Below are the movies released since 2009 that I “loved.” I don’t mean to say I think these are the “best” movies of each year; they’re merely the ones I most enjoyed each year.

* = less sure other people will enjoy this

“unfinished” means I’ve seen <90% of the films that seem, at a glance, like plausible contenders to be one of my favorites for that year.

2022 (unfinished)

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)
• Glass Onion (Rian Johnson)
• The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
• The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)
• Tár (Todd Field)
• Avatar 2: The Way of the Water (James Cameron)
• Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski)

2021 (unfinished)

• Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay)
• C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills)
• Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King)
• The Mitchells vs the Machines (Mike Rianda)
• Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)
• The Last Duel (Ridley Scott)
• The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)
• The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)

2020

• The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
• Palm Springs (Max Barbakow)
• Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
• Soul (Pete Docter)
• Let Them All Talk (Steven Soderbergh)
• Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)

2019

• Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
• Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
• The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
• Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
• Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
• The Farewell (Lulu Wang)
• Joker (Todd Phillips)
• Little Women (Greta Gerwig)
• 1917 (Sam Mendes)
• Waves (Trey Edward Shults)
• Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)
• Midsommar (Ari Aster)
• Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
• Uncut Gems (Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie)

2018

• Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
• The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti et al.)
• Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird)
• Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)
• The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)

2017

• Get Out (Jordan Peele)
• Mother! (Darren Aronofsky) *
• Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve)
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)
• The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci)
• Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
• Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
• The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach)
• Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh)
• The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
• I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)
• Ingrid Goes West (Matt Spicer)
• The Disaster Artist (James Franco)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
• You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
• The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)

2016

• La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
• Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
• Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
• Sausage Party (Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon) *
• The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
• Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
• Hail, Caesar! (Coen brothers)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi)

2015

• Inside Out (Pete Docter)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
• Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
• The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
• Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)
• Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
• Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
• Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman)
• The Big Short (Adam McKay)
• Beasts of No Nation (Cary Joji Fukunaga)
• Victoria (Sebastian Schipper) *
• Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
• The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
• Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
• Tangerine (Sean Baker)
• Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
• 45 Years (Andrew Haigh)

2014

• Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
• Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
• Gone Girl (David Fincher)
• The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
• Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
• Two Days, One Night (Dardenne brothers)
• Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
• Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
• Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
• A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor)
• Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
• Noah (Darren Aronofsky)
• The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky) *
• Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
• Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)
• A Brilliant Young Mind (Morgan Matthews)
• It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
• 22 Jump Street (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)

2013

• Her (Spike Jonze)
• Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)
• Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
• Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton)
• American Hustle (David O. Russell)
• 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
• Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) *
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
• Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)
• Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)
• Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)
• Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass)
• Upstream Color (Shane Carruth) *
• Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
• Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener)
• Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche) *
• All is Lost (J. C. Chandor)
• Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
• The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt)
• We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson)

2012

• Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
• Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
• The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
• Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
• Looper (Rian Johnson)
• Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
• Mud (Jeff Nichols)
• Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
• The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)
• Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)
• Chronicle (Josh Trank)
• 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller)
• All the Light in the Sky (Joe Swanberg)

2011

• A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
• The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
• Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
• Pariah (Dee Rees)
• The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
• Oslo, August 31 (Joachim Trier)
• Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
• Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
• Contagion (Steven Soderbergh)
• Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
• In the Family (Patrick Wang)
• Hanna (Joe Wright)

2010

• The Social Network (David Fincher)
• Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
• Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)
• Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
• Inception (Chris Nolan)
• The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)
• Another Year (Mike Leigh)
• Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
• The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)

2009

• Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos) *
• The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke) *
• District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
• A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
• Avatar (James Cameron)
• Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé) *
• About Elly (Asghar Farhadi)
• Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
• Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
• Up (Pete Docter, Bob Peterson)
• In the Loop (Armando Iannucci)
• Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
• Coraline (Henry Selick)
• 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)
• Watchmen (Zack Snyder)