos
    Rachel Cusk
19. French Exit
    Patrick deWitt
20. Speak No Evil
    Uzodinma Iweala
21. MEM
    Bethany C. Morrow
22. She Would Be King
    Wayétu Moore
23. The Pisces
    Melissa Broder
24. The Friend
    Sigrid Nunez
25. A Lucky Man
    Jamel Brinkley
26. Milkman
    Anna Burns
27. Convenience Store Woman
    Sayaka Murata
28. The Great Believers
    Rebecca Makkai

Emily St. James: Best TV of 2018, as published by Vox, along with "a bunch of other cool odds and ends"

[see also 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2017]

The 7 best TV shows of 2018

1. Atlanta
2. The Terror
3. The Americans
4. My Brilliant Friend
5. The Magicians
6. One Day at a Time
7. Superstore

14 other TV shows I loved in 2018

• Succession
• Lodge 49
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• Pose
• America to Me
• Jane the Virgin
• The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
• BoJack Horseman
• Counterpart
• Barry
• Better Call Saul
• The Good Place
• Corporate
• Sorry for Your Loss

IndieWire Poll: Best Movies of 2018 (as voted by 232 critics from 32 countries)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• Roma
  Alfonso Cuaron
• First Reformed
  Paul Schrader
• Burning
  Lee Chang-dong
• The Favourite
  Yorgos Lanthimos
• Cold War
  Pawel Pawlikowski
• Shoplifters
  Hirokazu Kore-eda
• BlacKkKlansman
  Spike Lee
• Zama
  Lucrecia Martel
• You Were Never Really Here
  Lynne Ramsay
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  Barry Jenkins

Best Documentaries

• Minding the Gap
  Bing Liu
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
  Morgan Neville
• Three Identical Strangers
  Tim Wardle
• Free Solo
  Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
  RaMell Ross

Michael Robbins: Best Poetry Collections of 2018, as published by The Chicago Tribune

[see also 2017 • 2016 • 2012]

• Heaven Is All Goodbyes
  Tongo Eisen-Martin
• Songs & Ballads
  Lindsay Turner
• pungent dins concentric
  Vanessa Couto Johnson
• Baby, I Don't Care
  Chelsey Minnis
• W.S. Graham
  W.S. Graham
• The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht
  Bertolt Brecht

The Ringer: Best Albums of 2018, compiled by Rob Harvilla and Shea Serrano

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019]

1. Invasion of Privacy
   Cardi B
2. Daytona
   Pusha T
3. Clean
   Soccer Mommy
4. FM!
   Vince Staples
5. Dirty Computer
   Janelle Monáe
6. All Melody
   Nils Frahm
7. NOIR
   Smino
8. Sparkle Hard
   Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
9. Interstate Gospel
   Pistol Annies
10. White Bronco
    Action Bronson

Caroline Framke: Best TV Shows of 2018, as published by Variety

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020]

• The Americans
• American Vandal
• High Maintenance
• Killing Eve
• One Day at a Time
• Pose
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
• Schitt's Creek
• Sharp Objects
• Vida

Justine Smith: Top Ten Films of 2018, as published by RogerEbert.com

[see also 2019 • 2017]

1. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
2. Padmaavat
   Sanjay Leela Bhansali
3. Genesis
   Philippe Lesage
4. Annihilation
   Alex Garland
5. Hereditary
   Ari Aster
6. Cam
   Daniel Goldhaber
7. Black Mother
   Khalik Allah
8. Profile
   Timur Bekmambetov
9. The Rider
   Chloé Zhao
10. Birds of Passage
    Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra

Honorable Mentions

• Thunder Road
  Jim Cummings
• Ray & Liz
  Richard Billingham
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
  Joel & Ethan Coen
• Let the Sunshine In
  Claire Denis
• Srbenka
  Nebojsa Slijepcevic
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
  RaMell Ross
• Balangiga: Howling Wilderness
  Khavn
• Relaxer
  Joel Potrykus

This list contributes to:

• RogerEbert.com: Ten Best Films of 2018