2017 London Film Festival (LFF), Oct 4-15
50 titles |
Public
Sept 3-at it again. More later as sites start to do their recs..Sept 5-no one seems to be doing much so far, except Time Out London, which has done their list of 30 recs that I'll use as a start. Meanwhile, I took a look at the official BFI (British Film Institute) site. The Festival has 242 film selections. Twelve of these are entered for The Official Competition (Best Film, of the twelve). They are (Name, director): 120 BPS (Beats Per Minute), Robin Campillo; Angels Wear White, Vivian Qu; Beyond the Clouds, Majid Majidi; The Breadwinner, Nora Twomey; Good Manners, Juliana Rojas & Marco Dutra; The Guardians, Xavier Beavois; Lean on Pete, Andrew Haigh; Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev; The Lovers, Azazel Jacobs; Sweet Country, Warwick Thornton, Thoroughbred, Cory Finley; Wajib, Annemarie Jacir...Sept 6. The list of 30 from Time Out London seems to be selected/recommended based on Total Entries then on genre with the amount of selections limited. Thus, some that would qualify for another list from total (242) films are somewhat limited by Time Out's inclusion of genre selections. That's all part speculation on my part and may be hogwash. Meanwhile, this morning I found 21 recs from Culture Trip and they seem unaffected by genre. Culture Trip added 11 movies (31-41) and repeated 10 films (1,2,3,4,7,9,10,11,20,22) already on this list...Sep 24. I've found a few other recommendations from published sources. Among them are The Evening Standard. Most of the selections from The Standard are repeats of movies already listed, but there are five additions and possibly a sixth if I can determine which "Casting" addition is the one from multiples on multiples of selections. Repeats: 1,2,3,4,5,6,9,11,12,15,21,22,23,32. Additions: 42-46 and "Casting". In addition, the six Vice (that's the name of the online site) recs were all repeats: 4,16,20,32,40,42. And from TopShop 10 recs: 7 repeats: 1,5,11,17,32,38,44. 3 adds: 47-49... Dec 2, 2017: The Official Competition (Best Film Award of the 12 submitted for competition) went to Loveless a France/Russian submission. For the second year in a row, this film wasn't recommended by any the "authorities" used to list movies here. I've added Loveless to this list at #50.
Best Films of 2017
63 titles |
Public
The first list from The National Board of Review has 37 named films and become the first 37 fliks on this list. (Other lists are a lot shorter.) 1-11 are wide release, big budget films. 12-21 are Independent films. 22-27 are foreign language fliks. 28-33 are documentaries. 34-37 received NBR awards as noted, but were not otherwise listed. The Post is listed first because it was voted #1 as best film by NBR. Otherwise the first 37 films are listed alphabetically by their sub-genres. Other fliks were added as they appeared on a list of "Best" or nominated films. Some films had debuts at Film Festivals in 2016, but didn't have a wide release until 2017. Those fliks are considered 2017 movies. ABBREVIATIONS (alphabetically): (abbreviation, long name, number on list of movies) AFI-American Film Institute (10); BAFTA-British Academy of Film and Television Arts (5); BOFCA-Boston Online Film Critics Assn (10); BSFC-Boston Society of Film Critics (2); CC-Critic's Choice (10); CFCA-Chicago Film Critics Assn (5); DC-Washington DC Film Critics (5); DE-David Edelstein (10); DGA-Director's Guild of America (5); ES-RogerEbert.com Staff (10); EW-Entertainment Weekly; LAFCA-Los Angeles Film Critics Assn (2); LCC-London (Film) Critic's Circle (10); NBR-National Board of Review (37); NSFC-National Society of Film Critics (3); NYFCO-New York Film Critics Online, a tie for 1st, (10); NYFCC-New York Film Critics Circle (1); NYTD-New York Times, Manohla