The Top Films of 2012 According to Some Toronto Cinephiles

David Davidson (Blogger: Toronto Film Review)

1. Tower (Kazik Radwanski)

    Krivina (Igor Drljaca)

    East Hastings Pharmacy (Antoine Bourges)

    Amy George (Yonah Lewis & Calvin Thomas)

    Many a Swan (Blake Williams)

2. Passion (Brian de Palma)

    Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

3. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

    Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
    The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

4. Far From Afghanistan (John Gianvito, Travis Wilkerson, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo)

    Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)

    Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

5. Greatest Hits (Nicolás Pereda)

    Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

6. Lawrence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)

    Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)

    The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (Marie Losier)

7. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
    Promised Land (Gus Van Sant)

    Trouble with the Curve (Robert Lorenz)

8. John Carter (Andrew Stanton)

    Prometheus (Ridley Scott)

9. The Three Stooges (Farrelly Brothers)

    Dark Horse (Todd Solondz)

    From Rome with Love (Woody Allen)

   This Is 40 (Judd Apatow)
10. La Guerre est déclarée (Valérie Donzelli)

11. Savages (Oliver Stone)

12. The We and I (Michel Gondry)
      Girls (Lena Dunhan)
     The Black Balloon (Safdie brothers)

      When You Sleep (Ashley McKenzie)

*****

Arielle Gavin (Tumblr: Dragonaut. Contributed: Honesty Competitions (Part 3))

1. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
2. In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)
3. Greatest Hits (Nicolás Pereda)
4. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
5. Passion (Brian de Palma)
6. From Rome with Love (Woody Allen)
7. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
8. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)
9. Alps (Giorgos Lanthimos)
10. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)
11. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)

*****

Nicholas Little
15 titles in alphabetical order.
- End of Watch (David Ayer)
- The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan)
- Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson)
- Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
- Looper (Rian Johnson)
- Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)
- The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
- Prometheus (Ridley Scott)
- Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
- Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
- Sound Of My Voice (Zal Batmanglij)
- Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

*****

Megan Widawski

My Top Ten films of 2012 in no particular order.

-       Argo (Ben Affleck)

-       Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)

-       Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore)

-       The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

-       ParaNorman (Chris Butler & Sam Fell)

-       Frankenweenie (Tim Burton)

-       The Hobbit (Peter Jackson)

-       Dark Shadows (Tim Burton)

-       Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)

-       Savages (Oliver Stone)

*****

Blake Williams (Film Critic: Ioncinema, R, and G,and B, Cinema Scope. Filmmaker: Many a Swan)

1. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

2. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)

3. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)

4. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

5. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)

6. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

7. Viola (Matías Piñeiro)

8. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Alain Resnais)

9. To the Wonder (Terrence Malick)

10. Tchoupitoulas (Bill & Turner Ross)

Honorable mentions: Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine), Life of Pi (Ang Lee), It's Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt).

Best avant-garde of the year

1. August and After & April (Nathaniel Dorsky)

These two films viewed back-to-back, as they are meant to be, may well be a candidate for my Favourite Films of All Time list. At the very least, it's the closest I've come to tears via cinema (still hasn't happened yet folks).

2. Bloom (Scott Stark)

3. Orpheus (Outtakes) (Mary Helena Clark)

4. Reconnaissance (Johann Lurf)

5. The Extravagant Shadows (David Gatten)

6. the war (James Benning)

Favourite Performances: Denis Lavant (Holy Motors), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Seann William Scott (Goon), Frédéric Bourdin (The Imposter), James Gandolfini (Killing Them Softly), Yu Junsang (lifeguard in In Another Country), Tadashi Okuno (the professor in Like Someone in Love), Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy).

*****

Marco G.

[Unranked] Amour (Michael Haneke)

1. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

2. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr)

3. Passion (Brian De Palma)

4. Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)

5. Gebo and the Shadow (Manoel de Oliveira)

6. Elena (Andrei Zvyagintsev)

7. Stemple Pass (James Benning)

8. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)

9. differently, Molussia (Nicolas Rey)

10. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)

11. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

12. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

13. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

*****

Ryan Krahn [read Ryan’s capsule reviews of all of the films on his list website, Aufhebung]

1. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)

2. The Clock (Christian Marclay)*

3. Amour (Michael Haneke)

4. The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)

5. Paradise: Love (Ulrich Siedl)

6. In the Fog (Sergei Loznitsa)

7. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Rui Guerra da Mata & João Pedro Rodrigues)

8. Passion (Brian De Palma)

9. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)

10. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

Honourable Mentions: Tower (Kazik Radwanski), Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino), Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh), Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland), Clip (Maja Miloš).

*all films based on first Canadian (festival or theatrical) release

*****

David Balzer (Assistant Editor at Canadian Art magazine. Author: Contrivances)
Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
To Rome With Love (Woody Allen)
Barbara (Christian Petzold)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
Videos for "National Anthem" and "Ride" (Anthony Mandler / Lana Del Rey)
Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)
Gerhard Richter – Painting (Corrina Belz)

Favourite repertory discovery: Promised Lands (1974, Susan Sontag) at Early Monthly Segments.

*****

Chris Kennedy (Programmer: The Free Screen, Early Monthly Segments. Filmmaker: Towards a Vanishing Point, Phantoms)

1. autrement, molussie (Nicolas Rey)

I was able to see this three times in three different settings, which meant—since the sequence of the nine reels is determined before each showing—that I saw three different versions. The second, at Media City in Windsor, was ecstatic (partly due to the stunning projection team that the festival pulls together). The order was “perfect” and the graininess of the film-stock came through particularly beautifully then, amplifying Gunter Anders’ moving parables of underground resistance.

