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Film Comment’s End of Year Critics’ Poll 2006

For Film Comment’s Seventh Annual Critics’ Poll we invited our contributors and colleagues to rank their top 20 films of the year, plus the 10 best unreleased films they discovered on any festival sorties. (In the latter category, 10 had their U.S. premieres at the 44th New York Film Festival and at least two more will be shown in our annual Film Comment Selects series.) In each ballot from the 80-plus critical chorus, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on. We published the results for the Top 20 in the current issue and on this website in mid-December. Here are the Top 50.



BEST FILMS OF 2006 (Released theatrically in the U.S.)

1. The Departed Martin Scorsese, U.S. 779 points
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Cristi Puiu, Romania 740
3. Army of Shadows Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy 657
4. L’Enfant Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France 611
5. The Queen Stephen Frears, U.K./France/Italy 587
6. Borat Larry Charles, U.S. 455
7. Half Nelson Ryan Fleck, U.S. 454
8. United 93 Paul Greengrass, France/U.K./U.S. 432
9. Volver Pedro Almodóvar, Spain 429
10. Inland Empire David Lynch, U.S./France/Poland 414
11. Three Times Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan 379
12. A Scanner Darkly Richard Linklater, U.S. 363
13. Old Joy Kelly Reichardt, U.S. 352
(tie) Flags of Our Fathers Clint Eastwood, U.S. 352
14. Tristram Shandy Michael Winterbottom, U.K. 333
15. Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain/U.S. 322
16. Letters from Iwo Jima Clint Eastwood, U.S. 318
17. Mutual Appreciation Andrew Bujalski, U.S. 248
18. A Prairie Home Companion Robert Altman, U.S. 246
19. Children of Men Alfonso Cuarón, U.K./U.S. 244
20. Casino Royale Martin Campbell, U.K./U.S. 228
22. Climates Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France 223
23. Inside Man Spike Lee, U.S. 202
24. The Descent Neil Marshall, U.K. 199
25. Clean Olivier Assayas, Canada/France/U.K. 189
26. Our Daily Bread Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Germany/Austria 188
27. Iraq in Fragments James Longley, U.S./Iraq 186
28. Little Miss Sunshine Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris, U.S. 171
29. Miami Vice Michael Mann, U.S. 162
30. Gabrielle Patrice Leconte, France 161
31. The Proposition John Hillcoat, Australia/U.K. 155
32. Fast Food Nation Richard Linklater, U.S. 148
33. An Inconvenient Truth Davis Guggenheim, U.S. 147
34. Woman Is the Future of Man Hong Sang-soo, Taiwan 145
35. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party Michel Gondry, U.S. 144
36. Battle in Heaven Carlos Reygadas, Mexico 141
37. Brick Rian Johnson, U.S. 138
38. 49 Up Michael Apted, U.K. 134
39. When the Levees Broke Spike Lee, U.S. 123
40. The Science of Sleep Michel Gondry, France/U.S. 122
41. Lady Vengeance Park Chan-wook, South Korea 115
42. Little Children Todd Field, U.S. 108
43. The Case of the Grinning Cat Chris Marker, France 107
44. Thank You for Smoking Jason Reitman, U.S. 104
45. Shortbus John Cameron Mitchell, U.S. 102
46. 4 Ilya Khrjanovsky, Russia 98
47. The Ister David Barison/Daniel Ross, Australia 94
48. Marie Antoinette Sofia Coppola, U.S. 92
49. The War Tapes Deborah Scranton, U.S. 89
50. The Prestige Christopher Nolan, U.S. 87



BEST UNRELEASED FILMS OF 2006
(*Currently without U.S. distribution)

