AFI’s Top 10 of 2019 – The Irishman, Fleabag & Joker find a place

The American Film Institute (AFI’s) has released its list of the Top 10 Movies and TV Programs of 2019 and thus kickstarting the race for the Best Picture for upcoming Awards season. The Irishman is gaining the momentum with its win for the Best Picture at National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle, and ensuring at least the nomination for the Best Picture at Academy Awards in 2020. Not far behind is the winner of the Best Picture at Gotham Awards – Marriage Story that is all probability should clinch a nomination.

The much-celebrated Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’ was awarded ‘AFI Special Award‘ (last year AFI Special Award was given to Roma) which was not included in the Top 10 list as it was ineligible due to predominant foreign production involvement.  It is considered as the major contender for the Oscars this year (the film is currently contending as Korea’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar – at the 92nd Academy Awards) and garnering the praise from all the major film festivals, and sitting at the top position of Metacritic as the best-reviewed film with 96 metascore.

Not so surprisingly, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,  Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, Sam Mendes’ 1917, Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell have made the cut on the AFI’s unranked top 10 list. Taika Waititi’s controversial film – JoJo Rabbit, winner of TIFF People’s Choice Award, has found a place for itself in the list.

Missing out on the AFI’s top 10 does not necessarily mean a given film should be ruled out of the Academy’s Best Picture race, as omissions didn’t stop foreign-produced titles like 2011’s The Artist and 2010s The King’s Speech — both of which were honoured with special AFI awards, as the Mexican-made Roma was last year — from winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

AFI top 10 movies of 2019 (listed alphabetically):

1917
The Farewell
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Knives Out
Little Women
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Richard Jewell

Special award:Parasite

AFI top 10 TV shows of 2019 (listed alphabetically):

Chernobyl
The Crown
Fosse/Verdon
Game of Thrones
Pose
Succession
Unbelievable
Veep
Watchmen
When They See Us

Special award: Fleabag

Ranked: Every International Feature Film Submitted for 92nd Academy Awards 2020