Aaron Cutler
Freelance
Additional Comments: I’ve been criticized in the past for making year-end lists that contain films that readers have not heard of, let alone seen. My intention is not to be obscurantist or elitist, but rather to be honest with myself about which qualifying films I’ve seen and can remember, and then, from among those, which qualities of each I’ve liked. This ballot is intended as a personal record – although I do hope, admittedly, for all the films that I’ve listed here to be discovered by other viewers. Gratitude goes out to everyone involved with making and circulating these films. Best wishes to you as you continue your work.
FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll
1. The Thoughts That Once We Had
2. Til Madness Do Us Part
3. The Terrorizers
4. No Home Movie
5. Francofonia
6. Lost and Beautiful
7. Homeland: Iraq Year Zero
8. Sunset Song
9. Notfilm
10. Embrace of the Serpent
1. Deborah Stratman, The Illinois Parables
2. Corneliu Porumboiu, The Treasure
3. Pema Tseden, Tharlo
4. Eiichi Yamamoto, Belladonna of Sadness
5. Andrzej Żuławski, On the Silver Globe
1. Salomé Richard, Baden Baden
2. Margherita Beuy, Mia Madre
3. María Mercedes Coroy, Ixcanul
4. Jenjira Pongpas Widner, Cemetery of Splendor
5. Kim Min-hee, Right Now, Wrong Then
1. Shide Nyima, Tharlo
2. Toma Cuzin, The Treasure
3. Juliano Cazarré, Neon Bull
4. Jonathan Genet, Cosmos
5. Álvaro Ogalla, The Apostate
1. Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
2. Samya de Lavor, Neon Bull
3. Yangshik Tso, Tharlo
4. Michelle Williams, Certain Women
5. Sabine Azéma, Cosmos
1. Glen Powell, Everybody Wants Some!!
2. Jean-François Balmer, Cosmos
3. Adrian Purcarescu, The Treasure
4. John Turturro, Mia Madre
5. Banlop Lomnoi, Cemetery of Splendor
1. The Illinois Parables
2. Portrait of a Garden
3. Mekong Hotel
4. Don’t Blink – Robert Frank
5. Down There (aka Là-bas)
6. Fire at Sea
7. Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang
8. Eat That Question
9. Plastic Jesus
10. Homo Sapiens
1. Longo Caminho da Morte
2. Marseille Après La Guerre
3. The End of the Day and the Beginning of the World
4. A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery
5. Beduino
6. Na Missão, com Kadu
7. Take Me Home
8. INAATE/SE
9. The Peacock
10. Las Letras
1. Portrait of a Garden
2. Kaili Blues
3. Ixcanul
4. Baden Baden
5. Short Stay
1. The Treasure
2. Tharlo
3. Right Now, Wrong Then
4. The Apostate
5. Everybody Wants Some!!
Best Original Score/Soundtrack
1. Only Yesterday
2. Belladonna of Sadness
3. Certain Women
4. Cosmos
5. Portrait of a Garden
1. Kaili Blues
2. The Illinois Parables
3. Mekong Hotel
4. Portrait of a Garden
5. Tharlo
1. The Illinois Parables
2. The Treasure
3. Everybody Wants Some!!
4. Cosmos
5. Cemetery of Splendor
1. The Four Seasons (dir. Jorge Honik)
2. The Streetscapes Saga (dir. Heinz Emigholz)
3. A Moça do Calendário (dir. Helena Ignez)
4. Communion Los Angeles (dir. Peter Bo Rappmund and Adam R. Levine)
5. Shulan River (dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien)
FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll
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