Jean-Marc Vallée’s Big Little Lies

"That review came from a guy seated at a sports club with chicken wings and beer. Chick flick, my ass! " - Jean-Marc Vallée, at the Wild press conference.

"Steven Soderbergh’s brilliant series, The Knick, one of my favorite series on television. It’s so brilliantly directed." - Steven Spielberg talking to Paul Thomas Anderson.

Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies follows three mothers Madeline, Celeste and Jane in an Australian seaside community during the first six months of their children starting kindergarten at Pirriwee public school. On the first day of orientation, Jane is introduced to Madeline, after she rescues her after after she accidentally twists her ankle, and Celeste, is their ‘perfect’ and beautiful friend. In the genre of the suburban noir the story begins six months later at an Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley costume trivia night where in drunken mess someone accidentally dies. The story then flashes backs, so that this impending violence would come to overshadow the narrative, which is also interspersed with the murder case detective interviewing many of the other parents. 

On this first day of orientation, Jane’s son Ziggy (named in reference to David Bowie) is accused of bullying the corporate mother Renata’s daughter Amabella. And so begins the school ground politics that will only escalate in the upcoming months. This first day is when we're introduced to many of the other students: Madeline's children Chloe, Fred and Abigail; Celestes' twins Max and Josh and the rest of the schoolyard. This accusatory gesture would divide the school, with Team Madeline on one side (with Jane and Celeste) and Team Renata (along with the 'Blonde Bobs') on the other, and their respective children.

Even though Big Little Lies is being mass-marketed and pejoratively described, with its over-sized rainbow lollipop shattering on its cover, as 'chick lit’, the reviewers have been more kind to the book. Leah Greenblatt for Entertainment Weekly described Moriarty as, "she feels like a humanist: a writer whose insights aren’t any less wise or funny or true just because she sometimes likes a champagne metaphor or hangs her story on a shoe." And in The Washington Post Carol Memmott reviewed it as, "Big Little Lies tolls a warning bell about the big little lies we tell in order to survive. It takes a powerful stand against domestic violence even as it makes us laugh at the adults whose silly costume party seems more reminiscent of a middle-school dance." 

The book reads like Stephen King but with a girl-friendly style, and there’s a slow-burn quality, with an impending violence lurking over every scene, as it deals with schoolyard bullying, domestic abuse and human rights issues. It has a feminist quality through taking the personal and emotional lives of these mothers as a subject, along with critique of misogyny and male patriarchy, but is also universal in that the scenario is fundamentally human.

There’s an anecdote in Hitchcock/Truffaut where François Truffaut talks about how Boileu-Narcejac’s D'Entre les morts was specifically written for Hitchcock, which he would adapt as Vertigo, since he liked so much Diabolique. With Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Dominique Fortier's Du bon usage des étoiles and now Big Little Lies there seems to be similar growing canon of Valléeien literature – the content and style of these books just scream out that he should adapt them.

For example in Big Little Lies: Strong mother figures, their relationship with their children and the children's own personal lives are long-standing interests for Vallée. There's the subject of school-yard bullying which was already there in C.R.A.Z.Y. and more explicitly in Demolition. There's the supposed ‘gay’ barista, which joins many of his LGBT themes, who works in a café which plays the best music in town. The working class Jane who struggles being in and around such an affluent community recalls many of his working class protagonists. A large scale communal party, which has a violence surfacing quietly underneath, makes a nice contrast with the ones in C.R.A.Z.Y. A random letter from a stranger that saves the day is just like Demolition. A bunch of people who travel (a family even goes to Canada for a winter holiday) and cross borders recalls the international trips in Dallas Buyers Club. The emotional and social effects of the life of divorced parents recalls the DJ in Café de flore. And the list goes on! 

So there are two type of Vallée films now: There are his more violent personal pictures, where the lead character rushes towards their destiny, possible death and the creation of their legacy (Dallas Buyers Club, Janis Joplin, John Franklin) and now his Reese Witherspoon/Pacific Standard films, which are more uplifting and healthy. It’s a good balance as Witherspoon seems to be on the same wavelength as him and is able to make his cinema breathe, expand their geographies and take on new projects that bring with them a new life, which without they might tend to be more cynical. These Pacific Standard films are more expressionistic and emotional as they focus more on strong women and their interior and surrounding exterior lives, which includes a close attention to fashion. 

The seven-episode Big Little Lies series will offer Vallée new opportunities and challenges. Even though IMDB credits him already on the too little-known The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (2000), in this new series he'll be tackling the challenge of the longer serial form, the cross-editing of multiple stories and a larger scale of filmmaking. The book is full of popular culture references (people watch The Walking Dead and the kids play a Star Wars game), which Vallée tends to usually suppress (for example, see the cinephile Aces High poster in behind the scenes photographs from Café de flore, which never made it into the film). There aren't too many music references in the book, Vallée's specialty, which I'm sure he'll add - there's already an anecdote of a yoga scene where they're playing Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.  

With Big Little Lies in the works, Vallée's recent commentary on Katsuhito Ishii's The Taste of Tea at Festival du nouveau cinéma becomes more obvious as a model for this new project. Ishii's simple yet magical story set in rural Japan offers many great examples of how to capture family dynamics. Other films and TV shows that come to mind in relation to an adaptation of Big Little Lies include David Lynch's Twin Peaks (the uncovering of a murder) and M. Night Shyamalan's Wayward Pines, Richard Linklater's Boyhood for the family dynamics and strong mother character in face of domestic abuse (one could also mention Vallée's own, though discredited, Loser Love). Nicole Kidman in the cast brings to mind her earlier performances in The Stepford Wives and Eyes Wide Shut. And it needs to be placed along with great new series like Soderbergh's The Knick or the Wachowski siblings' Sense8. Television, with HBO at the forefront, definitively offers a great extension to the filmmakers oeuvre, which even Steven Spielberg gave his blessing on. 

And it's January and they've already started filming, transplanting the story from Australia to Pasadena, California. Witherspoon as Madeline, Kidman as Celeste, Shailene Woodly as Jane, Laura Dern as Renata, Adam Scott as Madeline's husband Ed, Alexander Skarsgård's as Celeste's abusive husband Perry and so on. 

But with this new industry weight comes the challenge for Vallée to retain his unique signature (The Young Victoria being an example of a film being taken from him). Philippe Lesage's Les démons offers a compelling counter-point. This is the film that Bruno Dequen in 24 Images describes as "one of the most complex and finely written stories of childhood in the history of cinema." The Québécois director Lesage's first feature film shows how coming of age, through the nice moments and bad, can come together in the schoolyard in a real fascinating way. Les démons deals with many similar topics as Big Little Lies, and Lesage's rigor mixed with simplicity, as he captures Félix's gaze, as he watches and thinks about the world, offers a great example of the need for a look of clarity in cinema.

 
After Demolition, which comes out later on this year, comes the explosion of this rainbow colored lollipop (the cover of the Moriarty book), and the unraveling of the vices of suburbia. To get Vallée one must return to Liste noir. As a young man, excited to make his first feature film, Vallée wanted to criticize the powers that be (in the tradition of Arcand's Réjeanne Padovani), and was really excited to be on a film set and play with the possibilities. As a picture of Witherspoon on one of the first days of shooting shows, she's holding a mug, ‘But First’. To begin again new from scratch. For every film to be like his first. This is Vallée’s method. He's continuing his trajectory, in a mass form, building on the works that he first made here. Jean-Marc Vallée, the best working Canadian director today.

***

Book Review: La Main Gauche de Jean-Pierre Léaud

 “C’était tout simple: moi, ce que je veux faire, maman, c’est des films à propos de toi, pour toi. Tu es aussi importante qu’une vedette américaine. Je veux le faire dans ton langage, avec le français de chez nous.”

Somewhere in André Habib’s new book on Québécois cinephilia, La Main Gauche de Jean-Pierre Léaud, appears this anecdote where one of the interviewees talks about the love he has for his mother, how he would do anything for her, and how it’s also connected to his love of cinema. It's a touching anecdote, modestly included, and speaks to the heart and desire to love running through this project, and the best of Canadian cinephilia. (It also reminded me of Jean-Marc Vallée’s tender portrait of mothers such as the one in C.R.A.Z.Y.).

André Habib is a Montreal film professor who is best known for his website Hors Champs, which tends to privilege film theory and the avant-garde films – he also has a great essay in the Daïchi Saïto book. With this in mind it comes as a surprise to see how accessible and generous La Main Gauche de Jean-Pierre Léaud really is. Cinephilia will always be a minority sub-culture but that doesn’t have to imply that the objects of discussion cannot be popular. And through Habib’s study of cinephilia (that strange addiction to cinema screens) and its particular Québécois context, with interviews enriching its lengthy history, he gives a voice to this passion that has been burning bright for over sixty years.

