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
1. The Departed
Martin Scorsese, U.S.
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Cristi Puiu, Romania
3. Army of Shadows
Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy
4. L’Enfant
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France
5. The Queen
Stephen Frears, U.K./France/Italy
6. Borat
Larry Charles, U.S.
7. Half Nelson
Ryan Fleck, U.S.
8. United 93
Paul Greengrass, France/U.K./U.S.
9. Volver
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
10. Inland Empire
David Lynch, U.S./France/Poland
11. Three Times
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12. A Scanner Darkly |
13. Old Joy (tie) Flags of Our Fathers |
14. Tristram Shandy |
15. Pan’s Labyrinth |
16. Letters from Iwo Jima |
17. Mutual Appreciation |
18. A Prairie Home Companion |
19. Children of Men |
20. Casino Royale |
21. Climates |
22. Inside Man |
23. The Descent |
24. Clean |
25. Our Daily Bread |
26. Iraq in Fragments |
27. Little Miss Sunshine |
28. Miami Vice |
29. Gabrielle |
30. The Proposition |
31. Fast Food Nation |
32. An Inconvenient Truth |
33. Brick |
34. Woman Is the Future of Man |
35. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party |
36. Battle in Heaven |
37. 49 Up |
38. When the Levees Broke |
39. The Science of Sleep |
40. Lady Vengeance |
41. Little Children |
42. The Case |
43. Thank You for Smoking |
44. Shortbus |
45. 4 |
46. The Ister |
47. Marie Antoinette |
48. The War Tapes |
49. The Prestige |
50. The Road to Guantanamo |
BEST UNRELEASED FILMS OF 2006
1. Syndromes and a Century
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria
2. The Host Bong Joon-ho, South Korea/Japan
3. Colossal Youth* Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland
4. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France/Austria
5. Black Book Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands/U.K./Germany
6. Still Life* Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong/China
(tie) Woman on the Beach* Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
7. Private Fears in Public Places Alain Resnais, France/Italy
8. Belle Toujours* Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France
9. Offside Jafar Panahi, Iran
10. The Wind That Shakes the Barley Ken Loach, Ireland/U.K./Germany/Italy/Spain
11. Brand Upon the Brain!* Guy Maddin, Canada/U.S.
12. Bamako Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali/France
13. Triad Election Johnnie To, Hong Kong
14. Southland Tales* Richard Kelly, Germany/U.S.
15. In Between Days* So Yong Kim, U.S./Canada/South Korea
16. Into Great Silence Philip Gröning, France/Switzerland
17. When the Levees Broke Spike Lee, U.S.
18. Day Night Day Night* Julia Loktev, U.S.
19. The Go Master* Tian Zhuangzhuang, Japan/China
20. Red Road Andrea Arnold, U.K./Denmark
21. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait* Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno, France/Iceland
22. The Lives of Others Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany
23. Wristcutters: A Love Story* Goran Dukic, U.S.
24. Le Pont des Arts* Eugène Green, France
25. Gardens in Autumn* Otar Iosseliani, France
26. Paprika Satoshi Kon, Japan
27. Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog, U.S.
28. Hana* Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan
29. 12:08 East of Bucharest* Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania
30. Opera Jawa* Garin Nugroho, Indonesia/Austria
31. Exiled Johnnie To, Hong Kong
32. The Journals of Knud Rasmussan* Zacharias Kunuk & Norman Cohn, Canada/Denmark
33. Honor of Knights (Quixotic) Albert Serra, Spain
34. Flandres* Bruno Dumont, France
35. Lake of Fire* Tony Kaye, U.S.
35. Jack Smith & the Destruction of Atlantis Mary Jordan/U.S.
36. These Encounters of Theirs* Straub-Huillet, Italy/France
37. The Pevert’s Guide to Cinema* Sophie Fiennes, U.K./Austria
38. Pine Flat* Sharon Lockhart, U.S.
39. Falling* Barbara Albert, Austria/Germany
40. Time* Kim ki-duk, South Korea/Japan
41. Colma: The Musical* Richard Wong, U.S.
42. A Short Film About the Indio Nacional* Raya Martin, Philippenes
43. This Is England Shane Meadows, U.K.
44. Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye, Molly* Ken Jacobs, U.S.
45. Comedy of Power Claude Chabrol, France
46. August Days* Marc Recha, Spain
47. Bug William Friedkin, U.S.
48. Full Grown Men* David Munro, U.S.
49. Son of Man* Mark Dornford-May, South Africa
50. The Wayward Cloud* Tsai Ming-liang, Hong Kong
(*Currently without U.S. distribution)
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