Home

Entries in part 4:

Josh Mabe
Helen Macallan
Miguel Marías
Dmitry Martov
Neil McGlone
Duncan McLean
Adrian Mendizabal
Mads Mikkelsen
David Miller
Olaf Möller
Brent Morrow
Oona Mosna
Jorge Mourinha
Boris Nelepo
Ben R. Nicholson
Andy Norton
Darragh O’Donoghue
Nicholas Page
George Papadopoulos
Yoana Pavlova
Antoni Peris
Alex Ross Perry
Jit Phokaew
Adam Powell

JOSH MABE

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CHICAGO FILMMAKERS, & PROGRAMMER, ONION CITY EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL.

1.
Red Capriccio (Blake Williams, 2014, video)
Endless, Nameless (Mont Tesprateep, 2014, S8 on video)

2.
Still Life (Kevin Eskew, 2015, video)
Line of Apsides (Julie Murray, 2014, 16mm)

3.
White Balance: A History of Video (Robin Deacon, 2015, performance a live video)
California Picture Book (Zach Iannazzi, 2013, 16mm)
Tortellini Tortelloni (Helga Fanderl, 2010, S8 on 16mm)
Rich Girl (Kaycee Conaway, 2015, video)
Lunch Poems (Dan Paz, 2015 video)

4.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, 2015, tv)

 

HELEN MACALLAN

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE IN MEDIA ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY.
  1. La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
  2. Leviafan (Leviathan, Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
  3. Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, Luchino Visconti, 1963)
  4. Il Conformista (The Conformist, Bernado Bertolucci, 1970)
  5. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
  6. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)

 

MIGUEL MARIAS

ECONOMIST; FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE SPANISH FILM ARCHIVE (1986-88). AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON MANUEL MUR OTI AND LEO MCCAREY. HAS WRITTEN FOR MOST SPANISH FILM MAGAZINES, NOW MAINLY WRITING FOR FOREIGN ONLINE MAGAZINES.

A) Great films seen for the first time, made since 2010
L’Ombre des femmes (In the Shadow of Women, Philippe Garrel, 2015), La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014), Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014), Le Rançon de la gloire (The Price of Glory, Xavier Beauvois, 2014), Caprice (Emmanuel Mouret, 2015), La academia de las musas (L’accademia delle muse / The Academy of Muses, José Luis Guerín, 2015), Ji-geum-eun-mat-go-geu-ddae-neun-teul-li-da (Right Now, Wrong Then, Hong Sang-soo, 2015), The Face of Love (Arie Posin, 2013)

B) Great films seen for the first time, made before 2010
Foma Gordeiev (Mark Donskoí, 1958/9), Zacharovannaia Desna (The Enchanted Desna, Iuliia Solntseva, 1964), Da qiao xia mian (Under the Bridge, Bai Chen, 1984), Konyaku Yubiwa (Wedding Ring, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1950), Serdtse materi (A Mother’s Heart, Mark Donskoí, 1965/6), Shindo-Zempen: Akemi no maki / Kohen: Ryota no maki (The New Way: I-Akemi / II-Ryota) (Goshō Heinosukē, 1936), Ōsone-ke no ashita (Morning for the Osone Family, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1946), Kazabana (Snow Flurry, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1958/9), Yabure-daiko (Broken Drum, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1949), The Half-Breed (Allan Dwan, 1916), Fushichō (Phoenix, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1947), Onna no sono (The Garden of Women, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1954), Ōjosen kanpai (Here’s to the Young Lady, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1949), Kyō no mata kakute ari nan (Thus Another Day, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1959), Waga koi seshi otome (The Girl I Loved / The Girl I Love, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1946), Kekkon (Marriage, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1947), In Our Time (Vincent Sherman, 1944), Pierre ou, Les Ambiguités (Pierre or, The Ambiguities, Leos Carax, 1999//2001; TV longer version of Pola X), Trois jours en Grèce (Jean-Daniel Pollet, 1991), Le Café des Jules (Paul Vecchiali, 1988/9), A Colecção Invisível (The Invisible Collection, Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2009), Il grido della terra (The Earth Cries Out, Duilio Coletti, 1949), Due lettere anonime (Two Anonymous Letters, Mario Camerini, 1945), Onna keizu: Yushima no shiraume (The White Plum Blossom of Yushima, Kinugasa Teinosukē, 1955), Tooi Kumo (Tattered Wings, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1955), Merrily We Live (Norman Z. McLeod, 1938), Captain China (Lewis R. Foster, 1950), Vernost materi (A Mother’s Devotion; Mark Donskoí, 1967/8), Romantiki (The Romantics, Mark Donskoí, 1941), Na papirnatih avionih (Paper Planes, Matjaž Klopčič, 1967), Le Sette Spade del Vendicatore (Seven Swords for the King, Riccardo Freda, 1962), Sekishunchō (Farewell to Spring / The Bird of Spring is Past, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1959), Char Adhyay (Kumar Shahani, 1997), Des journées entières dans les arbres (Entire Days on the Trees, Marguerite Duras, 1976), Takekurabe( Growing Up / Adolescence, Goshō Heinoukē, 1955), The Good Bad Man (Allan Dwan, 1916), Hubad Sa Ilalim ng Buwan (Naked Under the Moon, Lav Diaz, 1999)

C) Very good films seen for the first time, made since 2010
Fidelio-L’Odyssée d’Alice (Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey, Lucie Borleteau, 2014), À trois on y va (All About Them, Jérôme Bonnell, 2015), La prochaine fois je viserai le cœur (Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart, Cédric Anger, 2014), Le Tueur (Cédric Anger, 2007), L’Avocat (Cédric Anger, 2010), Ramybe musu sapnuose (Peace to Us in Our Dreams, Sharunas Bartas, 2015), Deux Rémi, deux (Pierre Léon, 2015), Wild Horses (Robert Duvall, 2014/5), Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014), Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, 2014), Safe Haven (Lasse Hallström, 2013), Loin des hommes (Far from Men, David Oelhoffen, 2014), Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015), The BEST of ME (Michael Hoffman, 2014), The Last Song (Julie Anne Robinson, 2010), Dear John (Lasse Hallström, 2010), The Lucky One (Scott Hicks, 2011/2), You’re Not You (George C. Wolfe, 2014), The Numbers Station (Kasper Barfoed, 2012/3), Cábala Caníbal (Daniel V. Villamediana, 2014), Khan Khanne (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014), American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014), Kreise (S44, Ep.3 de Polizeiruf 110) (Circles, Christian Petzold, 2015), Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour; Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015), Sangue del mio sangue (Blood of My Blood, Marco Bellocchio, 2015), Sud Eau Nord Déplacer / Nan shui bei diao (South Water North Move, Antoine Boutet, 2014), Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)

D) Very good films seen for the first time, made before 2010
Okayo na Kakuga (Okayo’s Preparedness, Shimazu Yasujirō, 1938/9), Förseglade läppar (Sealed Lips, Gustaf Molander, 1927), Il lupo della Sila (Lure of Sila, Duilio Coletti, 1949), Tōkyō no Eiyu (A Hero of Tokyo, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1935), Sayon no Kane (Sayon’s Bell, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1943), Jyōjū (Hunting Rifle, Goshō Heinosukē, 1960/1), Yuwaku (Temptation, Yoshimura Kōzaburō, 1948), Scene of the Crime (Roy Rowland, 1949), Tomorrow Is Another Day (Felix E. Feist, 1951), The Guilt of Janet Ames (Henry Levin, 1947), Banjo (Richard Fleischer, 1947), Man-Proof (Richard Thorpe, 1937/8), Kanko no machi (Jubilation Street Kinoshita Keisukē, 1944), Shodo satsujin: Musuko yo (Oh, My Son!, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1979), Time Bomb (Terror on a Train, Ted Tetzlaff, 1952/3), Island of Desire (Stuart R. Heisler, 1951), Mellan liv och död (Georg af Klercker, 1916), The Biscuit Eater (Stuart R. Heisler, 1940), The Growler Story (John Ford, 1957), Nights in Rodanthe (George C. Wolfe, 2008), Quelli della Montagna (Aldo Vergano, 1943), Frágil Como o Mundo (Breakable as the World; Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2000//2), Appunti per un film sul jazz (Gianni Amico, 1965), La forja de un rebelde (Mario Camus, 1990,TV series), Lektionen in Finsternis (Lessons of Darkness, Werner Herzog, 1992), Wodaabe (Die Hirten der Sonne: Nomaden an Südrand der Sahara / Herdsmen of the Sun, Werner Herzog, 1989), Wanda, la peccatrice (Wanda, the Sinner, Duilio Coletti, 1952), Scuola elementare (Primary School, Alberto Lattuada, 1954), Ti ho sempre amato! (I Always Loved You, Mario Costa, 1953), The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1974/5), Perdonami! (Forgive Me, Mario Costa, 1952), Una storia d’amore (A Love Story, Mario Camerini, 1942), Karnavalnaia Nóch (Carnival Night, Éldar Riazanov, 1956), After Tomorrow (Frank Borzage, 1932), Cattle Drive (Kurt Neumann, 1951), Eyewitness (Muriel Box, 1956), Under the Gun (Ted Tetzlaff, 1950/1), Shack Out On 101 (Edward Dein, 1955), Doctors’ Wives (Frank Borzage, 1931), Arena (Richard Fleischer, 1953), Yūyake-gumo (Flaming Sunset / Farewell to Dream, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1956), Rapsodia satanica (Satanic Rhapsody, Nino Oxilia, 1915//7), Kongo (William J. Cowen, 1932), Smilin’ Through (Sidney A. Franklin, 1922), Ambush at Tomahawk Gap (Fred F. Sears, 1953), Miss Jenny (on Zane Grey Theatre) (Sam Peckinpah, 1960), The Lonely Gun (on Zane Grey Theatre) (Andre de Toth, 1959), Simon and Laura (Muriel Box, 1955), No Questions Asked (Harold F. Kress, 1951)

