2016 IndieWire Critics Poll: Robert Koehler

Robert Koehler

Cinema Scope/Cineaste/Sight & Sound/DGA Quarterly

Additional Comments: 2016 was the year of the overrated movie. Perhaps in desperation and having to watch so many bad releases each week, daily newspaper movie critics in America increasingly labelled half-baked efforts as fully-baked gems. It’s a disturbing trend. 2016 also confirmed once and for all that the Sundance Film Festival is the world’s worst platform for movie critics to declare masterpieces. “The Birth of a Nation” was announced as the future of American cinema in January; by November, it was correctly forgotten. This phenomenon is less about Nate Parker than it is about critics losing their bearings.

FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll

Best Film

1. Paterson
2. The Treasure
3. Chevalier
4. Toni Erdman
5. Right Now, Wrong Then
6. Aquarius
7. The Academy of Muses
8. Moonlight
9. The Illinois Parables
10. Dead Slow Ahead

Best Director

1. Jim Jarmusch, Paterson
2. Corneliu Porumboiu, The Treasure
3. Athina Rachel Tsangari, Chevalier
4. Maren Ade, Toni Erdman
5. Hong Sang-soo, Right Now, Wrong Then

Best Actress

1. Isabelle Huppert, Things to Come
2. Amy Adams, Arrival
3. Sonia Braga, Aquarius
4. Ruth Negga, Loving
5. Annette Bening, 20th Century Women

Best Actor

1. Adam Driver, Paterson
2. Denzel Washington, Fences
3. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
4. Peter Simonischek, Toni Erdmann
5. Jae-yeong Jeong, Right Now, Wrong Then

Best Supporting Actress

1. Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
2. Naomie Harris, Moonlight
3. Michelle Williams, Certain Women
4. Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
5. Kate Dickie, The Witch

Best Supporting Actor

1. Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
2. Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
3. Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
4. Tracy Letts, Indignation
5. Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

Best Documentary

1. OJ: Made in America
2. Dead Slow Ahead
3. 13th
4. I Am Not Your Negro
5. Cameraperson
6. No Home Movie
7. The Thoughts That We Once Had
8. Tower
9. Eat That Question
10. Don’t Blink – Robert Frank

Best Undistributed Film

1. All the Cities of the North
2. Kékszakállú
3. Nocturama
4. Rat Film
5. Sieranevada
6. Still Life
7. Tempestad
8. Yourself and Yours
9. The Human Surge
10. Hermia & Helena

Best First Feature

1. All the Cities of the North
2. The Childhood of a Leader
3. The Witch
4. Kaili Blues
5. Old Stone

Best Screenplay

1. Paterson
2. Chevalier
3. The Treasure
4. Toni Erdmann
5. Manchester by the Sea

Best Original Score/Soundtrack

1. The Childhood of a Leader
2. Jackie
3. The Fits
4. The Witch
5. The Red Turtle

Best Cinematography

1. The Witch
2. Childhood of a Leader
3. Moonlight
4. Aquarius
5. Cemetery of Splendour

Best Editing

1. Eye In the Sky
2. OJ: Made in America
3. Sully
4. Jason Bourne
5. 13th

FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll

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