Dargis (10); NYTS-NY Times, A O Scott (10); OFCS-Online Film Critics Society (10); OS-Oscars (9); PGA-Producers Guild of America (11);RS-Rolling Stone (Peter Travers) (10); SAG-Screen Actors Guild (cast/ensemble award-regarded as a Best Picture nod by many) (5); VV-Village Voice (10)...Heading into the Oscars there are four films listed by Metacritic with a chance at the 2017 Best Picture (by Metacritic) designation (and score from Metacritic based on 3 (for 1st), 2 (for 2nd place, rare but given now and then) and 1 for a nomination points scale): Get Out (62), Lady Bird (58), The Shape of Water (53), Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri (50). The final tally by Metacritic will be listed here after the Oscars...The final Metacritic tally: 1. Get Out (64), 2. Lady Bird (58), 3. The Shape of Water (55), 4. Three Billboards (50), 5. The Florida Project (36), 6. Dunkirk (35), 7. Call Me By Your Name (33), 8. The Post (22), 9. The Phantom Thread (12), 10. The Big Sick (11), and (Tie) 11. I, Tonya (8) & 11. Mudbound (8). Metacritic kept a separate tally of film critics. Get Out was atop that ranking, too. The Shape of Water was 6th. Finally, The Razzie for Worst Picture of the Year (2017) went to The Emoji Movie. Oh! Shame! And The Razzie Special Award (aka the So Bad, It's Good! Award) goes to Baywatch.
2016 London Film Festival (LFF), Oct 5-16
49 titles |
Public
SEP 1: Here are some films of note scheduled for the London Film Festival, Oct 5-16, 2016 (60th edition). I usually use Time Out-London's preview, but their format recently underwent a makeover, and they may not have any preview of film showings. Meanwhile, I'll just use other internet sources for any listings here. The LFF is quite extensive. In 2016 193 fictional and 52 documentaries are scheduled. So my review will be somewhat short, but will highlight the best of what's being shown. BTW, there are 12 films entered in The Official Competition (Best Picture) category. They are (Director, TITLE): Martin Koolhoven, BRIMSTONE; Kelly Reichardt, CERTAIN WOMEN; Mohamed Diab, CLASH; Paul Verhoeven, ELLE; Francois Ozon, FRANZ; Ivan Sen, GOLDSTONE; Miijke de Jong, LAYLA M.; Barry Jenkins, MOONLIGHT; Pablo Larrine, NERUDA; Terence Davies, A QUIET PASSION; Benedict Andrews, UNA; Makoto Shinkai, YOUR NAME. There are also competitions for First Film, Documentary, and Short Film. To start off the list here are 9 pics that excited Metro.co.uk on Sep 1...... SEP 2: I had given up hope about Time Out-London, but lo and behold, TO published their list of 30 films you gotta see on Sep 2. That list includes #'s 1, 5, 6 & 7 from Metro and 26 others. (Still no mention of The Handmaiden, a Korean flik, though). So #'s 10-35 are from TO-London......Sep 3. I found a few lists of "gotta see" movies at the LFF. Mostly those lists rename fliks already mentioned, but each one is just a little bit different and add something to this list. At some point I'll stop adding fliks to this list, otherwise it will just be a relisting of the entire roster of films at the LFF. The Handmaiden (the Korean pic) finally gets a mention from Methods Unsound. CultureTrip.com added #36, and renamed 9 others, #'s 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 13, 18, 20, & 34. MethodsUnsound.com added 7, #'s 37-43, and renamed 9, #'s 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 18, 20, 21, & 33......Sep 11. The Evening Standard named 20 movies to their list of "must sees." They repeated 15 movies: #'s 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, & 33. They had 5 additions: #'s 44-48......Oct 27. One of the Best Pic nominees gets a lot of love, MOONLIGHT. I've added it at #49. Nary a recommendation from the sources used here. BTW, Certain Women was The Official Competition (Best Pic) winner.