 2. Sounding Glass (Sylvia Schedelbauer)

Sylvia got a handful of awards and a lot of well-deserved recognition for this piece, a very bracing merging of found-footage and flicker, with a stunning soundtrack by Thomas Carnacki . This was also a blast to see in multiple settings, as watching each cinema vibrate from the light from the screen was almost half the fun.

 3. Songs About Nothing (Jason Lescalleet)

Not a movie, but an album. Lescalleet, who I also managed to see three times this year (the best seem to come in threes), creates music out of field recordings, tape loops and assorted dying electronics. The results, both live and on record, are cinematic mood swings akin to the most associative free-form poetry of many diary filmmakers-albeit a lot noisier.

 4. Movements of an Impossible Time (Flatform)

A very simple crane shot across a ruined chateau—moving between small microclimates created by rain, wind, snow and fog machines—served as a lucid reaffirmation of the emotional power of the artifice of cinema.

 5. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & anonymous)

A chilling documentary about the Indonesia genocide of the 1960s. The directors rely on the murderer’s own vanity to recreate the killings. There’s shockingly little remorse, although various murderers react to guilt in different ways (including a scene which implies that the body may expulse guilt even if the mind isn’t quite there yet). The final credits are an extremely moving testimony about the continued reality of this horror—most of the crew are listed as “anonymous”.

 6. Il se peut que la beauté ait renforcé notre résolution (Masao Adachi & Philippe Grandrieux)

The first time I saw this I was extremely jetlagged, so I scrambled to get my hands on a screener to reaffirm what I thought I saw. The night-drenched images worked into my half asleep self-conscious and Adachi’s rich thoughts on filmmaking and revolution – that you can make the plans but never predict the results – were a refreshing corrective against orthodox dogmatism.

 7. Game Plan (Alighiero e Boetti)

An exhibition at the MoMA. Maybe it’s the Italian thing, but Boetti’s work has resonated with me over the last five years in the same way that Pasolini’s work did when I was a film student. Arte povera, the poor man’s conceptualism, seem to match similar threads in Pasolini’s early films. And then you can try and pair up their later orientalisms … Anyway, great to see so much of Boetti’s work in one place.

 8. Mekong Hotel (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) & The Strawberry Tree (Simone Rapisarda Casanova)

I feel like these two films deserve to share a spot, partly due to their effortless and humble reflexivity, especially during a year where other films got so meta on the “meaning-of-movie-making” train (or should I say “limo”).

 9. Friendly Witness (Warren Sonbert, 1989)

It turned out that the Warren Sonbert retrospective that our Early Monthly Segments group were able to put on was a really lovely way to study Sonbert’s dense montages and the cross-referencing of life that his full oeuvre unfolds into. However, nothing had the full gut-punch of his film Friendly Witness, which feels like a pure gift in the face of Sonbert’s then newfound awareness of his diagnosis of AIDS, of which he would succumb to six years later.

10. The In-Person Screening

This was a good year for filmmakers traveling in to introduce their work, providing context to their art. The most notable that I saw may have been Phil Solomon’s screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which happened immediately after he got off an extremely turbulent foul-weather commuter flight from Montréal, on which he was sure he would die. The rejuvenated Solomon gave a generous (despite projection difficulties) and funny walk through an evening’s retrospective of his film work. Events like that prove how valuable the in-person is to personal filmmaking, even at the risk of leaving some skin on the tarmac.

Honorable mentions: Nearly a year later, I’m reminded about the emotional power of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation and Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar. They started 2012 well, modeling how a well-written script, rich yet subtle characters and economic and thoughtful direction can create a beautiful, moving experience. That’s a simple thing to ask for in 2013.

*****

Scott Miller Berry (Programmer: Early Monthly Segments, Images Festival. Tumblr: cineparlour)

Twelve short films first seen in 2012 that I cannot wait to see again on the big screen! (in chronological order with links!!)

- Portrait de la Place Ville Marie (2012) by Alexandre Larose @ LIFT 30th Anniversary programs, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario

- Depuis que je me souviens (Since I Can Remember) (2005) by Milena Gierke @ The 8 Fest Small Gauge Film Festival, Trash Palace, Toronto

- Qualia Diaries (2009) by Emily Mode, February 12 @ Tate Modern, Barbara Hammer retrospective, London, UK

- Tree Dance (1971) by Gordon Matta-Clark, March 19 @ Early Monthly Segments, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

- February (2011) by Cho In-Han, May 26 @ Media City, Capitol Cinema, Windsor, Ontario

- Gésine et Dagie vont en bateau (2011) by Dagie Brundert, May 26 @ Media City, Phog Lounge, Windsor, Ontario

- Condensation (2012) by Cha Mi-Hye, September @ EXiS Festival, Seoul

- stillness of the garden (2012) by Lee Jangwook, September @ EXiS Festival, Seoul

- Jalan Tak Ada Ujung (2006) by Maulana Muhammad Pasha, September @ EXiS Festival, Seoul

- Remains (2011) by Louise Bourque @ Planet in Focus Film Festival, Toronto

- The Tuxedo Theatre (1968) by Warren Sonbert, November 15 @ Early Monthly Segments, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

- Un film inédit (1948? / restored 2012) by Gordon Webber, November @ Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montréal

*****

Sean Rogers

My year-end list, despite there being so much I still need to see [Moonrise Kingdom, Bernie, Liz and Dick, Vamps, The Loneliest Planet, 4:44 Last Day on Earth].

Many of the best films I saw on Toronto screens in 2012 have not yet opened commercially (and probably, sadly, won't):

A1. Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (Lav Diaz)

A gut-punch of a movie, beautifully shot, elliptically told. The most hypnotic six hours of my movie-going year.

