World Poll 2016 – Part 2 – Senses of Cinema

ENTRIES IN PART 2:

THOMAS CALDWELL

AUSTRALIAN WRITER, BROADCASTER, FILM CRITIC, PUBLIC SPEAKER AND FILM PROGRAMMER.

Favourite ten films released in Melbourne, Australia, in 2016

Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)
Son of Saul (Saul fia, László Nemes, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016)
Goldstone (Ivan Sen, 2016)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Spear (Stephen Page, 2015)

Honourable mentions (listed alphabetically)

Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)
El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra, 2015)
Girl Asleep (Rosemary Myers, 2015)
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi, 2016)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
La loi du marché (The Measure of a Man, Stéphane Brizé, 2015)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Sherpa (Jennifer Peedom, 2015)
Sing Street (John Carney, 2016)
Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
Sully (Clint Eastwood, 2016)
Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015)
The Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016)
Weiner (Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, 2016)

Special mentions (films seen at festivals, but not currently scheduled for release in Australia)

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene, 2016)
Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016)
Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini, Claude Barnes, 2016)
Notes on Blindness (Pete Middleton and James Spinney, 2016)

RAÚL CAMARGO BÓRQUEZ

DIRECTOR, VALDIVIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison, 2016)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
El Viento Sabe Que Vuelvo a Casa (The Winds Know I’m Coming Back Home, José Luis Torres Leiva, 2016)
Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, 2016)
El limonero real (Gustavo Fontán, 2016)
Ma Vie de Courgette (My life as a Zucchini, Claude Barras, 2016)
La Mort de Louis XIV (The Death of Louis XIV, Albert Serra, 2016)
Busanhaeng (Train to Busan, Yeon Sang-Ho, 2016)
Oublis, Regrets et Repentirs (Boris Lehman, 2016)
Die Geträumten (The Dreamed Ones, Ruth Beckermann, 2016)

After the Storm

MICHAEL CAMPI

LONG CAPTIVATED BY THE MOVIES. INVOLVED IN NON-COMMERCIAL FILM EXHIBITION OVER MANY DECADES.

2016 has been an exciting year watching new work from international filmmakers as well as enjoying sometimes eye-opening examples of cinema from years long past. It’s a thrill to find new creators, following the refinement and maturity of favourite directors and especially becoming aware of films and filmmakers from past times who have slipped through the crevices of official film histories. Sometimes I’ve been aghast at exceptionally long lists of titles in these annual polls but this year it seems impossible to reduce the following inclusions of so many impressive achievements. This really is a distillation of what’s been viewed in Australia and at several international film festivals. It’s a careful reflection on the year’s viewing and far from a diary of more comprehensive film going.

Firstly, my viewing in 2016 has been unusual having the excitement of more than one work from each of three distinguished directors. Marco Bellocchio thrilled with Sangue del mio sangue (Blood of My Blood, 2015) and Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams, 2016), Terence Davies impressed deeply with Sunset Song (2015) and A Quiet Passion (2016) and Pablo Larrain continued to astonish with El Club (The Club, 2015) which I couldn’t see in its release year and Neruda (2016) which makes Jackie (2016) one of the most anticipated films of the first days of the New Year.

The most notable other new works seen in 2016 are, in alphabetical order:

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Desde Allá (From Afar, Lorenzo Vigas, 2015)
Exil (Exile, Rithy Panh, 2016)
Happî awâ (Happy Hour, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2015)
Love and Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)
Lu bian ye can (Kaili Blues, Bi Gan, 2015)
Nagai Iiwake (The Long Excuse, Miwa Nishikawa, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Quand on a 17 ans (Being 17, André Téchiné, 2016)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Théo et Hugo dans le même bateau (Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo, Oliver Ducastel & Jacques Martineau, 2016)
Umi yori Mada Fukaku (After the Storm, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2016)
Voyage à travers le cinéma français (Journey through French Cinema, Bertrand Tavernier, 2016)
Zhi fan ye mao (Life after Life, Zhang Hanyi, 2016)

Other works that remain so memorable this year:

Abluka (Frenzy, Emin Alper, 2015)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
Bacalaureat (Graduation, Cristian Mungiu, 2016)
Bella e perduta (Lost and Beautiful, Pietro Marcello, 2015)
Boi Neon (Neon Bull, Gabriel Mascaro, 2015)
Boris sans Béatrice (Boris Without Béatrice, Denis Côté, 2016)
Burning Birds (Sanjeewa Pushpakumara, 2016)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Cartas da Guerra (Letters from War, Ivo Ferreira, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Chaharshanbeh, 19 Ordibehesht (Wednesday, May 9, Vahid Jalilvand, 2015)
Ta’ang (Wang Bing, 2016)
Diamond Island (Davy Chou, 2016)
Emma (Mother, Riri Riza, 2016)
La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2016)
Le Fils de Joseph (Son of Joseph, Eugène Green, 2016)
Fuchi ni tatsu (Harmonium, Kôji Fukada, 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Ha’har (Mountain, Yaelle Kayam, 2015)
Hiso Hiso Boshi (The Whispering Star, Sion Sono, 2015)
Une histoire de fou (Don’t Tell Me the Boy was Mad, Robert Guédiguian, 2015)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
Jigeummeun matgo geuddaeneun leullida (Right Now, Wrong Then, Hong Sang-soo, 2015)
Juste la fin du monde (It’s Only the End of the World, Xavier Dolan, 2016)
Kater (Tomcat, Klaus Händl, 2016)
Little Men (Ira Sachs, 2016)
Na ri xia wu (Afternoon, Tsai Ming-liang, 2015)
Pesn Pesney (Song of Songs, Eva Neymann, 2015)
Qing shuili de daozi (Knife in the Clear Water, Wang Xuebo, 2016)
Rüzgârin Hatiralari (Memories of the Wind, Özcan Alper, 2015)
S one strane (On the Other Side, Zrinko Ogesta, 2016)
Tamjung Hong Gildong: Sarajin Ma-eul (Phantom Detective, Jo Sung-hee, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Ta luo (Tharlo, Pema Tseden, 2015)
Yeon-ae-dam (Our Love Story, Lee Hyun-ju, 2016)
Yi lu shun feng (Godspeed, Chung Mong-hong, 2016)
Zai jian wa cheng (The Road to Mandalay, Midi Z, 2016)