The title of the book comes from Habib’s enduring fascination with the key actor of the nouvelle vague française, Jean-Pierre Léaud, and how his left hand, through his many performances, reveals something characteristic about himself and his roles – his liveliness, anxieties and anger. Leaud’s left hand is free, improvisational, reflects his unconscious, and reveals a lot about his acting method. The decisive film is Godard’s Masculin, Féminin but there’s also Eustache’s La maman et la putain and Tsai’s What Time Is It There? There’s two decisive elements that are being conceptualized throughout his analysis: the attention to very specific details which contributes to the cinephile’s repertoire of images and references, and the importance memory plays in the collective consciousness of this community. Another example is fly that briefly ends up on a projecting print of Snow’s La Région centrale.

Habib is building on the intellectual cinephilia writing of Jean-Louis Schefer (L’Homme ordinaire du cinéma) and Serge Daney (L’exercise a été profitable, Monsieur), and Raymond Bellour (La querelle des dispositifs) and Antoine de Baecque (La Cinéphilie), but from the perspective of Canada, which in itself is a lot more quiet and modest than the battles around films that’s been going on in Paris. But this is exactly its strengths. As how to define the cultural memory of a Québécois cinephilia in the great white north?

To answer this question, Habib interviews many senior cinephiles (and some younger ones) that paved the way back in the forties and fifties which greatly contributed to where we are now. There are analysis of old ciné-clubs and their programming, film magazines and newspapers, movie theaters and audiences, rituals and lifestyles, censorship and bylaws. Some interesting information: Up to 1960 movie theaters were banned from teenagers under the age of sixteen, so then movie posters, lobby cards and noises from the cinemas allowed these children to dream and imagine what they were missing out on. Preminger promoted his search for Joan of Arc in an old issue of Séquences. The church had a hand in the ciné-clubs and they privileged French and world cinema over American films. Resnais’ Nuit et Brouillard was an important film for many and so was the nouvelle vague. Censorship was real and films would be cut or not shown (this is coming from the only province to edit Hitchcock’s I Confess). The Cinéma System and Ciné-Samedi played some remarkable films. There were even summer camps for ciné-clubs. In the seventies and eighties Montreal had some great b-cinemas, and the Cinémathèque québécoise would also play an important role there (to hear how its doing now, Marcel Jean's new interview on Derrière L’image offers many illuminating remarks).

La Main Gauche de Jean-Pierre Léaud gives a fascinating voice to many of these narratives. This makes it a nice reverse-shot to the more information-based book by Yves Lever and Pierre Pageau, Chronologie du Cinéma au Québec. The book itself, beautifully put together by Collection Liberté Grande, then becomes a palimpsest of all of these nostalgic memories, without ever falling into a bitterness which privileges the past (though Habib still prefers celluloid to digital). This makes it quite apt that it begins with a discussion of other cinematic palimpsest art-works like Jim Campbell’s Illuminated Averages, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s movie theater photographs, and Piere Bismuth’s motion drawing on film stills.

How does a cinephilia emerge when there aren’t any models? Who to look up to when there aren’t any equivalents like Daney or Peter Wollen? After two world wars, this forties québécois cinephilia period has its roots in both trauma (of the war) and pleasure (of finding a moment of escape) – two strong emotions that form a narrative to the book. La Main Gauche de Jean-Pierre Léaud traces this history of spectatorship and programming and the creation of these theatrical avenues. Though Brault, Lefebvre, Arcand and Jutra are brought up surprisingly not so much the National Film Board. Perhaps more attention to the creators of some seminal films could have expanded its range. Someone like Paul Almond (Isabel) has fascinating stories of driving to New York to watch A Clockwork Orange and Ingmar Bergman films. Anything on Gilles Carle would have been fascinating too. But regardless, a fascinating study.

To continue this cultural memory of a Québécois cinephilia, another great example comes in Robert Schwartzwald’s new contribution to the Queer Film Classic series on Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. It’s an impressively organized study, which contextualizes the film within Vallée’s career, its universal relatability, which is enriched by an interview with its screenplay writer François Boulay. Schwartzwald’s analysis is particularly attuned to the film’s visual and musical strategies, its representation of the rural and urban dichotomy so important in Québec, the zeitgeist of the Quiet Revolution, the emergence of queerness in the society of the times, and contextualizes it along other queer films. But there's also a nice personal post-script on why he particularly identifies with it and how it relates to his life. This just shows the strong affect C.R.A.Z.Y. has had on people.

These two books enrich the cultural memory surrounding a Canadian cinephilia. To best move forward, the memories of the past still offer us a great model.

Some New Canadian Films

With Canada’s Top Ten currently going on, it’s a good time as any, to discuss some recent films made in the country over the last year. There’s some great films screening in this year’s selection, which includes, Guy Maddin with his silent-film revery The Forbidden Room and the making of Hyena Road, Bring me the Head of Tim Horton, both which he made with Evan and for Tim Horton, Galen Johnson. Alan Zweig’s documentary on Steve Fonyo, Hurt, is there. There’s some young Québécois directors like Anne Émond with her family epic, Les êtres chers and Philippe Lesage’s critically acclaimed Les Démons. There's also a retrospective screening of the Canadian classic, Sandy Wilson’s My American Cousin (1985), and a panel on Coming of Age in Canadian Film moderated by Jason Anderson, with, most notably, Andrew Cividino, the director of Sleeping Giant.

Of the films that I’ve seen I would highlight Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster. It’s an interesting coming of age story, somewhere between Amy George and I Killed My Mother, of a young teenager, dealing with being queer, in the Maritimes. Connor Jessup, from Falling Skies, clearly shows his versatile acting range as the lead Oscar, an aspiring makeup artist and photographer, whose dealing with his troubled family life and emerging homosexuality. And the whole cast is great, which includes the Toronto director Sofia Banzhaf as his best friend, Aliocha Schneider as his male crush, and Isabella Rossellini as the voice of his talking pet hamster.

It’s worth also highlighting here Dunn’s partner, A.J. Bond’s own film, Stress Position, where Dunn even has a small role. It's another interesting recent film in Canadian cinema. In it two friends, Bond and Kyle (David Amito) endure torture at each other’s hands, evoking how they would react if they would have been trapped in Guantanamo Bay. The two supposed friends bring each other to tears for the purpose to reveal some hidden humanity in the other. It recalls one of those reflexive old NFB documentaries, as there's the 'torture' scenes themselves, and then a detached commentary on it while watching the footage from an observatory room. Stress Position recalls the torture room from Videodrome or in an alternative version of George Lucas’ THX 1138. Marguerite Moreau is great as the supervisor.

I’ve seen a couple of the shorts too, which I liked. Sol Friedman’s Bacon & God’s Wrath, a ninety year old Jewish woman reflects on her life and decides to test her faith by trying bacon for the first time (she likes it!). Part documentary, part stop-motion, part animation, Friedman's film is about the fundamental changes occurring to Judaism culture, while also being cinematically creative and funny. And finally Steven McCarthy’s O negative, staring McCarthy and Alyx Melone, shot by Cabot McNenly and edited by Stéphane Lafleur – what an all star cast! It’s story of two vampires murdering innocent victims for their blood is reminiscent in content to Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day and in form to Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color. It’s study of the lengths people will go to for their partner is gripping, suspenseful, and troubling. According to a Film International interview with McCarthy by Tom Ue, there's work of turning it into a feature.

There should be more Canadian films like these!

Toronto DIY Filmmakers in Cinema Scope 2015

Cinema Scope, perhaps the best film magazine, has had a good year in 2015. Four issues, four covers: Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s The Forbidden Room, Miguel Gomes for the Arabian Nights trilogy, a portrait of Hong Sang-soo after Right Now, Wrong won the Pardo d’oro at Locarno, and a portrait of a young Chantal Akerman in response to the news of her tragic death. A familiarity with at least these four figures provides a good base for an understanding of contemporary cinema, which can only be enriched by exploring some of the other titles and reviews throughout the magazine.

Cinema Scope is typically ahead of film reviewing trends as it publishes its critiques of new films straight from their festival premieres whether it is Berlin, Cannes, Locarno or Toronto. Throughout their yearly output several narratives can be traced: New directors that emerged, aesthetic trends in world cinema, new works by major directors, experimental films and video art, a reflection on film history, and the year’s release of DVDs and film books.

The year 2015 was interesting at Cinema Scope for their coverage of the Toronto DIY filmmakers. It’s a broad label to describe young filmmakers from the Greater Toronto Area who are making more independent and artisanal films. The films are mostly shot digitally and most of the directors are from one of Toronto’s film production schools, such as York University and Ryerson. The young directors offer a new perspective on the Canadian experience, which typically are more raw and melancholic, vital and full of life than some of the nation’s more ‘official’ media output. It’s origins can be traced back to 2009 with Kazik Radwanski’s MDF Trilogy: Assault, Princess Margaret Blvd, Out In That Deep Blue Sea, Simon Ennis’ You Might as Well Live and Matt Johnson’s Nirvana The Band.  

