David Denby - The New Yorker skrev:

“Hugo”—In Martin Scorsese’s wondrous 3-D masterpiece, you feel like you’re inside a giant box with the entire history of the cinema playing on the walls. The movie is intricate, touching, a reverent summing up of the past of movies, and a triumphant, heart-swelling surge into the future.

“The Tree of Life”—Yes, I know, Terrence Malick’s movie is unbearably high-minded and humorless. But still! There are sequences that rival the greatest things ever done in movies, especially the long family episodes with Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and the little boys, in which the camera floats around the characters, and all of eternity is summoned in the minutest motions of love and rage. Brad Pitt gives an amazing performance; he’s a shoo-in for the Oscar.

“Margin Call”
“Certified Copy”
“A Separation”
“Contagion”
“The Descendants”
“J. Edgar”
“Source Code”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes“

Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian skrev:

The Artist (dir. Michel Hazanavicius)
Margaret (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)
A Separation (dir. Asghar Farhadi)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (dir. Tomas Alfredson)
Poetry (dir. Lee Chang-dong)
The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)
Le Quattro Volte (dir. Michelangelo Frammartino)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (dir. Lynne Ramsay)
The Skin I Live In (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Bridesmaids (dir. Paul Feig)

David Edelstein - NY Mag skrev:

1. The Adventures of Tintin
2. Beginners
3. Coriolanus
4. The Descendants
5. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
6. Hell and Back Again
7. Into the Abyss
8. Margin Call
9. Mysteries of Lisbon
10. War Horse

Richard Corliss fra Time skrev:

1. The Artist
2. Hugo
3. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
4. The Tree of Life
5. War Horse
6. Super 8
7. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
9. Rango
10. Fast Five

Peter Travers fra Rolling Stone skrev:

1. Drive
2. The Artist
3. The Descendants
4. Moneyball
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Hugo
7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
8. Margin Call
9. The Tree of Life
10. War Horse, The Help, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Richard Brody fra The New Yorker skrev:

1. The Future
2. The Tree of Life
3. Film Socialisme
4. Hugo
5. Certified Copy
6. Margaret
7. Petition
8. Putty Hill
9. Silver Bullets
10. A Screaming Man
11. The Interrupters
12. You All Are Captains
13. Bellflower
14. J. Edgar
15. Midnight in Paris
16. Terri
17. Impolex
18. Moneyball
19. Road to Nowhere
20. Bridesmaids
21. The Descendants
22. Uncle Kent
23. The Time That Remains
24. Le Havre
25. The Skin I Live In
26. Restless