Every year the Oscars boil down to two narratives essentially, the critical favorite versus the populist choice (generally, anyhow and as the Academy Awards get better, the two overlap sometimes). Take Alfonso Cuarón’s critically-adored “Roma,” a personal black and white reminiscence of his childhood in 1970s Mexico City and the live-in maid who helped raise him as a child. “Roma” has also topped the list of Metacritic’s Film Critics Top 10 List — the film review aggregator compiling every year-end Top Ten list published by major film critics and publications and ranking those films by frequency now that the final tallies are done. And well, “Roma” has practically topped everyone’s list everywhere (see filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Edgar Wright who both just put the film atop their top 10 lists too). It’s on top 25 Best Films Of 2018 list too. “Roma” is widely adored.
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2018
However, is it coming down to a “Roma” (critical favorite) versus “A Star Is Born” (populist pick) showdown at the Oscars? Because the populist pick almost always wins, plus a black and white movie in Espanol might be a hard sell for Best Picture as something that goes down as easy as Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut—that might just be the reality of how this cookie crumbles.
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Regardless, Metacritic has delivered the final, updated running tally of the films most frequently mentioned by individual critics on the year-end Top Ten lists.
Here’s a little bit into their ranking system:
“Note that if a critic ranks more than the standard 10 films, we will not include films ranked 11th or worse. (We do include unranked lists of 11-20 titles, though each film gets just one-half of a point.) In case of a tie for first or second, each film will receive the full points for that position.”
– 3 points for each 1st place ranking
-2 points for each 2nd place ranking
-1 point for being ranked 3rd – 10th, or for being included on an unranked list of 10 or fewer titles
-0.5 points for being included on an unranked list of 11-20 titles”
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
“Roma” tops the list and not far behind are Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” (both on our Best Films list too). By now you should be at least seeing a pattern emerging of what critics are considering the best films of the year and hopefully, this is encouraging you to branch out with your picks if you haven’t already.
Below, Metacritics’ top 10, based on sourcing of hundreds of film critics (252 lists apparently), ourselves included.
1. Roma
2. First Reformed
3. The Favourite
4. Burning
5. Eighth Grade
6. Black Panther
7. If Beale Street Could Talk
8. Hereditary
9. BlackKklansman
10. A Star is Born