After a pandemic pause, IndieWire has brought back our directors’ survey, wherein we ask the directors who made great films and episodes of television in 2023 to tell us what they’ve been watching that has moved and inspired them.

Although our 2023 ranking of best films is obviously, objectively correct, really interesting things can happen when “Best Of” is framed more in terms of celebrating what filled directors’ creative tanks than putting films of all shapes and sizes into one list. There was a lot of love for the types of movies that Best Of lists usually forget about: horror, action, docs, and international releases, as well as a fair amount of praise for the television, music, and video games that also created art alongside film this year. We gave the directors a great deal of freedom in how they reflected on the year in moving images.

In fact, there’s...