2013

The order and the categorization of the films are very arbitrary. I saw most of these films only once and in many of the cases it was the first time I see that specific film-maker's work so I might be making a lot of hasty judgements. There aren't any linear value systems to judge what's most beautiful so putting all these different films in one hierarchical order is very much an injustice to them all. I rarely go back and change my lists for previous years, even if I feel I was completely wrong about it at the time. I keep the films I was involved with out of this list. So, here it is, the new films I liked in 2013:


Very Great or Perhaps Even Greater
Leviathan / Vérena Paravel and Lucien Castain-Taylor


Very Great
Three Exercises of Interpretation / Cristi Puiu


Great
Mekong Hotel / Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Les Salauds / Claire Denis


Very Good, Maybe Great?
The Last Time I Saw Macao / João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
Spring Breakers / Harmony Korine


Very Good
Yük (Load) / Erden Kıral
When Evening Falls in Bucharest or Metabolism / Corneliu Porumboiu
Nerdesin? (Where are you?) / Fatih Kızılgök
The Conquered Conqueror (O Conquistador, Conquistado) / Manoel de Oliveira


Good
Beyond the Hills / Cristian Mungiu
In Another Country / Hong Sang Soo
Margaret / Kenneth Lonnergan
Yozgat Blues / Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun
White Epilepsy / Philippe Grandrieux
Küf (Mold) / Ali Aydın
Después de Lucía (After Lucia) / Michel Franco
No / Pablo Larraín

Hayatboyu (Lifelong) / Aslı Özge
Viola / Matías Piñeiro

Sweet Exorcist / Pedro Costa


Maybe Worth Seeing
Gebo and the Shadow (O Gebo e a Sombra) / Manoel de Oliveira 
Apres Mai / Olivier Assayas
Heli / Amat Escalante
Jeune et Jolie / François Ozon
Zerre / Erdem Tepegöz
Zayiat / Deniz Tortum
Post Tenebras Lux / Carlos Reygadas
Harmony Lessons / Emir Baigazin 
Museum Hours / Jem Cohen
Suspension of Disbelief / Mike Figgis
Paradise: Love / Ulrich Seidl
Jimmy P. / Arnaud Desplechin