Just as Manoel de Oliveira’s memories and confessions film from 1982 was not released widely until 2015, after the director’s death, this year The Ondekoza, a stirring documentary focusing on young people playing traditional instruments particularly drums, directed by Tai Kato in 1981, received its first major screenings after being shelved by its production company. Let’s hope the magnificent Shochiku restoration travels internationally in the near future along with an appropriate retrospective of this director’s work to celebrate his centenary. Little known outside Japan, the very prolific Kato was the nephew of an earlier master of Japanese cinema, Sadao Yamanaka.

Sieranevada

FORREST CARDAMENIS

FREELANCE FILM CRITIC AND FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO BROOKLYN MAGAZINE.

Features (2016 U.S. distribution/week-long NYC run):

Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Happî awâ (Happy Hour, Hamaguchi Ryusuke, 2015)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene, 2016)
Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Zhangke Jia, 2015)
The Illinois Parables (Deborah Stratman, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Chang Jiang Tu (Crosscurrent, Yang Chao, 2016)

Undistributed (world premiere):

Engram of Returning (Daïchi Saïto, 2016)
Sarah Winchester, Opéra Fantôme (Sarah Winchester, Ghost Opera, Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Ying Sheng (The Hedonists, Zhangke Jia, 2016)
Ang araw bago ang wakas (The Day Before The End, Lav Diaz, 2016)
Snö (Snow, Richard Dinter, 2016)

NICOLAS CARRASCO

STAFF WRITER AT DESISTFILM, LOCARNO CRITICS ACADEMY 2015, TALENTS BUENOS ARIES 2016.

Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
As Mil e Uma Noites (Arabian Nights, Miguel Gomes, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams, Marco Bellocchio, 2016)
Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016)
Évolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015)
The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2016)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Ultimas Conversas (Last Conversations, Eduardo Coutinho, 2015)
Viejo Calavera (Dark Skull, Kiro Russo, 2016)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
The Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016)
Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
One Floor Below (Radu Muntean, 2015)
The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2015)
Boi neon (Neon Bull, Gabriel Mascaro, 2015)
Mate-me por favor (Kill Me Please, Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2015)
The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky, 2015)
Ni le ciel ni la terre (Neither Heaven Nor Earth, Clement Cogitore, 2015)
John From (João Nicolau, 2015)
Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro, 2016)
Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, 2016)
Como me da la gana II (This is the Way I Like It 2, Ignacio Agüero, 2016)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Counting (Jem Cohen, 2015)
Ausma (Dawn, Laila Pakalnina, 2015)
Über die Jahre (Over the Years, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2015)
La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis (The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis, Andrea Testa and Francisco Marquez, 2016)
Save (My Heart from the World) (Jacques Perconte, 2016)
Sha Po lang 2 (SPL 2: A Time for Consequences, Pou-Soi Cheang, 2015)

MICHAEL J. CASEY

FILM CRITIC AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER FOR BOULDER WEEKLY.

Actor Martinez (Nathan Silver, Mike Ott, 2016)
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016)
La La Land (d. Damien Chazelle, 2016)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Tower (Keith Maitland, 2016)

DARYL CHIN

ARTIST AND WRITER IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. MAINTAINS BLOG DOCUMENTS ON ART & CINEMA.

Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
La Academia de las Musas (The Academy of Muses, José Luis Guerin, 2015)
Happî awâ (Happy Hour, Hamaguchi Ryusuke, 2015)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra; 2015)
Sufat Chol (Sand Storm, Elite Zexer; 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck,2016)
L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve; 2016)
Little Men (Ira Sachs, 2016)
Cameraperson (Kristen Johnson, 2016)
Notfilm (Ross Lipman, 2016)
Krigen (A War, Tobias Lindholm, 2015)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2016)
A Stray (Musa Syeed, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Eva Hesse (Marcie Begleiter, 2016)
13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
The Thoughts That Once We Had (Thom Anderson, 2015)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time (Richard Williams; 1993-2016)
Sing Street (John Carney, 2016)

The Fits

LESLEY CHOW

AUSTRALIAN WRITER FOR BRIGHT LIGHTS AND THE QUIETUS.

Best Films

Miles Ahead (Don Cheadle, 2015)
Microbe et Gasoil (Microbe and Gasoline, Michel Gondry, 2015)
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, 2016)
Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams, Marco Bellocchio, 2016)
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ang Lee, 2016)

Best Acting Performances

Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
Cynthia Nixon and Jennifer Ehle in A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, 2016)
Mohammad Reza Golzar in Madar-e Ghabl Atomi (Atomic Heart, 2015)

ROBERTA CIABARRA

FILM PROGRAMMER FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR THE MOVING IMAGE (ACMI).

