The 50 best films of 2023 in the UK – 50 to 21
50 The Beasts
Middle-class incomers to a remote village in Spain’s ‘wild west’ expose fear, resentment and nationalism in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s disturbing true-crime drama. Read the full review
49 Mother and Son
A son reflects on the struggles he faced with his brother and wayward mother after they moved to France from Ivory Coast, in a meditative coming-of-age story. Read the full review
48 War Pony
The tenderness, wisdom and instinct to survive of two teenage Native Americans is beautifully observed in actor turned director Riley Keough’s debut feature. Read the full review
47 Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Documentary about the awe-inspiring vocation of the Korean avant garde disruptor, who foresaw the internet and meme culture’s importance in the 1970s. Read the full review
46 Tish
Gripping portrait of a passionate photographer of austerity Britain who lived a life as tough as those she shot in different eras of deprivation and marginalisation. Read the full review
45 The Damned Don’t Cry
Fyzal Boulifa explores the decisions forced on a poverty-stricken Moroccan family in this vivid and powerful drama of colonial tension. Read the full review
44 The Future Tense
Semi-dramatised essay film by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy explores complicated national loyalties alongside those of an extraordinary rebel. Read the full review
43 The Deepest Breath
The dangerous act of freediving is explored in a visually immersive new film taking us down to the depths and examining what causes those involved to take such major risks. Read the full review
42 On the Adamant
Nicolas Philibert offers art and soul in a warm and sympathetic documentary about a boat for mental-health patients on the Seine. Read the full review
41 Rodeo
Real-life motorbike racer Julie Ledru plays a young tearaway on the outskirts of Bordeaux, drawn to take desperate risks with a criminal biker gang. Read the full review
40 Name Me Lawand
Empathic and inspiring portrait of deaf Iraqi refugee boy that shows us the world from the point of view of a migrant whose life was revolutionised by a school for the deaf. Read the full review
39 Passages
A gay man cheats on his husband with a straight woman in Ira Sachs’s fiercely sexy and heartbreaking tale of young Parisians. Read the full review
38 Strange Way of Life
Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke sizzle in Almodóvar’s queer cowboy yarn, a dusty lusty tale of long-lost lovers bound by a bloody fate. Read the full review
37 One Fine Morning
Léa Seydoux sparkles in poignant drama from Mia Hansen-Løve, the powerful story of a single mother torn between emotionally unavailable men. Read the full review
36 Napoleon
Ridley Scott dispenses with the symbolic weight attached to previous biopics in favour of a spectacle with a great star at its centre. Read the full review
35 You Hurt My Feelings
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies lead grownup marital-pain comedy whose bittersweet punchlines stress the bitter component. Read the full review
34 Wonka
Charming prequel to Roald Dahl’s celebrated chocolate-focused kids story, with Timothée Chalamet immensely likable as the youthful version of the top-hatted sweetmaker. Read the full review
33 My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
In this critically agile film from Mark Cousins, Hitchcock supposedly narrates from beyond the grave, using movie clips to reveal techniques and meanings in his work. Read the full review
32 Oppenheimer
Flawed but extraordinary, Chris
topher Nolan’s account of the physicist who led the Manhattan Project captures the most agonising of success stories. Read the full review
31 Pretty Red Dress
Terrific performances from Natey Jones, Alexandra Burke and Temilola Olatunbosun match this big-hearted music drama about masculinity. Read the full review
30 Nostalgia
Tremendously shot and terrifically acted, this Neapolitan gangster drama from Mario Martone shatters the rosetinted spectacles. Read the full review
29 My Imaginary Country
Patricio Guzmán’s staggering documentary examines popular protest that swept through Chile in 2019, when hundreds of thousands of people – chiefly young women – took to the streets of Santiago. Read the full review
28 May December
Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman potent in Todd Haynes’ drama, with Portman as an actor spending time with Moore’s married sex offender as research for playing her in a film. Read the full review
27 Love Life
Japanese director Kôji Fukada has crafted a richly painful and quietly comic human drama filled with tangled and tragic chaotic life twists. Read the full review
26 Fremont
There are hints of early Jim Jarmusch in Babak Jalali’s dreamy fourth feature about a fortune cookie writer looking for love, with fine supporting turns from The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White and Gregg Turkington. Read the full review
25 Creature
Asif Kapadia and Akram Khan join up for intriguing dance film, which has an ambiguous intensity that should interest audiences beyond dance fans. Read the full review
24 Law of Tehran
A barnstorming – and ultimately gruesome – opening sequence sets the grisly action-packed tone of this ferocious Michael Mann-style thriller of the Iranian underworld. Read the full review
23 The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg’s 1950s-set semimemoir brilliantly examines how we edit our own life stories, and the repercussions. Read the full review
22 Typist Artist Pirate King
Carol Morley’s warm and sympathetic film imagines artist Audrey Amiss, whose mental illness curtailed her ambitions, on a tragicomic road trip to exhibit her work. Read the full review
21 Joyland
Saim Sadiq’s film explores the unsettled social and sexual identities of a widower and his children with delicacy and tenderness. Read the full review