A2. Two Years at Sea (Ben Rivers)

A3. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Rui Guerra da Mata & João Pedro Rodrigues)

A4. autrement, la Molussie (Nicolas Rey)

A5. Three Sisters (Wang Bing)

As for films that actually received theatrical release in Toronto: praise be!

1. Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

2. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

3. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

4. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

5. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

6. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

7. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)

8. Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos)

9. The Clock (Christian Marclay)

Or what I saw of it, anyway.

10. Barbara (Christian Petzold)

A placeholder for so many films I've yet to watch: at the least, I imagine 56 Up (Michael Apted) will sneak on to this list when I finally catch up with it.

It's worth keeping in mind, too, all the "2012" movies that didn't actually open in Toronto, chief among which is The Turin Horse -- the best film of this or any other year. Also conspicuous in their absence: Le gamin au vélo, L'Apollonide, La folie Almayer, Elena, Kill List, The Comedy.

*****

Andrew Parker (Film Critic: Dork Shelf)

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

2. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)

3. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

4. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

5. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

6. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)

7. Skyfall (Sam Mendes)

8. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

9. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

10. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

11. Oslo, August 31^st (Joachim Trier)

12. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

13. Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)

14. Barbara (Christian Petzold)

15. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

16. The Imposter (Bart Layton)

17. Compliance (Craig Zobel)

18. Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)

19. Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)

20. In the Family (Patrick Wang)

21. Goon (Michael Dowse)

22. ParaNorman (Chris Butler & Sam Fell)

23. Premium Rush (David Koepp) & The Raid Redemption (Gareth Evans) & Detention (Joseph Kahn)

24. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)

25. Chronicle (Josh Trank)

Honourable Mentions: Amour (Michael Haneke), Argo (Ben Affleck), Fat Kid Rules the World (Matthew Lillard), Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo), Looper (Rian Johnson), Bestiaire (Denis Cote), Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg), Les Miserables (Tom Hooper), 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Chris Miller).

Best undistributed films: This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi), The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry), The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr), Only the Young (Elizabeth Mims & Jason Tipett), Tchoupitoulas (Bill and Turner Ross), Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold), The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne).

*****

Marc Saint-Cyr (Blogger: Subtitle Literate. Contributed: Marc's Reads. Read comments about the films at the Senses of Cinema 2012 Poll)

-       Casting Blossoms to the Sky (Nobuhiko Obayashi)

-       Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

-       The Egoists (Ryuichi Hiroki)

-       Holy Motors (Léos Carax)

-       In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)

-       Kotoko (Shinya Tsukamoto)

-       Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

-       Our Homeland (Yonghi Yang)

-       Skyfall (Sam Mendes)

-       Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)

*****

Christopher Heron (Film Critic: The Seventh Art)
I only included films that played in Toronto this year outside of TIFF and two TIFF films I am skeptical will get a wider release next year.
1. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
2. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
5. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata)
Assuming this will not have a theatrical release in 2013.
6. Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Köhler)
7. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)
8. Barbara (Christian Petzold)
9. Viola (Matías Piñeiro)
Assuming this will not have a theatrical release in 2013.
10. Bestiare (Denis Côté)

*****

Eastern Yoo 
1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
3. Killer Joe (william friedkin)
4. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
5. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)
6. Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik)
7. Prometheus (Ridley Scott)
8. Flight (Robert Zemeckis)
9. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)
10. The Hobbit (Peter Jackson)

*****

Adam Nayman (Film Critic: Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot, The Grid, The Globe and Mail. Teacher: Coen brothers at the JCC - Spring 2013)

-       Alps (Giorgos Lanthimos)

-       Barbara (Christian Petzold)

-       Bernie (Richard Linklater)

-       Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

-       The Capsule (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

-       Chronicle (Josh Trank)

-       The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry)

-       Compliance (Craig Zobel)

-       The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)

-       Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve)

-       Goon (Michael Dowse)

-       Greatest Hits (Nicolás Pereda)

-       Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (Ben Shapiro)

-       Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)

-       Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

-       In the Family (Patrick Wang)

-       The Innkeepers (Ti West)

-       It's the Earth Not the Moon (Gonçalo Tocha)

-       Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)

-       Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

-       Krivina (Igor Drljaca)

-       Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)

-       Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

-       The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

-       Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

-       Once Upon a Time in Anatolia  (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

-       Oslo, August 31^st (Joachim Trier)

-       The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans)

-       Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)

-       Sightseers (Ben Wheatley)

-       Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Köhler)

-       Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)

-       Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine),

-       Starlet (Sean Baker)

-       Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

-       Tower (Kazik Radwanski)

-       Two Years at Sea (Ben Rivers)

-       Viola (Matías Piñeiro)

-       Wanderlust (David Wain)

-       Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

Favorite performances: Malin Ackerman (Wanderlust), Carlen Altman (The Color Wheel), Javier Bardem (Skyfall), Jack Black (Bernie), Derek Bogard (Tower), Gina Carano (Haywire), Anders Danielson Lie (Oslo, August 31^st), Ann Dowd (Compliance), James Franco (Spring Breakers), Gina Gershon (Killer Joe), Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom), Dree Hemingway (Starlet), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), Nina Hoss (Barbara), Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained), Bedseka Johnson (Starlet), Denis Lavant (Holy Motors), Thure Lindhart (Keep the Lights On), Alice Lowe (Sightseers), Ken Marino (Wanderlust), Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe, Magic Mike), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Sara Paxton (The Innkeepers), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), James Ransone (Sinister), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Yayan Ruhian (The Raid: Redemption), Simon Russell Beale (The Deep Blue Sea), Will Sasso (The Three Stooges), Liev Schreiber (Goon), Laura Soveral (Tabu), James Spader (Lincoln), Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street), Seann William Scott (Goon), Jean-Louis Trintignant (Amour), Maria Villar (Viola), Dreama Walker (Compliance), Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea)