E) Interesting failures
Mia madre (Nanni Moretti, 2015), No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015), Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015), Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis, 2015), Pasolini, la verità nascosta (Federico Bruno, 2013)

F) Great films rediscovered or re-evaluated by a new vision
The Tall Men (Raoul Walsh, 1955), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954, at last in its correct ratio, by Olive Films), Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949), The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963), Ogin-sama (Love Under the Crucifix, Tanaka Kinuyō, 1960/2), The Diary of a Chambermaid (Jean Renoir, 1945), The Last Sunset (Robert Aldrich, 1961), Ride the Pink Horse (Robert Montgomery, 1947), America America (Elia Kazan, 1963), Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955), A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946), The Girl Who Stayed At Home (D.W. Griffith, 1919), Great Day in the Morning (Jacques Tourneur, 1956), The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953), Unfinished Business (Gregory LaCava, 1941), Distant Drums (Raoul Walsh, 1951), Destiny (Der müde Tod, Fritz Lang, 1921), Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939), Eien no Hito (Immortal Love, Kinoshita Keisukē), Nijūshi no Hitomi (Twenty-Four Eyes, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1954), Konjiki yasha (The Golden Demon, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1937), Secret beyond the door… (Fritz Lang, 1947), When Tomorrow Comes (John M. Stahl, 1939), The Indian Fighter (Andre de Toth, 1955), Her Man (Tay Garnett, 1930), Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963), The Day I Met Caruso (Frank Borzage, 1956, TV), Gardens of Stone (Francis Coppola, 1987), Okraína (Outskirts, Boris Barnet, 1933), Rapt (Lucas Belvaux, 2009), Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934), Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954), Hidden Agenda (Ken Loach, 1990), The Day of the Jackal (Fred Zinnemann, 1973), Desire (Frank Borzage, 1936), The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935), Quadrille (Sacha Guitry, 1937), Dodeskuden /Dodes’ka-den (Kurosawa Akira, 1970), Jazz ’34 (Remembrances of Kansas City Swing) (Robert Altman, 1996), Blowup / Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966), Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs (F.W. Murnau, 1923), The Enforcer (Raoul Walsh, uc, Bretaigne Windust, 1950/1), Paris –When it Sizzles (Richard Quine, 1963), Hospital General (General Hospital, Carlos Arévalo, 1956/8)

G) Very good pictures rediscovered or re-evaluated (not always for the best) by a new vision
That’s My Man (Frank Borzage, 1947), The Searching Wind (William Dieterle, 1946), September Affair (William Dieterle, 1950), The Clay Pigeon (Richard Fleischer, 1949), Black Angel (Roy William Neill, 1946), Indiscreet (Leo McCarey, 1931), Part Time Wife (Leo McCarey, 1930), Nora Prentiss (Vincent Sherman, 1947), Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976), Jim, der Mann nit der Narbe/Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht (Jim, the Man with the Scar/The Man Who Sought His Murderer, Robert Siodmak, 1931), Såsom i en spegel (Through A Glass Darkly, Ingmar Bergman, 1961), Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957), Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1964; only with the original Daniele Amfitheatrof score), Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961/2), Hero’s Island/The Land We Love (Leslie Stevens, 1962), The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973), White Feather (Robert D. Webb, 1955), Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988), Sotto il sole di Roma (Under the Sun of Rome, Renato Castellani, 1947/8), Love Me Tender (Robert D. Webb, 1956), Stranger At My Door (William Witney, 1956), Cose di Pazzi (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1953/4), Der Letzte Akt (The Last Act, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1955), Pony Express (Jerry Hopper, 1952), Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987), Black Widow (Bob Rafelson, 1987), He Walked By Night (Alfred L. Werker, uc. Anthony Mann, 1948), Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977), Saskatchewan (Raoul Walsh, 1954), Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1952/3), L’Inconsolable-première version/L’Inconsolabile (Jean-Marie Straub, 2011), Jubal (Jubal Troop, Delmer Daves, 1956), The Happy Time (Richard Fleischer, 1952), The Whales of August (Lindsay Anderson, 1987), I Take This Woman (Josef von Sternberg, Frank Borzage, W.S. Van Dyke II, 1938-40), Good Neighbor Sam (David Swift, 1964), Bodyguard (Richard Fleischer, 1948), Follow Me Quietly (Richard Fleischer, collab. Anthony Mann, 1949), Armored Car Robbery (Richard Fleischer, 1950), Trapped (Richard Fleischer, 1949), So This Is New York (Richard Fleischer, 1948), Dr. Socrates (William Dieterle, 1935), Así como habían sido (Trío) (The Way They Were, Andrés Linares, 1986/7), La Otra (The Other Woman; Roberto Gavaldón, 1946), L’Avventuriera del Piano di Sopra (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1941), Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977), 14 Hours/Fourteen Hours (Henry Hathaway, 1951), Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924), A Matter of Time/Nina (Vincente Minnelli, 1976), Helen of Troy (Robert Wise, 1955)

World Poll 2015

Mia Madre (My Mother, Nanni Moretti, 2015)

DMITRY MARTOV

FILM CRITIC, USA/RUSSIA.
  1. Tarot Portraits: Illumination (Brittany Gravely & Ken Linehan aka Magical Approach, 2015)
  2. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson, 2015)
  3. L’architecte de Saint-Gaudens (Julie Desprairies & Serge Bozon, 2015)
  4. Things (Ben Rivers, 2014)
  5. Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
  6. Schicht (Shift, Alex Gerbaulet, 2015)
  7. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
  8. Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
  9. Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley, 2014)

 

NEIL MCGLONE

FILM RESEARCHER AND CURATOR AT THE CRITERION COLLECTION, NEW YORK.
  1. 45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
  2. Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (Visit or Memories and Confessions, Manoel de Oliveira, 1982/2015)
  3. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
  4. The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
  5. Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)
  6. I am Belfast (Mark Cousins, 2015)
  7. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
  8. Cialo (Body, Małgorzata Szumowska, 2015)
  9. Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry, 2015)
  10. El botón de nácar (The Pearl Button, Patricio Guzmán, 2015)
  11. El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)
  12. High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015)

Although the Manoel de Oliveira film was made in 1982, the director left strict instructions that it not be screened until after his death. Viewing it, you can see why he made this stipulation as it is so personal. I saw it at Il Cinema Ritrovato in July 2015.

 

DUNCAN MCLEAN

LECTURER AT THE AUSTRALIAN FILM TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL AND REVIEWER AT DOCTOR OF MOVIES.

Ten best (alphabetical order)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
An entirely original cinematic vision. So much more than a single shot gimmick. Complete unity of form and content.

Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015)
Sometimes a film gives you something you didn’t even know that you wanted. Coogler’s fresh take on Rocky was the pleasant surprise of the year.

Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
Great small science fiction. A well performed chamber piece which draws its drama out of conversations and dialogue.

Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
A humorous and enjoyable head-scratcher that definitely requires multiple viewings. Finally The Big Lebowski has a friend in the “stoner noir” sub-genre.

Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)
While not their best film, arguably the zenith of Pixar’s bold originality.

Listen to Me, Marlon (Stevan Riley, 2015)
A unique documentary befitting a unique talent. An intimate exploration of a brilliant but tortured soul which amounts to a posthumous autobiography.

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
George Miller took the world’s directors to school and showed how a singular creative vision can elevate the action film to the level of high art.

The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015)
Ridley Scott’s return to form. An enjoyable, funny and absorbing film that excites you more with its intellect and ideas than with explosions.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015)
A beautifully affecting piece of cinema brimming with youthful creativity. A special movie.

Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
The year’s most powerful biopic, which unfortunately remains as thematically relevant as ever.

Other notable films
’71 (Yann Demange, 2014)
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney, 2015)
The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, 2014)
A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor, 2014)
Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray, 2015)
Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, 2015)
While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, 2014)

World Poll 2015

Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)

ADRIAN D. MENDIZABEL

PHILLIPINE DELEGATE AND BLOG EDITOR OF CINEMA AND MOVING IMAGE RESEARCH ASSEMBLY (CAMIRA).
  1. Nie yin niang (The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
  2. Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
  3. Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
  4. 88:88 (Isiah Medina, 2015)
  5. Under Construction (Rubaiyat Hossain, 2015)
  6. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2015)
  7. Forbidden Symmetries (Dean Kavanagh, Maximilian Le Cain and Rouzbeh Rashidi, 2014)
  8. Ang mga Alingawngaw sa Panahon ng Pagpapasya (Echoes in the Midst of Indecision, Hector Barreto Calma, 2015)
  9. The Age of Anxiety (Taiki Sakpisit, 2013)
  10. Wawa (Anj Macalanda, 2015)
  11. Ang Sayaw ng mga Puting Mukha (Mike Esteves, 2015)
  12. Ang Mga Bulong Sa Bituka ng Sta. Mesa (Murmurs from The Somber Depths of Sta.Mesa, Hector Barreto Calma, 2015)
  13. In the end close of a long day when she said to herself time she stopped (Jean Claire Dy, 2015)
  14. Walay Naan Diri (There is Nothing There, Jean Claire Dy, 2015)
  15. Translación (Christian Tablazon, 2013)
  16. What is a Day (Christian Tablazon and Carlo Pacolor Garcia, 2013)
  17. Dahling Nick (Sari Dalena, 2015)
  18. Snakeskin (Daniel Hui, 2014)
  19. Auntie Maam Has Never Had a Passport (Sorayos Prapapan, 2014)
  20. Cambodia 2099 (Davy Chou, 2014)
  21. Chappie (Neill Blomkamp, 2015)
  22. Ji-geum-eun-mat-go-geu-ddae-neun-teul-li-da (Right Now, Wrong Then, Hong Sang-soo, 2015)
  23. Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis, 2015)

 

MADS MIKKELSEN

PROGRAMMER, CPH:DOX.