In the spring issue of Cinema Scope (N.62) Shelly Kraicer has a feature essay on Luo Li, Of Time and the River: Mapping the Cinema of Luo Li, to promote Li’s newest film Li Wen at East Lake. In Toronto it premiered at the Images Festival before Li would go on to have a retrospective at the TIFF Cinematheque. Kraicer describes Li’s films as being, “Marked by narrative playfulness, implicitly subversive formal innovation and elegant, beautifully crafted images, and pervaded by a remarkably gentle, unassuming confidence.” Li, a York film production graduate, is typically grouped with the new generation directors sub-category of the Toronto DIY filmmakers, which are first- and second-generation immigrants to Canada, who reside in and around Toronto, but whose films are set back in their home country. These directors include Li, Nicolás Pereda, Igor Drljaca, Albert Shin, Simone Rapisarda Casanova and Lina Rodriguez.

In the summer issue (N.63) Jason Anderson spotlights from the Cannes Critic’s Week Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, a coming-of-age story of three boys set in Thunder Bay, which he describes as coming, “far closer than most teen-centric dramas to conveying the damage that young people can inflict on each other as they constantly jockey for power.” Sleeping Giant would go on to join Canada’s Top Ten. In the fall issue (N.64) Phil Coldiron interviewed Isiah Medina, who just moved to Toronto earlier in the year, for his experimental film 88:88. Coldiron wrote about how it “necessitates the creation of a new experimental form of the system composed of cuts and frames which we generally refer to as montage,” while Medina compares it to a Moebius strip.

And in the most recent winter issue (N.65) Sean Rogers reviews both Igor Drljaca’s The Waiting Room and Radwanski’s How Heavy this Hammer for their spotlight on fall festival films. Rogers wrote about them, “I considered the way they made the city feel: anonymous, provisional, somewhere to wait. In the drearier moments of this place that I live, that certainly seems like Toronto, all right.” Prior to this their films would have been only reviewed on Cinema Scope Online for their festival premiere, with Christoph Huber reviewing Radwanski’s Tower and Angelo Muredda How Heavy This Hammer, and John Semley reviewing Drljaca’s Krivina and Adam Nayman The Waiting Room. Though Radwanski was featured in print in the fall 2012 issue (N. 52) with a conversation with Pereda, Unexpected Textures, moderated by Christopher Heron.

Though it’s a shame that Blake Williams (an experimental filmmaker, who also writes for the magazine) wasn’t included in their coverage of 'The Third Image: 3D as Experiment' at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival where his work was playing. 

But it’s the first time that Cinema Scope has featured a young Toronto director in every of their quarterly issues. Previous Toronto DIY filmmaker's films reviewed at the magazine include an interview with Matt Johnson by Calum Marsh for The Dirties in the summer 2013 issue (N.55), Robert Koehler wrote about Pereda’s work as early as Summer 2010 (N.43) before he would go on to be included in their ‘best fifty filmmakers under fifty’ issue, Anderson wrote on Simone Rapisarda Casanova’s The Creation of Meaning in the fall 2014 issue (N.60), and Adam Nayman reviewed Daniel Cockburn’s You Are Here in their fall 2010 issue (N.44). There’s been also some online reviews of the Toronto DIY films like Nayman’s review of Simon Ennis’ Lunarcy!, Jason Anderson on Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas’ The Oxbow Cure, and Michael Vass interviewed Antoine Bourges regarding East Hastings Pharmacy.

It’s the first time that the Toronto DIY film community has received so much positive exposure and it’ll be great to see it keep continuing. The quantity and diversity of the directors is growing and their films are getting better and receiving more exposure. So what to do next? How to get more attention for these films? First off: The filmmakers need to give their films their all - make them count, aim for the stars, and make sure to do everything possible to conserve their vision. The MDFF series has been great so far at creating a community of filmmakers and an audience to create an interest in these more different types of films. Things are looking good and there is an interest. 

The future of Canadian cinema is in the hands of these young directors. Many of the above mentioned films will be getting a theatrical release in the upcoming months so it would be important to go see them and show an interest to support the filmmakers. Other new projects include: Nadia Litz’ The People Garden, Daniel Cockburn has been preparing a project for a while (in 2015 he made a short-documentary on Atom Egoyan) and it looks like Rebeccah Love has a few projects also in the works. Calvin Thomas and Yonah and Lev Lewis still need to release Spice it Up and Lev Lewis is currently finishing Sublet. There's curiosity about what new projects Sofia Bohdonowicz, Pavan Moondi and Brian Robertson have to offer in 2016. Daniel Warth and Miles Barstead’s Dim the Fluorescents looks interesting and so does Fantavious Fritz’ Lewis. But most importantly what everyone wants to see is Matt Johnson’s Operation Avalanche which will premiere in the Next Program at Sundance. Here's to 2016!

Top Ten Films of 2015 (Group Post)

David Davidson

1. Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallée)

2. How Heavy this Hammer (Kazik Radwanski)

3. The Waiting Room (Igor Drljača)

4. Diamond Tongues (Pavan Moondi and Brian Robertson)

5. Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)

6. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)

7. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)

8. 88:88 (Isiah Medina)

9. Something Horizontal (Blake Williams)

10. Minotaur (Nicolás Pereda) / Li Wen at East Lake (Luo Li)

Major Discovery: Crime Wave (John Paizs, 1985)

Honorable Mentions: Jean-Marc (Annie St-Pierre), Abacus, My Love (Rebeccah Love), Les êtres chers (Anne Émond), Love Sounds (Masha Tupitsyn), May We Sleep Soundly (Denis Côté), Hit 2 Pass (Kurt Walker), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams), The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino), #AllMyMovies (Shia Labeouf).

***

Candice Beaith

1. Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallée)

2. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)

3. Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh)

4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)

5. Mad Max: Fury Road ( George Miller.)

6. The Visit (M. Night Shyamalan)

7. Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow)

8. Fifty Shades of Grey (Sam Taylor-Johnson)

9. Pitch Perfect 2 (Elizabeth Banks)

10 (tie). Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen) / Minions (Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin) / Shaun the Sheep (Mark Burton, Richard Starzak)  

Honorable Mentions (YouTube): Gato malo :: Thug Life, Lucifur is a dick, Cat Punching a Toy Tiger.

***

Nicholas Little

- The Big Short (Adam McKay)
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
- Joy (David O. Russell)
- Lost River (Ryan Gosling)
- Love 3D (Gaspar Noé)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
- Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
- The Martian (Ridley Scott)
- The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
- Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
- Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)
- The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy)

***

Megan Widawski

- Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
- Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh)
- Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray)
- The Final Girls (Todd Strauss-Schulson)
- Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
- Miss You Already (Catherine Hardwicke)
- Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro)
- Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

*** 

Samuel Adelaar
- Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)
- Park Lanes (Kevin Jerome Everson)
- Blackhat (Michael Mann)
- Heaven Knows What (Benny and Josh Safdie)
- L for Leisure (Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn)
- Storm Children, Book One (Lav Diaz)
- The Dragon is the Frame (Mary Helena Clark)
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Minotaur (Nicolás Pereda)
- Engram of Returning (Daïchi Saïto)

Major Discovery: Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, 1968), Actua 1 (Philippe Garrel, 1968).

***

Scott Birdwise*
1. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell) 

2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)   

3. The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy)  

4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)   

5. 88:88 (Isiah Medina)  

6. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer) 

7. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)   

8. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)  9. The Mask (a.k.a. Eyes of Hell, 1961, reissue 2015, Julian Roffman)  
10. Black Mass (Scott Cooper) 

* For those who distrust 'top ten lists' because while I see the pleasure and certain use-value in best-of lists, I also find them competitive, and even akin to grocery lists.

***

Spencer Everhart
- 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Blackhat (Michael Mann) 
- Blood Below The Skin (Jennifer Reeder) 
- Field Niggas (Khalik Allah) 
- Hannibal: Season 3 (Various) 
- La última pelicula (Raya Martin / Mark Peranson) 
- L For Leisure (Whitney Horn / Lev Kalman) 
- Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins) 
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
- Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
- The Mend (John Magary) 
- Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo) 
- Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello) 
- Tangerine (Sean Baker)

***

Jesse Cumming
1. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes) 
2. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) 
3. Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis) 
4. The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki) 
5. Tangerine (Sean Baker) 
6. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Pondering Existence (Roy Andersson) 
7. Buzzard (Joel Potrykus) 
8. Park Lanes (Kevin Jerome Everson) 
9. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
10. (T)ERROR (Lyric R. Cabral & David Felix Sutcliffe)

***

Simone Smith
1. Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
4. Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)
5. Kilo Two Bravo (Paul Katis)
6. Love 3D (Gaspar Noé)
7. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
8. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
9. Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallée)
10. Closet Monster (Stephen Dunn)

***

Oriane Sidre
1. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
2. Son of Saul (László Nemes)
3. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
4. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
6. Leopardi (Mario Martone)
7. Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
8. The Walk (Robert Zemeckis)
9. When Marnie Was There (Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
10. The Last Hammer Blow (Alix Delaporte)

***

Blake Williams
1. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson) 
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 
3. Blood of My Blood (Marco Bellocchio) 
4. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino) 
5. The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu) 
6. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes) 
7. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
8. Results (Andrew Bujalski) 
9. Entertainment (Rick Alverson) 
10. Valley of Love (Guillaume Nicloux) 

Shorts: Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson), Hard as Opal (Jared Buckhiester, Dani Leventhal), Max Thurnheim (Friedl vom Gröller), A Minute Ago (Rachel Rose), moon blink (Rainer Kohlberger), Non-Stop Beautiful Ladies (Alee Peoples), Palms (Mary Helena Clark), 3D-Movie (Paul Sharits), Traces/Legacy (Scott Stark), Wake (Eric Stewart).

