The runners-up

“EO” >> A cute donkey brays his way through a rough world in which he encounters self-absorbed humans, some decent, others cruel. At 84, Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski hits it out of the park as we watch life reflected brilliantly through an animal’s eyes.

WHERE TO SEE IT >> In some theaters

“DECISION TO LEAVE” >> The plot sounds terribly familiar: A detective investigates a suspicious death and then swoons all over the enigmatic wife who might have had a hand in it. But nothing’s rote about “Old Boy” Park Chan-wook’s evocative neo-noir effort, and this femme fatale attraction turned into one of the best romances of the year.

WHERE TO SEE IT >> Available on Mubi

“THE INSPECTION” >> At first, you might assume Elegance Bratton’s feature debut will be another “Full Metal Redux.” Not so fast. Bratton’s semiautobiographical tale immerses us in a surreal, macho world of boot camp where a gay Black man named Ellis (Jeremy Pope, who should get an Oscar nod here) finds a modern family of another sort. You won’t stop thinking and talking about this one.

WHERE TO SEE IT >> Available on demand

“YOU WON’T BE ALONE” >> An encounter with a witch in 19th-century Macedonia leads to a young woman’s transformative journey, wherein she hopscotches into the skins of other people and animals. Director Goran Stolevski plumbs grand-scale issues of identity and gender while creating a bold, highly visualized, “Orlando”like horror mind-bender. What a debut.

WHERE TO SEE IT >> Available on multiple streaming platforms

“LIVING” >> A filmmaker is just asking for trouble when remaking an Akira Kurosawa classic. Not so Oliver Hermanus. His reworking of Kurosawa’s sad story “Ikiru,” about a man learning to live once he gets a terminal diagnosis, sets the story in 1953 London and gives Bill Nighy one of the best roles in his storied career.

WHERE TO SEE IT >> In limited release; opens widely

Jan. 13