Film Festivals

Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016)
The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015)
Akher ayam el madina (In the Last Days of the City, Tamer El Said, 2016)
Microbe et Gasoil (Microbe and Gasoline, Michel Gondry, 2015)
Les Anarchistes (The Anarchistes, Elie Wajeman, 2015)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
Zir-e Sayeh (Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari, 2016)
Nahid (Ida Panahandeh, 2015)
Royahaye dame sobh (Starless Dreams, Mehrdad Oskouei, 2016)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)
À peine j’ouvre les yeux (As I Open My Eyes, Leyla Bouzid, 2015)

General Release

Little Men (Ira Sachs, 2016)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)
L’attesa (The Wait, Piero Messina, 2015)
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, 2015)

CINEMA FOR ALL

UK-BASED CINEMA ASSOCIATION, THIS YEAR CELEBRATING ITS 70^TH ANNIVERSARY.

Cinema For All is the UK national support and development association for community-led cinema. This year is its 70th anniversary: since 1946 it has been supporting communities screen the films they want. The association currently has over 700 members, ranging from film societies, film clubs, community or pop-up cinemas. Every year the membership survey asks, amongst many other questions, about their programming. These are the results for 2015-16 of the most popular films screened: three foreign language films at the top as clear favourites, and a predominantly British list following them.

Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Paddington (Paul King, 2014)
Suffragette (Sarah Gabron, 2015)
Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)
45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015), The Lady in the Van (Nicholas Hytner, 2015), The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014)
Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg, 2015), Pride (Matthew Marchus, 2014), Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015), X + Y: A Brilliant Young Mind (Morgan Matthews, 2014)
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden, 2015), What We Did on Our Holiday (Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkins, 2014)
The Imitation Game (Morten Drum, 2014)
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015), Mr, Holmes (Bill Condon, 2015), Testament of Youth (James Kent, 2014)
Tehran Taxi (Jaraf Panahi, 2015), Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015), Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014), Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)

MARTYN CONTERIO

FREELANCE WRITER AND AUTHOR BASED IN LONDON.

American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
Goksung (The Wailing, Na Hong-jin, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Nasty Baby (Sebastián Silva, 2015)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols, 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Heaven Knows What (Ben & Joshua Safdie, 2014)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
Divines (Houda Benyamina, 2016)
The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)
Hail, Caesar! (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2016)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
Saul fia (Son of Saul, László Nemes, 2015)
Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, 2015)
The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015)
Zir-e Sayeh (Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari, 2016)
The Conjuring 2 (James Wan, 2016)
Blood Father (Jean-François Richet, 2016)

Hail, Caesar!

ADAM COOK

FREELANCE CRITIC, PROGRAMMER FOR TIFF, VIFF & HOT DOCS.

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa, 2016)
Wake (Subic, John Gianvito, 2015)
Manchester by the Sea– Sundance Cut (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, 2016)
Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016)
Never Eat Alone (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2016)
San ren xing (Three, Johnnie To, 2016)
The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016)
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)
Die Geträumten (The Dreamed Ones, Ruth Beckermann, 2016)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Werewolf (Ashley McKenzie, 2016)
Sully (Clint Eastwood, 2016)
We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice (Alanis Obomsawin, 2016)
Yourself and Yours (Hong Sang-soo, 2016)
Der traumhafte Weg (The Dreamed Path, Angela Schanelec, 2016)
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ang Lee, 2016)

Special mentions

Horace & Pete (Louis CK, 2016)
*too unsure of how to categorize this to put it in the 20 proper, but it’s the American narrative I found most compelling in 2016, and the one that resonates most strongly at year’s end
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi, 2016)
Happy Birthday Babe (Kanye West, Twitter, 2016)

Favourite repertory viewings

Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian (A Brighter Summer Day, Edward Yang, 1991, DCP, Vancity Theatre, Vancouver, March 20th)
Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984, DCP, Lightbox, Toronto, July 17th)
The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940, 35mm, The Cinematheque, Vancouver, March 6th)
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993, DCP, Egyptian Theatre, Park City, January 27th)
Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994, 35mm, Remembering Kiarostami at the Lightbox, Toronto, August 15^th)
Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997, DCP, Lightbox, Toronto, December 22^nd)
Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974, 35mm, Lightbox, Toronto, December 6^th)
I Only Want You to Love Me (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976, DCP, Lightbox, Toronto, December 2^nd)
Peter Hutton: Time and Tide Tribute Screening, including Florence (1975), Landscape (for Manon) (1987), New York Portrait, Chapter II (1981), Time and Tide (2000) (all on 16mm, Lightbox, Toronto, December 13^th)
Let Your Light Shine (Jodie Mack, 2013, 16mm, MDFF Presents at The Royal, Toronto, September 4^th)

JESÚS CORTÉS

SPANISH FILM WRITER.

New and relatively recent films I liked most:

The Sea of Trees (Gus van Sant, 2015)
Loving (Jeff Nichols, 2016)
Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s son, Eugène Green, 2015)
La prunelle de mes yeux (The Apple of My Eyes, Axelle Ropert, 2016)
Malgré la nuit (Despite the Night, Philippe Grandrieux, 2015)
Une histoire de fou (Don’t Tell Me the Boy Was Mad, Robert Guédiguian, 2015)
Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Zhangke Jia, 2015)
El botón de nácar (The Pearl Button, Patricio Guzmán, 2015)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
La Mort de Louis XIV (The Death of Louis XIV, Albert Serra, 2016)
La Deuxième Nuit (The Second Night, Eric Pauwels, 2016).
Correspondências (Correspondences, Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2016)
Paper Towns (Jake Schreir, 2015)
O Ornitólogo (The Ornithologist, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016)
Little Men (Ira Sachs, 2016)
Ji-geum-eun-mat-go-geu-ddae-neun-teul-li-da (Right Now, Wrong Then, Hong Sang-soo, 2015)
Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, 2016)
La tortue rouge (The Red Turtle, Michaël Dudok de Wit, 2016)

BEST OLDER FILMS. Seen for the first time in 2016
Vendémiaire (Louis Feuillade, 1918), Kinkanshoku (Eclipse, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1934), La femme nue (Léonce Perret, 1926), Shuto midori zempen/kohen (Vermilion and green, Shimazu Yasujirô, 1937), Qiu tian li de chun tian (Spring in autumn, Chen Bai, 1985), Let us live (John Brahm, 1939), Kazuko kaigi (Family meeting, Shimazu Yasujiro, 1936), Tarawa beachhead (Paul Wendkos, 1958), È primavera (It’s forever springtime, Renato Castellani, 1950), Zacharovannaya Desna (The enchanted Desna, Yuliya Solntseva, 1964).

