ponedjeljak, 12. siječnja 2015.

Senses of Cinema - World Poll 2014

world poll wordle 2014


Kasičan filmski best of.

Welcome to the 11th Senses of Cinema World Poll.

Unlike most other end of year polls, this one does not result in an aggregated “top 10 of the year” list. That is not the point of the poll. Rather, we wish to present a snapshot of the favourite films of Senses readers, contributors and friends (mostly international programmers, critics, filmmakers and cinephiles).
Yes the parameters may be looser – we encourage submissions of older films, for example, firmly believing that such viewing keeps cinephilia alive and is always in dialogue with contemporary film viewing. Perhaps occasionally things may seem almost chaotic. But this reflects the heterogeneity of international film-going.
Lastly, while many lists reflect what was released in cinemas through official distribution channels, it is exciting to see lists from all over the world that resonate strongly with the cinephile’s innate hunger for discovery. Many entries continue to include works seen on TV or the Internet. And a more open embrace of these aesthetic tendencies spills over into some of the films themselves, not the least in the multi-textural and allusive Adieu au langage by Jean-Luc Godard, perhaps the film that appears the most times in the Poll.
Massive thanks to our compiler-proofers Aleena Glentis, Kiri Sullivan, Jessica Balanzategui, James Sabine and Daniel Fairfax, for dedicating their time to this monumental task over the Christmas break. And our ever-amazing webmaster Rachel Brown for getting the whole thing up.
Enjoy the lists!
- Michelle Carey


ANTTI ALANEN

FILM PROGRAMMER, CRITIC AND HISTORIAN, HELSINKI.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Eedenistä pohjoiseen (North of Eden, Virpi Suutari, 2014, documentary)
Paratiisin avaimet (Keys of Heaven, Hamy Ramezan, FI 2014, short film)
Sokurovin ääni (The Voice of Sokurov, Leena Kilpeläinen, FI 2014, documentary)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014, doc)
Mannerheim kuulee (Mannerheim Hears, Nalle Sjöblad, 2014), Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy trailer, a parody remake of the bunker scene of Der Untergang
Les Croix de bois (Wooden Crosses, Raymond Bernard, 1931, Pathé 2014 restoration)
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)