*****

John Semley (Film Critic: Cinema Scope, Slant, The Walrus, Now Toronto)

1. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

2. The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry)

3. Kill List (Ben Wheatley)

4. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi)

5. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

6. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

7. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

8. Skyfall (Sam Mendes)

9. Goon (Michael Dowse)

10. The Comedy (Rick Alversen)

*****

Kiva Reardon (Film Critic: The Loop, Cinema Scope)

1. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

2. Compliance (Craig Zobel)

3. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

4. Alps (Giorgos Lanthimos)

5. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

6. Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

7. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

8. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

9. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)

10. This Is 40 (Judd Apatow)

Honorable mentions: Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore), Haywire (Steven Soderbergh), Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson), Skyfall (Sam Mendes), The Grey (Joe Carnahan).

*****

Lev Lewis (composer: Amy George. twitter: @levlewis)

I haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty and I haven't seen Starlet.  

10. Hope Springs  (David Frankel)

Meryl plays a woman again. For adults.  

9. That’s My Boy (Sean Anders)

Art.  

8. Looper (Rian Johnson)

Blending genres like 1980something.  

7. Kill List (Ben Wheatley)

Killed it. 

 6. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)

Heaven is a place on Multiplexes.  

5. Elena  (Andrey Zvyagintsev)

I liked it.  

4. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Americana revisited.  

3. Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold)

Think about it.  

2. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

The limo’s talk.  

1. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr)

Béla’s the horse.

 *****

Angelo Muredda

1. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
2. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
3. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
5. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)
6. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
7. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)
8. Bestiaire (Denis Côté)
9. The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev)
10. In the Family (Patrick Wang)
11. Bernie (Richard Linklater)
12. Barbara (Christian Petzold)
13. Alps (Giorgos Lanthimos)
14. Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve)
15. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
16. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)
17. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
18. Goon (Michael Dowse)
19. Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos)
20. Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier)

*****

Calum Marsh (Film Critic: Slant)

1. The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry)

2. Neighbouring Sounds (Kleber Mendoca Filho)

3. The Day He Arrives (Hong Song-soo)

4. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

5. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)

6. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

7. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)

8. Oslo, August 31^st (Joachim Trier)

9. This Is Not A Film (Jafar Panahi)

10. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

11. Kill List (Ben Wheatley)

12. The Miners' Hymns (Bill Morrison)

13. Barbara (Christian Petzold)

14. Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Love)

15. Elena (Andrey Zvyagintsev)

16. The Comedy (Rick Alversen)

17. Sleepless Night (Frederic Jardin)

18. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

19. Sinister (Scott Derrickson)

20. Green (Sophia Takal)

*****

Tina Hassannia (Film Critic: Spectrum Culture, Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Movie Mezzanine)

1. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

2. Your brother. Remember? (Zachary Oberzan)

3. Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

4. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

5. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)

6. This Is Not A Film  (Jafar Panahi)

7. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendoca Filho)

8. The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry)

9. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)

10. The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

11. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

12. The Miners' Hymns (Bill Morrison)

13. The Day He Arrives  (Hong Song-soo)

14. Barbara (Christian Petzold)

15. Sleepless Night (Frédéric Jardin)

16. Oslo, August 31^st (Joachim Trier)

17. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

18. Las Acacias (Pablo Giorgelli)

19. Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Love)

20. Vamps (Amy Heckerling)

*****

Julian Carrington (Film Critic: Torontoist)

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

2. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

3. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

4. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

5. Amour (Michael Haneke)

6. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

7. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

8. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

9. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

10. The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield)

Film/Non-film I'm most disappointed not to have seen in 2012: This Is Not a Film.

*****

Alex Huls (Twitter: @alhuls)

1. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

2. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

3. Oslo, August 31^st (Joachim Trier)

4. The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne).

5. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

6. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi)

7. Amour (Michael Haneke)

8. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

9. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

10. Skyfall (Sam Mendes)

*****

Thomas Loree

1. The Clock (Christian Marclay)

2. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata)

3. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

4. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)

5. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)

6. Passion (Brian De Palma)

7. Student (Darezhan Omirbaev)

8. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

9. Night Across the Street (Raúl Ruíz)

10. In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)

Honorable mentions: Thy Womb (Brillante Mendoza), Gebbo et l'ombre (Manoel de Oliveira), Penance (Kiyoshi Kurosawa).

Favourite Performances: Denis Lavant (Holy Motors), Noomi Rapace (Passion), Yu Junsang (the lifeguard in In Another Country), Irfan Khan (the adult Pi in Life of Pi), Ryo Kase (the psychotic boyfriend in Like Someone in Love), Tadashi Okuno (the professor in Like Someone in Love), the four friends of the victim in Penance, Nurlan Baitasov (Student), Jack Black (Bernie), Nora Aunor (the infertile wife in Thy Womb, Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man), Eddie Redmayne & Clémence Poésy (Birdsong), Laura Soveral & Isabel Cardoso (Tabu), Alba Rohrwacher (Maria in Bella adormentata), Maya Sansa (the suicidal methadone addict in Bella adormentata), Lee Kang-sheng (The Walker), the fox (Deux), “Richard Parker” (Life of Pi), Bruce Willis (Moonrise Kingdom).

