Top 19 of 2017

2017 was, to put it mildly and flippantly, an utter oddity of a year in so many ways. When I look at my list, the overall quality of the films themselves was perhaps no poorer than in the monumental selections of the past two years, but there was a certain bewilderment, a malaise that put me at a distance. With the exception of Twin Peaks: The Return, there was practically no film where my love was not complicated in some way, and it seems equally due to the films as it is to the year at large.

The following list is formed from the reds, oranges, greens, and blues (plus a few more) that I have seen at time of writing that were commercially released in New York City in 2017. It is a snapshot rather than a permanent fixture.

no1

1. On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)

no2

2. The Work (Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous)

no3

3. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)

no4

4. Princess Cyd (Stephen Cone)

no5

5. Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie)

no6

6. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (S.S. Rajamouli)

no7

7. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

no8

8. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Noah Baumbach)

no9

9. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)

no10

10. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Paul W.S. Anderson)

no11

11. The Son of Joseph (Eugène Green)

no12

12. 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)

no13

13. Marjorie Prime (Michael Almereyda)

no14

14. Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)

no15

15. The Post (Steven Spielberg)

no16

16. Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro)

no17

17. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson)

no18

18. The Human Surge (Eduardo Williams)

no19

19. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)

My Top 10 Discoveries During 2017 (for first-time viewings of films made before 2000)

  1. A Touch of Zen (1971, King Hu)
  2. The Terrorizers (1986, Edward Yang)
  3. Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
  4. Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
  5. A New Leaf (1971, Elaine May)
  6. Ashes of Time (1994, Wong Kar-wai)
  7. Surviving Desire (1991, Hal Hartley)
  8. Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)
  9. The Unbelievable Truth (1989, Hal Hartley)
  10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)

2017 “Senses of Cinema” Ballot

Hypothetical ballot for the 2017 Senses of Cinema World Poll. Mostly based on 2017 New York City commercial releases.

1. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)

2. On the Beach at Night Alone (2017, Hong Sang-soo)

3. Three Films From Ten Seconds Into the Future:
The Human Surge (2016, Eduardo Williams)
By the Time It Gets Dark (2016, Anocha Suwichakornpong)
Kékszakállú (2016, Gaston Solnicki)

4. Humanist Documentaries
The Work (2017, Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous)
Faces Places (2017, Agnès Varda & JR)

5. Independent Breakthroughs:
Princess Cyd (2017, Stephen Cone)
Good Time (2017, Josh & Benny Safdie)

6. Auteurist Franchise Works
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017, S.S. Rajamouli)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016, Paul W.S. Anderson)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017, Rian Johnson)

7. “American” Histories:
The Post (2017, Steven Spielberg)
Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Lost City of Z (2016, James Gray)

8. Family Dramedys
Lady Bird (2017, Greta Gerwig)
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017, Noah Baumbach)
The Son of Joseph (2016, Eugène Green)

9. French Sensuality:
120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017, Robin Campillo)
Personal Shopper (2016, Olivier Assayas)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)

10. Old Masters:
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (2017, Frederick Wiseman)
Song to Song (2017, Terrence Malick)

December 2017 Capsules

A Touch of Zen
The rare film whose greatness is both totally, utterly assured and constantly daring, pushing and probing at its own ambitions to create something more. The opening section alone evokes this seeming contradiction: Hu’s constant camera motions, cutting judiciously to closer and closer views of the central fort, tease out so much of the haunted textures that define roughly two-thirds of the film, but crucially never come close to spelling out the layout of the structure. It is a metaphysical realm even before the priests take the center stage, one defined by the delineation between standard society and the mystical forces that swirl just outside of the town square. Ku moves between these freely, defined by his indecision and complacency, serving as the perfect conduit and viewpoint from which to marvel at these barely superhuman figures. Methodical, explosive, eerie, A Touch of Zen seems to contain all of humanity’s attributes for good and ill, and then goes beyond in its final foregrounding of the mystical, the fundamentally unknowable.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Establishes itself from the outset, with the tactical equivalent of a prank call, to be an exceptionally perceptive, playful and loving subversion of practically every single convention of the closest thing post-20th century culture has to a modern myth. At times, Star Wars: The Last Jedi almost feels like a series of constantly escalating dares that Rian Johnson is issuing over the span of two and a half hours, willfully bewildering and perplexing the viewer with totally unexpected events, structural conceits, and even performance choices. But to reduce such a textually and aesthetically rich film to gambits is foolish: it is as much invested in reinforcement as it is in subversion, and the journey to the former while balancing the latter is rendered expertly.