1. Syndromes and a Century Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria 253
2. The Host Bong Joon-ho, South Korea/Japan 139
3. Colossal Youth* Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland 127
4. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/Fr./Aus. 111
5. Black Book Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands/U.K./Ger. 108
6. Still Life* Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong/China 107
(tie) Woman on the Beach* Hong Sang-soo, South Korea 107
7. Private Fears in Public Places Alain Resnais, France/Italy 104
8. Belle Toujours* Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France 84
9. Offside Jafar Panahi, Iran 76
10. The Wind That Shakes the Barley Ken Loach, Ireland/U.K./Germany/Italy/Spain 70
11. Brand Upon the Brain!* Guy Maddin, Canada/U.S. 68
12. Bamako Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali/France 64
13. Triad Election Johnnie To, Hong Kong 60
14. Southland Tales* Richard Kelly, Germany/U.S. 53
15. In Between Days* So Yong Kim, U.S./Canada/South Korea 50
16. Into Great Silence Philip Gröning, France/Switzerland 44
17. When the Levees Broke Spike Lee, U.S. 43
18. Day Night Day Night* Julia Loktev, U.S. 40
19. The Go Master* Tian Zhuangzhuang, Japan/China 29
20. Red Road Andrea Arnold, U.K./Denmark 39
21. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait* Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno, Frane/Iceland38
22. The Lives of Others Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Ger. 37
23. Wristcutters: A Love Story* Goran Dukic, U.S. 36
24. Le Pont des Arts* Eugène Green, France 35
25. Gardens in Autumn* Otar Iosseliani, France 34
26. Paprika Satoshi Kon, Japan 33
27. Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog, U.S. 32
28. Hana* Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan 31
29. 12:08 East of Bucharest* Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania 30
30. Opera Jawa* Garin Nugroho, Indonesia/Austria 29
31. Exiled Johnnie To, Hong Kong 28
32. The Journals of Knud Rasmussan* Zacharias Kunuk/Norman Cohn, Canada/Denmark 27
33. Honor of Knights (Quixotic) Albert Serra, Spain 26
34. Flandres* Bruno Dumont, France 25
35. Lake of Fire* Tony Kaye, U.S. 24
35. Jack Smith & the Destruction of Atlantis Mary Jordan, U.S. 23
36. These Encounters of Theirs* Straub-Huillet, Italy/France 22
37. The Pevert’s Guide to Cinema* Sophie Fiennes, U.K., Aus., 21
38. Pine Flat* Sharon Lockhart, U.S. 20
39. Falling* Barbara Albert, Austria/Germany 19
40. Time* Kim ki-duk, South Korea/Japan 18
41. Colma: The Musical* Richard Wong, U.S. 17
42. A Short Film About the Indio Nacional* Raya Martin, Phil. 16
43. This Is England Shane Meadows, U.K. 15
44. Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye, Molly* Ken Jacobs, U.S. 14
45. Comedy of Power Claude Chabrol, France 13
46. August Days* Marc Recha, Spain 12
47. Bug William Friedkin, U.S. 11
48. Full Grown Men* David Munro, U.S. 10
49. Son of Man* Mark Dornford-May, South Africa 9
50. The Wayward Cloud* Tsai Ming-liang, Hong Kong 8

Participants: Sam Adams, Thom Andersen, Melissa Anderson, Dudley Andrew, Steve Anker, David Ansen, Paul Arthur, Michael Atkinson, Saul Austerlitz, Marjorie Baumgarten, Nick Bradshaw, Richard Brody, Michael Chaiken, Chris Chang, Tom Charity, Godfrey Cheshire, Gary Crowdus, Giulia D’Agnolo-Vallan, Mike D’Angelo, Manohla Dargis, Bilge Ebiri, Cheryl Eddy, David Edelstein, Justine Elias, David Fear, F.X. Feeney, Paul Fileri, Scott Foundas, Chris Fujiwara, Graham Fuller, Roger Garcia, Susan Gerhard, Gary Giddins, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Larry Gross, Dennis Harvey, Molly Haskell, Grady Hendrix, Logan Hill, J. Hoberman, Robert Horton, Johnny Ray Huston, Harlan Jacobson, Kent Jones, Kristin M. Jones, Dave Kehr, Lisa Kennedy, Glenn Kenny, Laura Kern, Stuart Klawans, Robert Koehler, Michael Koresky, Nathan Lee, Dennis Lim, Phillip Lopate, Tim Lucas, Cynthia Lucia, Scott Macaulay, Guy Maddin, Maitland McDonagh, Don McMahon, Wesley Morris, Rob Nelson, Chris Norris, Geoffrey O’Brien, Mark Olsen, Mark Peranson, Tony Pipolo, Richard Porton, John Powers, James Quandt, Alissa Quart, Nicolas Rapold, Bérénice Reynaud, Jim Ridley, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Joshua Rothkopf, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, Paul Schrader, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Gavin Smith, Roger Smith, Vivian Sobchack, Chuck Stephens, Bob Strauss, Jim Supanick, Amy Taubin, José Teodoro, Desson Thomson, Kenneth Turan, Michael Wilmington, Donald Wilson

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