If you’re looking for a year end list that marries the high brow choices of Cahiers Du Cinema with some mainstream fare, then Sight & Sounds top 20 films of 2016 will be a real treat. Their list is arthouse heavy, but isn’t afraid to acknowledge genuinely well-made multiplex fare.
Topping the list is Maren Ade‘s “Toni Erdmann,” a movie that made a huge impact at Cannes, and looks like it’s going to remembered very well in the month ahead as critics and publications make their annual tallies. In terms of Oscar contenders, “La La Land” and “Manchester By The Sea” made the cut, while it was auteurs pretty much everywhere else with Pedro Almodovar (“Julieta“), Jim Jarmusch (“Paterson“), Andrea Arnold (“American Honey“) and Kelly Reichardt (“Certain Women“) among those in the mix. And I’m personally pleased to see that Sight & Sound didn’t forget about Whit Stillman‘s wonderful “Love & Friendship.”
Check out the full 20 below and share your thoughts in the comments section.
1. “Toni Erdmann” directed Maren Ade
2. “Moonlight” directed by Barry Jenkins
3. “Elle” directed by Paul Verhoeven
4. “Certain Women” directed by Kelly Reichardt
5. “American Honey” directed by Andrea Arnold
6. “I, Daniel Blake” directed by Ken Loach
7. “Manchester by the Sea” directed by Kenneth Lonergan
8. “Things to Come” directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
9. “Paterson” directed by Jim Jarmusch
10. “The Death of Louis XIV” directed by Albert Serra
11. “Personal Shopper” directed by Olivier Assayas
=11. “Sieranevada” directed by Cristi Puiu
13. “Fire At Sea” directed by Gianfranco Rosi
=13. “Nocturama” directed by Bertrand Bonello
=13. “Julieta” directed by Pedro Almodóvar
16. “La La Land” directed by Damien Chazelle
=16. “Cameraperson” directed by Kirsten Johnson
18. “Love & Friendship” directed by Whit Stillman
19. “Aquarius” directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
=19. “Victoria” directed by Sebastian Schipper