FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Dallas and North Texas Film Festival Directors and Programmers Name their Top Films of 2019

The heads of prominent Dallas and North Texas Film Festivals announced their selections for the Top Ten Films of 2019 during WFAA’s Midday at 8 news broadcast today with Olivia Wilde’s BOOKSMART, Bong Joon Ho’s PARASITE, and Quentin Tarantino’s’ ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD taking the top three spots among films released in 2019.

Justina Walford (Founder/Artistic Director, Women Texas Film Festival), Susan Kandell (Program Director, 3 Stars Jewish Cinema), and Thomas Schubert (Operations Director, Asian Film Festival of Dallas) revealed the list of films on the broadcast.

The films were chosen by representatives of Dallas and North Texas-based film festivals, including Walford, Kandell, and Schubert, along with Luci Digiorgio and Philip Vasquez (Co-Founders and Co-Directors, Billy the Kid FF), Bart Weiss (Director, Dallas Video Fest/Artistic Director, 3 Stars Cinema), Maverick Moore (Programmer, Deep in the Heart FF), Bill Haas (Director, Fort Worth Indie Film Showcase), Andrea Newman (Lead Programmer, Topaz FF), James Faust (Artistic Director, Dallas International Film Festival), Barak Epstein (Co-Founder, Oak Cliff Film Festival), and John Wildman (Publicist and Film Festival Consultant, EarthxFilm, Billy the Kid FF, Deep in the HEART FF, 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 return of the Best of Fests Film Festival (February 27-March 1).

The event is the only one of its kind in the U.S. in which a city’s and region’s film festivals join forces to present the top films screened over the past year, or films that represent that fest’s programming. More than 20 of the Dallas and North Texas film festivals are lined up to participate again this year.

Dallas and North Texas film festivals’ Top 10 Films of 2019

1.                     BOOKSMART (DIR: Olivia Wilde)

2.                     PARASITE (DIR: Bong Joon Ho)

3.                     ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (DIR: Quentin Tarantino)

4. (TIE)                       US (DIR: Jordan Peele)

4. (TIE)                       THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (DIR: Joe Talbot)

5.                     THE IRISHMAN (DIR: Martin Scorsese)

6.                     MARRIAGE STORY (DIR: Noah Baumbach)

7.                     KNIVES OUT (DIR: Rian Johnson)

8.                     THE FAREWELL (DIR: Lulu Wang)

9. (TIE)                       FORD V. FERRARI (DIR: James Mangold)

9. (TIE)                       1917 (DIR: Sam Mendes)

10.                  THE ART OF SELF DEFENSE (DIR: Riley Stearns)

Other films cited by the group included: Taika Waititi’s JOJO RABBBIT; Ari Aster’s MIDSOMMAR; Fernando Meirelles’ THE TWO POPES; Todd Phillips’ JOKER; Todd Douglas Miller’s APOLLO 11; Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie’s UNCUT GEMS; Melina Matsoukas’ QUEEN & SLIM; Anthony Russo and Joe Russo’s AVENGERS: ENDGAME; and Marielle Heller’s A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.