[h=1]The best films of 2016 [/h]Time again for our annual international critics’ poll of the year’s top movies. This year we asked 163 critics and curators to name their five best films of the year – and the results are a small triumph for diversity (not to mention a lot of treats still to come to UK cinemas over the next few months). Films directed by women make up the majority of the top five, alongside Barry Jenkins’ gay black coming of age portrait Moonlight in second place.
Andrea Arnold’s American Honey and Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake also show the breadth and depth of British cinema – but this is surely the first year that a German comedy is the runaway winner…
Sight & Sound contributors
2 December 2016
[h=3]1. Toni Erdmann[/h]49 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 February 2017
Maren Ade, Germany-Austria
► Trailer
☞ Read 10 Screenwriting Tips from Maren Ade
[h=3]2. Moonlight[/h]34 votes
UK festival release 6 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 24 February 2016
Barry Jenkins, USA
► Trailer
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Moonlight in our London Film Festival podcast
[h=3]3. Elle[/h]33 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 10 March 2017
Paul Verhoeven, France-Germany
► Trailer
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Elle in our London Film Festival podcast
[h=3]4. Certain Women[/h]25 votes
UK festival release 9 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 March 2017
Kelly Reichardt, USA
► Trailer
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Certain Women in our London Film Festival podcast
[h=3]5. American Honey[/h]20 votes
UK cinema release 14 October 2016
Andrea Arnold, USA-UK
► Trailer
☞ Read Alyssa Simon’s first-look Cannes review
[h=3]6. I, Daniel Blake[/h]17 votes
UK cinema release 21 October 2016
Ken Loach, United Kingdom-France-Belgium
► Trailer
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Cannes review
[h=3]7. Manchester by the Sea[/h]16 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 13 January 2017
Kenneth Longeran, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]8. Things to Come (L’Avenir)[/h]15 votes
UK cinema release 2 September 2016
Mia Hansen-Løve, France-Germany
► Trailer
☞ Read Harriet Warman’s first-look Berlin review
[h=3]9. Paterson[/h]14 votes
UK cinema release 25 November 2016
Jim Jarmusch, USA/Germany/France
► Trailer
☞ Read Nick James’s tribute poem
[h=3]10. The Death of Louis XIV[/h]13 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Albert Serra, France-Portugal-Spain
► Trailer
[h=3]=11. Personal Shopper[/h]12 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 March 2017
Olivier Assayas, France
► Trailer
[h=3]=11. Sieranevada[/h]12 votes
UK festival release 6 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Cristi Puiu, Romania-France
► Trailer
[h=3]=13. Fire at Sea[/h]11 votes
UK cinema release 10 June 2016
Gianfranco Rosi, Italy-France
► Trailer
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Berlin review
[h=3]=13. Julieta[/h]11 votes
UK cinema release 12 August 2016
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
► Trailer
☞ Read Sophie Monks Kaufman’s first-look Cannes review
[h=3]=13. Nocturama[/h]11 votes
UK festival release 15 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Bertrand Bonello, France-Germany-Belgium
► Trailer
[h=3]=16. Cameraperson[/h]10 votes
UK festival release 10 June 2016 (Sheffield Doc/Fest)
UK cinema release 27 January 2017
Kirstsen Johnson, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]=16. La La Land[/h]10 votes
UK festival release 7 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 13 January 2017
Damien Chazelle, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]18. Love & Friendship[/h]9 votes
UK cinema release 27 May 2016
Whit Stillman, Ireland/France/The Netherlands/USA/United Kingdom
► Trailer
[h=3]=19. Aquarius[/h]8 votes
UK festival release 14 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 24 March 2017
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil-France
► Trailer
[h=3]=19. Victoria[/h]8 votes
UK cinema release 1 April 2016
Sebastian Schipper, Germany
► Trailer
[h=3]=21. Embrace of the Serpent[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 10 June 2016
Ciro Guerra, Argentina-Colombia-Netherlands-Venezuela
► Trailer
[h=3]=21. Everybody Wants Some!![/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 13 May 2016
Richard Linklater, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]=21. Evolution[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 6 May 2016
Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France/Spain/Belgium 2015
► Trailer
[h=3]=21. Hell or High Water[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 9 September 2016
David Mackenzie, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]=21. O.J.: Made in America[/h]7 votes
Five-part ESPN TV documentary, also screened at some US film festivals. UK release undated
Ezra Edelman, USA
ESPN’s ambitious five-part study of 1995’s ‛trial of the century’ ran to nearly eight hours, covering the courtroom drama, the fallen hero in the dock and the fallout from the shock verdict. In the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it “a tightly packed, almost indecently entertaining piece of pop realism, a Dreiser novel infused with the spirit of Tom Wolfe,” saying it had “the grandeur and authority of the best long-form nonfiction”.
[h=3]=26. Lemonade[/h]6 votes
Online release 23 April 2016
Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso, USA
► Trailer
[h=3]=26. Nocturnal Animals[/h]6 votes
UK cinema release 4 November 2016
Tom Ford, USA
► Trailer
☞ Read Simran Hans’ first-look review from Toronto
[h=3]=26. The Ornithologist[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
(O Ornitólogo) João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal-France-Brazil
[h=3]=26. Raw[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
(Grave) Julia Ducournau, France-Belgium
► Trailer
[h=3]=26. Neruda[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 14 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 10 March 2017
Pablo Larraín, France/Spain/Argentina/Chile
► Trailer
Andrea Arnold’s American Honey and Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake also show the breadth and depth of British cinema – but this is surely the first year that a German comedy is the runaway winner…
Sight & Sound contributors
2 December 2016
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[h=3]1. Toni Erdmann[/h]49 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 February 2017
Maren Ade, Germany-Austria
► Trailer
Maren Ade’s winning daughter-father comedy Toni Erdmann contains some of the sharpest moments of audience blindsiding I’ve ever encountered.
— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes
— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes
Apart from being a comedy and a very human delight, Maren Ade’s film is also an intensely angry political statement about the way that capitalism disempowers, dehumanises and alienates.
— Jonathan Romney, reviewing from Cannes
☞ Read Jonathan Romney’s full Cannes review— Jonathan Romney, reviewing from Cannes
☞ Read 10 Screenwriting Tips from Maren Ade