Like its predecessors (and especially The Force Awakens), the galactic struggles are consistently cast in terms of the personal, focusing on individual reactions and motivations as reflections of a wider movement. The whittling down of the Resistance makes this register even more strongly, but the decision to fracture the narrative into roughly four parts (so jarring at first that I nearly missed just how carefully the movie was edited together, especially in those oh-so-crucial Force conversations) means that the viewer’s grounding must be, even more than normal, in the characters. Their essential uncertainty, their hesitation to stand in the face of monumental events, is what defines them, and the film is willing to lean into these flaws in order to access something deeper, more painful than I could have expected.

Non-Released Features

The feature films I have seen that, for one reason or another, (appear to) have not played in theaters for a week in New York City.

Main list.
Secondary list.
Tertiary list.

Brand New Landscape (2025, Danzuka Yuiga)
Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued (2025, Julian Castronovo)
Double Happiness (2025, Joseph Hsu)
The Fence (2025, Claire Denis)
The Girls We Want (2025, Prïncia Car)
I Only Rest in the Storm (2025, Pedro Pinho)
Late Fame (2025, Kent Jones)
Pin de fartie (2025, Alejo Moguillansky)
Room Temperature (2025, Dennis Cooper & Zac Farley)
We Are the Fruits of the Forest (2025, Panh Rithy)
Wild Foxes (2025, Valéry Carnoy)
Abiding Nowhere (2024, Tsai Ming-liang)
Breathless (2024, James Benning)
Broken Rage (2024, Kitano Takeshi)
Carry-On (2024, Jaume Collet-Serra)
Cent mille milliards (2024, Virgil Vernier)
Chime (2024, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Death of a Saint (2024, Patricia Bbaale Bandak)
Eight Postcards From Utopia (2024, Radu Jude & Christian Ferencz-Flatz)
Escape From the 21st Century (2024, Li Yang)
Gaucho Gaucho (2024, Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw)
Good Bad Things (2024, Shane D. Stanger)
The Greatest Night in Pop (2024, Bao Nguyen)
It’s Not Me (2024, Leos Carax)
Measures for a Funeral (2024, Sofia Bohdanowicz)
Mongrel (2024, Chiang Wei-liang & Yin You-qiao)
The Other Way Around (2024, Jonás Trueba)
Pepe (2024, Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias)
Rap World (2024, Danny Scharar & Connor O’Malley)
Rebel Ridge (2024, Jeremy Saulnier)
Savanna and the Mountain (2024, Paulo Carneiro)
The Serpent’s Path (2024, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Sleep #2 (2024, Radu Jude)
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (2024, Hernán Rosselli)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024, Wes Anderson)
Absence (2023, Wu Lang)
ALLENSWORTH (2023, James Benning)
The Beast in the Jungle (2023, Patric Chiha)
The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (2023, William Friedkin)
A Common Sequence (2023, Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser)
DeadEndz (2023, Jon Jost)
An Evening Song (for three voices) (2023, Graham Swon)
Following the Sound (2023, Sugita Kyoshi)
Gift (2023, Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
Gush (2023, Fox Maxy)
Man in Black (2023, Wang Bing)
Murderess (2023, Eva Nathena)
Nowhere Near (2023, Miko Revereza)
The Plough (2023, Philippe Garrel)
Samsara (2023, Lois Patiño)
The Adventures of Gigi the Law (2022, Alessandro Comodin)
Astrakan (2022, David Depesseville)
The Blue Rose of Forgetfulness (2022, Lewis Klahr)
Cette maison (2022, Miryam Charles)
The City and the City (2022, Christos Passalis & Syllas Tzoumerkas)
Diary of a Fleeting Affair (2022, Emmanuel Mouret)
Divertimento (2022, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar)
Don Juan (2022, Serge Bozon)
Every Day in Kaimukī (2022, Alika Tengan)
The Exiles (2022, Violet Columbus & Ben Klein)
The Fadings (2022, You Wenhu)
Fall (2022, Vadim Kostrov)
A Human Position (2022, Anders Emblem)
It Is Night in America (2022, Ana Vaz)
Kimi (2022, Steven Soderbergh)
The Maiden (2022, Graham Foy)
The Mission (2022, Tania Anderson)
The People You’re Paying to Be in Shorts (2022, Jon Bois)
The Plains (2022, David Easteal)
Relative (2022, Michael Glover Smith)
Safe Place (2022, Juraj Lerotić)
Section 1 (2022, Jon Bois)
Shin Ultraman (2022, Higuchi Shinji)
Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick? (2022, Franciska Eliassen)