BEST AMONG REVISITED
Ordet (The word, Carl Th. Dreyer, 1954), Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949), Die 1000 augen des Dr Mabuse (The crimes of Dr Mabuse, Fritz Lang, 1960), The kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921), Disputed passage (Frank Borzage, 1939), The man I love (Raoul Walsh, 1946), Tih-Minh Louis Feuillade, 1918).

GERARD CORVIN

WRITER, CINEPHILE, HELPS RUN DEPTFORD CINEMA.

Alphabetically:

American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
Baden Baden (Rachel Lang, 2016)
Raw (Grave, Julia Ducournau, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

American Honey

AL COSSAR

PROGRAMMER, MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Some old by the end of the year, some brand new; big screen to small, festival to multiplex. Most have made it to Melbourne, others about to:

Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, 2015)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
Dark Night (Tim Sutton, 2016)
Divines (Houda Benyamina, 2016)
Gleason (Clay Tweel, 2016)
Ah-ga-ssi (The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook, 2016)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
The Night Of (Steven Zaillian & James Marsh, 2016)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016)
O.J. Simpson: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)
Starless Dreams (Mehrdad Oskouei, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

A few words:
Dark Night – what felt intriguing (if somewhat purposefully opaque) in January ended up feeling essential to me by year’s end – gaining momentum and meaning in my brain as 2016 piled on its cacophony of calamity.
Arrival – If Dark Night looked 2016 square in its dark, bloodshot eyes, Arrival offered an elixir to the brinksmanship of the year – its profundity of trying to understand and be understood making it the most topical of multiplex entertainments, and beautifully crafted.
OJ Simpson: Made in America – in a year which offered not one but two pop cultural tv touchstones for the Simpson case, Edelman’s version, by laying out a decades-long foundation of American racial tensions, did the seemingly impossible, casting a thesis that looked at Simpson’s legal and tabloid folklore with new eyes.
Starless Dreams – patient and powerful.
The Night Of – could have made this list on the strength of the arc detailing John Turturro’s foot problems alone.

ANWEN CRAWFORD

WRITER AND CRITIC, BASED IN SYDNEY.

In alphabetical order:

American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (Ron Howard, 2016)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Goksung (The Wailing, Na Hong-jin, 2016)
In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015)
La Mort de Louis XIV (The Death of Louis XIV, Albert Serra, 2016)
Beyoncé: Lemonade (Beyoncé Knowles, Kahlil Joseph, 2016)
Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins, 1982)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Sherpa (Jennifer Peedom, 2015)
Tower (Keith Maitland, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

JORDAN CRONK

FOUNDER OF ACROPOLIS CINEMA, CONTRIBUTOR TO CINEMA SCOPE, SIGHT & SOUND, REVERSE SHOT, CINEASTE & FILM COMMENT.

AS WITHOUT SO WITHIN (Manuela De Laborde, 2016)
El Auge del Humano (The Human Surge, Eduardo Williams, 2016)
Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa, 2016)
Le bois dont les rêves sont faits (The Woods Dreams Are Made Of, Claire Simon, 2015)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin (Creepy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016)
Le Secret de la chamber noire (Daguerrotype, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016)
Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, 2016)
Dead Slow Ahead (Mauro Herce, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s son, Eugène Green, 2015)
Glide of Transparency (Betzy Bromberg, 2016)
Gorge coeur ventre (Still Life, Maud Alpi, 2016)
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Lav Diaz, 2016)
Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro, 2016)
Homeland (Iraq Year Zero, Abbas Fahdel, 2015)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
I tempi felici verranno presto (Happy Times Will Come Soon, Alessandro Comodin, 2016)
Indefinite Pitch (James N. Kienitz Wilkins, 2016)
Inimi cicatrizate (Scarred Hearts, Radu Jude, 2016)
Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene, 2016)
Kékszakállú (Gastón Solnicki, 2016)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
Luna e Santur (Joshua Gen Solondz, 2016)
Ma Loute (Slack Bay, Bruno Dumont, 2016)
Mama (Mother, Vlado Škafar, 2016)
Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016)
Le Moulin (Huang Ya-li, 2016)
La Mort de Louis XIV (The Death of Louis XIV, Albert Serra, 2016)
Lu bian ye can (Kaili Blues, Bi Gan, 2015)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
O Ornitólogo (The Ornithologist, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, 2016)
Rat Film (Theo Anthony, 2016)
Reichstag 9/11 (Ken Jacobs, 2016)
Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical, Alain Guiraudie, 2016)
Safari (Ulrich Seidl, 2016)
Shi ren chu chai le (Poet on a Business Trip, Ju Anqi, 2015)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Singularity (Albert Serra, 2015)
Sixty Six (Lewis Klahr, 2015)
Svi severni gradovi (All the Cities of the North, Dane Komljen, 2016)
Tempestad (Tatiana Huezo, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Der traumhafte Weg (The Dreamed Path, Angela Schanelec, 2016)
La Vallée de l’amour (Valley of Love, Guillaume Nicloux, 2015)
Where the Chocolate Mountains (Pat O’Neill, 2015)

MICHAEL DA SILVA

GRADUATE STUDENT AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.