Probably the worst year ever – but not in cinema. The avant-garde may not be what it used to be, but in a year of countless horrors there is at least some sort of relief in looking back at some of the films that stood out by standing up for the creative and critical freedom of artistic imagination. The Senses of Cinema poll is an occasion to invent awards for 10 of the best.

P.S. Let’s hear another round of well-deserved applause for Hou Hsiao-hsien, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Miguel Gomes, Hong Sang-soo, Pietro Marcello, Arnaud Desplechin and George Miller.

The winners of the 2015 awards are:

Time Capsule for the Future of Humanity If It Has One Award
Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (Abbas Fahdel, 2015)

Watch It, But Beware Thy Eye Award
Fragment 53 (Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli and Federico Lodoli, 2015)

Born to Lose Award
Nightlife (Cyprien Gaillard, 2015)

Life-Time(s) Achievement Award
Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (Visit or Memories and Confessions, Manoel de Oliveira, 1982/2015)

Cosmic Comeback Award
Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski, 2015)

Luis Buñuel Peace Prize
Stinking Heaven (Nathan Silver, 2015)

Fake Fossil Award
Faux départ (Yto Barrada, 2015)

Punk’s Not Dead, It’s Just Back From the Grave Award
Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne, Walerian Borowczyk, 1981)

16 Millimetre Moebius Strip Award
Event for a Stage (Tacita Dean, 2015)

The An-Thro-Po-Ce-Ne Is Just a 12 Letter Word Award
Bending to Earth (Rosa Barba, 2015)

 

DAVID W. MILLER

PROGRAMMER, KESWICK FILM CLUB AND FESTIVAL.
  1. Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)
    As close to flawless as you can get.
  1. Slow West (John Maclean, 2015)
    Brilliant storytelling, acting and completely distinctive.
  1. Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
    Laugh out loud tales of revenge.
  1. Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
    Unique and brave filmmaking.
  1. Min lilla syster (My Skinny Sister, Sanna Lenken, 2015)
    Affecting story of sisterly love.
  1. Hrútar (Rams, Grímur Hákonarson, 2015)
    Perfect story beautifully framed.
  1. Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)
    Film of two distinct halves making a brilliant whole.
  1. Nie yin niang (The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015).
    Stunningly beautiful to watch if perplexing.
  1. Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015)
    Action film as it should be done, as is:
  1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 2015.
    Utterly enjoyable, a great way to spend an evening.
World Poll 2015

Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014)

OLAF MÖLLER

CINEPHILE, WRITER, TRANSLATOR AND CURATOR, COLOGNE.

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Friends 2015

Team Manager (Films of the Year)
Atomin paluu (Return of the Atom, Mika Taanila & Jussi Eerola, 2015)
Wake (Subic) (For Example, the Philippines, Part 2) (John Gianvito, 2015)

First Team (Line-up in strictly alphabetical order)
11 minut (11 Minutes, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2015)
Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)
Cauthī Kūṭa (Fourth Direction, Gurviṃdar Siṃgh, 2015)
Chevalier (Athīná Rachél Tsangárī, 2015)
Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015)
Informe general II: El nuevo rapto de Europa (General Report II: The New Abduction of Europe, Pere Portabella, 2015)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
The Lobster (Giṓrgos Lánthimos, 2015)
The Thoughts That Once We Had (Thom Andersen, 2015)
Vicāraṇai (Interrogation, Veṟṟimāṟaṉ, 2015)

Substitutes
Brasil S/A (Brazilian Dream, Marcelo Pedroso, 2015) // Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2014) // The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015) // Foujita (Oguri Kōhei, 2015) // The Hateful Eight  (Quentin Tarantino, 2015) // Milyj Hans, dorogoj Petr (Dear Hans, Lovely Peter, Aleksandr Mindadze, 2015) // Monsters: Dark Continent (Tom Green, 2014) // Oncle Bernard – L’Anti-leçon d’économie (Oncle Bernard – A Counter-Lesson in Economics, Richard Brouillette, 2015) // Overgames (Lutz Dammbeck, 2015) // Rabyn, hayom haʾḥaron (Rabin, the Last Day, ˁmos Gyṭʾy, 2015) // Tsamo (Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio, 2015) // Zhì qǔ wēi hǔshān (Taking of Tiger Mountain, Ceoi4 Hak1 {Tsui Hark}, 2014)
+ La France est notre patrie (France Is Our Mother Country, Rithy Panh, 2015)
+ The Man With the Iron Fists 2 (Roel Reiné, 2015)

Extended Team
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014) // Dahling Nick (Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena, 2015) // Destinacija_Serbistan (Logbook Serbistan, Želimir Žilnik, 2015) // Fau4 waa4 jin3 (An Inspector Calls, Jau1 Lai5 Tou4 {Herman Yau} & Wong4 Baak3 Ming4 {Raymond Wong}, 2015) // In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015) // Kuime (Over Your Dead Body, Miike Takashi, 2014) // Lampedusa (Peter Schreiner, 2015) // Liè rì zhuó xīn (The Dead End, Cáo Bǎopíng, 2014/15) // Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015) // Mata-me por favor (Kill Me, Please, Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2015) // Meutre á Pacot (Murder in Pacot, Raoul Peck, 2014) // Mga Anak ng Unos, Unang Aklat (Storm Children, Book One, Lav Diaz, 2015) // Mr. Holmes (Bill Condon, 2015) // No no nanana no ka (7 Weeks, Ōbayashi Nobuhiko, 2014) // Per amor vostro (For Your Love, Giuseppe Mario Gaudino, 2015) // Pod električeskimi oblakami (Under Electric Clouds, Aleksej Aleksejevič German, 2015) // Rạk thī̀ K̄hxn Kæ̀n (Cemetery of Splendor, Xp̣hichātiphngṣ̄̒ Wīraṣ̄ers̄ʹṭ̄hkul, 2015) // Rĕw thalu rĕw (Vengeance of an Assassin, Phạnnā Vthṭhikịr, 2014) // Saat3 Po3 Long4 II (SPL 2  – A Time for Consequences, Zeng6 Bou2 Seoi6 {Soi Cheang}, 2015) // Sangue del mio sangue (Blood of My Blood, Marco Bellocchio, 2015) // Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai (Miss Hokusai, Hara Keiichi, 2015) // Sobytie (The Event, Sergej Loznica, 2015) // Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (Spike Lee, 2014) // Wild Card (Simon West, 2015)
+ Polizeiruf 110: Kreise (Christian Petzold, 2015)
+ The Marine 4: Moving Target (William Kaufman, 2015)

Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions and a theatrical production by a filmmaker)
The AK-47 vs The M 16 (Hà Phù Nam Thúc & Andrew Nguyễn Tuấn & Matt Lucero, 2015) // B+038 – B+057 (Isabella Kohlhuber, 2015) // “Ch’ukchibŏpkwa pihaengsul – The Ways of Folding Space” [Multi-screen installation, Pavilion of the Republic of Korea at the 56. Exposizione Internazionale d’Arte] (Mun Gyŏngwŏn & Chon Junho, 2015) // “The End of Carrying All” [Three-channel video installation] (Wangechi Mutu, 2015) // Factory of the Sun (Hito Steyerl, 2015) // Inzilo (Mohau Modisakeng, 2015) // Last Man in Dhaka Central [The Young Man Was, Part 3] (Na ͑ îm Mohaiyemen, 2015) // “Das Maschinengewehr Gottes” [theatrical production] (Wenzel Storch, 2015) // Mikä on yhteisö (What is a community?, Erkka Nissinen, 2015) // The Nameless [Vietnamese Voice-Over Version] (Ho Tzu-nyen, 2015) // Noli Me Tangere – The View (Michael Pilz, 2015) // Park Lanes (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2015) // Pūrṇa / Apūrṇa (Finished / Unfinished, Amit Dutta, 2015) // “Rhythmus” [Multi-screen video installation] (Juha van Ingen, 2015) // “Telling the Truth?” [Triple-screen projection] (Angus Gibson, 2015) // “Vertigo Sea” [Triple-screen projection] (John Akomfrah, 2015) // “Vuodet, ajat, iäisyydet – Hours, Years, Aeons” [Video installation, Finnish Pavilion at the 56. Exposizione Internazionale d’Arte] (Visa Suonpää & Patrick Söderlund, 2015) // Wirogondan (Factory Complex, Im Hŭngsun, 2014)

Olaf Möller’s Eleven Veterans 2015

Team Manager (Revelation of the Year)
Alpha (Ọla Balogun, 1972)
In the Beginning… (Ọla Balogun, 1972)