*****

David Acacia

1. Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
2. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
3. The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
4. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)
5. In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)
6. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
7. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
8. Katy Perry: Part of Me (Dan Cutforth & Jane Lipsitz)
9. John Carter (Andrew Stanton)
10. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)

*****

Andrew Proczek

1. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)

2. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

3. Amour (Michael Haneke)

4. The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata)

5. Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (Lav Diaz)

6. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)

7. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)

8. Bestiaire (Denis Côté)

9. Barbara (Christian Petzold)

10. Thy Womb (Brillante Mendoza) & Many a Swan (Blake Williams)

11. Io e Te (Bernardo Bertolucci)

12. Chrashkurs (Anika Wangard)

13. The End of Time (Peter Metler)

14. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

15. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

16. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers)

*****

Ronald Walther

1. Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
2. Extra Man (Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini)
3. Being Flynn (Paul Weitz)
4. Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Love)
5. Beautiful Boy (Shawn Ku)
6. Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
8. A One-Way Trip to Antibes (Richard Hobert)
9. Byzantium (Neil Jordan)
10.  Edwin Boyd (Nathan Morlando)

*****

Scott C.

*****

Moen M. [Contributed: Hots Docs coverage, BAFICI coverage, Il Cinema Ritrovato coverage]

The Greatest Films of All Time According to Some Toronto Cinephiles

David Davidson (Blogger: Toronto Film Review)

1. Indo-china: Opium den (Lumière Brothers)
2. The Lady from Shanghai & Double Indemnity
3. Les Enfants du Paradis & Les Anges du péché
4. Rear Window & Scarlet Street
5. Cheyenne Autumn & Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
6. Land of the Pharaohs & Hatari! & Red Line 7000
7. Rameau's Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen & The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
8. 3 Women & Two-Lane Blacktop & The Swimmer
9. The Last House on the Left & Assault on Precinct 13 & Rampage & Blue Collar
10. Les Nuits de la pleine lune & Le viol d'une jeune fille douce  & J’entend plus la guitar
11. Tucker: The Man and His Dream  & Catch Me If You Can
12. Eyes Wide Shut
13. As Good as it Gets & J'ai pas sommeil
14. Promises Written in Water & Colossal Youth
15. Cosmopolis

*****

Arielle Gavin (Blogger: Dragonaut)

1. The Hole (Tsai Ming-Liang, 1998)
2. (nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, 1971)
3. Blue (Derek Jarman, 1993)
4. Le beau mariage (Éric Rohmer, 1982)
5. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006)
6. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg, 2012)
7. Le diable probablement (Robert Bresson, 1977)
8. The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931)
9. A nos amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
10. Ms.45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)

*****

Kazik Radwanski (Filmmaker: Tower, Green Crayons)

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer, 1928)

2. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)

3. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

4. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)

5. Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)

6. Vivre sa vie, The Mother and the Whore, À nos amours

7. Wanda, Killer of Sheep, Mikey and Nicky

8. Made in Britain, Meantime, Raining Stones

8. Beau travail, In Vanda’s Room, Where is the Friend’s Home?

10. A Married Couple, Pour la suite du monde, Goin' Down the Road

*****

Igor Drljaca (Filmmaker: Krivina, The Fuse: or How I Burned Simon Bolivar)

Here is a list of my favourites, though I might be forgetting a few. I refuse to rank them.

-       The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

-       2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

-       Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

-       Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

-       Le fils (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2002)

-       Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)

-       Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

-       The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris,1988)

-       A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)

-       RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

-       Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)

-       Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

-       Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)

-       Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley  Kubrick, 1964)

-       Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

-       What Time Is It There? (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001)

-       Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

-       The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1989)

-       In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)

*****

Antoine Bourges (Filmmaker: East Hastings Pharmacy, Woman Waiting)

These are honestly the first ones that came to mind. They are in no particular order. I am probably forgetting 12 more that I'll regret not including, but I feel these ones all deserve top positions anyway.

-       Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

-       Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

-       Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)

-       Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

-       2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

-       Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)

-       La maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)

-       Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

-       L'argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

-       The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini, 1966)

-       Le rayon vert (Éric Rohmer, 1986)

-       Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, 2008)

*****

Simon Ennis (Filmmaker: Lunarcy!, You Might as Well Live)

Top Ten (in no particular order):

-       The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

-       That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

-       Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, 1981)

-       Lost Highway (also Blue Velvet / Eraserhead)

-       Double Indemnity or The Apartment

-       Two or Three Things I Know About Her / Weekend

-       The Shining (also Dr. Strangelove / 2001)

-       Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

-       Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz, 1995)

-       Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)

Ten More (in no particular order):

-       Seul contre tous (Gaspar Noé, 1998)

-       Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

-       Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

-       Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)

-       Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)

-       Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)

-       Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001)

-       Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, 1975)

-       Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)

-       Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)

*****

Hugh Gibson (Producer: A Place Called Los Pereyra)

Here's my list in no particular order.

-       2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

-       Life and Nothing More… (Abbas Kiarostami, 1992)

-       Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

-       Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

-       Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

-       Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)

-       The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

-       Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

-       The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris,1988)

-       The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

Special mention: La jetée, The General, The Godfather II, Goodfellas, Tristana, The Mystery of Picasso, Unforgiven, Dimensions of Dialogue, A Moment of Innocence, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, M, The Manchurian Candidate, Contempt, Sherlock Jr., Fantasia, Crimson Gold, A Brighter Summer Day, Close Up, and many more....

*****

Lev Lewis (Composer: Amy George)

I won’t waste space distinguishing between “best” and “favourite”. The “best” lists always straddle the middle, and as valuable an artifact as the S&S list is as a collective group-think, in the end the personal compilation is usually more compelling. What I do want to stress is my still forming library of knowledge. It feels as if I’ve seen a fair share of the past 100 years of movies, but when tasked with making a statement of this sort, I realize how little of a dent I’ve actually made. With that said, this can stand as the ten best films I’ve seen at the ripe age of 21.

