Every year the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film selects a category and asks its membership to submit their favorite top films. The group’s previous year-end topics have included Best Musicals, Best Sequels and Remakes, and Best Black and White Films. This year, for 2020, members selected their top films for the second decade of the 21st century, 2011 to 2020.
Among the best films of the decade selected by Chlotrudis members, 27 countries are represented; in fact, half of the top ten films on this list are foreign language films. 20% of the selections on the list were directed by women, and 3 of them, Kelly Reichardt, Celine Sciamma and Sarah Polley have multiple films on the list. Finally, the yearly distribution was remarkably even – 2014 was the sole laggard, with only 4 films made in the year making the cut.
Let us know in the comments section if we missed any of your favorites.
In this year of sheltering in place and working remotely, where we have all binged, rewatched or discovered new favorite films, the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film presents a new must-see list for you to consider:
THE TOP 100 FILMS OF THE PAST DECADE
01 | Parasite | Bong Joon-ho | 2019 |
02 | Shoplifters | Hirokazu Koreeda | 2018 |
03 | The Lobster | Yorgos Lanthimos | 2015 |
04 | Moonlight | Barry Jenkins | 2013 |
05 | Roma | Alfonso Cuarón | 2018 |
06 | Paterson | Jim Jarmusch | 2016 |
07 | Frances Ha | Noah Baumbach | 2012 |
08 | Under the Skin | Jonathan Glazer | 2013 |
09 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Céline Sciamma | 2019 |
10 | Holy Motors | Leos Carax | 2012 |
11 | And Then We Danced | Levan Akin | 2020 |
12 | The Vast of Night | Andrew Patterson | 2020 |
13 | A Separation | Asghar Farhadi | 2011 |
14 | Carol | Todd Haynes | 2015 |
15 | The Last Black Man in San Francisco | Joe Talbot | 2019 |
16 | Sound of Metal | Darius Marder | 2020 |
17 | The Favourite | Yorgos Lanthimos | 2018 |
18 | Only Lovers Left Alive | Jim Jarmusch | 2013 |
19 | Melancholia | Lars Von Trier | 2011 |
20 | Stories We Tell | Sarah Polley | 2012 |
21 | Moonrise Kingdom | Wes Anderson | 2012 |
22 | After the Storm | Hirokazu Koreeda | 2016 |
23 | The Saver | Wiebke von Carolsfeld | 2015 |
24 | The Florida Project | Sean Baker | 2017 |
25 | Suspiria | Luca Guadagnino | 2018 |
26 | Short Term 12 | Destin Daniel Cretton | 2013 |
27 | Ham On Rye | Tyler Taormina | 2020 |
28 | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Wes Anderson | 2014 |
29 | Weekend | Andrew Haigh | 2011 |
30 | Boyhood | Richard Linklater | 2014 |
31 | A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night | Ana Lily Amirpour | 2014 |
32 | Madeline’s Madeline | Josephine Decker | 2018 |
33 | Take Shelter | Jeff Nichols | 2011 |
34 | Burning | Chang-dong Lee | 2018 |
35 | Foxtrot | Samuel Maoz | 2017 |
36 | Shadow | Yimou Zhang | 2019 |
37 | Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 2011 |
38 | Birdman | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | 2014 |
39 | Call Me By Your Name | Luca Guadagnino | 2017 |
40 | Fruitvale Station | Ryan Coogler | 2013 |
41 | Hereditary | Ari Aster | 2018 |
42 | The Lighthouse | Robert Eggers | 2019 |
43 | And Breathe Normally | Isold Uggadottir | 2019 |
44 | Archipelago | Joanna Hogg | 2011 |
45 | Never Rarely Sometimes Always | Eliza Hittman | 2020 |
46 | A Most Violent Year | J.C. Chandor | 2014 |
47 | Like Father Like Son | Hirokazu Koreeda | 2014 |
48 | Once Upon a Time in Anatolia | Nuri Bilge Ceylan | 2011 |
49 | Another Earth | Mike Cahill | 2011 |
50 | Corpus Christi | Jan Komasa | 2020 |
51 | Ida | Pawel Pawlikowski | 2013 |
52 | Marriage Story | Noah Baumbach | 2019 |
53 | First Cow | Kelly Reichardt | 2020 |
54 | Three Billboards Outside Ebbings Missouri | Martin McDonagh | 2017 |
55 | I’m No Longer Here | Fernando Frias | 2020 |
56 | A Coffee in Berlin | Jan-Ole Gerste | 2012 |
57 | The Killing of a Sacred Deer | Yorgos Lanthimos | 2012 |
58 | Son of Saul | László Nemes | 2015 |
59 | Tangerine | Sean Baker | 2015 |
60 | The Witch | Robert Eggers | 2015 |
61 | First Reformed | Paul Schrader | 2017 |
62 | Eighth Grade | Bo Burnham | 2018 |
63 | Room | Lenny Abrahamson | 2015 |
64 | Keyhole | Guy Maddin | 2011 |
65 | Bill Cunningham: New York | Richard Press | 2011 |
66 | Songs She Wrote About People She Knows | Kris Elgstrand | 2014 |
67 | Snowpiercer | Bong Joon-ho | 2013 |
68 | Pain and Glory | Pedro Almodóvar | 2019 |
69 | Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem | Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz | 2014 |
70 | Oslo, August 31 | Joachim Trier | 2011 |
71 | Berberian Sound Studio | Peter Strickland | 2012 |
72 | Lucky | John Carroll Lynch | 2017 |
73 | Pariah | Dee Rees | 2011 |
74 | The Duke of Burgundy | Peter Strickland | 2014 |
75 | Lady Bird | Greta Gerwig | 2017 |
76 | Little Woods | Nia DaCosta | 2018 |
77 | The Past | Asghar Farhadi | 2013 |
78 | Red, White and Blue | Steve McQueen | 2020 |
79 | Take This Waltz | Sarah Polley | 2011 |
80 | Trigger | Bruce McDonald | 2011 |
81 | Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter | David Zellner | 2014 |
82 | Frank | Lenny Abrahamson | 2014 |
83 | Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov | 2019 |
84 | Girlhood | Céline Sciamma | 2015 |
85 | Borgman | Alex van Warmerdam | 2013 |
86 | The Hunt | Thomas Vinterberg | 2012 |
87 | Cemetery of Splendor | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 2016 |
88 | A Ghost Story | David Lowery | 2017 |
89 | How to Survive a Plague | David Frane | 2012 |
90 | Winter Sleep | Nuri Bilge Ceylan | 2015 |
91 | The Farewell | Lulu Wang | 2019 |
92 | The Salesman | Asghar Farhadi | 2016 |
93 | Kajillionaire | Miranda July | 2020 |
94 | Woman At War | Benedikt Erlingsson | 2019 |
94 | Clouds of Sils Maria | Olivier Assayas | 2014 |
96 | Wrong | Quentin Dupieux | 2012 |
97 | Leave No Trace | Debra Granik | 2018 |
98 | Mountains May Depart | Zhangke Jia | 2016 |
99 | Certain Women | Kelly Reichardt | 2016 |
100 | Leviathan | Andrey Zvyagintsev | 2014 |
This list, as well as past year’s lists and annual Top 10 lists from individual members can be found at Our Favorite Films page.