What I mean by favorite here is
"what I often find myself greatly admiring when I notice it's done really well"
gonna go with Director of Photography (cinematographer). with emphasis on the photography.
Some things I've watched recently that illustrate this role.
- Saltburn, great use of vertical space with the 4:3 aspect ratio, lots of color and natural light. Summer is captured well.
- Crash (1996), Lots of night scenes (always tough to get right), the setting looks appropriately dark, grimy, and mechanical.
- Fight Club, also a (literally) dark film and looks great.
At the more entry levels of filmmaking, nothing separates the wheat from the chaff faster than sound. Not only is it very underrated by a lot of budding, amateur filmmakers, but it's so easy to get wrong and so difficult to get right. A lot like finding a drummer for a fledgling band, finding a good sound designer is super hard to find, but so important.