[h=3]2. Moonlight[/h]34 votes
UK festival release 6 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 24 February 2016
Barry Jenkins, USA
► Trailer
A film about the complexity of black masculinity and the very human hunger for connection. It is about the fragility that lies beneath a man’s swagger. Thrilling and sensuous.
— Simran Hans, reviewing from Toronto
☞ Read the full festival review— Simran Hans, reviewing from Toronto
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Moonlight in our London Film Festival podcast

[h=3]3. Elle[/h]33 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 10 March 2017
Paul Verhoeven, France-Germany
► Trailer
Trust Verhoeven to venture where most wouldn’t dare: a psychological rape-revenge fantasy thriller with jump-out-of-your-skin attack moments orchestated to a pounding score, and laced with comedy throughout. What should be problematic is here more complicated and intelligent than it first appears: rape is never a joke and Isabelle Huppert’s Michèle LeBlanc never a victim.
— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes in our July 2016 issue
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Cannes review— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes in our July 2016 issue
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Elle in our London Film Festival podcast

[h=3]4. Certain Women[/h]25 votes
UK festival release 9 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 March 2017
Kelly Reichardt, USA
► Trailer
Kelly Reichardt articulates a familiar experience: the suspicion, bafflement or plain disregard met by women who don’t conform to typical notions of femininity, as held by certain men.
— Sophie Brown
☞ Read Catherine Wheatley’s first-look review— Sophie Brown
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Certain Women in our London Film Festival podcast

[h=3]5. American Honey[/h]20 votes
UK cinema release 14 October 2016
Andrea Arnold, USA-UK
► Trailer
As much spectacle as a Hollywood musical. Within a collage of soaring music, soft light and writhing bodies, this brilliant film draws the outline of a bleak economic landscape.
— Pamela Hutchinson
☞ Read the full review— Pamela Hutchinson
☞ Read Alyssa Simon’s first-look Cannes review

