Every year, former President Barack Obama drops his list of the best movies of the year, always showing a man of interesting taste and, at the very least, a prominent, globally renowned figure who puts a big spotlight on underseen movies.
READ MORE: The 21 Best Films Of 2023
This year, Obama divided his list into two parts: the top three best films of the year that his production company happened to produce and the rest. “I’m biased since these movies were produced by Higher Ground, but these are, in fact, three of the best movies I saw this year,” he wrote on social media.
In his “biased” top three, Obama listed out Netflix’s civil rights biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo, Sam Esmail’s apocalypse thriller “Leave The World Behind,” starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke, and lastly, the Netflix music documentary “American Symphony” about American musician and composer Jon Batiste.
“Earlier this year, writers and actors went on strike to advocate for better working conditions and protections. It led to important changes that will transform the industry for the better,” Obama wrote in his social media caption. “Here are some films that reflect their hard work over the last year.”
Perhaps what is on his picks outside of his production company might be his accurate list. On that, the list begins with Alexander Payne’s melancholy holiday comedy, “The Holdovers,” the IFC Film drama, “Blackberry,” about the embattled pre-iPhone smartphone company and its fall from grace, Christopher Nolan’s Atomic bomb drama, “Oppenheimer” and the TIFF People’s Choice Award winner, “American Fiction,” starring Jeffrey Wright.
Additional films on the list included 2023’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy Of A Fall,” Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” Celine Song’s romantic drama, “Past Lives,” Ben Affleck’s Nike drama “Air,” “Polite Society” and “A Thousand And One,” the feature debut film from filmmaker A.V. Rockwell.
This year marks Obama’s shortest list to date, and films that could be seen as notable omissions include “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Last but not least, Obama made a last-minute edition with the inclusion of “The Color Purple” after the fact.
