I had been refraining from posting in-progress top tens until at least midyear, so as to avoid the outright comedy of shit-film inclusions. But I've discovered that my memory, along with my nerdly bookkeeping skills, are failing as I stumble into middle age. So consider this an internal document that has been WikiLeaked. Bear in mind, the world-premieres list is a little thin.
2013 TOP TWENTY-ONE (world premieres only)
1. Hard To Be a God (Aleksei German, Russia)
2. Spring (Nathaniel Dorsky, U.S.) [s]
3. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher, Germany)
4. The Three Disasters (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland / Portugal) [s]
5. Charlie Victor Romeo (Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels and Karlyn Michelson, U.S.)
6. Service of the Goods (Jean-Paul Kelly, Canada) [m]
7. The Realist (Scott Stark, U.S.) [m]
8. The Past (Asghar Farhadi, France / Italy)
9. Main Hall (Philipp Fleischmann, Austria) [s]
10. The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong / China / U.S.)
11. Stranger By The Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France)
12. Daredevils (Stephanie Barber, U.S.)
13. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S. / France)
14. Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi and Kambozia Partovi, Iran)
15. Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project (Jodie Mack, U.S.) [m]
16. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, U.S.)
17. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (Stephen Chow and Derek Kwok, China)
18. Nebraska (Alexander Payne, U.S.)
19. The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh, Cambodia / France)
20. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (Denis Côté, Canada)
21. RP31 (Lucy Raven, U.S.) [s]
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2013 TOP TEN RELEASES (poll-eligible only)
1. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, U.K.)
2. Student (Darezhan Omirbayev, Kazakhstan)
3. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, Austria)
4. The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong / China / U.S.)
5. No (Pablo Larraín, Chile / France / U.S.)
6. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, U.S.)
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S. / France)
8. Nebraska (Alexander Payne, U.S.)
9. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra de Mata, Portugal / France)
10. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Alain Resnais, France / Germany)