Arrival(Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016)
Manchester by the Sea(Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)
Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater, 2016)
The Little Prince(Mark Osborne, 2015)
Hail, Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2016)

FERGUS DALY

CO-DIRECTOR OF ABBAS KIAROSTAMI: THE ART OF LIVING, WRITER FOR FERGUSDALY.COM

A glance at the ‘Best films of 2016’ lists in Cahiers du Cinéma, The New Yorker or Sight & Sound reveals so much about contemporary film culture: The Neon Demon, Sully, Elle, Little Sister, Dog Eat Dog, Things to Come, Victoria, Hell or High Water. Really? Is that the best that the Cinema can offer?

Best Recent Films Seen in 2016:

Anesthesia (Tim Blake Nelson, 2015)
Bulanti (Zeki Demirkubuz, 2015)
Café Society (Woody Allen, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Entertainment (Rick Alverson, 2015)
Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015)
The Great Gilly Hopkins (Stephen Herek, 2016)
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: the Cinema of Chantal Akerman (Marianne Lambert, 2015)
Indignation (James Schamus, 2016)
Ji-geum-eun-mat-go-geu-ddae-neun-teul-li-da (Right Now, Wrong Then, Hong Sang-soo, 2015)
Lamb (Ross Partridge, 2015)
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller, 2015)
Men Go to Battle (Zachary Treitz 2016)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Peace to Us in Our Dreams (Sharunas Bartas, 2015)
The Thoughts That Once We Had (Thom Andersen, 2015)
Troublemakers: the Story of Land Art (James Crump, 2015)
Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz, 2016)

Best TV
Atlanta (FX)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Casanova Undressed (Sky Arts)
Crisis in Six Scenes (Amazon)
Mr Robot (USA Network))
The Night Of (HBO)
War and Peace (BBC)

Best Film Writing
Tony McKibbin’s review of Adrian Martin’s Mise en Scène and Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art in Film-Philosophy 19 (http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p/article/view/1124)

Right Now Wrong Then

ADRIAN DANKS

SENIOR LECTURER IN THE SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION AT RMIT UNIVERSITY. AUTHOR OF A COMPANION TO ROBERT ALTMAN AND PREVIOUS EDITOR OF SENSES OF CINEMA.

25 best “new” films/series screening somewhere in Melbourne (in order of preference)

Évolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Nightlife (Cyprien Gaillard, 2015)
Blind Vaysha (Theodore Ushev, 2016)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)

Bubbling under

L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Innocence of Memories (Grant Gee, 2015)
Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015)
Mahana (Lee Tamahori, 2016)
45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
The Family (Rosie Jones, 2016)
Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, 2015)
Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015)
Indignation (James Schamus, 2016)
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015);
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar, 2016)
Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, 2016)

9 pretty good but overrated or disappointing films:

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Aquarius (Kelber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
Goldstone (Ivan Sen, 2016)
Forushande (The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi, 2016)
The Big Short (Adam McKay, 2015)
La academia de las muses (The Academy of Muses, José Luis Guerín, 2015)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016)
La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2016)
HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016)

8 not very good but also overrated and/or disappointing films/series:

No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Vinyl (2016) – TV series
11 Minutes (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2016)
Hail, Caesar! (Ethan and Joel Coen, 2016)
The Kettering Incident (2016) – TV series
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015)
Mr. Robot (2015) – TV series

Meltdown: The 4 worst “new” films I saw this year:

The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015)
Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski, 2015)
Office (Johnnie To, 2015) – in 3-D!
Girl Asleep (Rosemary Myers, 2015)

Retrospective rediscoveries:

At the Melbourne Cinémathèque (admission: I’m co-curator): Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, 1943); Lo straniero (The Stranger, Luchino Visconti, 1967); “Beautiful Losers: Robert Altman’s Panoramic Cinema” season – especially 3 Women (1977), Vincent & Theo (1990) and California Split (1974); “Between Past and Present: The Films of Margot Nash”; “Seven Circles South of the Border: Mexican Noir” season; Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967); Inochi bo ni furo (Strike a Life for Nothing, Masaki Kobayashi, 1971); Beiqíng chéngshì (A City of Sadness, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989); The Wedding March (Erich von Stroheim, 1928); The Merry Widow (Erich von Stroheim, 1925).

At MIFF: Bakushu (Early Summer, Yasujiro Ozu, 1951); The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961); One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
At MIAF: The 3-D films of Theodore Ushev; Program of Disney cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s; The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, 1945)

At the Japanese Film Festival: Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)

