THE BEST FILMS OF 2013

30. A HIJACKING (Tobias Lindholm)

'The emotional understanding alone is excellent, with simple scenes suffused with such a layering of sentiment that one would be inclined to sit back and marvel at Tobias Lindholm's intelligence, were it not for the fact that A Hijacking is just too affecting, and too gripping, to allow one to detach oneself emotionally.'

29. I WISH (Koreeda Hirokazu)

'In his devotion to the task he is undertaking, as modest as its scale may be, and in his thorough success, Koreeda's rumination on reality is a quiet little triumph.'

28. AFTER LUCIA (Michel Franco)

'It reaches a point, actually rather swiftly, where it becomes clear that Franco's film is mere provocation, humiliation porn, like Saw without the graphic physical violence and with much more emotional violence. It sure strikes a strong chord, though, and After Lucia is an expertly mounted and performed film to boot.'

27. LEVIATHAN (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel)

'Amid horror and humour there rest the enigmatic, the artistic, the sublime, and the natural, the explicable, the mundane. Not preaching to any crowd, but provoking disquiet - it's one thing to rapturously agree, it's another to feel challenged, but also enriched.'

26. ALL IS LOST (J.C. Chandor)

'For a film so ostensibly concerned with practical matters, All Is Lost is a disarmingly spiritual experience, and it is the sensitivity of Chandor's touch that allows this pivotal feature of the film to thrive.'

25. THE SQUARE (Jehane Noujaim)

'This battle continues today, which makes Jehane Noujaim's searing documentary even more pointed and poignant. With stunning footage captured from the heart of the action, both physical and political, her account of the uprising whose international infamy inspired several others is deeply, directly powerful.'

24. CLIP (Maja Milos)

If Milos has a point to make, it's not a judgement on Jasna. It's a judgement on those who wish to see otherwise. There's more truth in this film than in almost any other you'll see this year.'

23. MUSEUM HOURS (Jem Cohen)

'Jem Cohen paints as he sees life, and constructs his own art out of what life gives to him. Vienna. Art. Humankind. Life.'

22. MORE THAN HONEY (Markus Imhoof)

'Such is the intense beauty of these images, the incredible clarity and intimacy with which they are captured, ditto the breathtakingly detailed sound design, that More Than Honey is a rapturous experience.'

21. NEBRASKA (Alexander Payne)

'A graceful amalgamation of fantasy and reality, formed both for and out of America's midwest. Comedy and drama arise from Bob Nelson's script and Alexander Payne's direction, each in the superb distillation of the region's (and its inhabitants') character, and in the dramatist's need to satiate narrative urges.'

20. ERNEST & CELESTINE (Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner)

'This is a delightful film, with a beautiful design and excellent voice work, which approaches its moral lessons with subtlety and a slight (and welcome) wariness, and is characterised by its winning sense of humour and some memorable directorial quirks.'

19. NIGHT MOVES (Kelly Reichardt)

'Kelly Reichardt has fashioned something of a cinematic oxymoron - a contemplative thriller, slow and static, and utterly engrossing.'

18. THE SELFISH GIANT (Clio Barnard)

'Though it rather strictly follows the narrative lines you predict of it, Clio Barnard's The Selfish Giant is a stunning film, reaching a degree of emotional impact that is truly stirring.'

17. THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS (Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani)

'A scintillating, sensual plunge into the mind of man, as imagined by master stylists Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani. To see the product of their genius is to see cinema manipulated as few, if any, other artists are capable of manipulating.'

16. THE MISSING PICTURE (Rithy Panh)

'Rithy Panh remembers every detail, but is there beauty and art in his recollection, and its recreation in this undeniably beautiful film, or is this just therapy? Either way, it's immensely moving, in fact from the very first moments to the very last.'

15. CONCRETE NIGHT (Pirjo Honkasalo)

'Honkasalo's film is exquisitely designed, with a subtly enveloping sound mix and Peter Flinckenberg's ravishing cinematography.'