[h=3]6. I, Daniel Blake[/h]17 votes
UK cinema release 21 October 2016
Ken Loach, United Kingdom-France-Belgium
► Trailer
Ken Loach’s film is perhaps the most important film of the year in relation to the situation in a post-Brexit Britain. The fact that it has connected so powerfully with audiences is a tonic for the soul.
— Jason Wood
☞ Read Pamela Hutchinson’s review— Jason Wood
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Cannes review

[h=3]7. Manchester by the Sea[/h]16 votes
UK festival release 8 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 13 January 2017
Kenneth Longeran, USA
► Trailer
A blue collar high tragedy with wrenching performances that weigh the balance so carefully between the push and pull of guilt and responsibility that the film is emotionally exhausting.
— Nick James
☞ Read Simran Hans’s first-look review— Nick James

[h=3]8. Things to Come (L’Avenir)[/h]15 votes
UK cinema release 2 September 2016
Mia Hansen-Løve, France-Germany
► Trailer
Wry, humane and thoughtful… the film treats its destabilising cluster of crises with extraordinary restraint. It presents the hard, complex business of surviving life in a disarmingly simple way.
— Kate Stables
☞ Read the full review— Kate Stables
☞ Read Harriet Warman’s first-look Berlin review

[h=3]9. Paterson[/h]14 votes
UK cinema release 25 November 2016
Jim Jarmusch, USA/Germany/France
► Trailer
A quietly utopian film, and a balm to watch. Its minimal narrative and attractively downbeat setting hark back to the Jim Jarmusch of the 80s and 90s.
— Henry K. Miller
☞ Read the full review— Henry K. Miller
☞ Read Nick James’s tribute poem

