The 50 Best Movies of 2022

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – January 4, 2023

Here is Metacritic's final list of the 50 best-reviewed movies of 2022, ranked by Metascore. This list only includes films receiving at least 7 reviews from professional critics.

All films released between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022 in at least one U.S. theater or directly to streaming or VOD/digital services were eligible for inclusion. Short films and reissues are excluded. Titles are ranked by Metascore (a weighted average of scores from top professional critics) prior to rounding based on scores as of January 1, 2023.

Additional content by Keith Kimbell.

21 of 25 photo by Janus Film

91 No Bears

Metacritic's Best International Movie of 2022.

(#3) Jafar Panahi managed to best his son Panah Panahi (director of our #6 film, Hit the Road) by one point—at least for now—with No Bears, currently 2022's highest-scoring international feature. Awarded a Special Jury Prize in Venice, the latest from the now-imprisoned Iranian auteur is another slice of piercing meta-fiction in which he finds a version of himself making a film in the Iranian village of Jabbar and causing a bit of trouble for the locals after they accuse him of taking a photo of a pair of young lovers, which he denies. It’s another success for the director, who has now managed to make five films (This Is Not a Film, Closed Curtain, Taxi, 3 Faces) since he was banned from filmmaking in 2010.

No Bears is now playing in New York and is expected to open in additional cities throughout January.

“A complex work of novelistic density, this is among the boldest and most accomplished statements from one of the world’s exemplary filmmakers.” —Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

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