Tales of the Purple House (2022, Abbas Fahdel)
The United States of America (2022, James Benning)
Warriors of Future (2022, Ng Yuen-fai)
Where (2022, Tsai Ming-liang)
Where Is This Street? or With No Before or After (2022, João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata)
The Woman From Myanmar (2022, Wang Xiuyue)
After the Rain (2021, Fan Jian)
Be Concerned (2021, Li Jia)
Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World (2021, Adam Curtis)
Come Here (2021, Anocha Suwichakornpong)
Deception (2021, Arnaud Desplechin)
FIRST TIME [The Time for All But Sunset – VIOLET] (2021, Nicolaas Schmidt)
From the Planet of the Humans (2021, Giovanni Cioni)
Haruhara-san’s Recorder (2021, Sugita Kyoshi)
Home Sweet Home (2021, Leste Chen)
In the Morning of La Petite Mort (2021, Wang Yu-lin)
Limbo (2021, Soi Cheang)
A Marble Travelogue (2021, Sean Wang)
Medea (2021, Alexander Zeldovich)
The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost (2021, Lei Qinyuan)
Our Eternal Summer (2021, Émilie Aussel)
Pebbles (2021, PS Vinothraj)
Rampart (2021, Marko Grba Singh)
Ripples of Life (2021, Wei Shujun)
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (2021, Shengze Zhu)
The Sacred Spirit (2021, Chema García Ibarra)
Singing in the Wilderness (2021, Chen Dongnan)
Social Hygiene (2021, Denis Côté)
The Soul (2021, Cheng Wei-hao)
Summer (2021, Vadim Kostrov)
Topology of Sirens (2021, Jonathan Davies)
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021, Edwin)
Virgin Blue (2021, Niu Xiaoyu)
Wet Sand (2021, Elene Naveriani)
Who’s Stopping Us (2021, Jonás Trueba)
All the Light We Can See (2020, Pablo Escoto Luna)
Atarrabi and Mikelats (2020, Eugène Green)
The Calming (2020, Song Fang)
The Eight Hundred (2020, Guan Hu)
The Last City (2020, Heinz Emigholz)
The Lobby (2020, Heinz Emigholz)
Love Affair(s) (2020, Emmanuel Mouret)
Minamata Mandala (2020, Hara Kazuo)
One Second (2020, Zhang Yimou)
Radiograph of a Family (2020, Firouzeh Khosrovani)
Roy’s World: Barry Gifford’s Chicago (2020, Rob Christopher)
s01e03 (2020, Kurt Walker)
Short Vacation (2020, Kwon Min-pyo & Seo Han-sol)
Striding Into the Wind (2020, Wei Shujun)
There are not thirty-six ways of showing a man getting on a horse. (2020, Nicolás Zukerfeld)
The Year of the Discovery (2020, Luis López Carrasco)
Belonging (2019, Burak Çevik)
Cenote (2019, Kaori Oda)
Chasing Dream (2019, Johnnie To)
A City Called Macau (2019, Li Shaohong)
Gyopo (2019, Samuel Kiehoon Lee)
Hellhole (2019, Bas Devos)
Krabi, 2562 (2019, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong)
Oroslan (2019, Matjaz Ivanisin)
Present.Perfect. (2019, Shengze Zhu)
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another (2019, Jessica Sarah Rinland)
A Voluntary Year (2019, Ulrich Köhler & Henner Winckler)
Acid Forest (2018, Rugile Barzdziukaite)
Amanda (2018, Mikhaël Hers)
Belmonte (2018, Federico Veiroj)
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (2018, Bruno Dumont)
Dead Horse Nebula (2018, Tarik Aktas)
Dear Ex (2018, Mag Hsu & Hsu Chih-yen)
A Family Tour (2018, Ying Liang)
Fausto (2018, Andrea Bussmann)
Film Catastrophe (2018, Paul Grivas)
Forever Young (2018, Li Fangfang)
A Land Imagined (2018, Yeo Siew Hua)
Liz and the Blue Bird (2018, Yamada Naoko)
Long Way Home (2018, André Novais Oliveira)
The Night Comes for Us (2018, Timo Tjahjanto)
Permanent Green Light (2018, Dennis Cooper & Zac Farley)
Sand (2018, Tsai Ming-liang)
Shoot the Moon Right Between the Eyes (2018, Graham L. Carter)
Sophia Antipolis (2018, Virgil Vernier)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018, Susan Johnson)
Yara (2018, Abbas Fahdel)
Your Face (2018, Tsai Ming-liang)
Amiko (2017, Yamanaka Yoko)
Common Carrier (2017, James N. Kienitz Wilkins)
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train (2017, Sydney Freeland)
Drift (2017, Helena Wittmann)
Fail to Appear (2017, Antoine Bourges)
The Foolish Bird (2017, Huang Ji & Otsuka Ryuji)
Forest Movie (2017, Matthew Taylor Blais)
From Nine to Nine (2017, Neil Bahadur)
Go, Toto! (2017, Pierre Creton)
SPL: Paradox (2017, Wilson Yip)
Radio Mary (2017, Gary Walkow)
A Skin So Soft (2017, Denis Côté)
(2017, Johann Lurf)
Streetscapes [Dialogue] (2017, Heinz Emigholz)
Tonsler Park (2017, Kevin Jerome Everson)
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)
Another Year (2016, Shengze Zhu)
Bad Black (2016, Nabwana IGG)