***

Jordan Cronk
1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 
3. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes) 
4. 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
5. Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello) 
6. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) 
7. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel) 
8. Visit, or Memories and Confessions (Manoel de Oliveira) 
9. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo) 
10. Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik)

***

Justin J. Morris
 1. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson) / Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson) 
2. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams) 
3. The Chinatown Mystery (J.P. McGowan, 1928) 
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
5. Spy Smasher (William Witney, 1942) 
6. Something Horizontal (Blake Williams) 
7. The Big Show (Mack V. Wright, 1936) 
8. Rain (Lewis Milestone, 1932) 
9. Ricki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme, 2015) 
10. Jupiter Ascending (The Wachowskis, 2015)

***

Mark Cira 
1. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh) 
2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold) 
3. Dheepan (Jacques Audiard)  
4. Wild Tales (Damián Szifron) 
5. The Martian (Ridley Scott) 
6. Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis) 
7. Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallée) 
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
9. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach) 
10. Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)  

Honorable Mentions: Son of Saul (Lázló Nemes), Diamond Tongues (Pavan Moondi), The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos), Spotlight (Tom McCarthy).
Best Short Film: World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt).

***

Ryan Krahn
1. The Witch (Robert Eggers)
2. Macbeth (Justin Kurzel) 
3. 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
4. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrell) 
5. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)  
6. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper) 
7. The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu) 
8. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
9. Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović) 
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 

***

Sofia Bohdanowicz
- No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
- An Old Dog's Diary (Shumona Goel, Shai Heredia)
- The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
- Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)
- The Witch (Robert Eggers)
- Analysis of Emotions and Vexations (Wojciech Bakowski)
- Field Niggas (Khalik Allah)
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Thing (Anouk De Clercq)
- Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

***

Nadia Litz

- Clouds of Sils Maria. Kristen Stewarts subtle performance was supremely overlooked in Camp X-Ray. In Clouds of Sils Maria Stewart is perfectly matched against Juliette Binoche. Assayas' film is talky, beguiling and compelling.  

- Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. This has everything I love about movies. It is self-reflexive, idiosyncratic, elegantly directed and Rinko Kikuchi is da bomb.   

- Mad Max: Fury Road. This was the most perfect popcorn movie of the decade. It was a truly entertaining, expertly executed, female action film. Subversive in a way that big blockbuster films in 2015 should be.     

- The Wolfpack. This human story leaves you gobsmacked. It's about story telling, imagination and fear. Not a perfect documentary but it taught me a lot about my own fears and how I need to get out more.

- Entertainment. I saw this at the Carlton on an afternoon with a bunch of dudes and they all warned me that I would hate it. But I actually thought that it was one of the most brilliant films I had seen in a long while.  

- The End of the Tour. I was surprised I liked this as much as I did because it was about two dudes (one of them being David Foster Wallace) and their blah blah blah problems with handling success and genius. But I was depressed after it for days. Good job.   

- Love 3D. This is middle-age hip at its worst with Noé thinking overhead threesomes are still provocative but he gets a pass for aging ungracefully because Irreversible was one of the greatest films ever made. I put it on my list because I wish people there were more movies like this: totally self-indulgent, French and stylish.

- Mr. Robot (Season 1). Malek Rami. That is all. 
- Jessica Jones (Season 1). Krysten Ritter. That is all.  

- The Affair (Season 2). I made a movie called Hotel Congress about affairs which is not bad and every second I watch The Affair I wish I had made this instead. Added fun bonus: test the grit of your relationship by watching with your partner! 

***

Simon Ennis
This list includes 2015 festival titles that have not yet technically had a theatrical release... Therefore it also disqualifies 2014 festival titles that have subsequently had a 2015 theatrical release (i.e. The Look of Silence, It Follows, etc).

- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
- Entertainment (Rick Alverson)
- Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
- Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
- The Witch (Robert Eggers)
- Buzzard (Joel Potrykus)
- Kurt Cobain : Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
- Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 

Honorable Mentions: Journey to the Shore (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg), Mistress America (Noah Baumbach), Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry).

***

Erwin Van Cotthem
1. How Heavy this Hammer (Kazik Radwanski)
2. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
3. Spectre (Sam Mendes)
4. Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow)
5. Furious 7 (James Wan)
6. We Are Still Here (Ted Geoghegan)
7. Do You Believe (Jon Gunn)
8. Run All Night (Jaume Collet-Serra)
9. Black Mass (Scott Cooper)
10. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg)

***

Pavan Moondi
1. The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)
2. Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
3. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
4. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
5. Tangerine (Sean S. Baker)
6. Nasty Baby (Sebastián Silva)
7. Entertainment (Rick Alverson)
8. Results (Andrew Bujalski)
9. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
10. 7 Chinese Brothers (Bob Byington)

Honorable Mentions: Amy (Asif Kapadia), Buzzard (Joel Potrykus), Carol (Todd Haynes), James White (Josh Mond), Joy (David O. Russell), Love 3D (Gaspar Noé), Manglehorn (David Gordon Green), The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu).

***

Brian Robertson
- 99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)
- Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
- The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)
- Entertainment (Rick Alverson)
- The Knick (Season 2)
- Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)   
- Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro)
- Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
- Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
- The Witch (Robert Eggers)

***

Rob Trench
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)  
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)  
3. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)  
4. Hard to Be a God (Alexei German)  
5. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)  
6. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson)  
7. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)  
8. The Mend (John Magary)  
9. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)  
10. Spotlight (Thomas McCarthy) 

***

Mitch Ariel
1. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) 
2. Veteran (Ryoo Seung-wan) 
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
4. Hong Kong Trilogy (Christopher Doyle) 
5. Creed (Ryan Coogler) 
6. While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach) 
7. Trainwreck (Judd Apatow) 
8. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach) 
9. Port of Call (Philip Yung) 
10. Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro)

***

Natasha Blair
1. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)
2. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
3. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
4. Colonia (Florian Gallenberger)
5. The Here After (Magnus von Horn)
6. Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)
7. Iris (Albert Maysles)
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
9. I Am Divine (Jeffrey Schwarz)
10. Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)

***

Erin Elizabeth

1. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
2. Taxi (Jafar Panahi) 
3. Son of Saul (László Nemes)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
5. Room (Lenny Abraham) 
6. Der Nachtmahr (Achim Bornhak) 
7. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
8. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) 
9. Field Niggas (Khalik Allah) 
10. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)    

Major Discovery: Mommy (Xavier Dolan), Force Majeure (Ruben Ostlund), Phantom of the Paradise (Brian de Palma), The Babadook (Jennifer Kent), The Dirties (Matt Johnson), Wild Tales (Damián Szifrón). 

***

Alan Randolph Jones
1. CHAPPiE (Neill Blomkamp)
2: Tangerine (Sean Baker)
3: Smokers Allowed (Nathan Fielder) 
4: Furious 7 (James Wan)
5: The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
6: Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
7. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
8. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
9. Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray)
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

***

Marko Balaban
1. Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
4. Tangerine (Sean Baker)
5. Wild Tales (Damián Szifron)
6. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
7. Ex-Machina (Alex Garland)
8. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
9. Les démons (Philippe Lesage)
10. 99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)
11. Zero-Motivation (Talya Lavie)

Honourable Mentions: Girlhood (Céline Sciamma), The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky), Spy (Paul Feig), Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz), Sicario (Denis Villeneuve), Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray), The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos), Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino).

Best Documentaries:
1. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. The Pearl Button (Patricio Guzmán)
3. The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders, Julian Ribeiro-Salgado)
4. The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)
5. Hurt (Alan Zweig)
6. Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville)
7. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
8. Kingdom of Dream and Madness (Mami Sunada)
9. Making a Murderer (Laura Ricciardi, Moira Demos)
10. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)
11. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Andrew Jarecki)

***

Will Sloan
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
2. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
4. Buzzard (Joel Potrykus)
5. Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)
6. Shaun the Sheep (Mark Burton, Richard Starzak)
7. Stand By for Tape Back-Up (Ross Sutherland)
8. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson)
9. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
10. Heaven Knows What (Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)

***

Alexandra Busgang
- A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
-  Wherever I look, I See Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
- m.A.A.d. (Kahlil Joseph)
- Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
- Amy (Asif Kapadia)
- Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
- Iris (Albert Maysles)
- The End of the Tour (James Ponsol)

***

Megan Moffat
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
3. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
4. 45 Years ( Andrew Haigh)
5. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
6. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
7. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)
8. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
9. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)  
10. Slow West (John Maclean)

***

Jason Wilson
1. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
3. Carol (Todd Haynes)
4. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
5. Brooklyn (John Crowley)
6. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
7. The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)
8. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)
9. Son of Saul (László Nemes)
10. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)

***

Cody Lang

1. Blackhat (Michael Mann a.k.a. The Grandmaster of Cinema) 
2. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo) 
3. 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
4. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
5. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
6. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
7. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako) 
8. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) 
9. Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson)
10. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)

***

C.J. Prince

1. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson) 
2. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland) 
3. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
4. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 
5. The Invitation (Karyn Kusama) 
6. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) 
7. Invention (Mark Lewis) 
8. Meurtrière (Philippe Grandrieux) 
9. Sunset Song (Terence Davies) 
10. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)  

Honorable Mentions: They Look Like People (Perry Blackshear), Les êtres chers (Anne Émond), Experimenter (Michael Almereyda), Sicario (Denis Villeneuve), The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky).

