The Best Movies of 2026
The best movies of 2026 already have a critics' shortlist, and your votes decide its order. The door admits a film named on five or more of nineteen critics' mid-year best-of lists printed 1 June to 31 August. A 2026 film's first US release, theatrical or streaming, came in 2026, and a festival or premiere screening isn't a release: a film that opened abroad in 2025 counts only if its first US release came in 2026, and a 2025 US release doesn't, however late it reached anywhere else. Each film is measured against lists printed on or after its first US release. Tiers are rough on purpose: eight or more lists is upper, every other film sits lower; the door settles who's here, and your votes the order. This is a living, fan-voted list. In December, any unseated film that passes the 2026 test enters by a second door if two or more year-end lists from those same mastheads name it, whatever its release month; each says which door it came through, and nothing seated now is removed by it.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) is #1 on “The Best Movies of 2026”.
- 1
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Nia DaCosta directed it from Alex Garland's script, shot back to back with 28 Years Later, and Sony's US opening was 16 January. It's named on twelve of its nineteen lists, and Dr Kelson's ossuary was built as a real set in Redmire, North Yorkshire. To join Jimmy Crystal's gang, Spike has to fight Jimmy Shite to the death, and that early scene tells you exactly how cruel this gang is going to be whenever it turns up again.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32141377/ - 2
The Christophers (2026)
Steven Soderbergh shot it in London in February 2025, and Neon gave it a limited opening in Los Angeles and New York on 10 April. Named on nine of its nineteen, it has Ian McKellen as Julian Sklar, a faded painter, and Michaela Coel as the artist his children hire to finish his Christophers canvases behind his back. Watch him record Cameo videos for fans to cover the bills: it's the funniest thing in it, and it stings.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34966562/ - 3
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Rocky, the alien engineer Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace meets in deep space, is a puppet as much as an effect: James Ortiz led the puppeteers and voices him, and Framestore did the animation. Drew Goddard adapted Andy Weir's novel, Phil Lord directed it with Christopher Miller, and Amazon MGM opened it wide on 20 March. It's named on thirteen of its nineteen, and it earns its length once Grace starts building a way to translate Rocky's musical speech.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12042730/ - 4
Obsession (2026)
Focus Features picked it up after a Midnight Madness premiere in Toronto in September 2025, then gave it a wide US release on 15 May. Named on thirteen of its nineteen, it stars Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as Bear and Nikki, and the less you know about what happens between them, the better. The phone call to the toy company's customer service line is where a nervous laugh in the room turns into dread.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37287335/ - 5
Blue Heron (2026)
Sophy Romvari's first feature draws on her own childhood: a Hungarian family on Vancouver Island in the late 1990s, seen through eight-year-old Sasha while her eldest brother, Jeremy, gets harder to live with. It won the Swatch First Feature Award at Locarno in 2025, reached US screens through Janus Films in April, and was named on eight of its nineteen. It keeps cutting between Eylul Guven's young Sasha and Amy Zimmer's grown one, and memory never settles.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32252801/ - 6
The Drama (2026)
Kristoffer Borgli wrote and directed it, A24 released it on 3 April, and Arseni Khachaturan shot it on 35mm film. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are Emma and Charlie, a Boston couple a week from their wedding when something from her past comes out, in a film named on eight of its nineteen. Alana Haim's drunk, passive-aggressive reception speech as Rachel is mean in exactly the right way.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33071426/ - 7
I Love Boosters (2026)
Boots Riley named it after a song by his own group, The Coup, and it opened SXSW in March before Neon released it on 22 May. Keke Palmer plays Corvette, a would-be designer in a Bay Area shoplifting crew, the Velvet Gang, who admires Christie Smith, the Demi Moore character running the chain; it ended up named on eight of its nineteen. Corvette smuggling herself into Christie's office inside a coffee cart sets the tone, absurd first and pointed after.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30827810/ - 8
Pillion (2026)
British cinemas had it in November 2025, and A24 opened it in the US on 6 February 2026. Named on seven of its nineteen, it's Harry Lighton's adaptation of Adam Mars-Jones's novel Box Hill, with Harry Melling as shy Colin and Alexander Skarsgård as Ray, the biker who takes charge of him. The dinner where Lesley Sharp, as Colin's mother, squares up to Ray is the film at its sharpest.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32321317/ - 9
Is God Is (2026)
Aleshea Harris directed her first feature from her own play, which premiered at Soho Rep in 2018, and Orion released it on 15 May. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson play Racine and Anaia, twins scarred by a fire their father set, sent by their dying mother, Vivica A. Fox, to kill him. Named on seven of its nineteen lists, it never lets up once a helmeted rider takes a hammer to their car's engine and gives chase.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34379307/ - 10
Disclosure Day (2026)
Steven Spielberg directed from his own story, David Koepp wrote the screenplay, and Universal released it stateside on 12 June. It's named on six of its sixteen, the sixteen being the counted lists that went to print on or after that date. Emily Blunt plays Margaret, a Kansas City weather presenter who starts speaking an unknown language live on air, and that broadcast is the scene to watch for.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15047880/ - 11
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2026)
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol play themselves, two Toronto musicians who still can't get a gig at the Rivoli, and exterior scenes were often shot in public without permits, strangers and all. Neon opened it in US cinemas on 13 February after a SXSW premiere in 2025, and it's named on seven of its nineteen. The stunt to skydive from the CN Tower into the SkyDome during a Blue Jays game is where to start.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35522483/ - 12
The Sheep Detectives (2026)
Craig Mazin, of all people, wrote the script from Leonie Swann's novel Three Bags Full, and Kyle Balda directed. Hugh Jackman's shepherd George turns up dead outside his trailer near the village of Denbrook, and his flock, led by a ewe called Lily with Julia Louis-Dreyfus's voice, decides to solve the case itself. Amazon MGM released it on 8 May, it was named on seven of its nineteen, and the will reading is the set piece.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32565993/ - 13
Send Help (2026)
Sam Raimi directed it, and Bruce Campbell turns up in photographs, as Bradley's father. Rachel McAdams is Linda, a strategist stranded on an island in the Gulf of Thailand with Dylan O'Brien's Bradley, the boss who sidelined her. 20th Century Studios opened it on 30 January, and it's named on six of its nineteen. Before the crash, a colleague plays her old Survivor audition tape on the plane to humiliate her, and McAdams lets that sting carry everything after.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8036976/ - 14
Backrooms (2026)
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a failed architect running a furniture store in San Jose, with Renate Reinsve as his therapist, Mary. Will Soodik wrote it and Kane Parsons directed. A24 released it on 29 May, its $81.5 million opening weekend in the US and Canada was a company record, and it was named on five of its nineteen. Early on, Clark shoots a TV ad in the shop's pirate mascot suit, and it's sadder than it is funny.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26657236/ - 15
Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026)
It's a concert film, cut together by Baz Luhrmann from outtakes of Elvis: That's the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour that turned up silent in Warner Bros. storage in Kansas salt mines, then restored and synced to existing audio. Neon opened it in IMAX on 20 February and the film was named on six of its nineteen lists, but the reason to sit through it is Polk Salad Annie.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35003538/ - 16
Miroirs No. 3 (2026)
German cinemas had it in September 2025, and its US run started at Film at Lincoln Center on 20 March 2026, released by 1-2 Special. Named on five of its nineteen, it's Christian Petzold casting Paula Beer again, after Transit, Undine and Afire, as Laura, a Berlin music student taken in by a stranger, Betty, after a car crash in the countryside. The piano tuner's visit is the quiet hinge, and Ravel's piano suite Miroirs gave the film its name.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32247943/
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