Beduino (2016, Júlio Bressane)
Close Relations (2016, Vitaly Mansky)
Dark Skull (2016, Kiro Russo)
The Dreamed Path (2016, Angela Schanelec)
House of Little Deaths (2016, Scout Tafoya)
HyperNormalisation (2016, Adam Curtis)
Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids (2016, Jonathan Demme)
Lemonade (2016, Kahlil Joseph and Beyoncé Knowles Carter)
Looking at the Stars (2016, Alexandre Peralta)
Ma’ Rosa (2016, Brillante Mendoza)
Sieranevada (2016, Cristi Puiu)
Victoria (2016, Justine Triet)
Aragane (2015, Kaori Oda)
Bitter Lake (2015, Adam Curtis)
Blue Strait (2015, Jon Jost)
Dead Slow Ahead (2015, Mauro Herce)
Despite the Night (2015, Philippe Grandrieux)
88:88 (2015, Isiah Medina)
Garoto (2015, Júlio Bressane)
Helios (2015, Longman Leung & Sunny Luk)
John From (2015, João Nicolau)
Journey to the Shore (2015, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
The Leisure Class (2015, Jason Mann)
Minotaur (2015, Nicolás Pereda)
The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (2015, Ben Rivers)
The Distance (2014, Sergio Caballero)
Hit 2 Pass (2014, Kurt Walker)
Journey to the West (2014, Tsai Ming-liang)
The Midnight After (2014, Fruit Chan)
Not My Type (2014, Lucas Belvaux)
Polizeiruf 110: Smoke on the Water (2014, Dominik Graf)
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (2014, Ossama Mohammed & Wiam Simav Bedirxan)
Violet (2014, Bas Devos)
Blind Detective (2013, Johnnie To)
Coming to Terms (2013, Jon Jost)
El futuro (2013, Luis López Carrasco)
The Guests (2013, Ken Jacobs)
Local Legends (2013, Matt Farley)
Miss and the Doctors (2013, Axelle Ropert)
Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013, Hong Sang-soo)
Our Sunhi (2013, Hong Sang-soo)
Sentimental Education (2013, Júlio Bressane)
3x3D (2013, Peter Greenaway/Jean-Luc Godard/Edgar Pêra)
Touching the Skin of Eeriness (2013, Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
differently, Molussia (2012, Nicolas Rey)
Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012, Charles Roxburgh)
Easy Rider (2012, James Benning)
Egg and Stone (2012, Huang Ji)
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012, Anno Hideaki)
Game Change (2012, Jay Roach)
Krivina (2012, Igor Drljaca)
Me @ the Zoo (2012, Chris Moukarbel & Valerie Veatch)
A Month in Thailand (2012, Paul Negoescu)
Motorway (2012, Soi Cheang)
Romancing in Thin Air (2012, Johnnie To)
All Watched Over by Machines of loving Grace (2011, Adam Curtis)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (2011, Johnnie To)
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead (2011, Christian Petzold)
Dreileben: Don’t Follow Me Around (2011, Dominik Graf)
Dreileben: One Minute of Darkness (2011, Christoph Hochhäusler)
Elegy to the Visitor From the Revolution (2011, Lav Diaz)
Life Without Principle (2011, Johnnie To)
Low Life (2011, Nicolas Klotz)
The Passage (2011, Roberto Minervini)
The Pettifogger (2011, Lewis Klahr)
Rosalinda (2011, Matías Piñeiro)
A World Without Women (2011, Guillaume Brac)
ANPO: Art X War (2010, Linda Hoaglund)
The City Below (2010, Christoph Hochhäusler)
Hahaha (2010, Hong Sang-soo)
Love in a Puff (2010, Pang Ho-cheung)
Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010, Dibakar Banerjee)
Slow Action (2010, Ben Rivers)
Accident (2009, Soi Cheang)
Blondes in the Jungle (2009, Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn)
Disorder (2009, Huang Weikai)
It Felt Like a Kiss (2009, Adam Curtis)
Like You Know It All (2009, Hong Sang-soo)
Oxhide II (2009, Liu Jiayin)
Cape No. 7 (2008, Wei Te-Sheng)
L’Idiot (2008, Pierre Léon)
A Lake (2008, Philippe Grandrieux)
Parking (2008, Chung Mong-hong)
Sparrow (2008, Johnnie To)
Death Proof (2007, Quentin Tarantino)
Help Me Eros (2007, Lee Kang-sheng)
Secret (2007, Jay Chou)
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007, Adam Curtis)
Useless (2007, Jia Zhangke)
Dong (2006, Jia Zhangke)
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (2006, Lisa Ades & Lesli Klainberg)
Live Freaky! Die Freaky! (2006, John Roecker)
Oxhide (2005, Liu Jiayin)
Perhaps Love (2005, Peter Chan)
SPL (2005, Wilson Yip)
Through the Forest (2005, Jean Paul Civeyrac)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2004, Lloyd Kramer)
The Hand (2004, Wong Kar-wai)
Mulan II (2004, Darrell Rooney & Lynne Southerland)
My Stinking Kid (2004, Lee Kang-sheng & Tsai Ming-liang)
