The Best Movies of 2023 according to Freaking News

2023 was the year of great returns of the past and from the past: with the future postponed due to the Hollywood strikes, which essentially shut down the largest part of the Western film industry for nearly six months and forced studios to postpone several dates until next year, cinema turned to the masters of yesterday to tell the story of today, with some of the great ‘old men’ of the seventh art returning to center stage with works, in some cases, fundamental to The construction of new images and imaginaries.

A year in which theaters were once again filled with original, often unexpected movies, and during which more than ever theaters and streaming services would seem to have found a way to coexist after waging war on each other for years. A year that, on the one hand, challenged the overpowering power of superheroes at the box office; on the other hand, reaffirmed the centrality of the ‘new biopic’, increasingly a source of experimentation and breaking the traditional rules of the genre, for many years stuck to repetitive and obsolete solutions: and after Mank (2021) and Blonde (2022), for Freaking News the best movie of 2023 is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (here’s our review of Oppenheimer), a perfect fusion of blockbuster, art-house experimentation, box-office event and reflection on the creative (and destructive) power of cinema.

The best movies of 2023 ranked

Before we say goodbye and leave you with the list, or rather the lists, the usual preamble: Freaking News’ ranking of the best movies of 2023 includes the films released during the year worldwide, including cinemas, streaming platforms, various and any festivals, home-videos and exclusive press premieres. Therefore, you may also come across titles not yet available in our country for the general public.This seems to us, at least in our opinion, not only a way to relive the great cinema of the past few months but also the best way to keep track of the most interesting films coming soon.

That said, without further delays, space for the 2023 movies and charts: here is what we chose from the other 650 (or so) movies seen this year.

The 25 Best Movies of 2023:

1. Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan
2. The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer
3. Ferrari by Michael Mann (here’s ourreview of Ferrari)
4. Tar by Field’s Tar
5. Pacifiction by Albert Serra
6. May December by Todd Haynes
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell by Phạm Thiên Ân
8. Rotting in the sun by Sebastián Silva
9. Killers of the flower moon by Martin Scorsese
10. La Bete by Bertrand Bonello
11. Poor Things! by Yorgos Lanthimos
12. Cerrar los ojos by Victor Erice
13. Perfect Days by Wim Wenders
14. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning by Christopher McQuarrie
15. L’ultima notte di Amore di Andrea Di Stefano
16. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World by Radu Jude
17. One fine morning by Mia Hansen-Løve
18. Leila’s Brothers by Saeed Roustayi
19. The Killer by David Fincher (here’s the review of The Killer)
20. Il sol dell’avvenire by Nanni Moretti
21. Godzilla Minus One by Takashi Yamazaki
22. La chimera by Alice Rohrwacher
23. Sick by John Hyams
24. Roter Himmel by Christian Petzold
25. Dark harvest by David Slade

The 5 Best Animated Movies of 2023

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers (the review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one click away)
2. The Boy and The Heron by Hayao Miyazaki
3. Suzume by Makoto Shinkai
4. Elemental by Peter Sohn
5. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish by Joel Crowford

The 5 Best Documentaries of 2023

1. The deepest breath by Laura McGann
2. Beyond Utopia by Madeleine Gavin
3. The Eternal Memory by Maite Alberdi
4. Kokomo City by D. Smith
5. The Mother of all lies by Asmae El Moudir

Before we say goodbye and to delve deeper into the year-end rankings, we also suggest you take a look at the Best TV Shows of 2023. Finally, let us know what you think of the movie rankings in the comments section.