There are many apologies necessary. First to women, who go unrepresented here, even if seven of my choices identify a woman as their primary narrative focus. To the 1940’s, who despite yielding The Grapes of Wrath, The Letter, The Philadelphia Story, The Lady Eve, The Ox-Bow Incident, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Laura, The Best Years of our Lives, Notorious, The Red Shoes, Bicycle Thieves & A Letter to Three Wives did not make the cut. To silents, who get one paltry mention. To the last 25 years of filmmaking. To Bergman and Bresson and Cassavetes and Chaplin and Cukor and Hitchcock and Hou and Kazan and Mizoguchi and Resnais and Wong and Woody. And to all the magnificent films I still have to experience. I’m looking forward to you.

1. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

3. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)

4. The Earrings of Madame De... (Max Ophüls, 1953)

5. Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)

6. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Sidney Lumet, 1962)

7. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

8. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

9. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977)

10. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

*****

Chris Kennedy (Programmer: The Free Screen, Early Monthly Segments. Filmmaker: Towards a Vanishing Point, Tamalpais) 

A very personal list. These are not the best by any objective standards, but they all spun me in different ways.

1. Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, USA, 1963)

2. Out 1: noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, France, 1971)

3. The Mysterious Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2000)

4. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavettes, USA, 1976)

5. Le Fond de l'air est rouge (Grin Without a Cat) (Chris Marker, France, 1977)

6. Sátántangó (Bela Tarr, Hungary, 1994)

7. Life Dances On (Robert Frank, USA, 1980)

8. Les Maître Fous (Jean Rouch, France/Niger, 1955)

9. Nest of Tens (Miranda July, USA, 2000)

Tie:

10. The Hart of London (Jack Chambers, Canada, 1970)

10. A Burning Star (Kenji Onishi, Japan, 1995)

*****

Blake Williams (Filmmaker: Many a Swan, Coorow-Laptham Road)

1. Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

3. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)

4. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

5. Nashville (Robert Atlman, 1975)

6. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

7. Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)

8. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

9. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)

10. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)

*****

Marco Gualtieri

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

3. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

4. Where is the Friend's Home? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)

5. Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, 1956)

6. Le Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol, 1958)

7. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)

8. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

9. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

10. Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

*****

Ryan Krahn

1. Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel, 1971)

2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) 

3. On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Żuławski, 1987)

4. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

5. Choses Secrètes (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2002)

6. Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999)

7. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)

8. Bungalow (Ulrich Köhler, 2002)

9. Nuit de Chien (Werner Schroeter, 2008)

10. Class Relations (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1984)

11. Fascination (Jean Rollin, 1979)

12. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)

13. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)

14. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1962)

15. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)

16. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953)

17. Perceval le Gallois (Eric Rohmer, 1978)

18. Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura, 1969)

19. Grin Without a Cat (Chris Marker, 1977)

20. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

*****

Adam Nayman (Film Critic: Cinema Scope, The Grid, The Globe and Mail)

1.     2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

2.     Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1998)

3.     A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)

4.     Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

5.     Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)

6.     Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953) 

7.     La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)

8.     Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1982)

9.     Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

10.  Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)

*****

John Semley (Film Critic: The A.V. Club, Cinema Scope)

1. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

2. Bigger Than Life (Nicolas Ray, 1956)

3. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)

4. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)

5. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)

6. Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)

7. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

8. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

9. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

10. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

*****

Kiva Reardon (Film Critic: inMovies)

In making this list the first rule was it had to be a favourite. Not necessarily something I watch once a year (though many are), but films whose titles instantly conjure a memory, image, or even a tactile experience. That said, I naturally had the established canon in mind when cultivating this list: the French New Wave classic, the Technicolor masterpiece, the silent era favourite etc. But if these types of lists are meant to indicate the greatest contribution to cinema, here I am hoping to suggest we might recalibrate how we—because there is always a bias in any presumed collective—think about “contribution.”

1. Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

Because Agnès Varda’s film captures and breaks down bourgeois malaise/idealism; but unlike any, say, Jean-Luc Godard film which has the same aim, she doesn’t merely use the female protagonist as a rhetorical device.

2. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)

For the colour, the melodrama, and it’s influence on Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (which is my way of getting that film on my list).

3. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

For creating a new form of war film and the way in which the Denis Lavant’s body becomes the skin of the film.

4. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010)

Because years from now we will look back on the New Greek Cinema and marvel at the films (this is the only forecasting I’ll engage in, I promise); for its conflation of the animal’s body and the human’s; and for the ingenious inserts, which speak louder than any dialogue.

5. 24 City (Jia Zhangke, 2008)

Because digital is not the death of cinema.

6. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

Because of the fear of the doppelganger and the latent lesbianism.

7. Les Amours de la Pieuvre (Jean Painlevé, 1965) 

Because when else do we stare into the soul of the mighty octopus and bask in its formless wonder?

8. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper &d Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)

The best monster movie; sheer entertainment.

9. The Marriage of Maria Braun (R.W. Fassbinder, 1979)

Because there is no better role model than Maria Braun, or R.W. Fassbinder.

10. Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)

Because it is a celebratory, wildly free feminist exegesis on lived experience and alternate histories.

