Favourite Films of 2021

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As I do most years, I’ve limited myself to films that received a full theatrical or online release in Australia in 2021, so festival and event screenings (for films more than likely to be released in 2022) are not included.

Top ten films

My favourite films released in Australia in 2021:

1. West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021)
Released December
2. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021)
Released November
3. The Father (Florian Zeller, 2020)
Released April
4. Saint Maud (Rose Glass, 2019)
Released March
5. Nitram (Justin Kurzel, 2021)
Released September
6. The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske, Joachim Trier, 2021)
Released December
7. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2020)
Released February
8. Procession (Robert Greene, 2021)
Released November
9. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, 2021)
Released December
10. Welcome to Chechnya (David France, 2020)
Released June

Honourable mentions

Twenty more films I loved this year, listed alphabetically:

Another Round (Druk, Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)
Released February
Collective (Colectiv, Alexander Nanau, 2019)
Released April
Dune (Denis Villeneuve, 2021)
Released December
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, 2019)
Released April
High Ground (Stephen Johnson, 2020)
Released January
Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)
Released December
Nomadland (Chloé Zhao, 2020)
Released March
One Night in Miami (Regina King, 2020)
Released January
Pig (Michael Sarnoski, 2021)
Released September
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell, 2020)
Released January
Some Kind of Heaven (Lance Oppenheim, 2020)
Released August
Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021)
Released December
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Questlove, 2021)
Released September
The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)
Released December
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021)
Released December
The Nest (Sean Durkin, 2020)
Released February
The Painter and the Thief (Kunstneren og tyven, Benjamin Ree, 2020)
Released March
The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright, 2021)
Released June
The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes, 2021)
Released October
Zola (Janicza Bravo, 2020)
Released November

This list was compiled for the upcoming Senses of Cinema 2021 World Poll

Thomas Caldwell, 2021