Triple Agent (2004, Eric Rohmer)
Vénus and Fleur (2004, Emmanuel Mouret)
Like Nothing Happened (2003, Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
The Missing (2003, Lee Kang-sheng)
PTU (2003, Johnnie To)
The Room (2003, Tommy Wiseau)
Running on Karma (2003, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
Turn Left, Turn Right (2003, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai)
Chinese Odyssey 2002 (2002, Jeffrey Lau)
Film ist. 7-12 (2002, Gustav Deutsch)
The Friends of the Friends (2002, Dominik Graf)
Mischka (2002, Jean-François Stévenin)
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
A New Life (2002, Philippe Grandrieux)
On the Occasion of Remember the Turning Gate (2002, Hong Sang-soo)
Looking for Tsai (2002, Patrik Eriksson & Erik Hemmendorff)
Batang West Side (2001, Lav Diaz)
Desperado Square (2001, Benny Toraty)
A Fine Day (2001, Thomas Arslan)
La libertad (2001, Lisandro Alonso)
Love on a Diet (2001, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
That Old Dream That Moves (2001, Alain Guiraudie)
Durian Durian (2000, Fruit Chan)
In Vanda’s Room (2000, Pedro Costa)
Joseph: King of Dreams (2000, Rob LaDuca & Robert C. Ramirez)
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000, Jim Kammerud & Brian Smith)
Petite conversation familiale (2000, Hélène Lapiower)
The State I Am In (2000, Christian Petzold)
Little Cheung (1999, Fruit Chan)
The Mission (1999, Johnnie To)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999, Takahata Isao)
Silvia Prieto (1999, Martín Rejtman)
South (1999, Chantal Akerman)
Tempting Heart (1999, Sylvia Chang)
El Valley Centro (1999, James Benning)
Dil Se.. (1998, Mani Ratnam)
Eyes of the Spider (1998, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Film ist. 1-6 (1998, Gustav Deutsch)
Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
A Hero Never Dies (1998, Johnnie To)
The Longest Summer (1998, Fruit Chan)
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998, Tom Ellery & Bradley Raymond)
Serpent’s Path (1998, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Sombre (1998, Philippe Grandrieux)
The Odd One Dies (1997, Patrick Yau and Johnnie To)
Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997, Karl Geurs)
Pride Divide (1997, Paris Poirier)
The Revenge: A Visit From Fate (1997, Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (1997, Wai Ka-fai)
Xiao Wu (1997, Jia Zhangke)
The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996, Hong Sang-soo)
Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Mahjong (1996, Edward Yang)
Roam Sweet Home (1996, Ellen Spiro)
Viva Erotica (1996, Derek Yee & Lo Chi-leung)
Tatort: Frau Bu lacht (1995, Dominik Graf)
Xiao Shan Going Home (1995, Jia Zhangke)
A Confucian Confusion (1994, Edward Yang)
In the Heat of the Sun (1994, Jiang Wen)
The Invincibles (1994, Dominik Graf)
100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994, Oshima Nagisa)
A Taste of Killing and Romance (1994, Veronica Chan)
U.S. Go Home (1994, Claire Denis)
Wing Chun (1994, Yuen Woo-ping)
From the East (1993, Chantal Akerman)
Green Snake (1993, Tsui Hark)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993, Alanis Obomsawin)
Tai-Chi Master (1993, Yuen Woo-ping)
Falling Lessons (1992, Amy Halpern)
Full Contact (1992, Ringo Lam)
Nemesis (1992, Albert Pyun)
The Rocking Horsemen (1992, Obayashi Nobuhiko)
Dirty Like an Angel (1991, Catherine Breillat)
Keep It for Yourself (1991, Claire Denis)
The Life of the Dead (1991, Arnaud Desplechin)
Sisters in the Struggle (1991, Dionne Brand & Ginny Stikeman)
Some Divine Wind (1991, Roddy Bogawa)
Surviving Desire (1991, Hal Hartley)
To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991, Michael Snow)
Bullet in the Head (1990, John Woo)
Empire of the Dark (1990, Steve Barkett)
Troll 2 (1990, Claudio Fragasso)
American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy (1989, Chantal Akerman)
A City of Sadness (1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, Hayao Miyazaki)
Meeting a Milestone (1989, Goutam Ghose)
Pedicab Driver (1989, Sammo Hung)
The Seventh Continent (1989, Michael Haneke)
Les Sièges de l’Alcazar (1989, Luc Moullet)
Tongues Untied (1989, Marlon Riggs)
Water and Power (1989, Pat O’Neill)
The Cat (1988, Dominik Graf)
Dangerous Game (1988, Stephen Hopkins)
The Discarnates (1988, Obayashi Nobuhiko)
Grotesque (1988, Joe Tornatore)