FRANCISCO ALGARÍN NAVARO

EDITOR LUMIÈRE MAGAZINE.
Not differentiating between films seen for the first or the second time, all true film-events:
…a Valparaíso (1964), La Seine a rencontré Paris (Joris Ivens, 1957)
3 Sóis (2009), Colocar o olho de peixe (2012), Colombo’s Column (2006), Eclipse ocular (2007), Ovo estrelado (2008), The Big Drinking Bout (2007), The Human Board (João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, 2009)
7th Cavalry (1956), Deadly Is the Female (1950), Terror in a Texas Town (1958), The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
A Countess from Hong Kong  (1967), A King in New York (1957), The Immigrant  (Charles Chaplin, 1917)
A Distant Trumpet (1964), A Lion is in the Streets (1953), Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, 1942)
À l’ombre de la canaille bleue (In the Shadow of the Blue Rascal, Pierre Clémenti, 1986)
À propos de Venise (2013), Der Tod des Empedokles oder: Wenn dann der Erde Grün von neuem Euch erglänzt (The Death of Empedocles, 1987), Dialogue d’ombres (2013), Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
A Star is Born (1954), Rich and Famous (George Cukor, 1981)
A través de las ruinas (1982), Baltazar (1975), Film Gaudí (1975), Gamelan (1981), La escena circular (1982), Lux Taal (2009), Un enano en el jardín (1981), Vadi-Samvadi (Claudio Caldini, 1981)
A Walk (2008), Der Schmetterling im Winter (2006), Franz (2011), Halbmond für Margaret (2004), Hier ist es zur Zeit sehr schön (2006), In die Erde gebaut (2008), India (2005), Junge Kiefern (2011), Kopfüber im Geäst (2009), Im Park (2008), Maria (2011), Maria und die Welt (1995), OH! die vier Jahreszeiten (1988) Paulina (2011), Terzen (1998), To be Here (2013), Zuoz (Ute Aurand, 2008)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, 2014), Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)
All that Heaven Allows (1955), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958)
Alouette, je te plumerai (1988), Vincent mit l’âne dans un pré (et s’en vint dans l’autre) (Pierre Zucca, 1975)
Angel (1937), Cluny Brown (1946), That Uncertain Feeling (1941), Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
Barn Rushes (1971), Blues (1970), Corn (1970), Doorway (1971), Four Shadows (1978),Harmonica (1971), Horizons (1973), Machette Gillette… Mama (1989), Mnemosyne Mother of Muses  (1987), Mouches Volantes (1976),Thought (1971),Tree of Knowledge (1981), Your Television Traveler (1991, Larry Gottheim)
Beijing 1988 (1988-2011), Bouquet 1-10 (1994-95), Bouquets 21-30 (2001-05), Impromptu (1989), Les Coquelicots (2000), Les Tournesouls (1982), Quiproquo (1992), Scènes de la vie française: Arles (1985), Scènes de la vie française: Avignon (1986), Scènes de la vie française: La Ciotat (1986), Scènes de la vie française: Paris (1986), Retour d’un repère (1979), Roulement, rouerie, aubage (1978), Voiliers et coquelicots (Rose Lowder, 2001)
blue mantle (2010), glow in the dark (january-june) (2002), lions and tigers and bears (2005-06), murmurations (2013), night light and leaping (2001), night side (2008), things we want to see (Rebecca Meyers, 2003-04)
Boyhood (2014), Dazed and Confused (1993), Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1991)
Berlin Tiger (2012), Narcissi (2013), Rose (Shiloh Cinquemani, 2013)
Boudu sauvé des eaux (Boudu Saved from Drowning, Jean Renoir, 1932)
Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2013)
By Pain and Rhyme and Arabesques of Foraging (2013), What Places of Heaven, What Planets Directed, How Long the Effects, or The General Accidents of the World (David Gatten, 2013)
Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)
Caprice (1967), Who’s Minding the Store? (Frank Tashlin, 1963)
Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), Pearl of the South Pacific (Allan Dwan, 1955)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), How Green Was my Valley (1941), Rio Grande (1950), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953) 
Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960)
Cuerpo a cuerpo (Paulino Viota, 1984)
Designing Woman (1957), Father of the Bride (1950), Father’s Little Dividend  (1951), Home from the Hill (1960), Meet me in St. Louis (1954), Some Came Running (1958), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Band Wagon (1953), The Long, Long Trailer (1953), The Reluctant Debutante (1958), Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli, 1962)
Dies Irae (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)
Duel in the Sun (1946), Northwest Passage (Book I – Rogers’ Rangers) (1940), Ruby Gentry (1952), The Wedding Night (King Vidor, 1935)
Eisbär, Passanten, Binsen, Brunnen,  Mädchen, Riesenrad, Flugzeuge II, Wasserfall, Unter den Seerosen, Weybridge, Feuerwerk (2006), Spiegelung, Innenhof,  Grauer Reiher II,  Drei Midtown-Skizzen,  Zelte am Kanal, Karpfen in Farbe schwimmend,  Grüner Ballon, Kettenkarussell, Netzwefer, Unter den Seerosen, Grabmäller,  Broadway, Pflasterzeichnen,  Golfhaus,  Bleierne Wellen, Schatten auf roter Wand, Schlittschuhlaufen, Warriors Mark, Louie,  Gletscher (2007), Vögel am Checkpoint, Ostberlin, Tunnel, Aus dem Empire State Building, Tortelloni, Wilde Wasser, Eisbär, Porte St. Denis, Columbis Circle, Rue Labat in Trauer, Moulin oder Spergelcafé, Hütte im Jardin tropical, Jardin tropical im Frühling, Portrait, Teetrinken, Roter Vorhang, Wassertanz II,  Für M., Schmetterlinge, Nach dem Feuer II,  Skulptur und Wasser, Nebel II, Winklerweiher, Wassertanz I, Nebel I, Künettegraben, Ingolstadt, Orangen, Mond und Sonne, Spinnweben und Fische (2010), Constellations (2012), Intensities (Helga Fanderl, 2014)
