Sight and Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine chose Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, which recently won 7 BIFAs as the Best Film of the Year. Paul Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio give astonishing performances as a father and daughter on holiday in Turkey in the late 1990s, in this moving and reflective feature debut. Alice Diop’s Saint Omer came in at 2nd place and Park Chanwook’s DECISION TO LEAVE in 3rd place.

The top 20 films in the end of year poll include eight films by female filmmakers: Sara Dosa (No 19: Fire of Love, USA); Joanna Hogg (No 15: The Eternal Daughter, UK/USA) – Hogg previously topped the End of Year poll in 2019 and 2021 for The Souvenir Parts 1 and 2 respectively; Kelly Reichardt (No 13: Showing Up, USA); Marie Kreutzer (No 11: Corsage, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France) – also the winner of the BFI London Film Festival Best Film; Mia Hansen-Løve (No 7: One Fine Morning, France/Germany); Laura Poitras’ Venice Golden Lion winner (No 6: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, USA); and Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize winner (No 2: Saint Omer, France), in addition to Charlotte Wells’ multi award-winning feature debut (NO 1: Aftersun).

This also marks the fourth year in a row that a British film has topped the poll, with Wells joining previous winners Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir Part, 2019 and The Souvenir Part II, 2021) and Steve McQueen (Lovers Rock, 2020).

Sight and Sound’s top 20 films of 2022 are:

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)