Uma Pedra no Bolso (1988, Joaquim Pinto)
School on Fire (1988, Ringo Lam)
An Autumn’s Tale (1987, Mabel Cheung)
A Better Tomorrow II (1987, John Woo)
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987, Ching Siu-tung)
City on Fire (1987, Ringo Lam)
The Death of Empedocles (1987, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
Eastern Condors (1987, Sammo Hung)
A Better Tomorrow (1986, John Woo)
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (1986, Obayashi Nobuhiko)
Double messieurs (1986, Jean-François Stévenin)
Faubourg Saint-Martin (1986, Jean-Claude Guiguet)
His Motorbike, Her Island (1986, Obayashi Nobuhiko)
Landscape Suicide (1986, James Benning)
Qui trop embrasse… (1986, Jacques Davila)
Contact (1985, Alan Clarke)
Kuei-mei, a Woman (1985, Chang Yi)
American Dreams (Lost and Found) (1984, James Benning)
Long Arm of the Law (1984, Johnny Mak)
Shanghai Blues (1984, Tsui Hark)
Wheels on Meals (1984, Sammo Hung)
At the Top of the Stairs (1983, Paul Vecchiali)
Suffer Little Children (1983, Alan Briggs)
That Day, on the Beach (1983, Edward Yang)
In Our Time (1982, Tao Te-chen/Edward Yang/Ko I-chen/Chang Yi)
Nomad (1982, Patrick Tam)
Too Early/Too Late (1982, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
At This Late Date, the Charleston (1981, Okamoto Kihachi)
Dirty Ho (1981, Lau Kar-leung)
Kagero-za (1981, Suzuki Seijun)
Merry-Go-Round (1981, Jacques Rivette)
My Young Auntie (1981, Lau Kar-leung)
Nightshift (1981, Robina Rose)
Tree of Knowledge (1981, Nils Malmros)
Dangerous Encounters—1st Kind (1980, Tsui Hark)
Here’s looking at you, kid. (1980, William Edgar Cohen)
Nights at O’Rear’s (1980, Robert Mandel)
Simone Barbès or Virtue (1980, Marie-Claude Treilhou)
Sunday Daughters (1980, Rózsa Janós)
Alexandria… Why? (1979, Youssef Chahine)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979, Delbert Mann)
And Quiet Rolls the Dawn (1979, Mrinal Sen)
Black Jack (1979, Ken Loach)
From the Cloud to the Resistance (1979, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
The Maids of Wilko (1979, Andrzej Wajda)
Le Navire Night (1979, Marguerite Duras)
A Scream From Silence (1979, Anne Claire Poirier)
Short Memory (1979, Eduardo de Gregorio)
Drunken Master (1978, Yuen Woo-ping)
Game of Death (1978, Robert Clouse)
Molière (1978, Ariane Mnouchkine)
Other People’s Money (1978, Christian de Chalonge)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978, Steve Binder)
They Are Their Own Gifts (1978, Lucille Rhodes & Margaret Murphy)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978, Lau Kar-leung)
11 x 14 (1977, James Benning)
Hot Tomorrows (1977, Martin Brest)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977, Jon Jost)
Omar Gatlato (1977, Merzak Allouache)
One Way Boogie Woogie (1977, James Benning)
Pafnucio Santo (1977, Rafael Corkidi)
Skip Tracer (1977, Zale Dalen)
The Truck (1977, Marguerite Duras)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, John Carpenter)
Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976, Joan Micklin Silver)
Fortini/Cani (1976, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
Insiang (1976, Lino Brocka)
News From Home (1976, Chantal Akerman)
Noroît (une vengeance) (1976, Jacques Rivette)
The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976, Radley Metzger)
Autobiography of a Princess (1975, James Ivory)
Compañero: Victor Jara of Chile (1975, Stanley Forman & Martin Smith)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975, Thom Andersen)
Fear of Fear (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Valiant Ones (1975, King Hu)
The Bench of Desolation (1974, Claude Chabrol)
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (1974, Hara Kazuo)
Femmes Femmes (1974, Paul Vecchiali)
The Mouth Agape (1974, Maurice Pialat)
The Night of the Scarecrow (1974, Sérgio Ricardo)
The Illumination (1973, Krzysztof Zanussi)
Israel, Why (1973, Claude Lanzmann)
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973, Alexander Kluge)
Réjeanne Padovani (1973, Denys Arcand)
A Simple Event (1973, Sohrab Shahid-Saless)
Going Home (1972, Adolfas Mekas)
Goodbye CP (1972, Kazuo Hara)
History Lessons (1972, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
The Inner Scar (1972, Philippe Garrel)
Liza With a Z (1972, Bob Fosse)
Nathalie Granger (1972, Marguerite Duras)
Out 1: Spectre (1972, Jacques Rivette)
