After delivering their once-in-a-decade poll featuring the greatest films of all time, Sight and Sound have now focused on the current year in cinema. Unveiling their top 50 of 2022, Charlotte Wells’ debut Aftersun leads the pack, while Alice Diop’s narrative debut Saint Omer nabbed second place, and Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave came in third.

Sight and Sound Editor-in-Chief Mike Williams said, “Charlotte Wells is a major young filmmaking talent. Through assured direction and an astute screenplay she has reaped subtle, naturalistic performances from her stars, including a career-best turn from Paul Mescal and a remarkable first-time performance from Frankie Corio, making AFTERSUN a worthy winner. This marks the fourth year in a row that a British filmmaker has topped our annual poll with Wells joining previous winners Joanna Hogg (THE SOUVENIR, 2019 and THE SOUVENIR PART II, 2021) and Steve McQueen (LOVERS ROCK, 2020). British cinema continues to move from strength to strength.”

See the top 20 below.

1.     AFTERSUN (Dir Charlotte Wells, UK/USA)

2.     SAINT OMER (Dir. Alice Diop, France)

3.     DECISION TO LEAVE (Dir. Park Chanwook, South Korea)

4.     THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (Dir. Martin McDonagh, Ireland/UK/USA)

5.     ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (Dir. Laura Poitras, USA)

6.     NOPE (Dir. Jordan Peele, USA)

7.     ONE FINE MORNING) (Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany)

8.     EO (Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Italy)

9.     RRR (RISE ROAR REVOLT) (Dir. S.S. Rajamouli, India)

10.  TÁR (Dir. Todd Field, USA)

11.  CORSAGE (Marie Kreutzer, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France

12.  PACIFICTION (Albert Serra, France/Spain/Germany/Portugal)

13.  SHOWING UP (Kelly Reichardt, USA)

14.  CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (David Cronenberg, Canada/Greece/UK)

15.  THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER (Joanna Hogg, UK/USA)

16.  TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Germany/France/UK)

17.  ELVIS (Baz Luhrmann, USA/Australia)

18.  EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, USA)

19.  FIRE OF LOVE (Sara Dosa, USA)

20.  THE FABELMANS (Steven Spielberg, USA)

Explore the full top 50 here.

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