Season’s Greetings!
No less than 80 films were nominated across fifteen separate ballots in Front Row Reviews’ annual best-of poll—the site’s largest yet. If that wasn’t sign enough that 2013 has been a particularly fine year for cinema, its versatility is marked here by the fact that only two films received an individual top ranking more than once.
As ever, our scoring system remained: each ballot is ranked, with the top five films receiving 10-2 points and the remaining five receiving a point each; like last year, a further 2 points were given for every mention a film received after its first, in order to favour overall popularity.
There were six films in total that received top marks in an individual ballot without breaking into the final list. They are, in order of popularity, The Place Beyond the Pines, Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki, Philomena, Wadjda, It’s Such a Beautiful Day and Like Father, Like Son. Park Chan-wook’s Stoker, The Place Beyond the Pines and Wolf Children were the three films closest to breaking into the Top Ten.
For the first time since we began the annual ballot at Front Row Reviews, the top place is tied—this in spite (or perhaps because) of our longest list of contributors to date. Without further ado, then, and with warm wishes for the coming year…
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=9. No
Pablo Larraín · Chile/France/USA · 2012
=9. Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach · USA · 2012
=7. Spring Breakers
Harmony Korine · USA · 2013
=7. Only God Forgives
Nicolas Winding Refn · France/Thailand/USA/Sweden · 2013
=5. Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón · USA · 2013
=5. Blue Is the Warmest Colour
Abdellatif Kechiche · France/Belgium/Spain · 2013
4. The Selfish Giant
Clio Barnard · UK · 2013
3. The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous · Denmark/Norway/UK · 2013
=1. The Great Beauty
Paolo Sorrentino · Italy/France · 2013
=1. Before Midnight
Richard Linklater · USA · 2013
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Individual Ballots
| Alice Bishop | Ollie Charles | Stuart Downey | |
| 1 | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | The Place Beyond the Pines | Before Midnight |
| 2 | Upstream Colour | Much Ado About Nothing | Spring Breakers |
| 3 | Zero Dark Thirty | Only God Forgives | Gravity |
| 4 | The Act of Killing | Big Bad Wolves | American Hustle |
| 5 | Before Midnight | Simon Killer | Frances Ha |
| 6 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Our Children | Blue Is the Warmest Colour |
| 7 | Only God Forgives | In Fear | Blue Jasmine |
| 8 | Spring Breakers | Blue Jasmine | In the House |
| 9 | The Place Beyond the Pines | Maniac | To the Wonder |
| 10 | Side Effects | What Richard Did | Stoker (d. Park) |
| Alex Fenton-Thomas | Alistair Gardiner | Jonathan Glen | |
| 1 | The Act of Killing | The Great Beauty | The Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki |
| 2 | A Field in England | Before Midnight | The Great Beauty |
| 3 | The Selfish Giant | Only God Forgives | Filth |
| 4 | Mr. Nobody | Blue Jasmine | Only God Forgives |
| 5 | Django Unchained | Frances Ha | Mud |
| 6 | The Stone Roses: Made of Stone | The World’s End | Nebraska |
| 7 | I Am Nasrine | Gravity | Nobody’s Daughter Haewon |
| 8 | John Dies At the End | A Field in England | Blue Is the Warmest Colour |
| 9 | Wreck-It Ralph | To the Wonder | To the Wonder |
| 10 | V/H/S/2 | Stoker (d. Park) | Safety Not Guaranteed |
| Sarah Holland | Rob Munday | Michael Pattison | |
| 1 | Like Father, Like Son | Spring Breakers | The Great Beauty |
| 2 | The Great Beauty | The Selfish Giant | Beyond the Hills |
| 3 | The Selfish Giant | No | Leviathan |
| 4 | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | The Stone Roses: Made of Stone | Gravity |
| 5 | Captain Phillips | The Epic of Everest | A Stoker (d. Balabanov) |
| 6 | Our Children | Silver Linings Playbook | Before Midnight |
| 7 | Blue Jasmine | The Act of Killing | Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God |
| 8 | Drinking Buddies | A Field in England | Silence |
| 9 | What Maisie Knew | Nebraska | Short Term 12 |
| 10 | Project Wild Thing | Shell | Our Children |
| Nathanael Smith | Pete Thornton | Matt Turner | |
| 1 | Wadjda | Gravity | It’s Such a Beautiful Day |
| 2 | Cloud Atlas | Nebraska | The Act of Killing |
| 3 | The Selfish Giant | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | Post Tenebras Lux |
| 4 | Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki | The Act of Killing | Drug War |
| 5 | Les Miserables | Frances Ha | Upstream Colour |
| 6 | Philomena | Before Midnight | Nobody’s Daughter Haewon |
| 7 | The Way, Way Back | Star Trek Into Darkness | Leviathan |
| 8 | Caesar Must Die | The Epic of Everest | Computer Chess |
| 9 | Blancanieves | Stoker (d. Park) | Museum Hours |
| 10 | Ain’t Them Bodies Saints | The Place Beyond the Pines | Like Someone in Love |
| David Upton | Greg Wetherall | Ben Winstanley | |
| 1 | No | Before Midnight | Philomena |
| 2 | Like Someone in Love | Blackfish | Stoker (d. Park) |
| 3 | Frances Ha | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | In the House |
| 4 | Before Midnight | Rush | The Great Beauty |
| 5 | Shell | Ilo Ilo | A Hijacking |
| 6 | Short Term 12 | Blood Brother | Flight |
| 7 | To the Wonder | Captain Phillips | Bernie |
| 8 | Our Children | Museum Hours | To the Wonder |
| 9 | Wadjda | Drinking Buddies | We Steal Secrets |
| 10 | Byzantium | Gravity | Lincoln |