First Team (Line-Up in strictly alphabetical order)
Apenas un delincuente (Hardly a Criminal, Hugo Fregonese, 1949)
Beau Geste (Herbert Brenon, 1926)
Le Cinéma lent et les mouvements rapides des animaux (Société Pathé Frères, 1915)
Una donna per 7 bastardi (The Sewer Rats, Roberto Bianchi Montero, 1974)
Ejima Ikushima (Ejima and Ikushima, Ōba Hideo, 1955)
Good-bye, My Lady (William Augustus Wellman, 1956)
Guān liánzhǎng (Platoon Commander Guan, Shí Hūi, 1951)
La Joie de vivre (The Joy of Living, Hector Hoppin & Anthony Gross, 1934)
Natsumatsuri (Summer Festivals, Masuda Wasaburō, 1937)
Never Fear (Ida Lupino, 1949)
Słońce wschodzi raz na dzień (The Sun Rises Once a Day, Henryk Kluba, 1967)

Substitutes
Anna Karenina (Clarence Brown, 1935) // Brandy in the Wilderness (Stanton Kaye, 1969) // Deti partizana (Lev Golub & Nikolaij Figurovskij, 1954) // An Expression (Ogino Shigeji, 1935) // Frou-Frou (The Toy Wife, Augusto Genina, 1955) // amāse-ye rūstāzādeh-ye Gorgānī yā Ūn šab keh bārūn omad (The Night It Rained or The Epic of the Gorgan Village Boy, Kāmrān Šīrdel, 1967) // Helena. Der Untergang Trojas. Klassischer Großfilm in 2 Teilen. Erster Teil: Der Raub der Helena & Zweiter Teil: Die Zerstörung Trojas (Helen of Troy, Manfred Noa, 1924) // Holdudvar (Garden Party, Mészáros Márta, 1969) // Infantilisme et maladie de Recklinghausen (Jean Comandon, 1919) // Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander, 1936) // Internacional (The International, Aleksandr Šejn & Aleksandr Svetlov, 1971) // The Italian (Reginald Barker, 1915) // Janken musume (So Young, So Bright, Sugie Toshio, 1955) // Kujira (Whale, Ōfuji Noburō, 1952) // The Man and the Moment (Georges Fitzmaurice, 1929) // Návrat domů (Lost in the Suburbs, Martin Frič, 1948) // Ōgon Bat (The Golden Bat, Satō Hajime, 1966) // Panzerkreuzer Potemkin ([{Sergej Ėjzenštejn} & Piel Jutzi &] Alois Johannes Lippl [& Edmund Meisel], 1930) // Plohoj horošij čelovek (The Duel, Iosif Chejfìc, 1973) // Qíng cháng yì shēn (Loyal Partners, Xú Chānglín, 1957) // Lo scandalo (Anna Gobbi, 1966) // The Shepherd of the Hills (Henry Hathaway, 1941) // The Strength and Agility of Insects (Percy Smith, 1911) // War Paint (Lesley Selander, 1953)
+ Les Indes-Noires (Marcel Bluwal, 1964) // Rawhide: Incident With an Executioner (Charles Marquis Warren, 1959) // Singer Four Star Playhouse: The Story of Emily Cameron (Ida Lupino, 1956)
+ Longinus (Kitamura Ryūhei, 2004)
+ Stare [in projection for viewing with Pulfrich Filter-glasses] (Karl Kels, 1991)

Extended Team
40 Guns to Apache Pass (William Witney, 1966) // ’94 duk6 bei3 dou1 zi1 cing4 (What Price Survival?, Lei5 Jan4 Gong2 {Daniel Lee}, 1994) // Une affaire d’État (State Affairs, Éric Valette, 2009) // L’angelo bianco (Giulio Antamoro & Federico Sinibaldi [& Ettore Giannini], 1943) // Ah, Wilderness! (Clarence Brown, 1935) // The Animals Film (Victor Schonfeld & Myriam Alaux, 1981) // Āraṇya Kāṇṭam (Anima and Persona, Tiyākarājaṉ Kumārarājā, 2011) // Around Is Around (Norman McLaren, 1951) // Assassination Games (Ernie Barbarash, 2011) // Badil (Dynamite Fishing, Chito Sixto Roño, 2013) // Bandit Ranger (Lesley Selander, 1942) // Battle at Bloody Beach (Herbert Coleman, 1961) // Before the Raid (Jiří Weiss, 1943) // Belaja ptica s černoj otmetinoj (The White Bird Marked with Black, Jurij Ilʹenko, 1971) // Cavalry Scout (Lesley Selander, 1951) // Châtiment [French re-edit of The Despoiler, 1915] (Reginald Barker, 1917) // Ch‘ŏnan-ham Project (Project Cheonan Ship, Paek Sŭngu, 2013) // Činy i ljudi (Ranks and People, Jakov Protazanov & Michail Doller, 1929) // Circulation du sang dans la membrane interdigitale d’une grenouille (Jean Comandon & Pierre de Fonbrune, 1929?) // Clash of the Wolves (Noel Mason Smith, 1925) // Conduct Unbecoming (Michael Anderson, 1975) // Coreopsis (Pat O’Neill, 1998) // Daidokoro no gikyoku (Kitchen Play, Mori Kurenai, 1935) // Death Wish 3 (Michael Winner, 1985) // Decameron ‘69 (Bernard Clarens, Jean Desailllers, Jean Herman, Louis Grospierre, Jancsó Miklós, Serge Korber, François Reichenbach, 1969) // Difaʿa ‘l-Watan (National Defense, David & Heršel & Šlomo Frenkel, 1940) // Dix femmes pour un mari (Georges Hatot, 1905) // Drogówka (Traffic Department, Wojciech Smarzowski, 2013) // Drums of Fu Manchu (William Witney & John English, 1940) // Il Duce a Trieste (Istituto Nazionale Luce, 1938) // L’eliogabalo ritrovato (Gustavo Gamna & Giuseppe Risso, 1971) // En los pasillos del congreso (Ricardo García, 1932) // A Extraordinária Aventura de Zeca (Adolfo Coelho, 1938) // Une Fée… pas comme les autres (The Secret of Magic Island, Jean Tourane, 1956) // Il feroce Saladino (Mario Bonnard, 1937) // [Film de famille Comandon: Gruville – La grenouille] (1927?) // Franco Assassino (António Pilar, 1976) // I fratelli Castiglioni (The Castiglioni Brothers, Corrado D’Errico, 1937) // Fue no shiratama (Undying Pearl, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1929) // Eine Fuge (Jörg Ortner, 1959) // Garabatos: Manolete ([Jaume Baguñà &] Manuel Diaz, 1944) // Les Goumiers algériens en Belgique, 30.6.1915 (Alfred Machin, 1915) // Granatenherstellung im Werk Sterkrade der Gutehoffnungshütte (Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft, 1917) // Grands feux (Aleksandr Alekseev & Claire Parker, 1938) // Gulmōhar (Jayarāj Rājaśēkharan Nāyr, 2008) // Hana no naka no musumetachi (Girls in the Orchard, Yamamoto Kajiro, 1953) // Hotaru no hikari (The Fireflies Glow, Mori Issei, 1955) // Immortals (Tarsēm Siṃgh Dhaṃdvār, 2011) // Information Professionnelle et Promotion Sociale: Mélodie conseil (Francis Pernet, 1978) // Intestin isolé de la grenouille – Mouvements – Cliché carva (Lucien Bull, 1904) // Iron Eagles (Ọla Balogun, 1988) // It Happened One Sunday (Karel Lamač, 1944) // Joe Bullet (Louis de Witt, 1971) // Kēraḷa Varamma Paḻaśśirāja (Hariharan, 2009) // Kijkjes in de stoom ververij en chemische wasscherij gebrs. Palthe te Almelo (1915) // Konjiki yasha (The Golden Demon, Shima Kōji, 1954) // Lady Baffles and Detective Duck. Episode 01: The Great Egg Robbery (Allen Curtis, 1915) // Lassie Come Home (Fred McLeod Wilcox, 1943) // Law of the Badlands (Lesley Selander, 1950) // Linnaisten vihreä kamari (The Green Chamber of Linnais, Valentin Vaala, 1945) // Machi (The City, Ogino Shigeji, 1930) // Microcultural Incidents in 10 Zoos (Raymond Birdwhistell, 1971) // Mobby Jackson (Renato Dall’Ara, 1960) // Mon gosse de pêre (The Parisian, Jean de Limur, 1930) // Most na tú stranu (Vladislav Pavlovič, 1961) // Mr̥tyudaṇḍ (Death Sentence, Prakāś Jhā, 1997) // Mǔqīn (Mother, Shí Hūi, 1949) // Mysteries of The Deep (Ben Sharpsteen, 1959) // Naděje (Hope, Karel Kachyňa, 1963) // Nāgarahāvu (Cobra, Śubravēṣṭhi Rāmasvāmayya Puṭṭaṇṇa Kaṇagāl, 1972) // The New Architecture and the London Zoo (Moholy-Nagy László, 1938) // Ninja III: The Domination (Sam Firstenberg, 1984) // L’Œil de la gantière (Pathé Frères Thalie, 1915) // [L’Offensive de Verdun du 20 août 1917] [unedited footage shot by Albert Šamāmā Šīklī] (1917) // Ōkiku naru yo (Growing Up, Iida Tōkichi, 1931) // Oldboy (Spike Lee, 2013) // Opium (Robert Reinert, 1919) // Owuama – A New Year Festival (Ọla Balogun, 1973) // På solsidan (On the Sunny Side, Gustaf Molander, 1936) // Paṭiyālā House (Nikhil Sureš Āḍvāṇī, 2011) // Pattes blanche (White Paws, Jean Grémillon, 1949) // Le Pélican (The Pelican, Gérard Blain, 1973) // Perawan di Sarang Sindikat (Virgins from Hell, Ackyl  Anwari, 1986) // Petit Jules Verne (Gaston Velles, 1907) // Pokkiṣam (Cēraṉ, 2009) // Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (The Real End of the Great War, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1957) // Primary Stimulus (Robert Russett, 1980) // La Proie du vent (The Prey of the Wind, René Clair, 1927) // [Quick Billy Roll 47] (Bruce Baillie, 1968-70) // Rab Nē Banā Dī Jōḍī (A Match Made By God, Āditya Cōpṛā, 2008) // La rebelión de las muertas (Vengeance of the Zombies, León Klimovsky, 1973) // A Ria, a Água, o Homem (Manuel Matos Barbosa, 2010) // Il richiamo della tempesta (Oreste Palella, 1950) // Róża (Rose, Wojciech Smarzowski, 2011) // Rundskuedagen 1915 (Sightseeing Day in Copenhagen, Nordisk Film Kompagni, 1915) // Sanskāra (Funeral Rites, Paṭṭābhirāma Reḍḍi Tikkavarapu [& Siṅgītaṁ Śrīnivāsa Rāvu], 1971) // Saturnus (Bruno Sukrow, 2011) // Se eu fosse Ladrão… roubava (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2011) // Segi Tima Emas (The Stabilizer, Arizal, 1986) // Senritsu (Melody, Mori Kurenai, 1933) // Shake, Rattle and Roll 13 (Richard Villarosa Somes, Jerrold Tarog, Chris Martinez, 2011) // Sindūraṁ (Pasupulēṭi Kr̥ṣṇavanśī, 1997) // Sonny Jim and the Amusement Company Ltd. (Tefft Johnson, 1915) // Sorok pervyj (The Forty-First, Jakov Protazanov, 1927) // Speechless (Scott Stark, 2008) // Stíhač (Fighter Pilot, Jiří Weiss, 1943) // Talaimuṟaikaḷ (Generations, Bālū Mahēndra, 2013) // Los tambores de Fu-Aguarras (Josep Escobar, 1945) // They Met in the Dark (Karel Lamač, 1943) // The Thief and the Cobbler – A Moment in Time [2013 preservation dcp of 1992 work print] (Richard Williams) // A tizedes meg a többiek (The Corporal and the Others, Keleti Márton, 1965) // Tokei (Clock, Ogino Shigeji, 1963) // [Trailer für Botschafter der Angst] (1963) // L’ultimo gladiatore (Messalina Against the Son of Hercules, Umberto Lenzi, 1964) // Umbango (The Feud, Tonie van der Merwe, 1986) // Umut (Hope, Yılmaz Güney, 1970) // The Unclean World (Percy Stow, 1903) // The Unknown Terror (Charles Marquis Warren, 1957) // Vaarallista vapautta (Dangerous Freedom, Veikko Itkonen, 1962) // I Valdesi. Un popolo di martiri (Faithful for Centuries, Nino Martinengo, 1924) // Valerie a týden divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Jaromil Jireš, 1970) // Vanhan Valtaus (Occupation of the Old Student House, Peter von Bagh & Elina Katainen & Sakari Toiviainen, 1968) // Visvangst met aalscholvers in Nederlands Indië (1925) // Viṭiyum Muṉ (Before Dawn, Pālāji Kumār, 2013) // [Wahlwerbefilm zur Volksabstimmung am 10. April 1938] // War of the Dead (2011, Marko Mäkilaakso) // Woman on the Run (Norman Foster, 1950) // You Can Change the World (Leo McCarey, 1950) // Zetteldämmerung (Alfred Kaiser, 1979)
+ [d-c-fix – Alte Freunde] ([Peter Kubelka], 1963) // Dom Juan (Marcel Bluwal, 1965) // Generale. Anatomie der Marneschlacht (Franz Peter Wirth, 1977) // Have Gun – Will Travel: The Trial (Ida Lupino, 1957) // Les Loups (Marcel Bluwal, 1959) // Małżowina (The Auricle, Wojciech Smarzowski, 1998) // [Philips “Produkte”] (Hans Albala, 1959) // Rawhide: Incident West of Lano (Charles Marquis Warren, 1959) // Screen Directors Playhouse: No. 5 Checked Out (Ida Lupino, 1956)
+ Dead in Tombstone (Roel Reiné, 2013) // Slinger (Albert Pyun, 2011)
+ Impresiones en la alta atmósfera [in projection for viewing with Chromadepth-glasses] (José Antonio Sistiaga, 1989)

Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films/videos seen in exhibitions, and other creations and happenings such as these)
A continuación – El Himno Nacional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (Next, the National Anthem, Argelia Bravo, 2013) // In Mourning and In Rage (Leslie Labowitz & Suzanne Lacy, 1978) // Jésus-Cola (Martial Raysse, 1966) // Production Notes: Fast Food for Thoughts (Jason Simon, 1986) // Schmetterling (Birgit Antoni, 1981) // Die schwangere Braut im Rollstuhl (Renate Bertlmann, 1978) // Semi Ótica (Semi-O(p)tics, Antonio Manuel, 1975) // Through the Large Glass (Hannah Wilke, 1976) // Vapautemme Hinta (The Price of Our Liberty, Seppo Renval, 1990) // [Videoüberfälle. Malheur Mülltonne] (Rudolf Weidenauer, 2007) // Zmiana. Mój problem jest problemem kobiety (Change. My problem is a problem of a woman, Ewa Partum, 1979)

  

BRENT MORROW

CINEPHILE AND INFREQUENT KEEPER OF THE BLOG TECHNICOLOR RED, MELBOURNE.
  1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)(massive chasm)
  2. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs, 2015)
  3. Slow West (John Maclean, 2015)
  4. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)
  5. Taxi (Jafar Panahi, 2015)
  6. Results (Andrew Bujalski, 2015)
  7. World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015)
  8. Polizeiruf 110: Kreise” (“Circles“, Christian Petzold, 2015)
  9. El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)
  10. Un etaj mai jos (One Floor Below, Radu Muntean, 2015)

Best screenplay
S. Craig Zahler for Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler, 2015) Pity about the images.
Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig for Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, 2015). Best dialogue, rather.

Best cinematography
Sean Price Williams for Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry, 2015)
Sergio Armstrong for El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)

Best performances
Cobie Smulders/Guy Pearce, Qi Shu, Jason Bateman, Jason Schwartzman’s dog.

Most underrated
Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2014). I know.
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015) though certainly not in my circle.
And shout out to Jonathan Demme, who is love.

World Poll 2015

Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)

OONA MOSNA

PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF MEDIA CITY FILM FESTIVAL IN WINDSOR, ONTARIO AND DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

No order. No hierarchy. 15 for 2015. 
Blue and Red (Zhou Tao, 25 min, 2014)
Occidente (Ana Vaz, 15 min, 2014)
Night Watch (Danaya Chulphuthiphong, 10 min, 2014)
Sobytie (The Event, Sergei Loznitsa, 74 min, 2015)
Your Silent Face (Fucking Finland Series) (Seamus Harahan, 6 min, 2014) – and his win of the 2015 Jarman Award!
Neither God Nor Santa Maria (Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón, 12 min, 2014)
Wolkenschatten (Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, 17 min, 2014)
Le Boudin (Salomé Lamas, 17 min, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 70 min, 2014)
Embargo (Johann Lurf, 19 min, 2014)
Three Quarters (Kevin Everson, 4 min, 2015)
Bunte Kuh (Ryan Ferko, Parastoo Anoushahpour & Faraz Anoushahpour, 5 min, 2015)
Jáaji Approx (Sky Hopinka, 8 min, 2015)
O, Persecuted (Basma Alsharif, 12 min, 2014
Light Industry’s communal reading of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Outline of a Screenplay for a Film about Saint Paul (in the Form of Notes for a Production Director), August 2014. Still relevant and worth noting in 2015. Readers: Hilton Als, Melissa Anderson, Elizabeth A. Castelli, Paul Chan, Nicholas Cullinan, Lia Gangitano, Ed Halter, Nellie Killian, Richard Maxwell, Jonas Mekas, Eileen Myles, Nick Pinkerton, Sam Pulitzer, R.H. Quaytman, Nicolas Rapold, Ariana Reines, Martha Rosler, Luc Sante, Amy Taubin, Lynne Tillman.

 

JORGE MOURINHA

FILM CRITIC, PUBLICO.PT, THEFLICKERINGWALL.BLOGSPOT.PT.

The best film I saw this year is a perfect example of a work that literally ignores all the artificially created borders and boundaries that supposedly make it easy to navigate contemporary cinema. Sod that, if you’ll pardon my French. Jafar Panahi has effectively abolished the lines between comedy and tragedy, experiment and narrative, arthouse and commercial, public and personal, documentary and fiction. It’s only cinema, and it stands head and shoulders above an incredible crop of films I saw this year that seemed, each in its own way, to make a point of abolishing those borders.

