The methodology

Each voter submitted their list ranking 25 movies that premiered to the public during the 2022 calendar year. The AP encouraged each panelist to exercise their own interpretation of “best films,” which did not need to align with predictions for awards or even movies’ Oscars eligibility.

The 26 lists yielded a collective of 176 different movies. The individual rankings were then combined to produce the national ranking using a Borda count, in which a first-place vote was worth 25 points, a second-place vote was worth 24 points and so on. Ties were allowed and occurred at No. 16, in which both “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “The Whale” each received 130 points in the AP’S cumulative weighted system.

The trends

The top five films on the

AP Top 25 Movies ranking were all original; fiercely original films, female-focused stories and theatrical-first releases had the clear edge.

The fight for the top movie of the year was extremely close, separated in the ranking by a mere 8 points. While “The Banshees of Inisherin” won the title with 392 points, it’s the Michelle Yeoh-fronted “Everything Everywhere All at Once” that earned the most firstplace votes. The indie sci-fi hit came in second in the AP rankings with 384 points but was the first choice on six different ballots. Meanwhile, the Irish dark comedy was ranked the top movie of the year on just two different ballots.

And while the final list of 25 movies reflected the year’s critical darlings, individual panelists’ ballots took a distinct turn toward, shall we say, approachability in the bottom half. Movies toward the end of the full list of 176 movies ranged from “Lightyear” and “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” to “Jackass Forever” and “Love, Lizzo.” There were 76 movies that each were only endorsed on one ballot.