***

 Ethaniel Vestby

1. 88:88 (Isiah Medina)
2. Heaven Knows What (Josh and Benny Safdie) 
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
4. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes) 
5. Sunset Song (Terence Davies) 
6. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) 
7. The Mend (John Magary) 
8. The Visit (M. Night Shyamalan) 
9. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)  
10. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)

***

Sean Rogers

Five from TIFF: 
1. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes) 
2. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson) and Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson) 
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
4. 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
5. Night without Distance (Lois Patiño)  

Five from other local screenings: 
6. Field Niggas (Khalik Allah) [MDFF] 
7. Blackhat (Michael Mann) [multiplex] 
8. Bagboy (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) [television] 
9. Western (Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross) [Hot Docs] 
10. Storm Children, Book One (Lav Diaz) [Images]

***

Chris Kennedy

- Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul). So nice to inhabit Joe's world again. The slow unfolding allows the characters to just be, and for you to be with them. 

- Ellie Epp¹s video quintet - a return to form after a long (20+ year) absence, Epp imbued these five HD video shorts with the same power of presence that made her 16mm films so important.

- Fantasmas Cromáticos ­(Claudio Caldini). An amazing three screen projection with the same strip of black and white super 8 film going through 3 projectors, each with a color filter on its lens. The way ghostly images drifted in and out of full colour was stunning.  

- The Other Side ­(Roberto Minervini). Raw and sensuous, especially the first half, glowing with the absolute pride the subjects have in their own bodies.  

- Fugue (Kerstin Schrödinger). A precise motion capture 16mm film that elevated the "image as analogous soundtrack" technique to a new level. 

- A Minute Ago (Rachel Rose). A complete surprise, every step of the way. Crazy found footage meets equally bonkers digital manipulation.  

- Good Men Good Women (Hou Hsiao-hsien). The only film I managed to catch in the HHH retrospective. A moving film and a reminder how good his films look with 35mm grain (an essential characteristic to his films which was compressed away by a rather flat DCP when I saw The Assassin).  

- Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). For a long time on my must see list thanks to a Bordwall/Thompson film still, this rare silent film is as epic as they come.  

- Even a Cyclops Pays the Ferryman (Malcolm LeGrice,1998). A completely immersive triptych video honoring the passing of LeGrice's father.  

Lost village in Wales, an installation by Faraz Anoushapour, Parastoo Anoushapour and Ryan Ferko. An extremely clever installation using scavenged home movies and glow-in-the-dark paint.  

Honorable Mention: Brûle le Mer by Maki Bercache and Nathalie Nambot was on my top ten last year, but this year's surge in refugee migrancy made the film's take on hospitality even more relevant.

***

Cameron Moneo
First, I’d like to say that many of my friends made wonderful films this year. Their films were my real favorites. As for the rest (limited to films I left my house to see)… At TIFF 2015 I liked:     Fallen Objects (Shambhavi Kaul), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson), Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson), and Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo). At The Free Screen: Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (Michael Snow) and Color Series (Madison Brookshire). At Early Monthly Segments: Mala Leche (Naomi Uman) and  Innocents Abroad (Les Blank). At the Cinematheque: La Gueule ouverte (Maurice Pialat). On an airplane: Vacation (John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein). New or old, the best film I laid my eyes on all year was Stan Brakhage’s Tortured Dust (1984), screened at the Sham Theatre.

***

Richard Lippe

- The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)  
- Carol (Todd Haynes)  
- 11 Minutes (Jerzy Skolimowski)
- In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)  
- Life (Anton Corbijn)
- Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)   
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
- Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
- Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)
- Slow West (John Maclean)

***

Thom Loree 
1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
2. 11 Minutes (Jerzy Skolimowski)
3. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)  
4. Irrational Man (Woody Allen)  
5. Mia madre (Nanni Moretti)  
6. The Walking Dead (Season 5) 
7. Wolf Hall (Peter Kosminsky)  
8. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
9. Afternoon (Tsai Ming-liang)  
10. Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)

***

Julia Cooper
1. Body (Ciało) (Malgorzata Szumowska)  
2. James White (Josh Mond) 
3. The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)  
4. Bad At Dancing (Joanna Arnow) 
5. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
6. The Overnight (Patrick Brice) 
7. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
8. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
9. Tangerine (Sean Baker) 
10. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)

***

Peter Merriman
1. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland) 
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
4. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
5. Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
6. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)
7. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
8. Spy (Paul Feig)
9. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
10. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

Honorable Mention: Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson)

***

Laura-Louise Tobin  
- Tangerine (Sean Baker) 
- Slow West (John Maclean) 
- I Am A Knife With Legs (Bennet Jones) 
- Entertainment (Rick Alverson) 
- Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney) 
- Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry) 
- Dum Laga Ke Haisha (Sharat Katariya) 
- Mistress America (Noah Baumbach) 
- How Heavy The Hammer (Kazik Radwanski)
- Decker (Season 3)

***

 Jason Anderson
1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid)
4. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
5. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
6. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
7. Experimenter (Michael Almereyda)
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
9. James White (Josh Mond)
10. The Big Short (Adam McKay)

***

Adam Nayman 
Ten new films I should have known better than to watch in 2015:
- Knock Knock (Eli Roth) 
- The Revenant (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) 
- Love 3D (Gaspar Noe) 
- Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) 
- Victoria (Sebastian Schipper) 
- Terminator: Genisys (Alan Taylor) 
- Hyena Road (Paul Gross) 
- "Hello" (Adele video) (Xavier Dolan) 
- Trainwreck (Judd Apatow) 
- Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro)
- Chappie (Neill Blomkamp)

***

Norman Wilner (from Now Toronto)
1. The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby (Ned Benson)
2. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
4. The Mend (John Magary)
5. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
6. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)
8. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

9. The Big Short (Adam McKay)

10. Paddington (Paul King)

***

Tina Hassannia
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
2. Tangerine (Sean Baker)
3. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
4. Brooklyn (John Crowley)
5. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
6. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
7. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
8. Taxi (Jafar Panahi) 
9.  Buzzard (Joel Potrykus)
10. Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)  

***

Charles Trapunski
1. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
2. The Big Short (Adam McKay)
3. The Sandwich Nazi (Lewis Bennett)
4. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky) 
5. Court (Chaitanya Tamhane) / Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz)
6. Blind (Eskil Vogt)
7. Wild Tales (Damián Szifron)
8. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
9. The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
10. The Martian (Ridley Scott) / Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson)

***

Leora Heilbronn

1. Son of Saul (László Nemes)
2. Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh)
3. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
4. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
5. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
6. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
7. Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
8. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
9. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
10. Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)

***

Peter Kuplowsky
- Stand By For Tape Back-Up (Ross Sutherland) 
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
- Slow West (John Maclean) 
- The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) 
- Love and Peace (Sion Sono) 
- Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
- The Whispering Star (Sion Sono) 
- The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu) 
- Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
- The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)  

Honorable Mentions: The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino), Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen), Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn), Furious 7 (James Wan).

***

John Semley
1. Smokers Allowed (Nathan Fielder)  
2. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)  
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)  
4. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
5. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
6. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
7. Entertainment (Rick Alverson) 
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
9. Hard To Be A God (Alexei German)  

10. Creed (Ryan Coogler)

Honorable Mentions: The Gift, the debut from triple-threat Joel Edgerton and the high water mark for this year's micro-canon of glass house home invasion thrillers, rounded out Knock, Knock and Goodnight Mommy, which were also very good.  
Favourite performance of the year: Sylvester Stallone in Creed. 

***

Eastern Yoo
1. Results (Andrew Bujalski)
2. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
4. Love 3D (Gaspar Noé)
5. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
6. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
7. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg)
8. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
9. The Interior (Trevor Juras)
10. SPL II: A Time for Consequences (Cheang Pou-soi)

***

Adam Litovitz
- The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
- Carol (Todd Haynes) 
- Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
- Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
- Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
- Taxi (Jafar Panahi)
- Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)
- Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)   
- Hard To Be A God (Alexei German)
- Tangerine (Sean Baker)

- Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
- Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes)

***

Niles Schwartz

1. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
2. Hard to be a God (Alexei German) 
3. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) 
4. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
5. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako) 
6. Irrational Man (Woody Allen) / It Follows (David Robert Mitchell) 
7. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas) 
8. Blackhat (Michael Mann) / Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson) 
9. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)  

Honorable Mentions: Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (David and Nathan Zellner), Wild Tales (Damián Szifron), Ricki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme), Tangerine (Sean Baker), The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland), The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Experimenter (Michael Almereyda), Creed (Ryan Coogler), White God (Kornél Mundruczó).