Taxi (Jafar Panahi, 2015)

Followed, in alphabetical order, by:

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)
88:88 (Isiah Medina, 2015)
La academia de las musas (L’accademia delle muse / Academy of the Muses, José Luis Guerín, 2015)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Beixi Moshuo (Behemoth, Zhao Liang, 2015)
Bella e perduta (Lost and Beautiful, Pietro Marcello, 2015)
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2014)
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
O Futebol (On Football, Sergio Oksman, 2015)
Gett, le procès de Viviane Amsalem (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz, 2014)
Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (Abbas Fahdel, 2015)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Je suis le peuple (I Am the People, Anna Roussillon, 2014)
Une jeunesse allemande (A German Youth, Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2015)
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Marguerite (Xavier Giannoli, 2015)
Maskoon (Haunted, Liwaa Yazji, 2014)
Mia madre (My Mother, Nanni Moretti, 2015)
As Mil e Uma Noites (Arabian Nights, Miguel Gomes, 2015)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015)
A toca do lobo (The Wolf’s Lair, Catarina Mourão, 2015)

world poll

La academia de las musas (L’accademia delle muse / Academy of the Muses, José Luis Guerín, 2015)

BORIS NELEPO

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER; CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO SÉANCE MAGAZINE AND CORRESPONDENT FOR FESTIVAL DEL FILM LOCARNO.
  1. Rabin, the Last Day (Amos Gitai, 2015)
  2. Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (Kidlat Tahimik, 2015)
  3. Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015)
  4. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman, 2015)
  5. Copla (Gonzalo García Pelayo, 2015)
  6. Love (Gaspar Noé, 2015)
  7. La academia de las musas (L’accademia delle muse / Academy of the Muses, José Luis Guerín, 2015)
  8. The Performer (Maciej Sobieszczański and Łukasz Ronduda, 2015)
  9. Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski, 2015)
  10. La calle de la amargura (Bleak Street, Arturo Ripstein, 2015)
  11. Deux Rémi, deux (Two Rémis, Two, Pierre Léon, 2015)
  12. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
  13. Anna (Bruno Sukrow, 2014)
  14. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
  15. Der letzte Sommer der Reichen (The Last Summer of the Rich, Peter Kern, 2015)
  16. Every Thing Will Be Fine (Wim Wenders, 2015)
  17. Gli uomini di questa città io non li conosco – Vita e teatro di Franco Scaldati (I Don’t Know Anyone in This Town, Franco Maresco, 2015) / Was heißt hier Ende? Der Filmkritiker Michael Althen (Then is It the End? The Film Critic Michael Althen, Dominik Graf, 2015)
  18. Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
  19. Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)
  20. Office (Hua li shang ban zu, Johnnie To, 2015)
  21. Huang jin shi dai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
  22. Sangue del mio sangue (Blood of My Blood, Marco Bellocchio, 2015)
  23. Destinacija Serbistan (Logbook_Serbistan, Želimir Žilnik, 2015)
  24. Rodina (Motherland, Pyotr Buslov, 2015)
  25. Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (Visit or Memories and Confessions, Manoel de Oliveira’s, 1981/2015)

 

BEN R. NICHOLSON

FREELANCE FILM CRITIC, EDITOR OF CINEVUE.
  1. Nie yin niang (The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
  2. Saul fia (Son of Saul, László Nemes, 2015)
  3. En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson 2014)
  4. As Mil e Uma Noites (Arabian Nights, Miguel Gomes, 2015)
  5. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
  6. Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
  7. Toponimia (Toponymy, Jonathan Perel, 2015)
  8. El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)
  9. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
  10. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, 2015) 
world poll

El Club (The Club, Pablo Larraín, 2015)

 

ANDY NORTON

COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR THE ABCD FILM SOCIETY.

Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
With its ethical undertone on the themes of artificial intelligence, Ex Machina certainly has the potential of becoming a sci-fi cult classic. With a stellar performance from Oscar Isaac, this low budget offering certainly packs a lot of punch that should even stand up against some of the more mainstream offerings in terms of content and great drama.

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
While fourth instalments of film series often show signs of some serious issues with the franchise, Fury Road revives the Mad Max series and propels it into the 21st Century with all guns blazing in one of the most entertaining sci-fi action blockbusters in recent memory. With subtle environmental undertones that echo George Miller’s previous work, there is also enough substance to make repeat viewings a joy. In addition, any film that features a character as the rock-guitar-music cliché is in itself worth the price of admission alone!

Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015),
Spielberg is extremely fluent in the language of cinema, which ensures that Bridge of Spies is an excellent Cold War drama. With an Oscar-worthy performance from Mark Rylance, this fact-based biopic provides unique scope and context to make it worth going back to this age in history once more.

Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)
Pixar produces a conceptual feature film. Whilst the ending is rather predictable, Inside Out is entertaining feature from the studio that will delight children and adults alike.

Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Carol is an elegantly made period romance, with top-notch screen chemistry from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in their respective lead roles. Whilst some scenes do linger for a bit too long, there is plenty to keep viewers happy, particularly with the sublime cinematography capturing the 1950s-set mise-en-scene.

World Poll 2015

Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)

DARRAGH O’DONOGHUE

ARCHIVIST AT TATE BRITAIN AND COMMENCING A PHD IN FINE ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF READING.

Since July I have been trapped in the sewers seeking rare alligators of Underground Cinema. So this is more of a “First half of 2015 World Poll” submission. But by whatever standards, and at whatever time, the Dumont is one of the great achievements.

Top five
Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2014)
Une nouvelle amie (The New Girlfriend, François Ozon, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)

With respect to
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)

Best actor
Bernard Pruvost as Inspector van der Weyden in P’tit Quinquin. I’m speechless.

Best Blu-ray
Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film, 1920-1970 (Flicker Alley, 2015)

Best revival
I can’t choose between:
1. The Chick Strand: Soft Fictions season at Tate Modern.
Not for Strand’s often portentous poetics, but the supplementary I Don’t Know (1970) and Hats off to Hollywood (1972) by Penelope Spheeris, starring the immortal Jennifer, née Jimmy. Hilarious, heart-breaking and blithely radical in a way that shows up most “classic” 1970s American cinema as Neanderthal.
2. Tales (Cassandra Gerstein and Jill Godmilow, 1971).
At once an essential New York time capsule, the Decameron of the dying Swinging Sixties, and a progenitor of later European classics La maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache, 1973) and Central Bazaar (Stephen Dwoskin, 1976).

In memoriam
Since I moved to London nearly two years ago, the monthly Chantal Akerman retrospective screenings at the Institute of Contemporary Arts had come to structure, indeed revitalise my life. Now that all is over, I – like everyone else – am bereft.

 

NICHOLAS PAGE

HABITUAL BATHER OF FILMIC WATERS; PURVEYOR OF CINE-MUSINGS. CO-FOUNDER OF THE CORRIERINO.
  1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
  2. Nie yin niang (The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
  3. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
  4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
  5. En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, 2014)
  6. The Other Side (Louisiana, Roberto Minervini, 2015)
  7. Güeros (Alonso Ruiz Palacios, 2014)
  8. Love (Gaspar Noé, 2015)
  9. Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2015)
  10. Umimachi Diary (Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2015)
  11. Bitter Lake (Adam Curtis, 2015)
  12. Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2015)
  13. Cloro (Chlorine, Lamberto Sanfelice, 2015)
  14. The Visit (Michael Madsen, 2015)
  15. Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)

Also worth mentioning for technical merit: the long take that opens Spectre; the long take that is Victoria. Award for best dance moves: Ralph Fiennes in A Bigger Splash or perhaps Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina; would have to see some kind of impromptu dance-off to decide.

 

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS

GENERAL MANAGER OF INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTOR, ACCENT FILM ENTERTAINMENT, MELBOURNE.

Queen of Earth (Alex Ross Perry, 2015)
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)
Ich seh, ich seh (Goodnight Mommy, Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz, 2014)
Nasty Baby (Sebastián Silva, 2015)
Results (Andrew Bujalski, 2015)
Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015)
Heaven Knows What (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2014)
Still Alice (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, 2014)

World Poll 2015

Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)

YOANA PAVLOVA

FREELANCE JOURNALIST, FOUNDER OF FESTIVALISTS.

What was particular for my 2015, was the fact that I had to see more old films than festival titles or commercial releases. This gave me an interesting perspective towards what is valuable in cinema today, while at the same time fellow critics and journalists seem to opt more and more for openly amiable works. So my top 5 (in alphabetical order) contains films that took risks but were created wholeheartedly by artists who were not aiming for perfection. I also admit the emotional momentum of my picks is related to the way these films use sound and music, which turns their viewing into an accomplished experience.

Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Chappie (Neill Blomkamp, 2015)
Exotica, Erotica, Etc (Evangelia Kranioti, 2015)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)
Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)

And two more purely cinephile highlights in 2015: Michael Cimino’s appearance in Locarno and Nicolas Jaar’s soundtrack for Sayat Nova (The Color of Pomegranates, Sergei Parajanov, 1968).

 

ANTONI PERIS

FILM REVIEWER FOR DIGITAL MEDIA: MIRADIS DE CINE, TRANSIT, CULTURACA; BASED IN BARCELONA.

Entertainment (Rick Alverson, 2015)
High Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015)
Kamisama no Iu Toori (As the Gods Will, Takashi Miike, 2014)
Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler, 2015)
Kishibe no Tabi (Journey to the Shore, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2015)
Zoom (Pedro Morelli, 2015)
Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski, 2015)
Une jeunesse allemande, (A German Youth, Jean-Gabriel Periot, 2015)
The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki, 2014)
Trydno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Leviafan (Leviathan, Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
The Book of Life (Jorge R. Gutierrez, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alba Rohrwacher, 2014)
Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, J. Doillon, 2013)
Bird People (Pascale Ferran, 2014)
No todo es vigilia (H. Paralluelo, 2014)
La Sapienza (Eugene Green, 2014)
Im Keller (In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl, 2014)
Futatsume no mado (Still the Water, Naomi Kawase, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)

 

ALEX ROSS PERRY

FILMMAKER, USA. 
  1. Trudno byt bogom (Hard To Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
  2. Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)
  3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
  4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015)
  5. Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
  6. Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)
  7. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
  8. While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, 2015)
  9. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
  10. Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2015)

 

JIT PHOKAEW

CINEPHILE, BANGKOK, THAILAND.