[h=3]10. The Death of Louis XIV[/h]13 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Albert Serra, France-Portugal-Spain
► Trailer
Albert Serra has made a film somewhat in the contained, stately, solemn manner of Straub-Huillet. Extremely beautiful and even moving, in a rigorously detached way.
— Jonathan Romney, reviewing from Cannes
☞ Read the full festival review— Jonathan Romney, reviewing from Cannes
[h=3]=11. Personal Shopper[/h]12 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 3 March 2017
Olivier Assayas, France
► Trailer
Kristen Stewart is an enigmatic, warily frayed-yet-unafraid presence, almost as if she’d be happy to step over to the ‛other side’ at any moment. She is unquestionably the actress of the moment.
— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes
☞ Read Nick James’s first-look Cannes review— Nick James, reviewing from Cannes
[h=3]=11. Sieranevada[/h]12 votes
UK festival release 6 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Cristi Puiu, Romania-France
► Trailer
A film analysing what it means to grow up believing in living-room myths and legends, and the discomfiting mix of terror, disappointment and guilt at realising that being an adult means propagating them at the risk of losing face.
— Adam Nayman
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Cannes review— Adam Nayman
[h=3]=13. Fire at Sea[/h]11 votes
UK cinema release 10 June 2016
Gianfranco Rosi, Italy-France
► Trailer
Moral courage and filmic artistry exist side by side in this essential offering from a director gradually earning the right to be thought of as one of the greats of our era.
— Trevor Johnston
Rosi accounts for the tales of migrants by choosing an unconventional point of view, which acts as a tremendous call for action.
— Nico Marzano
☞ Read Trevor Johnston’s review— Nico Marzano
☞ Read Geoff Andrew’s first-look Berlin review
[h=3]=13. Julieta[/h]11 votes
UK cinema release 12 August 2016
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
► Trailer
This tantalisingly open-ended film is Almodóvar’s most sombre to date: it is to his last feature, 2013’s airline farce I’m So Excited!, as Interiors (1978) was to Woody Allen’s Bananas (1971).
— Jonathan Romney, from our September 2016 issue
☞ Read Jonathan Romney’s review— Jonathan Romney, from our September 2016 issue
☞ Read Sophie Monks Kaufman’s first-look Cannes review
[h=3]=13. Nocturama[/h]11 votes
UK festival release 15 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
Bertrand Bonello, France-Germany-Belgium
► Trailer
The movie that completely defies binary categorisations of good and bad, the one I have absolutely no idea of whether I loved or loathed, but have pretty much thought about it every day since seeing it.
— David Jenkins
☞ Listen to Erika Balsom, Henry K. Miller and Catherine Wheatley discuss Elle in our London Film Festival podcast
[h=3]=16. Cameraperson[/h]10 votes
UK festival release 10 June 2016 (Sheffield Doc/Fest)
UK cinema release 27 January 2017
Kirstsen Johnson, USA
► Trailer
Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson concerns itself with the often idealistic, always knotty human desire to connect through documentary images. She goes through a catalogue of unused material from her long career as a cinematographer to make a kind of self-portrait through scraps, a diary by way of other filmmakers’ unwanted bits… Profound empathy is manufactured by witnessing Johnson trying to find her shots and trying to decide when not to shoot. Scenes of pain and sadness are exhilaratingly edited next to scenes of exuberance.
— Robert Greene
☞ Read Greene’s Unfiction column post on Cameraperson, documentary access and the myth of authenticity— Robert Greene
Johnson unifies ostensibly unrelated vignettes through a shared sense of empathy and an ethically inquisitive approach to the vagaries of cinematic mediation.
— Jordan Cronk
☞ Read Jordan Cronk’s True/False festival review— Jordan Cronk
If I had to shoot one movie into space to sum up this crazy, chaotic, hurting world in 2016 it would be this one.
— Tom Charity
— Tom Charity
[h=3]=16. La La Land[/h]10 votes
UK festival release 7 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 13 January 2017
Damien Chazelle, USA
► Trailer
Accomplished in every aspect, it’s both a homage to and a rewriting of Hollywood’s classic musicals … Only the harshest cynics will resist this film’s bittersweet charm.
— Fernanda Solozarno
☞ Read Tom Charity’s first-look Toronto review— Fernanda Solozarno
[h=3]18. Love & Friendship[/h]9 votes
UK cinema release 27 May 2016
Whit Stillman, Ireland/France/The Netherlands/USA/United Kingdom
► Trailer
Whit Stillman’s venture into Jane Austen territory for Love & Friendship was a welcome tickle of the costume movie’s well-corseted ribs.
— Sam Wigley
☞ Read Thirza Wakefield’s review— Sam Wigley
[h=3]=19. Aquarius[/h]8 votes
UK festival release 14 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 24 March 2017
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil-France
► Trailer
An intricate, laser-like vision of where Brazil is today, in its latest, neoconservative re-incarnation.
— Ela Bittencourt
The magnificent Sonia Braga, steadfast in the face of political corruption and greed, may be the defiant heroine to inspire at the moment.
— Lizzie Francke