*****

Nicholas Little

1. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

2. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

3. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953)

4. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

5. Taxi Diver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

6. North by Northwest (Alred Hitchcock, 1959)

7. La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)

8. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

10. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)

Honorable mentions:

- Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

- Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

- Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

- Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)

- King Kong (Merian C. Cooper &d Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)

*****

Megan Widawski

1. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)

2. Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)

3. Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)

4. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (Peter Hewitt, 1991)

5. Rivers Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986)

6. Sixteen Candles (John Hughes, 1984)

7. Shopgirl (Anand Tucker, 2005)

8. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

9. West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise, 1961)

10. Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)

Honorable mentions:

- Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, 1950)

- The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987)

- Jaws (Stephen Spielberg, 1975)

- Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)

- The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)

- Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)

*****

Sean Rogers

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

These first six entries could be swapped out for any other film by their respective filmmakers. Ambersons remains Welles's roomiest film, his saddest. Poetic, its having been ruined.

2. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)

Featuring the most hermetic of Hawks's clans, and so, the most perfect. Tempted to say Red River, instead, if only to include a western on here.

3. Eloge de l'amour (Jean-Luc Godard, 2001)

The most recent title on this list eulogises not just love, but cinema, resistance, the 20th century, all those elements that Godard sees as interchangeable and abandoned.

4. Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)

Like Eloge, another film haunted by war, seized by war, fissured by war. Resnais's most tightly controlled film, aside from those devastating flourishes.

5. Vampyr (Carl Dreyer, 1932)

Film's nearest approximation of nightmare, that close cousin to the vaunted spirituality of Dreyer's other work. Plus, a good representative of the horror flick -- another favourite genre.

6. Lancelot du lac (Robert Bresson, 1974)

Bresson's cinema was never about transcendence so much as presence -- this is his most brute and physical film.

7. Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)

Smith's gauzy orgy, however, provides the most tactile experience in movies. Tough to pick from among so many other major works in the avant garde, which too rarely get mentioned in exercises like this.

8. Bimbo's Initiation (Dave Fleischer, 1931)

Along with the Hawks and the Minnelli, this is one of the films on this list I've had the pleasure to teach, though always too briefly. As Jonathan Rosenbaum said of Guy Maddin's Heart of the World, the few dense minutes of this flailing, feverish short are "inexhaustible."

9. Sátántangó (Bela Tarr, 1994)

Carved from life's muck.

10. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

Rich, unalloyed pleasure. Opulence without decadence -- Hollywood at its finest.

The requisite caveats:

a. Listed in the order I thought of them.

b. I'm aware of how American, French, and male these choices shook out. A quick, sneaky corrective might go: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, A City of Sadness, Close-Up, Jeanne Dielman..., Ceddo, Daisies, Ivan the Terrible I & II, Marketa Lazarova, M, and Go! Go! Go!.

c. I'm working under the assumption that it's become passé to include Vertigo...

 *****

Marc Saint-Cyr (Blogger: Subtitle Literate)

1. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

2. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

3. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

4. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)

5. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

6. The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1976)

7. What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001)

8. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

9. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

10. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)

*****

Christopher Heron (Film Critic: The Seventh Art)

1. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)

2. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)

3. The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir, 1936)

4. Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1951)

5. Sansho the Baliff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)

6. Gertrud (Carl Dreyer, 1964)

7. Sátántangó (Bela Tarr,1994)

8. Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard, 1985)

9. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

10. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)

11. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939)

12. The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub,1968)

13. Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980)

14. Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 1938)

15. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

16. Le Plaisir (Max Ophüls, 1952)

17. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

18. The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980)

19. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)

20. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)

*****

David Balzer (Art Critic: Canadian Art. Writer: Contrivances)

Here's a pretty personal list of essentials, unranked and free of commentary:

- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)

- L'avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

- Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965)

- Yolanda and the Thief (Vincente Minnelli, 1945)

- Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

- Léon Morin, Prêtre (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961)

- Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)

- Journey in Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)

- Andrei Rublev (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1969)

- Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

*****

Daniel Gallay

1. Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

2. The Far Shore (Joyce Wieland, 1976)

3. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

4. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

5. F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973)

6. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)

7. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

8. The Flowers of St. Francis (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)

9. Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, 1931)

10. Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950)

*****

Calum Marsh (Film Critic: Slant)

An alternative to my Slant Top Ten list, in the spirit of Rosenbaum, who picks a different top 10 for every Sight & Sound poll and doesn't let himself pick the same movies twice, I wanted to come with new picks which I also love.

- California Split (Robert Altman, 1974)

- Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray, 1957)

- Rock Hudson's Home Movies (Mark Rappaport, 1992)

- The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson, 1977)

- The Exiles (Kent MacKenzie, 1961)

- The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)

- Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)

- Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988)

- Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

- The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971)

*****

Tina Hassannia

1. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)

2. Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F. W. Murnau, 1927)

4. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

5. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)

6. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)

7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl T. Dreyer, 1928)

8. The Cow (Dariush Mehrjui, 1969)

9. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

10. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

*****

Samuel Adelarr (Blogger: Guntalk) 
In chronological order:

- Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)

- My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

- Voyage to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)

- An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

- 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

- Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

- Milestones (Robert Kramer, 1975)

- The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975)

- L'argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

- Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira, 1993)

*****

Jovana Jankovic (Blogger: Toronto Film Society)

1. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
2. 3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)
3. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)
4. Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)
5. Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
6. Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981)
7. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
8. La ley del deseo (Pedro Almodóvar, 1987)
9. Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005)
10. Barton Fink (Coen Bros., 1991)
11. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
12. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
13. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
14. La haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
15. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
16. Der Blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
17. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
18. Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
19. In The Cut (Jane Campion, 2003)
20. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1977)

*****

Eastern Yoo (Clerk: Suspect Video)

1. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

2. La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

3. Andrei Rublev (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1969)

4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

5. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)

6. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)

7. Akira (Katsuhiro Ohtomo, 1988)

8. Ma nuit chez Maud (Éric Rohmer, 1969)

9. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

10. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

*****

Moen Mohamed

My ten films will not be my Top Ten, but it is a selection of ten films that are among my favourites.  I make that distinction very clear because I don't believe in a single film or 10 films being the best of all time.  It is just a personal choice.  I have been lucky to have seen dozens and dozens of masterpieces in my life.  So, I think they all should be given that honour of appearing on any list I create.  I am just being kind and appreciative to the directors whose films mean so much to me.