Favourite foreign films

  1. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
  2. As Mil e Uma Noites (Arabian Nights, Miguel Gomes, 2015)
  3. Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014)
  4. Nude Area (Urszula Antoniak, 2014)
  5. PK (Rajkumar Hirani, 2014)
  6. Han Gong-ju (Lee Su-jin, 2013)
  7. Chce się żyć (Life Feels Good, Maciej Pieprzyca, 2013)
  8. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  9. Os Verdes Anos (The Green Years, Paulo Rocha, 1963)
  10. Die freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925)
  11. Återträffen (The Reunion, Anna Odell, 2013)
  12. Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
  13. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
  14. Ms J Contemplates Her Choice (Jason Lai, 2014)
  15. Nie yin niang (The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
  16. How to Disappear Completely (Raya Martin, 2013)
  17. Cha và con và (Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, Phan Đăng Di, 2015)
  18. Un château en Italie (A Castle in Italy, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 2013)
  19. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs, 2015)
  20. Ang ninanais (Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song, John Torres, 2010)
  21. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
  22. Badlapur (Sriram Raghavan, 2015)
  23. Kantai (Hospitalité, Kôji Fukada, 2010)
  24. Predestination (Michael and Peter Spierig, 2014)
  25. Little Forest: Summer/Autumn (Junichi Mori, 2014) and Little Forest: Winter/Spring (Junichi Mori, 2015)
  26. Yokomichi Yonosuke (A Story of Yonosuke, Shûichi Okita, 2013)
  27. Madeleine (Lorenzo Ceva Valla, Mario Garofalo, 2015)
  28. Xingdong daihao: Sun Zongshan (Meeting Dr. Sun, Yee Chih-yen, 2014)
  29. Tong nien wang shi (A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1985)
  30. Lelaki harapan dunia (Men Who Save the World, Liew Seng Tat, 2014)
  31. Court (Chaitanya Tamhane, 2014)
  32. Splender Solis (Daniel Fawcett, 2015)
  33. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
  34. We Are Your Friends (Max Joseph, 2015)
  35. Recordações da Casa Amarela (Recollections of the Yellow House, João César Monteiro, 1989)
  36. Todo todo teros (John Torres, 2006)
  37. A Guerra da Beatriz (Beatriz’s War, Luigi Acquisto, Bety Reis, 2013)
  38. Man och kvinna (A Handful of Rice, Pál Fejös, Gunnar Skoglund, 1940)
  39. Second Life of Thieves (Woo Ming Jin, 2014)
  40. Piccadilly (Ewald André Dupont, 1929)
  41. The Last Reel (Kulikar Sotho, 2014)
  42. Talvar (Guilty, Meghna Gulzar, 2015)
  43. Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Peter Greenaway, 2015)
  44. Videofilia (y otros síndromes virales) (Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes), Juan Daniel F. Molero, 2015)
  45. Le grand amour (The Great Love, Pierre Étaix, 1969)
  46. Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between a Criminal and a Whore (Khavn de la Cruz, 2014)
  47. Yadanabon (U Tin Maung, 1953)
  48. Ché phawa daw nu nu (Tender are the Feet, Maung Wunna, 1972)
  49. Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (Dibakar Banerjee, 2015)
  50. Anjaam (Rahul Rawail, 1994)

Favourite Thai films

  1. Onthakan (The Blue Hour, Anucha Boonyawatana, 2015)
  2. Pob gun mai ogard na (See You Tomorrow, Nattawoot Nimitchaikosol, 2015)
  3. Vanishing Point (Jakrawal Nilthamrong, 2015)
  4. How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) (Josh Kim, 2015)
  5. Loak lamer (In the Dream of Empty Night, Chalermpong Udomsilp, 2015)
  6. Won tee mai mee rao (We Wish, Surawee Woraphot, 2014)
  7. Chan kian kwamsook long nai samud note (My Diary: 3811316, Pailin Chainakul, 2015)
  8. Solos (Teeranit Siangsanoh, 2014)
  9. Park Song (Part Two, Chaleamchon Natipat, 2015)
  10. Wan tong leung (The Brass Ring, Prince Anusorn Mongkolkarn, 1973)
  11. Tae rao gor ha gun jon jer (Daily Malice, Yukontorn Kaewprang, 2015)
  12. Freelance (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2015)
  13. America 5 nuay git (A New Life in USA, Thawatchai Thonglor, 2015)
  14. Jon gwa ter ja glub ma (Trying to Win Her Back, Sittikorn Treechokvipoot, 2015)
  15. Tar ter pen nog chan ja pen tongfar (If You’re a Bird, I’ll Be Your Sky, Visuta Matanom)
  16. Poom pae manud (Anti-Human, Nuttachai Jiraanont, 2015)
  17. May nai fai rang frer (May Who, Chayanop Boonprakob, 2015)
  18. Don’t Worry, Be Happy (Anuwat Amnajkasem, 2015)
  19. I Want You to Be (Bundit Sintanaparadee, 2015)
  20. Por lae look chai (Father & Son, Sarawut Intaraprom, 2015)
  21. Rak mod kaew (Love on the Rocks, Saranyoo Jiralak, 2014)
  22. Arpatti (Kanitta Kwunyoo, 2015)
  23. Free Falling (Namfon Udomlertlak, 2015)
  24. Khuen nan (Red Wine in the Dark Night, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, 2015)
  25. 2538 alter ma jib (Back to the 90s, Yanyong Kuruaungkoul, 2015)

Favourite foreign short films

  1. 4 Words 1 Foot (Joe Decker, Thet Zaw Win, 2014)
  2. Entropy Machine (Dodo Dayao, 2010)
  3. The Sea Within (Wong Wai-nap, 2014)
  4. Pigeon+ (Guillaume Coutances, 2015)
  5. Zappigeon (Samy El Ghassasy, 2015)
  6. Faith (Bill Mousoulis, 1987)
  7. Thread (Virginia Kennedy, 2014)
  8. La gallina (The Hen, Manel Raga, 2013)
  9. Listen (Hamy Ramezan, Rungano Nyoni, 2014)
  10. La Part de l’ombre (The Shadow’s Share, Olivier Smolders, 2014)
  11. High School Girl? (Sho Yanagisawa, 2015, an advertisement for Shiseido)
  12. The Fox Exploits the Tiger’s Might (Lucky Kuswandi, 2015)
  13. Alles wird gut (Everything will be Okay, Patrick Vollrath, 2015)
  14. Izlaz u slučaju opasnosti (Emergency Exit, Vladimir Tagić, 2014)
  15. Dahdi (Granny, Kirsten Tan, 2014)
  16. Droga! (Drug!, Miko Revereza, 2013)
  17. The Chicken (Una Gunjak, 2014)
  18. Los vecinos (The Neighbours, Diego Figueroa, 2015)
  19. The Guest (Alexander Kviria, 2014)
  20. Excursie (Excursion, Adrian Sitaru, 2014)

Favourite Thai short films

  1. Nai won tee pra artit kuen tang tis tawantok (Temperature of Roomtone, Pamornporn Tandiew, 2015)
  2. Our Last Day (Rujipas Boonprakong, 2015)
  3. Fon (Aekaphong Saranset, 2015)
  4. Galapawasarn (Timeless, Nuttorn Kungwanklai, 2015)
  5. Glub ma tammai chan luem ter pai mod laew (Boys Are Back in Town, Eakalak Maleetipawan, 2015)
  6. Dog rug (The Asylum, Prapat Jiwarangsan, 2015)
  7. Deg chalard chart jaroen (Clever Kid, This Country Needs You, Sarnt Utamachote, 2015)
  8. Hipster, Interrupted (Worawut Kruegaew, 2015)
  9. Tiaw bin kong mae (She Flew Into the Sky, Taweewit Kijtanasoonthorn, 2015)
  10. The Personal (Nattapon Jomjun, 2014)
  11. I Hate You, But I like You to Stay (aka. The Last Bad Movie) (Teerath Whangvisarn, 2015)
  12. Huu (Theerapat Wongpaisarnkit, 2015)
  13. A Turtle (Happy When It Rains) (Tulyawat Sajjatheerakul, 2015)
  14. Smile Again (Bua Kamdee, 2015)
  15. Gala krung nueng (Once Upon a Time, Jantraya Suriyong, Siripassorn Umnuaysombat, 2015)
  16. Deg noi barn non sa-ard (The Country Boys, Krailas Phondongnok, 2014)
  17. Prudsapa mai nan gor kleeklai (Full Moon of May, Watsaya Boonnadda, 2015)
  18. Rak (Love, Theeraphat Ngathong, 2014)
  19. Prung nee kong rao (Where Is Tomorrow?, Parnupong Chaiyo, 2015)
  20. Nug pao (Burner, Phisut Benyakul, 2015)
  21. The Night at Studio One (Poj Pitakjamnong, 2015)
  22. Domestic Life (Seriphab Sutthisri, 2015)
  23. Gala krung nueng…mue keun nee (Once Upon a Time…in the Night, Nontarit Maneum, 2015)
  24. Sommart (Symmetry, Ukrit Malai, 2015)
  25. Ngarn tang kong proud (The Wedding of Proud, Janenarong Sirimaha, 2015)
  26. Jao mae guan-im rao ja mai tan nue (Home User, Wanrudee Pungkuamchob, 2015)
  27. Parb tid ta (After Image, Patana Chirawong, 2015)
  28. Ms. Narcissus (Chanachai Saengchan, 2015)
  29. Barn kong pom (My Home, Akkaphon Satum, 2015)
  30. Tugata mee (Teddy Bear, Pissanupong Rattana, 2013)
  31. Yag suam god nue yod mamuang (Neither Here Nor There, Skan Aryurapong, 2015)
  32. Jer gun muer rao jer gun (The Young Man Who Came from the Chee River, Wichanon Somumjarn, 2015)
  33. Director & Actor (Weera Rukbankerd, 2015)
  34. 34. Chuer ra nai rom barn (Moldy House, Pasit Tandaechanurat, 2015)
  35. Sitting Man (Wasan Riaoklang, 2007)
  36. Agarn rai rumrao rak (Love Diseases, Chayanon Muanming, 2014)
  37. Kid tueng na pen prayok boglao mai tonggarn kamtob tae tonggarn kon daiyin (“I Miss You” is a Declarative Sentence, Not Requiring an Answer, But Requiring a Listener, Watcharapol Saisongkroh, 2015)
  38. New Year Celebration (Kittipat Knoknark, 2015)
  39. And the Award for the Best Whore Goes to (Thitiwat Kajorn, 2015)
  40. Nice Shop (Siwapan Suanngam, 2015)