At ACMI: Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953) – in 3-D

4 Personal Highlights and one Lowlight:

Visiting Yasujiro Ozu’s grave/tomb in Kamakura outside of Tokyo. No fuss is made about it, but it was striking to see that the “grave” lays only metres away from that of Keisuke Kinoshita. A true pilgrimage and made even more moving by the care my eight-year-old daughter took in cleaning Ozu’s headstone.
The fabulous reception and audiences for the Robert Altman season (“Beautiful Losers: Robert Altman’s Panoramic Cinema”) at the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Having taught Altman with some difficulty over the years, it was great to see that he appears to be “back” (and the work now looks increasingly like one of the truly singular contributions to US cinema).
The Scorsese exhibition at ACMI. Some found this a disappointment, and I can certainly understand why in some respects, but the small details were often fabulous (such as those personal photos including Scorsese and his mother watching a 3-D movie at home; the personally labelled collection of 45s that read like soundtracks to the early films). I also loved the room dedicated to Scorsese’s cinephilia (including the “red shoes” and the bouquet from Vertigo) and the often-casual letters of support (to help save films from colour degradation) from an extraordinary array of directors including Robert Bresson, Michael Snow, Jean-Luc Godard and Michael Powell.
The best iteration of the Melbourne International Film Festival in many years. My list of favourite films for the year would have been much poorer without it. Not a festival of new masterpieces but an exceptionally deep and well-curated experience (I’m not a fan of Jerry Lewis, but that season of films directed by him added another dimension to the programme – I’ve now also seen The Family Jewels and Hardly Working and don’t need to do so again). Great work Michelle!
The death of so many important figures in cinema (and beyond), including two of the key figures associated with Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Vilmos Zsigmond and Leonard Cohen. The greatest loss, undoubtedly, was Abbas Kiarostami. We won’t see his like again.

Julieta

BRIAN DARR

SAN FRANCISCO CINEPHILE.

Top ten features commercially-released in the USA in 2016

Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2016)
Forushande (The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi, 2016)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016)
NUTS! (Penny Lane, 2016)

Top five features undistributed in the USA & first screened in San Francisco in 2016

Ha’har (Mountain, Yaelle Kayam, 2015)
Kishibe no tabi (Journey to the Shore, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2015)
Sixty Six (Lewis Klahr, 2002-2015)
Snatchers Body The Of Invasion (Anne McGuire, 2016)
The Thoughts That Once We Had (Thom Andersen, 2015)

Top twenty films of less than feature length

Brouillard: Passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, 2014)
Voyage of Time: the IMAX Experience (Terrence Malick, 2016)
Funera et Serpentum (Paul Clipson, 2016)
Take (Alfonso Alvarez, 2016)
Her Silent Seaming (Nazlı Dinçel, 2014)
Solitary Acts #4 & Solitary Acts #5 (Nazlı Dinçel, 2015)
Children of Lir (Katherine Mcinnes, 2016)
Vapour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Behind the Torchlight (Emily Drummer, 2015)
Many Thousands Gone (Ephraim Asili, 2015)
Gwynn Tank (Bill Basquin, 2015)
The Was (soda_jerk, 2016)
Old Hat (Zach Iannazzi, 2016)
More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters (Kelly Gallagher, 2016)
Falling (Robert Todd, 2015)
Known Universe (Lisa McCarty, 2016)
Whirred, Whirled (Jesse Malmed, 2015)
Catastrophe and Convenience (Tommy Becker, 2016)
Ektacy (Caryn Cline, 2016)

No Home Movie

DUSTIN DASIG

PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA, FILM CRITIC AND SECUITY TRAINING DIRECTOR, PHILLIPPINES.

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra, 2015) and Saul fia (Son of Saul, László Nemes, 2015)
L’avenir (Things To Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2015)
Umi machi Diary (Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2015)
Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, 2016)
Bacalaureat (Graduation, Cristian Mungiu, 2016)

With Distinction

Loving (Jeff Nichols, 2016)
Ah-ga-ssi (The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook, 2016)
Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)
El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)
Hell or High Water(David McKenzie, 2016)
Under sandet (Land of Mine, Martin Zandvliet, 2015)
Zootopia (Byron Howard and Rich Moore, 2016)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Sing Street (John Carney, 2016)
El Clan (The Clan, Pablo Trapero, 2015)

Best Performances

Peter Simonischek in Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Isabelle Huppert in L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve; 2016) and Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)

Best Direction

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

Best Writing

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve; 2016)

ROBERT DASSANOWSKY

CULTURAL HISTORIAN, INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCER AND PROFESSOR OF FILM STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.

Top Ten of 2016 (in no particular order)

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015)
Vor der Morgenröte – Stefan Zweig in Amerika (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe, Maria Schrader, 2016)
13^th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Weiner (Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, 2016)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
Neruda (Pablo Larraín, 2016)
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016)

Very Honorable Mentions

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)
Jackie (Pablo Larraín, 2016)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
Hail Caesar! (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2016)
Die Geträumten (The Dreamed Ones, Ruth Beckermann, 2016)
Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2015)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Snowden (Oliver Stone, 2016)
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)
Egon Schiele: Tod und Mädchen (Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden, Dieter Berner, 2016)

HENRI DE CORINTH

FILM WRITER.

The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
Le secret de la chambre noire (Daguerrotype, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016)
Montañas ardientes que vomitan fuego (Burning Mountains that Spew Flame, Helena Giron and Samuel M. Delgado, 2016)
350 MYA (Terra Long, 2016)
O Ornitólogo (The Ornithologist, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016)
Venus Delta (Antoinette Zwirchmayr, 2016)
Já, Olga Hepnarová (I, Olga Hepnarová, Petr Kazda & Tomás Weinreb, 2016)
Piwnica (Cellar, Wiktor Stribog, 2016)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Parabiosis: Neuroliminal Induction Complex (Andrea Crespo, 2015)
I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House (Oz Perkins, 2016)
La región salvaje (The Untamed, Amat Escalante, 2016)
Zir-e Sayeh (Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari, 2016)
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)

MATTHEW DEAPO

ARTS CRITIC. KINETOSCOPE FILM JOURNAL, HEAVEN WAS DETROIT.

Into the Inferno (Werner Herzog, 2016)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
Seances (Guy Maddin, 2016)
Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz, 2016)

SAMM DEIGHAN

EDITOR, DIABOLIQUE MAGAZINE.