***

Marcus Pinn

- Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
- Portrait of the Artist (Antoine Barraud)
- Entertainment (Rick Alverson)
- Carol (Todd Haynes)
- Creed (Ryan Coogler)
- Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
- Youth (Paolo Sorrentino)
- Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
- Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)

Major Discovery: Lightning Over Braddock: A Rustbowl Fantasy (Tony Buba, 1988)

Honorable Mentions: Phoenix (Christian Petzold), The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos), Sicario (Denis Villeneuve), Room (Lenny Abrahamson), Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives (Bobbito Garcia).

***

Andrew Stanley

In no particular order, and of no particular time frame.  
- Keane (Lodge Kerrigan, 2004)
- A Women Under The Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
- James White (Josh Mond, 2015)
- Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
- Heaven Knows What (Benny and Josh Safdie, 2015)
- Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry, 2015)
- Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969)
- Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2015)
- The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)
- Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015)
- Notebook on Cities and Clothes (Wim Wenders, 1989)
- Rosetta (Dardenne brothers, 1999)
- Je, Tu , Ill, Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974)
- Carne (Gaspar Noé, 1991)
- Entertainment (Rick Alverson, 2015)

***

Jason Harris

1. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
2. Beast of No Nation (Cary Fukunaga)
3. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)  
5. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
6. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
7. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
8. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
9. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)

10. Ant-Man (Peyton Reed) 

***

Courtney Small

1. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
3. Tangerine (Sean Baker)
4. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
5. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
6. Carol (Todd Haynes)
7. Beast of No Nation (Cary Fukunaga)
8. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
9. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
10. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

***

Noah Taylor
- Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)  
- Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
- Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
- What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi)
- Sicario (Denis Villeneuve) 
- The Overnight (Patrick Kack-Brice)
- Creed (Ryan Coogler)
- Lost River (Ryan Gosling)

***

Adriana Floridia

1. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
2. The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)
3. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
4. Heaven Knows What (Benny and Josh Safdie, 2015)
5. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
6. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
7. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem(Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz)
8. Carol (Todd Haynes)
9. 10,000KM (Carlos Marques)
10. James White (Josh Mond)

***

Guillaume Potvin
- Catch Me Daddy (Daniel Wolfe) 
- Love 3D (Gaspar Noé) 
- Dheepan (Jacques Audiard) 
- Son of Saul (László Nemes)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
- Pinocchio (André-Line Beauparlant) 
- Ex Machina (Alex Garland) 
- It Follows (David Robert Mitchell) 
- Les Démons (Philippe Lesage) 
- Tangerine (Sean Baker) 

***

Justine Smith
1. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
3. Carol (Todd Haynes)
4. Tangerine (Sean Baker) 
5. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
6. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
7. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
8. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
9. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
10. Love 3D (Gaspar Noé)

***

Amir Soltani
1. Carol (Todd Haynes)
2. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
3. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
5. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
6. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
7. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
8. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
9. Shaun the Sheep (Mark Burton, Richard Starzak) 
10. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

***

Shahbaz Kh.

1. Taxi (Jafar Panahi)  
2. Love and Peace (Sion Sono)  
3. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)  
5. Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Sion Sono)  
6. Body (Malgorzata Szumowska)  
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)  
8. The Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick)  
9. Standby for Tape Back-up (Ross Sutherland)  
10. The Witch (Robert Eggers) 

***

Mark Barber 
1. Carol (Todd Haynes)
2. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) 
3. The Witch (Robert Eggers)
4. The Whispering Star (Sion Sono)
5. Taxi (Jafar Panahi) 
6. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson)
7. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
8. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
9. Backcountry (Adam MacDonald)
10. Krampus (Michael Dougherty)

***

Ben Harrison
1. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson) 
2. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
3. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo) 
4. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) 
5. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
6. Tangerine (Sean Baker) 
7. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)  
8. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 
9. How Heavy This Hammer (Kazik Radwanski) 
10. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

***

Matt Blais
1. 88:88 / For May and December (Isiah Medina) 
2. Blackhat (Michael Mann) 
3. Arabian Nights Vol. 3 – The Enchanted One (Miguel Gomes) 
4. Berg’s fatalism (Alexandre Galmard) 
5. Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh) 
6. Dead Slow Ahead (Mauro Herce) 
7. Far From the Maddening Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg) 
8. The Other Side (Roberto Minervini) 
9. Sunset Song (Terence Davies) 
10. Creed (Ryan Coogler)

Honorable Mentions: Taxi (Jafar Panahi), Tangerine (Sean Baker), The Royal Road (Jenni Olsen), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson), Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino), Louder Than Bombs (Joachim Trier).

***

Adam Cook
1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
4. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
5. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman) 
6. Office (Johnnie To) 
7. Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello) 
8. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) 
9. No Home Move (Chantal Akerman) 
10. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)

***

Kurt Walker
- Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve) 
- 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
- Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood) 
- Carol (Todd Haynes) 
- Creed (Ryan Coogler) 
- Kanye West Live at Glastonbury 2015 (various) 

- Ricki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme) 

- Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (Stephen Cone) 

- Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 

- Results (Andrew Bujalski)
- Love Sounds (Masha Tupitsyn)
 

Best Short Films: Silk Tatters (Gina Telaroli), All Day (Live At The 2015 BRIT Awards) (Explicit) (various); Intimations (Nathaniel Dorsky), Ocean Falls (Ryan Ermacora, Jessica Johnson), Red River Valley (Graham Carter), My Best Friend’s Sister (Alexa Harrington), Codeine Crazy (Vincent Lou Film), Berg’s fatalism (Alexandre Galmard), For May and December (Isiah Medina), Judy Judy Judy (Chris Wells), The Delivery Boy (Andrew Infante).

 ***

Neil Bahadur
1. Pasolini (Abel Ferrara) 
2. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
2. Joy (David O. Russell)
2. In The Shadow Of Women (Philippe Garrel) 
5. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) 
6. 88:88 (Isiah Medina) 
7. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) 
8. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs) 
9. Dead Slow Ahead (Mauro Herce) 
10. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) 
11. Taxi (Jafar Panahi)

***

Kurt Halfyard
1. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
2. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
3. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
4. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
5. Louder Than Bombs (Joachim Trier)
6. Carol (Todd Haynes)
7. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
8. Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
9. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
10. Macbeth (Justin Kurzel)

Honorable Mentions: Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller), Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar), Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda), Amy (Asif Kapadia), The Interior (Trevor Juras), Baahubali (S. S. Rajamouli), Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallée), The Martian (Ridley Scott), An (Naomi Kawase), The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino). 

***

Bob Turnbull
1. Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)
2. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
3. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
4. Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle) 
5. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
7. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
8. Carol (Todd Haynes)
9. The Big Short (Adam McKay)
10. Slow West (John Maclean)

*** 

Sean Kelly

1. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
2. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
3. The Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick)
4. Love and Peace (Sion Sono)
5. She Who Must Burn (Larry Kent)
6. Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)
7. Raiders! (Tim Skousen, Jeremy Coon)
8. Queen of Silence (Agnieszka Zwiefka)
9. Thank You For Playing (Malika Zouhali-Worrall, David Osit)
10. The Martian (Ridley Scott)

***

Corey Pierce
1. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
2. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
3. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
4. Paddington (Paul King)
5. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
6. The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
7. Spring (Justin Benson, Aaron Scott Moorhead)
8. Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
9. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
10. The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino)

Honorable Mentions: Amy (Asif Kapadia), Creed (Ryan Coogler), Tig (Kristina Goolsby, Ashley York), Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville), Slow West (John Maclean), Raiders! (Tim Skousen, Jeremy Coon), The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt), Brooklyn (John Crowley), The Good Dinosaur (Peter Sohn), Dope (Rick Famuyiwa).

***

Matthew Stein
1. Carol (Todd Haynes)
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
4. Arabian Nights Trilogy (Miguel Gomes)
5. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)
6. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
7. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
8. Christmas, Again (Charles Poekel)
9. Magic Mike: XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
10. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)

***

Ryan MacDuff
1. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
2. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
3. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
4. Carol (Todd Haynes)  
5. Magic Mike: XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
6. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)  
7. Heaven Knows What (Benny and Josh Safdie)
8. Stinking Heaven (Nathan Silver)
9. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)  
10. Christmas, Again (Charles Poekel)

Honorable Mentions: L For Leisure (Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn), Unfriended (Leo Gabriadze).

