Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, and Paul Verhoeven’s Elle took the top spots among films released in 2016 in Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey. Of the films that screened at festivals worldwide but have not announced stateside distribution, Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada, Matías Piñeiro’s Hermia and Helena, and Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama received the top rankings.

Following the September 2016 launch of the new Film Comment, the annual poll has also refocused: poll participants are all Film Comment contributors in order to better reflect the magazine’s voice. This year’s voters included Margaret Barton-Fumo (FC columnist), Andrew Chan (The Criterion Collection), Ashley Clark (The Guardian), Nick Davis (FC contributing editor; Northwestern University), Nicholas Elliott (Cahiers du Cinéma, BOMB), David Fear (Rolling Stone), Graham Fuller (The Culture Trip), Molly Haskell, J. Hoberman (The New York Times), Eric Hynes (FC columnist and Museum of the Moving Image associate curator), Kristin M. Jones (The Wall Street Journal), Aliza Ma (Metrograph), Adam Nayman (Cinema Scope),  Amy Nicholson (MTV News), Jonathan Romney (FC contributing editor), Jonathan Rosenbaum, Farran Smith Nehme (FC columnist; New York Post), Amy Taubin (FC Contributing Editor and NYFF Selection Committee member), Manu Yáñez (Otros Cines Europa), and Genevieve Yue (Reverse Shot; The New School).

“Our all-star contributors have voted for an outstanding roster of titles that demonstrate a daunting range of cinematic accomplishment,” said Editor Nicolas Rapold. “These formally ambitious films also tend to pack an emotional wallop, whether it’s top work by established directors or accomplished debuts. The balloting yields up an impressive selection of the best in cinema circa 2016, which has been reflected in the magazine’s critical coverage throughout the past year.”

Additionally, this week’s Film Comment podcast features a lively discussion of the poll results with Rapold, Digital Editor Violet Lucca, and Film Society Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy, Michael Koresky.

Film Comment’s Top 10 Films Released in 2016:

  1. Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany
  2. Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, USA
  3. Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France/Germany
  4. Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/UK/France/Germany/Malaysia
  5. Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt, USA
  6. Paterson, Jim Jarmusch, USA
  7. Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan, USA
  8. Aquarius, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/France
  9. Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany
  10. No Home Movie, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France

See the full list on the Film Comment website.

Film Comment’s survey also ranks films that have screened and made notable appearances at festivals throughout the year, but remain without U.S. distribution at press time.

Film Comment’s Top 10 Unreleased Films of 2016:

  1. Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu, Romania
  2. Hermia and Helena, Matías Piñeiro, USA/Argentina
  3. Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello, France/Belgium/Germany
  4. The Dreamed Path, Angela Schanelec, Germany
  5. Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
  6. Kékszakállú, Gastón Solnicki, Argentina
  7. By the Time It Gets Dark, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand/Netherlands/France/Qatar
  8. Scarred Hearts, Radu Jude, Romania/Germany
  9. The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, Philippines
  10. Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa, Germany

See the full list on the Film Comment website.

The complete list of films and participants can also be found on the Film Comment app and in the January/February issue, which hits newsstands the second week of January.