Out 1 (Jacques Rivette, 1971)
Szerelmem, Elektra (Electra, My Love, Miklós Jancsó, 1974)
Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù (Private Vices, Public Virtues, Miklós Jancsó, 1976)
Na srebrnym globie (On the Silver Globe, Andrzej Żuławski, 1988)
Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski, 2015)
Évolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
L’avenir (Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Já, Olga Hepnarová (I, Olga Hepnarová, Petr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb, 2016)

Évolution

MÓNICA DELGADO

PERUVIAN FILM CRITIC, MANAGING EDITOR OF DESISTFILM.

Best films of 2016:

La Mort de Louis XIV (The Death of Louis XIV, Albert Serra, 2016)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, 2016)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Rat Film (Theo Anthony, 2016)
Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016)
Die Geträumten (The Dreamed Ones, Ruth Beckermann, 2016)
Svi Severni Gradovi (All the Cities of the North, Dane Komljen, 2016)
Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro, 2016)
Viejo Calavera (Dark Skull, Kiro Russo, 2016)
Malgré la Nuit (Despite the Night, Philippe Grandrieux, 2015)
Yomano Shel Tzalam Hatonot (From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer, Nadav Lapid, 2016)
Rester Vertical (Staying Vertical, Alain Guiraudie, 2016)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
La Noche (The Night, Edgardo Castro, 2016)
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)

CONNOR DENNEY

A CINEPHILE’S REVIEW OF FILM.

Fully ranked

Sunset Song(Terence Davies, 2015)
Shan he gu ren(Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)
Chaharshanbe-soori(Fireworks Wednesday, Asghar Farhadi, 2006)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
Cameraperson(Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Moonlight(Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Paterson(Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Toni Erdmann(Maren Ade, 2016)
No Home Movie(Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Kate Plays Christine(Robert Greene, 2016)
Eldorado XXI(Salomé Lamas, 2016)
L’avenir(Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016)
Valley of Love(Guillaume Nicloux, 2015)
Elle(Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Hail, Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2016)
Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin(Creepy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016)
Café Society(Woody Allen, 2016)
Allied(Robert Zemeckis, 2016)
Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot(Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, 2016)
88:88(Isiah Medina, 2015)
Beyoncé: Lemonade (Kahlil Joseph & Beyoncé Knowles, 2016)
Everybody Wants Some!!(Richard Linklater, 2016)
Rules Don’t Apply(Warren Beatty, 2016)

This year seems to be a lot better for American films than most; I haven’t had 5 in my top 6 of the year in some time (though I am sure this will change as I catch up with more limited 2016 releases over the next few months / years). Also a great year for films directed by women (6 of my top 14).

NICHOLAS de VILLIERS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND FILM, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA, USA.

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
Goksung (The Wailing, Na Hong-jin, 2016)
Viva (Paddy Breathnach, 2015)
Memories of a Penitent Heart (Cecilia Aldarondo, 2016)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
Ah-ga-ssi (The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook, 2016)

KYLE DILLA

LONG-SUFFERING STUDENT, AVONDALE, ARIZONA.

Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
The Girlfriend Experience (Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan, 2016)
Manchester by the Sea(Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Hail Caesar!(Joel and Ethan Coen, 2016)
The Neon Demon(Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
Certain Women(Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Goksung (The Wailing, Na Hong-jin, 2016)
They Look Like People(Perry Blackshear, 2015)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015)

JOANNA DI MATTIA

WRITER AND FILM CRITIC.

13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, 2015)
American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangaris, 2015)
El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra, 2015)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi, 2016)
Happî awâ (Happy Hour, Hamaguchi Ryusuke, 2015)
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, Juho Kuosmanen, 2016)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015)
Jackie (Pablo Larraín, 2016)
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
Saul fia (Son of Saul, László Nemes, 2015)
Sherpa (Jennifer Peedom, 2015)
Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

13th

JASON DI ROSSO

FILM REVIEWER: ABC RADIO NATIONAL AUSTRALIA.

In no particular order:

Sully (Clint Eastwood, 2016)
Bella e perduta (Lost and Beautiful, Pietro Marcello, 2015)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)
I Am Not Madame Bovary (Feng Xiaogang, 2016)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)
Early Winter (Michael Rowe, 2016)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2016)
The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015)
A Magical Substance Flows Into Me (Jumana Manna, 2016)

Honourable mentions:

El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, Ciro Guerra; 2015)
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, 2015)

WHEELER WINSTON DIXON

JAMES RYAN PROFESSOR OF FILM STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS BOOKS ON CINEMA.

Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2016)
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2016)
Weiner (Elyse Steinberg & Josh Kriegman, 2016)
Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2016)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
Umi machi Diary (Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2015)
Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry, 2015)
Gimme Danger (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)

2016 is shaping up to be the year in which interesting films were definitively buried in the public consciousness by the Marvel/DC/Pixar onslaught at the multiplexes, and more thoughtful cinema gave way to special effects and easy to follow “uplifting” narratives. The films above seem to me to be some of the more ambitious films of the year, even if they are often compromised by commercial considerations. Of all of them, the picture of a man in free-fall offered in Weiner remains one of the most compelling visions of the year; Reichardt’s Certain Women isn’t her best work, but has a truly compelling final third, in which the director’s penchant for long, wordless takes really comes to the fore. Queen of Earth is an astonishing film by Alex Ross Perry, yet it’s really a holdover from 2015; and The Childhood of a Leader, which is a stunning debut from 28 year-old director Brady Corbet effectively details the roots of nascent fascism with feeling skill, was also released in 2015. I, Daniel Blake is one of Loach’s best and most unrelenting films, and Jarmusch’s labor-of-love documentary on the rock group The Stooges, Gimme Danger is a solid piece of work.

