The heads of prominent Dallas and North Texas Film Festivals announced their selections for the Top Ten Films of 2018 during WFAA’s Midday at 8 news broadcast today with Ryan Coogler’s BLACK PANTHER, Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA, and John Krasinski’s A QUIET PLACE taking the top three spots.

 

Justina Walford (Artistic Director, Women Texas Film Festival), Michael Cain (Director, EARTHxFilm), and Alex Garcia Topete (Director of Programming, Festival de Cine Latino Americano of North Texas) revealed the list of films on the broadcast with WFAA’s Ron Corning.

 

The films were chosen by representatives of Dallas and North Texas-based film festivals, and Studio Movie Grill (which served as a sponsor and host for both the Dallas Video Fest and the Women Texas Film Festival this past year), including Walford, Cain, and Topete, along with Bart Weiss (Director, Dallas Video Fest/ Artistic Director, 3 Stars Cinema), Raquel Chapa (Managing Director, Dallas Video Fest,), Maverick Moore and Sam Henderson (Programmers, Deep in the Heart FF), Linda Eaddy (Director of Film Programming, Denton Black Film Festival), David Gibson (Programmer and Director of Operations, Asian Film Festival of Dallas), Susan Kandell Wilkofsky (Programmer, 3 Stars Cinema), Niloo Jalilvand (Festival Founder, Pegasus Film Festival), Bill Hass (Programming Director for Fort Worth Indie Film Showcase), James Faust (Artistic Director, Dallas International Film Festival), Barak Epstein (Co-Founder, Oak Cliff Film Festival), Todd Donnell (Programmer, Studio Movie Grill), and John Wildman (Publicist and Film Festival Consultant, EarthxFilm and WTxFF).

 

The announcement of the top films of the year as chosen by the tastemakers that select them to screen at their film festivals in Dallas and North Texas serves as a precursor to the recently announced Best of Fests Film Festival next month (January 10-13). The event, which will present the top films screened at the film festivals over the past year, or films that represent that fest’s programming and philosophy, will include a remarkable 22 different organizations and marks the first time in the U.S. that a city and region’s film festivals have joined forces in such a way.

 

Dallas and North Texas film festivals’ Top 10 Films of 2018

1.             BLACK PANTHER (DIR: Ryan Coogler)
2.             ROMA (DIR: Alfonso Cuarón)
3.             A QUIET PLACE (DIR: John Krasinski)
4.             A STAR IS BORN (DIR: Bradley Cooper)
5.             THE FAVOURITE (DIR: Yorgos Lanthimos)
6.             EIGHTH GRADE (DIR: Bo Burnham)
7.             BLACKKKLANSMAN (DIR: Spike Lee)
8.             SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (DIR: Boots Riley)
9.             BLINDSPOTTING (DIR: Carlos López Estrada)
10.             WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (DIR: Morgan Neville)

 

 

Other films cited by the group included: Ari Aster’s HEREDITARY; Barry Jenkins’s IF BEALE STRET COULD TALK; Bryan Singer’s BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY; Peter Farrelly’s GREEN BOOK; Panos Cosmatos’s MANDY; Robert Greene’s BISBEE ‘17; David Leitch’s DEADPOOL 2; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s SHOPLIFTERS; Jim Cummings’s THUNDER ROAD; Jennifer Fox’s THE TALE; Alex Garland‘s ANNIHILATION; Paul Feig‘s A SIMPLE FAVOR; Debra Granik‘s LEAVE NO TRACE; Anthony and Joe Russo’s AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR; and Jon M. Chu’s CRAZY RICH ASIANS.