In alphabetical order:

- The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, Japan, 1956)

- La Chambre Vertre (Francois Truffaut, France, 1978)

- Cronaca di un Amore (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1950)

- In a Year with Thirteen Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1978)

- Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece, 1988)

- The Mad Fox (Tomu Uchida, Japan, 1962)

- Pakeezah (Kamal Amrohi, India, 1972)

- Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, Australia, 1975)

- Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1957)

- The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi, Italy, 1978)

*****

Ron Walther

1. Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960)
2. Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004)
3. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
4. Kiss me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
5. If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
6. This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963)
7. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
8. Love with a Proper Stranger (Robert Mulligan, 1963)
9. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
10. On Dangerous Ground (On Dangerous Gound, 1952)

*****

Scott Cowan

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

2. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

3. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

5. La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

6. Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

7. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)

8. Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)

9. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

10. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

*****

Thom Ernst (Host: Saturday Night at the Movies)

- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

- The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

- Nashville (Robert Atlman, 1975)

- The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1947)

- Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)

             - The Miracle at Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturges, 1944)

- Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)

- Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)

- Magnolia (P.T. Anderson, 1999)

- La Strada (Federico Fellini)

*****

Ryan McNeil (Blogger: The Matinee)

-Modern Times  Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
- Rashomon  (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
- No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007)

*****

Andrew Proczek

1. The Noriko Trilogy: Late Spring / Early Summer / Tokyo Story

2. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)

3. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

4. Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

5. India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)

6. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

7. Le Plaisir (Max Ophüls, 1952)

8. Ordet (Carl T. Dreyer, 1955)

9. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)

10. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)

*****

Thom Loree

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

2. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)

3. Dead of Night (Ealing Studios, 1945)

4. The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger & Michael Powell, 1940)

5. The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)

6. The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby & Howard Hawks, 1951)

7. The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)

8. Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa, 1959)

9. He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924)

10. Flesh and Fantasy (Julien Duvivier, 1943)

The Edward G. Robinson episode.

*****

Simon Hue
In chronological order:

- It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

- Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)

- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

- Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

- Les demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

- The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

- The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)

- The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

- Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

- A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)

*****

David Acacia

1. Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)

2. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

3. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953)

4. Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, 1991)

5. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)

6. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

7. In a Year with Thirteen Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)

8. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

9. Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

10. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)

*****

Clint Enns (Filmmaker)

A Few of My Favorite Short Experimental Films and Videos of Recent Years (in no particular order):

1)    Evan Meaney – The Well of Representation (2011) The Well of Representation is arguably Meaney’s best work to date and was easily my favourite video at the 2012 Images Festival.
This video is the epilogue to The Ceibas Cycle, a 10 part series of videos made between 2007 and 2011 that investigates glitches and their connection to communication theory, the archive, ghosts, and our digital identities.  The Well of Representation combines all of these ideas into a hacked, 16-bit re-make of Hollis Frampton's Gloria! (1979).

2)    Scott Fitzpatrick – Places With Meaning (2012) and Up (2012)
Places With Meaning is the sequel to Wingdings Love Letter (2011) and celebrates the often misunderstood and critically under-appreciated font, Webdings.  These 16mm films were created by laser printing directly onto recycled film.
Up (2012) was created to be viewed with ChromaDepth glasses (Walter Forsberg's article about Lillian Schwartz and ChromaDepth can be found in Issue #3 of Incite and is available here. If you would like a pair of  ChromaDepth glasses, Incite Issue #3 comes with a pair and can be purchased here).  The piece can easily be read as a 3D spacial study through colour.

3)    Nicholas O'Brien - A Letter (to Chelsey Hoff) (2010)
A letter to artist Chelsey Hoff made on VHS for a secret santa exchange.  Check out Chelsey Hoff's videos here. 

4)    Zahid Jiwa - Five Towns: Video Asylum for Shut-Ins  (2010)
A tongue-in-cheek VHS homage to one of my favourite filmmakers James Benning.

5)    Sabrina Ratté - Station Balnéaire V.1 (2011)
The Almalfi Coast electronically manipulated to create a video that is spiritual, meditative, and soothing.  This video could be seen as an extension of Jane Wright's video landscapes.

6)    Mark Pellegrino – On Being Selfish (2011)
In the future we will all have our 15MBs of fame.  Enjoy it while it lasts Mark.

7)    David Domingo – Sound of the Sun (2011)
Remember those 16mm educational documentaries you were forced to watch as a child?  Don't you wish you were watching this instead? 

8)    Sean Dunne - American Juggalo (2011)
The decline of Western Civilization captured in one exploitative ethnographic documentary.  This film is destined to become a cult classic.

9)    Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël, and Zacharias Kunuk – Kobe (2012) 
I recently saw this video as part of the Home On Native Land exhibit at the Lightbox.  The video perfectly uses 3D technologies to capture the sparse landscape of the north and to present a portrait of contemporary Inuit culture by documenting a the life of a young Inuit boy.  The pacing of the video provides the viewer with time to reflect, a luxury that is missing in major cities.

10) Ji Yeon Lim (aka YALOO林) - Mountain for your mind (2012)
A video that re-imagines the landscape film in a digital era.