As for the rest, it’s simply mass escapism at the cinema, in an era in which films cost $40 to 50 million before a single frame is shot due to above-the-line costs. And as for the Marvel, DC and Pixar films, I simply can’t imagine anything more boring – the fact these films find an audience is proof positive that the “lowest common denominator” rule is stronger than ever. But, as always, the public follows the path of least resistance – and in their defense, the films listed above, and others like them, get almost no distribution and/or advertising promotion, so for all intents and purposes, they don’t exist. With DVDs headed for their film spin, and non-blockbuster films relegated to VOD, the chance for independent visions to reach a wider public is slimmer than ever. But then again, one can understand that when a studio spends $100 to 200 million on a film, that’s where the advertising dollars will go.

Manchester by the Sea

PHILLIP DOERING

FILMMAKER FROM BERLIN

Best 5 new films seen in 2016 (in alphabetical order):

Comoara (The Treasure, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2015)
Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, 2015)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
Results (Andrew Bujalski, 2015)
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)

DZONDUNKELLICHT

WRITES AND TRAVELS FOR CINEMA

New / Recent
Chamissos Schatten (Chamisso’s Shadow, Ulrike Ottinger, 2016)
Incantati (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 2002/2015)
Autumn (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2016)
The Dreamer (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2016)
Singularity (Albert Serra, 2015)
Rudzienko (Sharon Lockhart, 2016)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)
Werewolf (Ashley McKenzie, 2016)
He Who Eats Children (Ben Russell, 2016)
Le Fils de Joseph (Son of Joseph, Eugène Green, 2016)
Jackie (Pablo Larraín, 2016)
Der traumhafte Weg (The Dreamed Path, Angela Schanelec, 2016)
Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, 2016)
Neruda (Pablo Larraín, 2016)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Sarah Winchester, Opéra Fantôme (Bertrand Bonello, 2016)
Fuchi ni tatsu (Harmonium, Koji Fukada, 2016)
Liberami (Federica Di Giacomo, 2016)
Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison, 2016)
Take Me Home (Abbas Kiarostami, 2016)
Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016)
Funérailles (de l’art de mourir) (Funeral (on the art of dying), Boris Lehman, 2016)
Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016)
Correspondências (Correspondences, Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2016)
Mama (Mother, Vlado Škafar, 2016)
Beduino (Júlio Bressane, 2016)
Skhvisi sakhli (House of Others, Rusudan Glurjidze, 2016)
28:94 Teghakan Zhamanak (28:94 Local Time, David Safarian, 2015)
Az itt élő lelkek nagy része (Most Of The Souls That Live Here, Igor & Ivan Buharov, 2016)
Tve rogorts erti dghe (Month As One Day, Rezo Esadze, 2016)
Aragane (Oda Kaori, 2015)
Zhi Fan Ye Mao (Life After Life, Zhang Hanyi, 2016)
Informe General II: El Nuevo Rapto de Europa (General Report II: The New Abduction of Europe, Pere Portabella, 2016)
Fall Equinox (James Benning, 2016)
Un rêve solaire (A Solar Dream, Patrick Bokanowski, 2016)
Spring Equinox (James Benning, 2016)
Reichstag 9/11 (Ken Jacobs, 2016)
Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief] (Heinz Emigholz, 2015)
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, Mathieu Denis & Simon Lavoie, 2016)
Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa, 2016)
Sleep Has Her House (Scott Barley, 2016)
Die Geträumten (The Dreamed Ones, Ruth Beckermann, 2016)
Never Eat Alone (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2015)
Qingshuili de daozi (Knife In The Clear Water, Wang Xuebo, 2016)
De’ang (Ta’ang, Wang Bing, 2016)
Cheondangui Bamgwa Angae (Night And Fog In Zona, Jung Sung-il, 2015)
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Lav Diaz, 2016)

Repertory / Restored / Revived
From The Notebook of … (Robert Beavers, 1971/1998)
Drunk aka Drink (Andy Warhol, 1965)
Close Up (Peter Gidal, 1983)
Twilight City (Black Audio Film Collective, 1989)
L’anticoncept (Anti-Concept, Gil J Wolman, 1951)
Der Gang in die Nacht (The Dark Road, F. W. Murnau, 1921)
The Lighted Field (Andrew Noren, 1987)
Charmed Particles (Andrew Noren, 1978)
Phantasm: Remastered (Don Coscarelli, 1979/2016)
Private Property (Leslie Stevens, 1960)
La Recta Provincia (Raúl Ruiz, 2007)
Thundercrack! (Curt McDowell, 1975)
Sparkle’s Tavern (Curt McDowell, 1985)
The Colleen Bawn (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier, 1911)
Out of Hand (Ericka Beckman, 1981)
Soft Fiction (Chick Strand, 1979)
Mya Ganaing (The Emerald Jungle, Maung Tin Maung, 1934)
Sleep Walk (Sara Driver, 1986)
River Yar (Chris Welsby & William Raban, 1972)
Pan Film (Gill Eatherley, 1972)

Retrospectives / Events
Shoot Shoot Shoot: The London Film-Makers’ Co-op
Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet @ MoMA
Curt McDowell @ AAFF
Marlen Khutsiev @ MoMA
Tomu Uchida @ MoMA
To Save and Project @ MoMA
Paolo Gioli @ HFA
Peter Hutton @ Anthology Film
Ken Jacobs @ Anthology Film
Québec Direct Cinema @ Anthology Film
Alexander Kluge @ Anthology Film
Ogawa Shinsuke and Ogawa Pro @ ICA
Escuela de Barcelona @ IFFR & MIFF
Chantal Akerman @ BAMcinématek