2018 London Film Festival (LFF), Oct 10-21
56 titles |
Public
Started Sept 7. No recs nor much written about the festival yet...Sept 9. Nothing yet as far as recs go, so I'll start off with The Official Competition (Best Picture). There's 10 this year, down from 12 in 2017. By listing the films in the Competition as also in the body of the of recommendations, I won't miss the picture in the recs. In 2016 and 2017 the recommendations omitted The Official Competition winner. So, here's the list of The Official Competition entries in alphabetical order with NAME, director, country. BIRDS OF PARADISE, Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra. Columbia; DESTROYER, Karyn Kusama, USA; HAPPY AS LAZZARO, Alice Rohrwacher, Italy; HAPPY NEW YEAR, COLIN BURSTEAD, Ben Wheatley, UK; IN FABRIC, Peter Strickland, UK; JOY, Sudebeh Mortezai, Austria; THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN, David Lowery, USA; SHADOW, Zhang Yimou, China; SUNSET, Lazlo Nemes, Hungary-France; TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG, Dominga Sotomayor, (get this pedigree) Chile-Brazil-Argentina-Netherlands-Qatar; IMDb doesn't yet list Birds of Paradise, Destroyer or Joy in its database, so they've been passed over for now...Oct 11. Finally got my computer problems taken care of! So, I've also entered TimeOut London's recommendations...Oct 12. Meanwhile, The Telegraph duplicated all of TimeOut London recs, Culturewhisper.com added 7 titles (26-32), TheGuardian added 2 (33-34), TheStandard added 5 (35-39), and Vickster51corner added 15 (40-54)...Oct 22, Joy was The Official Competition winner...Joy and Birds of Paradise are still missing from the IMDb database, so they can't be added, yet. Destroyer was added and now will temporarily appear as #1 on this list...Jan 4, 2019. Joy & Birds of Paradise are still not in the IMDb database, so neither one can be added, yet...Jan 19, 2019. Birds of Paradise is actually called Birds of Passage. It's been added at #56. I found Joy in the IMDb database, but it's not available to be listed as part of this list, probably because it hasn't had a US release yet. We'll see...
Best Films of 2019
55 titles |
Public
I am at it again. My lists come with a big assist from jakeem from the TCM General Discussion board. He keeps me up to date on who has been nominated/awarded what. First off is The National Board of Review. They have the largest list of any and comprise the first 37 films on this list. They are listed alphabetically by subgenre. Thus, The Irishman is listed first because it was Best Picture followed by the other 10 nominees in the Best Picture category. This is followed by Best Foreign Film (1 winner and 5 nominees, 12-17,) Best Documentary (1 winner and 5 nominees, 18-23,) and then 10 independent films (no winner.) The last four (34-37) are speclalty awards. Additionally, I have used the following as abbreviations when listing awards (alphabetically by abbreviation): BAFTA-British Academy of Film & Television Arts; BOFCA-Boston Online Film Critics Assn; CFCA-Chicago Film Critics Assn; CC-Critics Choice; DC Washington DC Area Film Critics Assn; DE-David Edelstine; DGA-Directors Guild of America; ES-RogerEbert.com staff; GG-Golden Globe (divided into two categories, A-drama and B-comedy or musical); HCA-Hollywood Critics Assn (formerly LA Online Film Critics Society);LAFCA-Los Angeles Film Critics Assn; LFCC-London Film Critics Circle; NBR-National Board of Review; NSFC-National Society of Film Critics (Three only); NYFCO-New York Film Critics Online; NYTMD-New York Times Manohla Dargis; NYTAOS-New York Times A O Scott; OFCS-Online Film Critics Society; OS-Oscar; PGA-Producers Guild of America; RS-Rolling Stone (Peter Travers); RR-Richard Roeper; S&S-Site & Sound Magazine; SAG-Screen Actors Guild (Best Ensemble Award is generally considered Best Picture);Ti-Time Magazine......1.4.20. Back again......1.5.20. Still trying to catch up...2.8.20. Well, I finally got caught up after the Super Bowl. Let me know if I missed anything. All that's left is the Razzie Awards, and the Big One, the Oscars...
