As sick as fans can get of year-end lists documenting individual critics' or awards bodies’ selections for the best films, TV, books, music, and comics of the year, there are still a select few people out there who can get us excited with their taste. One of those people is former President Barack Obama. Whether his choices validated that of genre fans or gave a reason to check out two of the year’s most exciting sci-fi and superhero offerings, his top-movies list certainly isn't anything to ignore.
Obama released his list on Facebook, which includes both the record-breaking Marvel film Black Panther and the cult favorite Annihilation among a whole slew of critically acclaimed docs and dramas. Black Panther, containing an allegory for the civil rights debate in America, was one of the MCU's most ambitious stories yet, while Annihilation provided astonishing visuals in its tale of biological woe.
In previous years, the ex-prez has released playlists of his favorite songs and reading lists of his favorite books, but this is his first public year-end movie list — though he’s listed his favorite sci-fi movies before (with classics 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind topping the ranking).
And though Obama primarily reads nonfiction, some of his interests in that sector are decidedly futuristic as well. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Max Tegmark, stood out among the political and historical selections as a book looking toward technology and its implications on how we live. Keeping a healthy interest in upcoming tech is basically like anticipating the future of science fiction, so it’s heartening to see Obama keeping the genre dream alive across media.
In case you’d like to watch along with the former president, here is his full list of top 2018 films:
Annihilation
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Minding the Gap
The Rider
Roma
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
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