☞ Read Jordan Cronk’s first-look Cannes review— Ela Bittencourt
The magnificent Sonia Braga, steadfast in the face of political corruption and greed, may be the defiant heroine to inspire at the moment.
— Lizzie Francke
[h=3]=19. Victoria[/h]8 votes
UK cinema release 1 April 2016
Sebastian Schipper, Germany
► Trailer
Victoria is literally an incredible achievement. How they pulled it off remains a delirious mystery
— Gareth Evans
Schipper and his cast have managed to turn a gimmick into a surprisingly subtle portrait of a millennial generation overwhelmed by its own unstoppable momentum.
— Lisa Mullen
☞ Read Lisa Mullen’s review— Gareth Evans
Schipper and his cast have managed to turn a gimmick into a surprisingly subtle portrait of a millennial generation overwhelmed by its own unstoppable momentum.
— Lisa Mullen
[h=3]=21. Embrace of the Serpent[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 10 June 2016
Ciro Guerra, Argentina-Colombia-Netherlands-Venezuela
► Trailer
Embrace of the Serpent felt like a rethinking of so much adventure cinema from the last half century.
— Nick James
☞ Read Demetrios Matheou’s review— Nick James
[h=3]=21. Everybody Wants Some!![/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 13 May 2016
Richard Linklater, USA
► Trailer
Overlapping conversation, ready laughs and impressively naturalistic performances from a cast free of A-listers give Everybody Wants Some!! the easy charm of Linklater’s best work.
— Pamela Hutchinson
☞ Read the full review— Pamela Hutchinson
[h=3]=21. Evolution[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 6 May 2016
Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France/Spain/Belgium 2015
► Trailer
For Hadzihalilovic, the sense of control is essential to the creation of a complete, self-enclosed world, and to a visual aesthetic with its own stilled, enigmatic quality.
— Richard Combs
☞ Read the full review— Richard Combs
[h=3]=21. Hell or High Water[/h]7 votes
UK cinema release 9 September 2016
David Mackenzie, USA
► Trailer
From Wild West to current malaise, there’s a strong sense of Texan cultural history making its imprint on this crime thriller… it’s ultimately a thorough investment in the whys and wherefores of place that makes this particular offering so satisfying and distinctive.
— Trevor Johnston
☞ Read the full review— Trevor Johnston
[h=3]=21. O.J.: Made in America[/h]7 votes
Five-part ESPN TV documentary, also screened at some US film festivals. UK release undated
Ezra Edelman, USA
ESPN’s ambitious five-part study of 1995’s ‛trial of the century’ ran to nearly eight hours, covering the courtroom drama, the fallen hero in the dock and the fallout from the shock verdict. In the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it “a tightly packed, almost indecently entertaining piece of pop realism, a Dreiser novel infused with the spirit of Tom Wolfe,” saying it had “the grandeur and authority of the best long-form nonfiction”.
[h=3]=26. Lemonade[/h]6 votes
Online release 23 April 2016
Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso, USA
► Trailer
Does Lemonade deserve to be on this list? I’m not sure, but I can’t deny its energising rush, its lightning effect on the culture, its blur of the lines between cinema, music video and album, and how explosively it digested the influence of black cultural history.
— Ian Mantgani
— Ian Mantgani
[h=3]=26. Nocturnal Animals[/h]6 votes
UK cinema release 4 November 2016
Tom Ford, USA
► Trailer
Ford is very effective at capturing the way reading triggers memories, the way it requires the reader to fill in a story’s gaps with their own imagination and the way getting lost in a book creates a kind of vortex in time.
— Simran Hans, reviewing from Toronto
☞ Read Adam Nayman’s review— Simran Hans, reviewing from Toronto
☞ Read Simran Hans’ first-look review from Toronto
[h=3]=26. The Ornithologist[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
(O Ornitólogo) João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal-France-Brazil
A fevered reverie, beginning as a National Geographic showreel and morphing with rugged elegance into a fable of erotic transcendence.
— Kong Rithdee
— Kong Rithdee
[h=3]=26. Raw[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 10 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release undated
(Grave) Julia Ducournau, France-Belgium
► Trailer
“Examines the dynamics of sisterhood and pressures of female identity, with violent helpings of humour and horror … an energetic tale of cannibalistic desire.”
— Sophie Brown
☞ Read Chloe Roddick’s Cannes review— Sophie Brown
[h=3]=26. Neruda[/h]6 votes
UK festival release 14 October 2016 (London Film Festival)
UK cinema release 10 March 2017
Pablo Larraín, France/Spain/Argentina/Chile
► Trailer
Pablo Larraín’s utterly brilliant Neruda needs to be watched more than once. Like a juggler, Larraín keeps in the air all the paradoxes and contradictions of the legend, the folktale, the myth and the man to (de)construct, in his own words, a Nerudian antibiopic of the Chilean diplomat, poet and Nobel prizewinner as working-class symbol, but also as a narcissist and a brothel habitué who is yet utterly in love with his wife.
— Mar Diestro-Dópido, reviewing from the London Film Festival
— Mar Diestro-Dópido, reviewing from the London Film Festival