Summer Soldiers (1972, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
The Way of the Dragon (1972, Bruce Lee)
Directed by John Ford (1971, John Ford)
Family Life (1971, Krzysztof Zanussi)
Fata Morgana (1971, Werner Herzog)
A Girl Is a Gun (1971, Luc Moullet)
In the Name of the Father (1971, Marco Bellocchio)
Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
La Région centrale (1971, Michael Snow)
The Cannibals (1970, Liliana Cavani)
Comrades (1970, Marin Karmitz)
Hospital (1970, Frederick Wiseman)
Langlois (1970, Eila Hershon & Roberto Guerra)
The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970, Oshima Nagisa)
The Scavengers (1970, Ermanno Olmi)
Wind From the East (1970, Groupe Dziga Vertov and Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin)
Zorns Lemma (1970, Hollis Frampton)
The Color of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov)
Goto, Island of Love (1969, Walerian Borowczyk)
Harry Munter (1969, Kjell Grede)
Law and Order (1969, Frederick Wiseman)
Pigsty (1969, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
The Rite (1969, Ingmar Bergman)
Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968, Alexander Kluge)
Golden Swallow (1968, Chang Cheh)
High School (1968, Frederick Wiseman)
One Fine Day (1968, Ermanno Olmi)
Signs of Life (1968, Werner Herzog)
Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968, Oshima Nagisa)
24 Hours in the Life of a Woman (1968, Dominique Delouche)
Branded to Kill (1967, Suzuki Seijun)
Hugo and Josephine (1967, Kjell Grede)
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Oshima Nagisa)
La Musica (1967, Marguerite Duras & Paul Seban)
One-Armed Swordsman (1967, Chang Cheh)
Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London (1967, Peter Whitehead)
Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow)
Almost a Man (1966, Vittorio De Seta)
Barrier (1966, Jerzy Skolimowski)
Come Drink With Me (1966, King Hu)
Hedy (1966, Andy Warhol)
Pearls of the Deep (1966, Jiri Menzel/Jan Nemec/Evald Schorm/Vera Chytilová/Jaromil Jires)
Roger la Honte (1966, Riccardo Freda)
Tokyo Drifter (1966, Suzuki Seijun)
Troublemakers (1966, Norman Fruchter & Robert Machover)
Yesterday Girl (1966, Alexander Kluge)
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965, Doris Wishman)
The Epic That Never Was (1965, Bill Duncalf)
The Lion Hunters (1965, Jean Rouch)
Memorandum (1965, Donald Brittain & John Spotton)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965, Sergei Parajanov)
Sons of the Good Earth (1965, King Hu)
Brick and Mirror (1964, Ebrahim Golestan)
The Enchanted Desna (1964, Yuliya Solntseva)
The Last Clean Shirt (1964, Alfred Leslie)
The Story of Sue San (1964, King Hu)
Yearning (1964, Naruse Mikio)
Hands Over the City (1963, Francesco Rosi)
In the Midst of Life (1963, Robert Enrico)
Magnet of Doom (1963, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963, Roberto Rossellini/Jean-Luc Godard/Pier Paolo Pasolini/Ugo Gregoretti)
Suzanne’s Career (1963, Eric Rohmer)
Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey)
Garrincha: Hero of the Jungle (1962, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade)
Glory Sky (1962, Takis Kanellopoulos)
The Sea (1962, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi)
Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962, Andrzej Wajda)
The Sign of Leo (1962, Eric Rohmer)
Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961, Vittorio Cottafavi)
The Story of the Flaming Years (1961, Yuliya Solntseva)
The Giants of Thessaly (1960, Riccardo Freda)
The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960, Fritz Lang)
A Simple Story (1959, Marcel Hanoun)
Ajantrik (1958, Ritwik Ghatak)
Conflagration (1958, Kon Ichikawa)
Poem of an Inland Sea (1958, Yuliya Solntseva)
8 Hours of Terror (1957, Suzuki Seijun)
Pyaasa (1957, Guru Dutt)
Shin Heike Monogatari (1955, Mizoguchi Kenji)
Spring in a Small Town (1948, Fei Mu)
Women of the Night (1948, Mizoguchi Kenji)
Great Freedom No. 7 (1944, Helmut Käutner)
Bad Seed (1934, Billy Wilder and Alexander Esway)
The Goddess (1934, Wu Yonggang)
Dragnet Girl (1933, Ozu Yasujiro)
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932, Ozu Yasujiro)
My Grandmother (1929, Kote Mikaberidze)
L’Argent (1928, Marcel L’Herbier)
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928, Germaine Dulac)
The Child of Paris (1913, Léonce Perret)