Best Films of 2016
85 titles |
Public
Well, here we go again with a composite listing of Best Picture awards and Top Ten (or whatever) lists of pictures and nominees. To start off, The National Board of Review selected a Best Picture (Manchester by the Sea, that's why it's listed at #1) and ten more. The group also named pictures in a number of other categories (foreign, independent, documentary, etc.) for a grand total of 31 pictures. Those 31 form the beginning of this list. More will be added later as nominations/winners are announced. Thus, except for "Manchester", position on the list is the result of when it was added and no other meaning is to be inferred. (Metacritic listed a Top 10 of award winners from 57 critic's organizations. After the Oscars they were (and score): 1-Moonlight (95), 2-La La Land (86), 3-Manchester by the Sea (56), 4-Hell or High Water (37), 5-Arrival (27), 6-a tie between Hacksaw Ridge (13) and Jackie (13), 8-a tie between Loving (8), and Nocturnal Animals (8), and 10-Fences (7). btw, Moonlight was the winner of the tabulation of individual critics, too.) (As of late February, prior to the Oscars, it was too close to call between Moonlight with 96 points and La La Land with 91. So I waited till the Oscars and the bitter end of awards season for the Metacritic tally.) Last year there were 80 films listed, and this year it's 85. (Oh, the new Star Wars movie hasn't been shown to anyone as of Dec 10, so it has yet to make a list. Note Feb 5, 2017: it still hasn't made anyone's best pic list, so it's not listed here.) Some awards are limited and make eligibility for their best pic list shorter. Budget and country of origin are two reasons along with other criteria. Thus, independent films with low budgets are one type and have an award (which is included here), while AFI has only American films on its list since it's AMERICAN Film Institute......abbreviations (the abbreviation-what the abbreviation stands for (the number of films in its best pic list): NBR-National Board of Review (11 for best pic, 31 overall), CC-Critics Choice (10), NYFCC-New York Film Critics Circle (1), DC-Washington DC Film Critics Association (10), LA-Los Angeles Film Critics (2), AFI-AMERICAN Film Institute (10), NYTMD-New York Times Manohla Dargis (11), NYTAOS-New York Times A. O. Scott (10), NYTSH-New York Times Stephen Holden (9) (the three Times' critics actually #'d their selections this year), BOFC-Boston On-Line Film Critics (10), NYOFC-New York Online Film Critics (12), BSFC-Boston Society of Film Critics (1), GG-Golden Globe (5 & 5) (5 nominations each for two groups of films: drama & comedy/musical), SAG-Screen Actors Guild (5), CFC-Chicago Film Critics Assn (5), RS-Rolling Stone (Peter Travers) (20), EW-Entertainment Weekly (20), ES-Ebert.com Staff (10), VV-Village Voice (top 10, all vote getters listed, top 10 here), DE-David Edelstein (12), RR-Richard Roeper (10), BAFTA-British Academy of Film & Television (5), DGA-Directors Guild of America (5), LCC-London Cirtics Circle (10), OS-Oscars (9), TO-Time Out London (25 with 17 here-8 pics were 2015 eligible & not listed here), PGA-Producer's Guild of America (10), ASC-American Society of Cinematographers (5), WGA-Writers Guild of America (5 & 5-original & adapted screenplay), NSFC-National Society of Film Critics (3). If a group had a position or multiple positions designated, then a number follows the abbreviation to indicate the position on that particular list. And last, the Razzie for Worst Picture of the Year (2016) went to Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.