***

Lars Aumueller

- Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) 
- Brooklyn (John Crowley) 
- Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
- Girlhood (Celine Sciamma) 
- Grandma (Paul Weitz) 
- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
- Mistress America (Noah Baumbach) 
- Phoenix (Christian Petzold) 
- Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle) 
- The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid)

***

Soufian Jalili 

- Brooklyn (John Crowley)
- Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
- Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar)
- Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve)
- Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
- Les Cowboys (Thomas Bidegain)
- Lamb (Yared Zeleke)
- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)
- Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)

***

Joe Ciaravino
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
3. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
4. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
5. The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino)
6. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
7. Buzzard (Joel Potrykus)
8. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie)
9. Ant-Man (Peyton Reed) 
10. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)

*** 

Pat Mullen
1. Youth (Paolo Sorrentino)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
4. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
5. Sunshine Superman (Marah Strauch)
6. Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg)
7. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson)
8. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
9. In Her Place (Albert Shin)
10. What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)

***

Roberto Duval
1. Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes) 
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
5. James White (Josh Mond)
6. Entertainment (Rick Alverson)
7. Creed (Ryan Coogler)
8. The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt)
9. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
10. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)

***

Ryan McNeil
1. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 
4. World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt) 
5. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
6. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
7. Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)
8. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen)
9. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson)
10. Creed (Ryan Coogler)

***

Lev Lewis
Here's my version of an Oscar ballot:
Picture: Arabian Nights Trilogy, The Assassin, Carol, Magic Mike XXL, The Treasure.

Actor: Tom Courtenay (45 Years), Tom Hanks (Bridge of Spies), Matthias Schoenaerts (Disorder), Jae-yeong Jeong (Right Now, Wrong Then), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton). 

Actress: Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), Angelina Jolie (By the Sea), Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (Carol), Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), Zhao Tao (Mountains May Depart).

Supporting Actor: Harrison Ford (The Age of Adaline), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Liev Schreiber (Spotlight), Corneliu Cozmei (The Treasure).

Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Blackhat), Tessa Thompson (Creed), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Cynthia Nixon (James White), Andie MacDowell (Magic Mike XXL).

Screenplay: Andrew Haigh (45 Years) Radu Jude and Florin Lazarescu (Aferim!), Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs), Corneliu Porumboiu (The Treasure), M. Night Shyamalan (The Visit). 

Cinematography: Marius Panduru (Aferim!), Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Arabian Nights Trilogy), Ping Bin Lee (The Assassin), Daniele Cipri (Blood of My Blood) Edward Lachmann (Carol).

Editing: Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes and Pedro Marques (Arabian Nights Trilogy), Alfonso Gonçalves (Carol), Mary Ann Bernard (Magic Mike XXL), Marie-Hélène Dozo (The Other Side), Joe Walker (Sicario). 

Original Score: Antonio Pinto (Amy), Ludwig Göransson (Creed), Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight), Yoshihiro Hanno (Mountains May Depart), Jóhann Jóhannsson (Sicario).

Sound: The Assassin, Blackhat, The Event, Son of Saul, The Treasure.

***

Paul Williams
Although the following 7 films are all tied for the best film of 2015, they are presented here in meaningful order...  
- The Forbidden Room / Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson): Maddin reforms his artistic trajectory through a fresh collaboration with experimental filmmaker Evan Johnson in his new epic, The Forbidden Room. Sort of a multi-layered bath-time story, it's the wildest Canadian film in years. The Forbidden Room shares its spot on this year's list with the equally bizarre, albeit completely different, short film that premiered on the TIFF Bell Lightbox's HSBC gallery title wall TIFF 2015. It's Maddin's behind-the-scenes featurette of Paul Gross' comparatively uninteresting war drama, Hyena Road. 
- Stand By for Tape Back-up (Ross Sutherland): Sutherland comes to terms with the death of his grandfather by re-watching an old VHS tape filled with their favorite television shows, etc. He endlessly rewinds, comments on, sings over clips from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the music video of Michael Jackson's Thriller and various UK game shows creating the most unique diary film I've ever seen. 
- Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello): Marcello's jaw-dropping , taboo-shattering docudrama follows a water buffalo from calf to adult while he wanders through a contemporary Italy ravaged by the austerity measures imposed on it by the global banking community. Simultaneously a documentary about global economics and an emotionally overwhelming vegetarian pronunciamento told from the point of view of a highly intelligent and sensitive animal, Lost and Beautiful is truly the only film of its kind.  
- Li Wen at East Lake (Luo Li): Luo Li was Film schooled in Toronto, but now works mostly in mainland China. Li's latest is another bewildering blend of documentary and fiction about a police officer tracking down a local dissident. Li Wen, from The Emperor Visits the Hell, stars.  
- Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry): Fresh off the success of Listen Up Phillip, a film that some believe ranked among the best of 2014, Perry re-casts Elizabeth Moss as a woman recovering from a sudden and devastating romantic break-up at her cousin's cottage in the woods. Part old dark house movie, part Polanski-esque dissection of female neurosis, Queen of Earth is completely different in style from Perry's previous films but every bit as polarizing.  
- No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman): Both Chantal Akerman and her frequent muse (and mother!) lost their lives suddenly to illness this year. No Home Movie is Akerman's experimental documentary about her mother's final months, and the last testament of the greatest contemporary filmmaker in the western world.    

The Best Six Films from the First Half of this Decade:
- Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel): No, not the Russian gangster film (which was excellent), but the other Leviathan about a group of American fisherman fishing the same Atlantic waters as Melville's Moby Dick. An avant-garde horror film from those single-minded filmmakers of Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab, Leviathan deserves to be shot into space as the Earth's best stab at figuring out what it is to be an earthling.  
- Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson): As critical as I am of Anderson's work, I just can't quit you baby! Or stop watching his adaptation of Pynchon's drug-addled, hippie noir novel. Featuring career-best performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin and Owen Wilson and the most sensitive, guilt-ridden depiction of southern California since Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, I.V. captures something as gigantic and monstrous as western capitalism through the point of view of its victims. Wilson's subtle performance of a  heroine-addicted, saxophone player working as a mole for the US government is especially touching.  Beware of the Golden Fang.... 
- Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello): See above...  
- Curling (Denis Cote): A father of a young girl accidentally runs over and kills a young boy playing on a rural road then does his best not to let it bother him. Cote's most accessible film of the decade takes the creepy relationship of a man and his home-schooled daughter and captures the kind of anti-Canadian narrative that happens all too seldom in a country where its best films are all state-sponsored.  
- Listen Up Phillip / Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry): Perry's the best American filmmaker working in mainstream narrative. His voice, though influenced and borrowed  from many others, is singular. And his best is still to come...   

Best Albums of 2015: Deerhunter's Fading Frontier, Colleen's Captain of None, Micachu and the Shapes' Good Sad Happy Bad, Julia Holter's Have You in My Wilderness, Franz Ferdinand and Sparks' FFS (!!!), Hot Chip's Why Make Sense?, Joanna Newsom's Divers, John Grant's Grey Tickles, Black Pressures, Neon Indian's VEGA INTL. Night School, SOPHIE's Product, Speedy Ortiz's Foil Deer, They Might Be Giants' Glean.

Best Song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyX-PRqzV78 

***

Jesse Hawken
- Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis). Commissioned, as have many of Curtis’ documentaries, for the BBC but not broadcast on British television (due to its long running time and atypical format it was only first available through the BBC iPlayer in January), this is one of Curtis’ finest works in an incredibly strong and challenging career of experimental documentary filmmaking. A chronicle of the West’s historic interference in Afghanistan, going back well past the expected frame all the way back into World War II, this documentary struggles with how we as a culture struggle to understand things when nothing actually make sense, which can often lead to an oversimplification of the narrative in an attempt to understand. Is it conventional wisdom that the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism and its war with the West started as early as 1945 with a pact between FDR and the king of Saudi Arabia that had far-reaching and unintended consequences for the superpowers and took us to where we are today? Curtis’ mastery of sound and image is on full display here, as he pieces together file footage and B-roll from the full access he had to the BBC’s extensive film library wedded with disparate tracks from David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails and John Carpenter to weave an amazing impressionistic mess that is a fitting approach to give some form of meaning to the compounding incomprehensibility of this war, and to some extent the modern world being shaped by the war, without tumbling over into conspiracy theory territory. This is a truly boundary-pushing work.

- Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) is miraculous mostly because it shouldn’t exist – some thirty years after the not-very-good Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, the 70-year-old Miller delivered an action film that owed as much to the history of cinema as it pointed towards a possible future for the medium – incredibly complex in design and yet incredibly simple in execution, containing the charge of early silent film epics with modern filmic kineticism. This film was in development for many years and was fortunately delivered to us without the involvement of Mel Gibson. It was also impressive that such a radical, humanist production was also a mainstream box office success (although curiously it made as much money around the world as the listless Terminator: Genisys).

- Mortdecai (David Koepp) – as far as I was concerned, Mortdecai was the most instructive film of the year in this, one of the strongest years for vanity productions in memory. As soon as I saw the cryptic posters of Johnny Depp with a twirly moustache put up all over the city more than a month before the film’s release I knew we were in for something special. Mortdecai's distributor Lionsgate pronounced months before the release that the film “ had franchise written all over it” and despite the ominous January release, spared no expense in a saturation-level promotional campaign, with a wide variety of product tie-ins including moustache grooming products and a particularly grating and prolific twitter account (@parttimerogue) to go along with. What was stunning about the bombing of the film upon release (topping out at 7 million in North America) was just how inversely proportionate it was to the amount spent on making and promoting it (probably about $70 million). I wondered if it might have made even more money with less promotion. The film was apparently Johnny Depp’s dream project, spending a great deal of his Pirates of the Carribean collateral to get it made, and one has to admire his iron-clad commitment to this unplayable part – he gives it his all even though we the audience knows as soon as Mortdecai opens his mouth that we can’t take much more than 30 seconds of this. The film was rated R in the USA and was actually released to VOD in a PG-13 cut that scrubs out the three or four swear words that earned the film an R in the first place, speaking of throwing good money after bad. But as sheer spectacle and folly, no film made me happier this year.