2017 Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations Ballot

Best Picture

  1. On the Beach at Night Alone
  2. Faces Places
  3. Princess Cyd
  4. Good Time
  5. The Post
  6. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
  7. 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)
  8. Lady Bird
  9. Phantom Thread
  10. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Best Director

  1. Josh & Benny Safdie, Good Time
  2. Bertrand Bonello, Nocturama
  3. Eduardo Williams, The Human Surge
  4. Steven Spielberg, The Post
  5. Paul W.S. Anderson, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Best Actor

  1. Robert Pattinson, Good Time
  2. Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
  3. Claes Bang, The Square
  4. Adam Sandler, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
  5. Ben Stiller, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Best Actress

  1. Kim Min-hee, On the Beach at Night Alone
  2. Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
  3. Rebecca Spence, Princess Cyd
  4. Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
  5. Cynthia Nixon, A Quiet Passion

Best Supporting Actor

  1. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)
  2. Robert Pattinson, The Lost City of Z
  3. Tim Robbins, Marjorie Prime
  4. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
  5. Dustin Hoffman, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Best Supporting Actress

  1. Elizabeth Marvel, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
  2. Lois Smith, Marjorie Prime
  3. Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
  4. Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip
  5. Julianne Moore, Wonderstruck

Best Ensemble Cast

  1. Lady Bird
  2. 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)
  3. The Post
  4. Marjorie Prime
  5. Mudbound

Best Youth Performance

  1. Millicent Simmonds, Wonderstruck
  2. Oona Laurence, The Beguiled
  3. Brooklynn Prince, The Florida Project
  4. Valeria Cotto, The Florida Project
  5. Ahn Seo-hyun, Okja

Best Villain

  1. The texter, Personal Shopper
  2. Fei and Lin, The Ornithologist
  3. Rose, Get Out
  4. Dr. Isaacs, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
  5. James Murray, The Lost City of Z

Best Screenplay

  1. Hong Sang-soo, On the Beach at Night Alone
  2. Stephen Cone, Princess Cyd
  3. Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
  4. Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
  5. Matías Piñeiro, Hermia & Helena

Best Animated Feature

  1. Your Name.
  2. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea

Best Documentary Feature

  1. Faces Places
  2. Ex Libris – The New York Public Library
  3. Starless Dreams
  4. Escapes
  5. Rat Film

Best Foreign Language Film

  1. On the Beach at Night Alone
  2. Faces Places
  3. 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute)
  4. The Son of Joseph
  5. Nocturama

Best Cinematography

  1. Sean Price Williams, Good Time
  2. Darius Khondji, The Lost City of Z
  3. Janusz Kaminski, The Post
  4. [no credit], Phantom Thread
  5. Ed Lachman, Wonderstruck

Best Costume Design

  1. Phantom Thread
  2. Nocturama
  3. Princess Cyd
  4. Good Time
  5. Lady Bird

Best Film Editing

  1. Nocturama
  2. Wonderstruck
  3. Ex Libris – The New York Public Library
  4. Lady Bird
  5. Thirst Street

Best Original Score

  1. Oneohtrix Point Never, Good Time
  2. Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
  3. Carter Burwell, Wonderstruck
  4. Jon Brion, Lady Bird
  5. Bertrand Bonello, Nocturama

Best Production Design
N/A

Best Visual Effects
N/A