Best Films of 2018
63 titles |
Public
Here it is again. Most of the major awards are included. Thanks to Jakeem from the TCM boards for keeping me apprised about who was awarded what. First is the National Board of Review. Their 38 films are the largest list of all the awards. Green Book (2018) was their top selection and that's why it's #1 on this list (no other meaning is intended). Films are listed alphabetically by sub-genre. Thus, they have the winner plus ten other pics in the first category, Best Picture, (#1-11) This is followed by Independent Films with 10 (no winner) (#12-21), a Foreign Language Film winner & 5 others (#22-27), and 1 Documentary winner and 5 others (#28-33). Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was Best Ensemble winner (#34). There were two ties for the selections for the Film History Award and the Freedom of Expression Award (#35 & 36 and #37 & 38). Other groups with winners and nominees, if not previously mentioned, are listed beginning with #39. Each film is listed with an abbreviation of the awarding organization. Here's an alphabetical list of the abbreviations used with the ranking, if ranked. Generally the following groups/individuals selected 10 pics. I ignored selections past 10. AFI-American Film Institute, BAFTA-British Academy of Film & Television Arts, BOFCA-Boston Online Film Critics Assn, BSFC-Boston Society of Film Critics (two selections only), CC-Critics Choice, CFCA-Chicago Film Critics Assn, DC-Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, DE-David Edelstein (New York Magazine/The Vulture), DGA-Directors Guild of America, ES-RogerEbert.com staff, GG-Golden Globes (divided into two divisions, A-Drama and B-Comedy or Musical), LAFCA-Los Angeles Film Critcs Assn, LAOFC-Los Angeles Online Film Critics, LCC-London Critics (Film) Circle, NBR-National Board of Review, NSFC-National Society of Film Critics, NYFCC-New York Film Critics Circle (one selection only), NYTCO-New York Film Critics Online, NYTD-New York Times, Manohla Dargis, NYTS-New York Times, A O Scott, OFCS-Online Film Critics Society, OS-Oscars, PGA-Producers Guild of America, RR-Richard Roeper, RS-Rolling Stone (Peter Travers), S&S-Sight & Sound Magazine, SAG-Screen Actor's Guild (Cast Award considered by many to be a Best Picture Award). Entertainment Weekly was dropped from this year's roundup. Their two critics had separate lists instead of one consolidated list. (Each reviewer did pick The Favourite as their Best Movie, with #2 Roma on each list. Otherwise they didn't agree on anything.) Also, The Village Voice went out of business on Labor Day weekend, and no one picked up their method of polling over 100 critics to come up with a list of Best Movies...2/24/19. Well, it's about all over. First, The Razzie, which went to Holmes and Watson, a truly bad film. And last is the Oscar. The Metacritic rundown favors Roma by both the Experts and Users. We'll see...Mar 1. Well, its all over. Not favored by the critics and the public, the Oscar went to GREEN BOOK. (So, the National Board of Review got one right for a change.) So much for a lot of hype! After it was all over, we're left with a lot of controversy. Hosts or no hosts, awards during commercial breaks, all Best Song nominees get a performance! Even the Razzies had some controversy. What's going on here? See you next year!
Best DVDs of 2016
40 titles |
Public
A combination of DVD Savant (20 on his list) and DVD Beaver (10 Blue Ray and 10 Standard DVD).
2019 London Film Festival (LFF), Oct 2-13
40 titles |
Public
First up is entries into The Official Competition. There are 10 this year and they make up the first ten on this list. Next is Time Out-London, which has 20 recs with none of The Official Competition movies duplicated. The Official Competition (Best Picture) fliks are listed alphabeticall (except the winner.) Time Out-London (TOL) recs are listed chronologically and make up the recs 11-30 by their showing at the Festival...Oct 7, I added The Standard's picks. They repeated eight movies, #'s 5, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 21, & 30 and added seven pics, #31-37. Next was The Telegraph which added 3 fliks and repeated 10, #'s 10, 11, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25, 30 & 34. The Telegraph included the Surprise Night feature and an assortment of short films as two of their 15 picks. Their adds were #'s 38-40...Oct 20, Monos was selected as The Official Competition winner and now appears as first on this list. Now that the LFF is over, most films will be released before Jan 1, 2020. However, a few will get their first showing well after the first of the new year.