15. “Loving”
As the current big dogs in poster design, the work of LA shop BOND has been inescapable in 2016 from “Rogue One,” “Passengers” and “Nocturnal Animals” to “Doctor Strange” and the eye-jangling “Suicide Squad” blitz. But proof they can work in all different registers comes in the form of this sublimely classicist, calm composition for Jeff Nichols‘ civil-rights love story: the deceptive simplicity of this layout radiates the same quiet warmth as the film and is similarly anchored by the absolute conviction and perfection of Ruth Negga‘s central performance.
14. “Operation Avalanche”
We weren’t huge fans of this fake documentary about the moon landing being fake, which was a shame because the poster had us quite on board, with its witty, simple, single-minded design that cleverly encapsulates the central tenet of the film. Designer details are unknown, and as a relatively small film that probably didn’t have millions in marketing and an external agency thrown at it, we have to assume it was Lionsgate‘s in-house publicity department who are responsible for it. Oh, and bonus points for hitting on a tagline which would turn out to be 100% applicable to the post-truth year twenty sixteen in general.
13. “Complete Unknown”
Joshua Marston’s identity psychodrama had a very classy marketing campaign, clean and modern-feeling but still hinting at the fractured, multifaceted nature of the Rachel Weisz character. Designed by the excellent InSync Plus, who will feature again on this list, the posters do a good job of evoking the film’s coolly enigmatic mood — the Michael Shannon version is a little less explicable in terms of the film’s plot, but if you think we’re going to pass up the opportunity to post a huge hi-res photo of Shannon, you don’t know us very well.
12. “In a Valley of Violence”
Ti West‘s fun throwback western gets a fun throwback poster with this retro Sergio-Leone-Spaghetti-Western-inspired poster. The less inspired, more mainstream campaign was done by Ignition, so we presume this one was too (if you know otherwise, please let us know) but this graphic execution communicates much better the vibe of West’s scuzzy, brutal, tongue-in-cheek homage to the Westerns of yore.
11. “American Pastoral”
If there is one 2016 film that best signifies the quality gulf that can exist between a movie’s marketing and the movie itself, it’s very possibly Ewan MacGregor‘s sadly ill-conceived Philip Roth adaptation. In addition to a terrific trailer that got everyone’s hopes up, this fab teaser poster suggested a much cleverer, deeper and more textured film than we eventually got. If we were feeling unkind, we might suggest that staring for two hours at this brilliantly simple, disquieting and beautifully executed poster from LA Associates might be a more fulfilling use of your time.