- No Depo$it (Frank D’Angelo) was the widest release yet of a film by the most prolific film director in English Canada (5 feature films in 4 years, with mafia horror film Sicilian Vampire coming out in early 2016 and political thriller The Red Maple Leaf bound for release later in the year). Only Xavier Dolan cranks films out with such regularity in this country. No Depo$it, like its higher-profile counterparts Margin Call and The Big Short display righteous outrage at the recent collapse of the American stock market and the beautiful butterflies broken on the wheels of big business. An all-star cast including Michael Pare, Eric Roberts, Paul Sorvino, Doris Roberts, Peter Coyote and the late Robert Loggia (#RIP) star alongside D’Angelo (who also provides the hermetically sealed universe portrayed here with all of its diegetic and non-diegetic music) in this tale of a man driven to desperate measures after being foreclosed on by the unfeeling, uncaring banking system. Much as Stanley Kubrick used London sets to stand in for Vietnam and Manhattan in his final works, D’Angelo creates an entirely believable New York City out of location work in Hamilton Ontario, on a fraction of the time and budget it would have taken Kubrick, though the attentive viewer will appreciate the little Canadian-isms to be found within the mise-en-scene (like a poster of Don Cherry in the background of a NYPD precinct). Director D’Angelo also stands in stark contrast to the work of such noted control freaks such as Kubrick and Fincher, legendary for their requirements of dozens of takes per scene, by often capturing what he needs to tell the story in one take or less, much as life seldom allows us to redo the key moments in our lives. No Depo$it is by turns a tender love story, a thrilling heist picture that raises uncomfortable moral questions, and finally a paean to kindness and human decency in the form of the largesse of the D’Angelo character in the closing moments of the picture.

- Decker vs. Dracula (Gregg Turkington). Sometimes a great artist creates greatness in the face of all odds, including being betrayed by those who hold the power to make or break an artist, and that is what happened here with the highly awaited first project of the Victorville Film Archive Studio. Much like how David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. was first conceived for television and became a film in the wake of the collapse of his relationship with the originating television network, Decker vs. Dracula fused the frankly listless of-the-moment patriotic tropes of the Decker action TV series with a vital transfusion of classic Hollywood (reuniting the legendary Universal Studios monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein and featuring the epochal return of the long-assumed-dead actor James Dean, making his first appearance on screen in nearly 60 years as the titular vampire). Unfortunately the capricious actor reprising his role as Decker spitefully used what levers of power he still maintained over the franchise (which he had bestowed upon Turkington in the first place) to sabotage the majority of the project – only 3 out of 20 episodes were completed. Turkington released a short documentary in the wake of the collapse of the project that proves, through incomplete footage that he fortunately still had access to, that the paranoid fears of his leading actor were unfounded. I include it here as one would have included The Magnificent Ambersons in a similar end of the year summary in 1942; despite the damage done to the project by those who would meddle with art, that art will always prevail and that time will vindicate the artist.

***

Leslie Supnet
All short works only.
1. Untitled (Brian Random, 2015) [VHS]
2. Equality (Jennifer Chan, 2015) [video]
3. Second Star (Scott Fitzpatrick, 2015) [16mm Single Projection (loops) / live optical sound sampling]
4. Holland, Man. (Aaron Zeghers, 2015) [16mm multi -projection / live musical performance]
5. Still Feeling Blue About Colour Separation (Christine Lucy Latimer, 2015) [Super 8]
6. Mynarski Death Plummet (Matthew Rankin, 2014) [35mm]
7. Mobilize (Caroline Monnet, 2015) [video]
8. Summer Song (Clint Enns, 2015) [Super 8]
9. Higgi Wants In (Winston DeGiobbi, 2015) [video]
10. Thunderbolt (Heidi Philips, 2015) [16mm]

***

Clint Enns
A Few of My Favorite Short Experimental Films and Videos from Toronto (in no particular order): 
- Scrapbook (Mike Hoolboom, 2015): My favorite film of 2015, a difficult and beautiful work that challenges notions of both identity and representation. Working with footage shot by Escarpment School guru and audio/visual healer Jeffrey Paull, footage from Broadview Developmental Center in 1967, Scrapbook examines the faces of the most under-represented and vulnerable. The film tells the story of the audacious autistic Donna Washington as she encounters pictures of her former self. Despite the fact that Washington's voice is played by an actor (further complicating ideas surrounding identity and representation), the voice induces empathy while making sophisticated use of Hoolboom's signature “universal you.”
- Second Sun (Leslie Supnet, 2014): The return of the second sun offers new beginnings.
- Untitled (Brian Random, 2015): A glimpse into the life of a difficult neighbour through a VHS tape found in a thrift shop.
- Still Feeling Blue About Colour Separation (Christine Lucy Latimer, 2015): A blueprint to another time.
- The Public Slaw (Andrew Zukerman and Winston Hacking, 2014): A handmade film that blends found footage, direct animation and emulsion manipulation with the artist's own footage, starring Toronto public access icon Kevin Leggat and dancer Minae Omi. The film is intended to induce the psychedelic state that would occur if one attempted to make magic tacos and to watch internet cat memes, public access television and 90s Japanese noise videos all at the same time.     
- We've met before (Maya Ben David, 2015:) Have you ever had a one-night-stand with an anime character?
- Blossom (Jesi the Elder, 2014) Have you ever watched Blossom on acid?
- A Good Place to Hide (Sarah D'Angelo, 2015) And you thought Bruce Bickford was weird.
- By the Time We Got To Expo (Phil Hoffman and Eva Kolcze, 2015) A meditative journey through Expo 67. A contemporary re-visiting of a significant moment in Canadian history using experimental techniques to directly manipulate the emulsion of educational and documentary films about this historical event – an event that is, as the decayed images suggest, slowly eroding from the Canadian subconscious.
- Red Capriccio (Blake Williams, 2014): An anaglyph 3D, found footage film that explores the aesthetics of 20th-century Chevrolet's capriccio assemblages, the Caprice.
- Alberta (Dan Browne, 2014) Alberta has never looked this good. An experimental film even Stephen Harper could love.
- Gulls at Gibraltar (Stephen Broomer, 2015) An elegant and deceptively simple film. Expanding briefly on the title: Seagulls at Gibraltar Point.
- Far From (Barbara Sternberg, 2014): Emulsion coated with an accumulation of personal memories that constantly mutate mimicking our fragile relationship with past events.
- For May and December (Isiah Medina, 2015): There are no guarantees when you live in poverty.
- Film: Rope (Francesco Gagliardi, 2015): A clever video re-mediation that moves beyond the original performance further breaking down the relationship between cinematic space and the space of live performance through re-embodying and transposing the movements and characters of Hitchcock’s Rope (1948).

***

Daniel Goodbaum [a.k.a. dadaDan] 
My not-hateful top 8 films of 2015.
- Bugs (Jon McCurley and Amy Lam): A 4 years in the making epic, Bugs is like a live-action version of A Bug’s Life filtered through a lo-fi Smurf energy. It’s like Manderlay meets Playtime without realizing it. It’s also so far off the rails that it may only be appreciated by the huge amount of people in the Toronto art scene that helped make it. But it is laced with undeniable genius!  
- L for Leisure: Cinema studies grad school funny.  
- Tale of Tales: INCONCEIVABLE! Love the heart-biting. Total food video material. There’s some cool 7 year olds that are really into segments of this film.  
- Iris: This is a good entry to plug my 100-part ongoing fashion video series TVCITY Street Style and my series STYLE EYE for the Globe and Mail. I’m either the Albert Maysles of Bill Cunninghams or the Bill Cunningham of Albert Maysles. Iris Apfel is a delight!  
- Bridge of Spies: You know what Steven Spielberg’s favourite sport is? It’s probably basketball. It just makes sense to me.  
- Mustang: I haven’t seen it.  
- Magic Mike XXL: Smile machine  
- Chi-raq: Haven’t seen it yet but Spike gets a lifetime pass 

***

TOFilmCritic

- Blackhat: I've been making love to this movie since January -- what have the rest of you been doing? Mann shoots circuit boards like high-end pornography, and I can't get enough.

- Carol: What is life if not watching this over and over, until your heart breaks and dies and then that's it, you're dead but at least you were on this Earth for the last five minutes of this film. That is enough. Or it should be enough, Beth!

- Out 1: If you didn't see it, you must leave this town.

- The Assassin: So beautiful it makes me forget that I am still owed an invoice for my capsule review of it.

- The Forbidden Room: What, you didn't get it?

- High-Rise: Sure, I can include this, just watch me. Including it.

- Paddington: Love you, bear.

- The Revenant: I'm so...cold...so cold

- Bridge of Spies: *Cough* so cold...very cold...

- Furious 7: j/k