Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Roma’ Tops Sight & Sound Poll

By Leo Barraclough

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” has been named film of the year by the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound magazine after it topped a poll of more than 160 critics, festival programmers and academics from around the world.

The film, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, has become an awards frontrunner after topping a number of recent critics’ polls. It was named best film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., the New York Film Critics Circle and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Assn. It also was nominated in the director, screenplay and foreign-language film categories at the Golden Globes.

Sight & Sound’s editor, Nick James, said: “Its very success as an instant classic of substance, a film praised beyond all others for wowing audiences of all kinds, is thrilling when you consider it’s a subtitled, black and white tale of a Mixteco maid and the family she serves in the 1970s. has reaffirmed cinema’s capacity to make great popular art as well as great entertainment.”

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” came in second place in the poll, followed by Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning,” which was named best foreign language film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” which won best director at the Cannes Film Festival, was fourth. The film won best foreign language film at the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle awards. Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” was fifth.

TOP 10 FILMS

1 “Roma” (Alfonso Cuarón)
2 “Phantom Thread” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3 “Burning” (Lee Chang-dong)
4 “Cold War” (Paweł Pawlikowski)
5 “First Reformed” (Paul Schrader)
6 “Leave No Trace” (Debra Granik)
7 “The Favourite” (Yorgos Lanthimos)
= “You Were Never Really Here” (Lynne Ramsay)
9 “Happy as Lazzaro” (Alice Rohrwacher)
= “Zama” (Lucrecia Martel)