Favourite documentaries

  1. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez, 2013)
  2. E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
  3. Layu sebelum berkembang (Die Before Blossom, Ariani Djalal, 2014)
  4. German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (Ministry of Information, 1945/2014)
  5. Les tourmentes (For the Lost, Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd, 2014)
  6. Chuyen di cuoi cùng cua chi Phung (Madame Phung’s Last Journey, Nguyen Thi Tham, 2014)
  7. Voices of El Alto (Benjamin Oroza, 2014)
  8. Vom Reiche der sechs Punkte (From the Realm of Six Dots, Hugo Rütters, 1927)
  9. Die Stadt von Morgen – Ein Film von Städtebau (The City of Tomorrow, Erich Kotzer, Maximilian von Goldbeck, 1930)
  10. Soy negra, soy marica y soy puta (I’m Black, I’m Queer, and I’m a Whore, Cas van der Pas, Hugo Meijer, 2014)
  11. Fliegende Händler in Frankfurt am Main (Travelling Hawkers in Frankfurt am Main, Ella Bergmann-Michel, 1932)
  12. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
  13. Ha rueng kon Thai (Are You Thai?, Wirada Saelim, 2015)
  14. Q & A: Queen and Anxiety (Punyama Uchanarasamee, 2014)
  15. Mga anak ng unos (Storm Children: Book One, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  16. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
  17. Somboon (Krisada Tipchaimeta, 2014)
  18. Pa chu (Chu, Nattapattarapol Chutikarnpanich, 2015)
  19. Nug rong ngarn liang (Party Singer, Tunwa Singkru, 2015)
  20. Suan tee hai pai (My Grandfather’s Photobook, Nutthapon Rakkatham, Phatthana Paiboon, 2015)
  21. 21. De Stand van de zon (The Eye of the Day, Leonard Retel Helmrich, 2001) and Stand van de maan (Shape of the Moon, Leonard Retel Helmrich, 2004) and Stand van de Sterren (Position Among the Stars, Leonard Retel Helmrich, 2010)
  22. Ming tian hui geng hao (On the Rim of the Sky, Xu Hongjie, 2014)
  23. Natee cheewit 2558 (The Moment of Crisis 2015, Phaisit Phanphruksachat, 2015)
  24. Utopia: barn mai kon tai sapan (Utopia: New Homes for People Under the Bridges, Kirimag Boonrom, 2015)
  25. Ama hen ngoo (Ama Saw Snake, Napat Vattanakuljalas, 2014)
  26. Gayby Baby (Maya Newell, 2015)
  27. Happiness (Wachara Kanha, 2015)
  28. Dreamscape (Wattanapume Laisuwanchai, 2015)
  29. Ex Press (Jet Leyco, 2011)
  30. Ruam pleng hit (A Collection of Popular Songs, Anuwat Amnajkasem, Chantana Tiprachart, 2015)
  31. The Storm Makers (Guillaume Suon, 2014)
  32. Elena (Petra Costa, 2012)
  33. Anajak kwam bunterng (Realm of Pleasure, Kittipat Knoknark, 2014)
  34. Michael’s (Kunnawut Boonreak, 2014)
  35. No Word for Worry (Runar Jarle Wiik, 2014)
  36. Wunder der Schöpfung (Our Heavenly Bodies, Hanns Walter Kornblum, 1925)
  37. Chumchon kon kaya (Community People Garbage, Thitipat Rotchanakorn, Pawee Melanon, 2014)
  38. Hymyjen maa (The Land of Smiles, Heikki Häkkinen, 2015)
  39. Pa sat kradat see (The Journey of Funeral Castle, Sudapa Kaoropthai, 2015)
  40. Il était une forêt (Once Upon a Forest, Luc Jacquet, 2013)

Favourite animations

  1. Deep Space (Bruno Tondeur, 2014)
  2. Abelianas (Miguel Jara, 2009)
  3. Deux amis (Natalia Chernysheva, 2014)
  4. Gunther (Erick Oh, 2014)
  5. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore, 2014)
  6. Vintik-Shpintik (The Little Screw, Vladislav Tvardovskij, 1927)
  7. Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)
  8. Pifuskin (Tan Wei Keong, 2014)
  9. Omoide no Mânî (When Marnie Was There, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2014)
  10. Stranger Outside (Chaloempon Khuankhong, 2015)
  11. Sound of the Silence (Akapop Khansorn, 2014)
  12. Prince Johnny (Patradol Kitcharoen, 2014)
  13. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (Paul Tibbitt, Mike Mitchell, 2015)
  14. Beauty (Rino Stefano Tagliafierro, 2014)
  15. Loon rak sao malangsab (Gokicha Love Story, Chidchanok Saengkawin, 2015)

Favourite video installations

  1. Behind the Painting (Chulayarnnon Siriphol, 2015)
  2. Prawatsat ngarn summana kong katas yook 0.1 (The Seminar 0.1, Wachara Kanha, 2015)
  3. Silent Hero (Agata Bielska, 2012)
  4. Andy and I (Wichapa Kunamornlert, 2015)
  5. Vulgar Display of Power (Piotr Skiba, 2013)
  6. Black Hole 004 (Chulayarnnon Siriphol, 2015)
  7. Untitled (Celestial Motors) (Maria Taniguchi, 2012)
  8. The Storm Continues to Rage Outside and the Wind Sweeps Relentlessly Across the Land from the Same Direction (Nipan Oranniwesna, 2014-2015)
  9. Mr. Kitti Vadabukkana Aged 65 (Catherine Belanger, 2015)
  10. Poem (Andrew Harper, 2015, in the exhibition “Repeated Activity: Lattices”)
World Poll 2015

Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)

ADAM POWELL

LONDON, UK.

Top ten in UK cinemas 2015 (alphabetical order)

Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015)
Screened at the London Film Festival in October this marked the end of an era in contemporary film. Joe claims this to be his last (feature) film made in Thailand and it serves as a wonderful climax and summation of themes explored in his cinema to date. A sublime waking dream.

Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Released in limited UK cinemas in the spring, this Herzogian head trip around historical and cinematic memory expanded on the director’s previous approach to everyday realism and skewed narrative.

Jia Zhangke, um homem de Fenyang (Jia Zhangke, a Guy from Fenyang, Walter Salles, 2015)
Touching portrait of the Chinese filmmaker screened at LFF 2015. Captures the essence of Jia’s cinema with intelligence and warmth as the director visits the locales of his upbringing. A timely definition of how cinema and the artist’s life cannot be separated.

Heaven’s Will (Li Pengfei, 2015)
Screened at the Chinese Visual Festival 2015 over the summer, this independent documentary told the story of a charismatic former gangster who starts to correctly predict the death of his village’s inhabitants.

Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Universally raved by critics, Costa is now a leading voice in the uncompromised auteur based art cinema. The latest is a nocturnal stroll around the mental prisons of the damaged and disenfranchised Cape Verdean immigrants of Lisbon. An almost surrealist prologue to the twin epics In Vanda’s Room and Colossal Youth.

Love (Gaspar Noé, 2015)
Noé continues to be a hypnotically engaging filmmaker. His confrontational compositions and embodied camera movement explore a unique brand of realism and performance.

Shan he gu ren (Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015)
Another masterpiece from Jia who is capable of effortlessly showing us humour, pathos and human spirit. Another LFF 2015 screening.

Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
Screened at Tate Modern London in March, this Locarno winner from 2013 took its time to arrive theatrically and on DVD this year. Serra develops an opaque aesthetic of extreme beauty within a cinema of ideas from literature and art history creating a bold and sensuality edging back and forth from transcendence to sublime farce.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives (Bobbito Garcia, 2015)
Revelatory and revisionary history of that often misrepresented modern cultural institution “’90s New York Rap”. An aural archive of the underground radio show that developed the music and the culture of what is glowingly referred to as Rap’s “Golden Age”. Strictly certified stuff screened at the LFF 2015.

Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Another poetic portrait of contemporary Mali from the master. A vitally important portrait of fundamentalist religion, to paraphrase the character of the imam in the film; “Where is leniency, where is forgiveness, where is piety? Where is god in all of this?!”

About The Author

Related Posts