2014

Lists are what they are. At my workplace, Público, I am usually asked my ten films of the year ranked preferentially; only new films commercially released in Portugal from Jan 1 to Dec 31 are valid, so no repertory, re-releases or unreleased festival screenings. My personal list is then subsumed into the collective: the final top-10 comes from the combination of the three resident critics' lists. Some films on my list for Público I had actually seen in 2013, but couldn't include them then because they hadn't been released in Portugal; some of the list below will be released commercially in Portugal during 2015.

I don't really like ranking films preferentially so my own personal list is more fluid, and takes every single thing I saw throughout the year, Jan 1-Dec 31. The list below links to my reviews on The Flickering Wall - not everything has yet shown up on the blog, but what hasn't will soon enough.

This year, there's a clear frontrunner:

1. Boyhood by Richard Linklater  (Berlin 2014)

And a very close runner-up:

2. Love Is Strange by Ira Sachs  (Berlin 2014)

The remaining are organized alphabetically.

3. 20,000 Days on Earth by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard  (commercial release)
4. Adieu au langage / Goodbye to Language by Jean-Luc Godard  (press screening in advance of Jan 2015 commercial release)
5. Branco Sai Preto Fica / White Out Black In by Adirley Queirós  (Doclisboa 2014)
6. Cavalo Dinheiro / Horse Money by Pedro Costa  (Locarno 2014)
7. Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas  (Locarno 2014)
8. The Congress by Ari Folman  (commercial release)
9. Gone Girl by David Fincher  (commercial release)
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson  (Berlin 2014)
11. Higanbana / Equinox Flower by Yasujiro Ozu  (repertory release)
12. L'Image manquante / The Missing Picture by Rithy Panh (commercial release)
13. The Immigrant by James Gray  (commercial release)
14. Interstellar by Christopher Nolan  (commercial release)
15. Kis Uykusu / Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (press screening in advance of Jan 2015 commercial release)
16. Letters to Max by Éric Baudelaire  (Doclisboa 2014)
17. Mahanagar / The Big City by Satyajit Ray  (repertory release)
18. Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch  (commercial release)
19. Snakeskin by Daniel Hui  (Doclisboa 2014)
20. Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer  (commercial release)

Best wishes for '15.