14. JUST THE WIND (Benedek Fliegauf)

'Fliegauf's attention to mood is absolute, and he has thus made a tonally perfect film.'

13. METEORA (Spiros Stathoulopoulos)

'A film of sublime beauty. Spiros Stathoulopoulos' exquisite film is not a meditation on faith, nor on romance. It is simply a meditation.'

12. NYMPHOMANIAC (Lars von Trier)

All the film's little quirks von Trier seems to insist upon not merely as reasonable but as essential, and even if you're too distracted by his outright arrogance to appreciate how correct he often is and how much artistry he charges all these affectations with, surely you can see the artistry in being so bold at all.'

11. BLANCANIEVES (Pablo Berger)

'Melodrama like this needs to be embraced entirely, and writer / director Pablo Berger is so generous that he doesn't waste a second of film, working every frame for all it's worth and yet never even nudging the line separating sincerity from parody. '

10. HER (Spike Jonze)

'Hoyte van Hoytema's dusky, luminescent photography and K.K. Barrett's sets in soft shades of cherry and tomato red and fallow brown, Joaquin Phoenix's downy vocal tone and his gaze so warm and wistful... it's the sweetest, coziest film of the year, and that's why the sharp edges that emerge from within do so much damage. Yet one must be broken down in order to be rebuilt, and thus perhaps Her is the best rebound romance ever shown on screen.'

9. VANISHING WAVES (Kristina Buozyte)

'What gloriously sensual imagery Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper devise for these dream-scapes. And what stirring ambience they create, with such marvellous sound design and a stunning musical score by Peter Von Poehl.'

8. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR (Abdellatif Kechiche)

'This is a film that you don't just want to watch, you want to live it. Its most sublime moments, and its most grotesque, all of it.'

7. THE CONGRESS (Ari Folman)

'Using all manner of dazzling craft in his filmmaking arsenal, Folman languishes not on those details but on the emotional details, and the emotive power that can be wrought from them. It's a true artist who can assemble so very much, in so very ambitious a movie, and distill it all to the most basic themes, and find so pure and direct a route to one's heart.'

6. GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuaron)

'It is so successful in its cause and so pristine in its creation that you'll be compelled only to be compelled. What a spell Alfonso Cuaron puts us under. What images he and his team of immensely talented, and better yet acute, filmmakers design for us, and what a stunning aural accompaniment is provided by an inventive sound crew and the composer Steven Price, his wrenching score adding an operatic quality to the film.'

5. CHILD'S POSE (Calin Peter Netzer)

'It's a portrait of truth, if not honesty; the truth which we observe in honesty, and which we ascertain in dishonesty, as much about what is communicated intentionally as about what is concealed, and what is communicated in the act of concealment. That's exceptionally hard to perfect in dramatic art, despite (or due to) its prevalence in everyday life, thus most filmmakers never pursue it.'

4. NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendonca Filho)

'Filho's directorial proficiency is outstandingly strong for someone only making their first non-documentary feature film - his spacial awareness is top-notch, and his navigation of tonal shifts is so smooth you won't even notice it. I need never watch another of his films, nor see any of these actors nor these locations again. This is all I need.'

3. 12 YEARS A SLAVE (Steve McQueen)

'Steve McQueen is foremost an artist, and he deals with artistic convention, crafting a work that is a familiar story told using familiar tools but to unfamiliar ends. Immediately, it is a dazzling meeting of sound and image. Cumulatively, it is riveting.'

2. THE ACT OF KILLING (Joshua Oppenheimer)

'The last few scenes of this astounding documentary are as enlightening and yet as mysterious as any scenes I have witnessed in film. They turn the camera back on ourselves.'

1. NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (Lav Diaz)

'What gumption he has, though understandably so. We are engaged, then lulled, then shaken by the film's structure, and if Diaz's staging of some more shocking incidents in the latter half is brazenly flashy, it's nevertheless an honour to behold.'