Envio 8 (2009), Envio 23 (2010), Envio 24 (2010), Envio 26 (Jeanette Muñoz, 2013)
February (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2014)
Flammes (Adolpho Arrietta, 1978)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Hatari! (1962), His Girl Friday (1940), Monkey Business (1952), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Rio Bravo (1959), Today We Live (1933), The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Himself as Herself (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)
Husbands (John Cassavetes, 1970)
Im Wiener Prater (2013), Nec spe nec metu (2013), The Paris Poetry Circle (2013), Warum es sich zu leben lohnt (Friedl vom Gröller, 2013)
Instants (Hannes Schüpbach, 2014)
Jack Smith: Cologne, 1974 (Birgit Hein, 1974)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
João Bénard da Costa. Outros amarão as coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
La Vie comme ça (Life the Way It Is, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1978)
Le Jardin qui bascule (The Garden That Tilts, Guy Gilles, 1975)
Leave her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
Macao (1952), Morocco (1930), The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
Manoel dans l’île des merveilles (Manuel on the Island of Wonders, Raoul Ruiz, 1984)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Mes sept lieux (My Seven Places, 2014), Tentatives de se décrire (Boris Lehman, 2005)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Night Noon (Shambhavi Kaul, 2014)
Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier, Paul Vecchiali, 2014)
O Velho do Restelo (The Old Man of Belem, Manoel de Oliveira, 2014)
Path of Cessation, Swimming Stone, Starlight, Vineyard IV (Robert E. Fulton, 1970)
Peeping Tom (1960), The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Photooxidation (Pablo Mazzolo, 2014)
Radio Adios (Henry Hills, 1982)
Renaissance Center / GM Tower (Nicky Hamlyn, 2012)
Run for Cover (1955), Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
Salomé (Werner Schroeter, 1971)
San Francisco (Anthony Stern, 1968)
Se eu fosse Ladrão… roubava (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2013)
Sea Series (John Price, 2008-14)
Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Stage Fright (1950), The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
Square Dance, Los Angeles County, California, 2013 (Sílvia das Fadas, 2013)
Strangers When We Meet (Richard Quine, 1960)
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
The Bellboy (1960), The Family Jewels (1965), Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis, 1966)
The Blue Gardenia (1953), While the City Sleeps (1956), You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Gravediggers of Guadix (rushes) (Marie Menken, 1961)
The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecil B. DeMille, 1952)
The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage, 1994)
The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955), Tight Spot (Phil Karlson, 1955)
Utskor: Either / Or (2013), We Had the Experience but Missed the Meaning (Laida Lertxundi, 2014)
  

MICHAEL J. ANDERSON

FILM CURATOR, OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART. 
  1. Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)
  2. Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
  3. L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guirauide, 2013)
  4. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
  5. Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
  6. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
  7. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
  8. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
  9. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
  10. Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
  11. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
  12. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
  13. Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
  14. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  15. A Spell to Ward off the Darkness (Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, 2013)
  16. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
  17. L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
  18. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
  19. Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
  20. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
  21. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
  22. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
  23. Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2013)
  24. Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
  25. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
From top to bottom, one of the best film-going years in ages.
My criterion was simple: films I saw in cinemas, or saw period, in my new capacity as programmer, for the first time in 2014. All but three are 2014 US commercial releases: late 2013 premieres, Her and The Wolf of Wall Street, both of which I saw last January, and Plemya, one of the very few 2015 US releases I managed to see in advance of its theatrical run.
My biggest blind spot? Not yet having seen Adieu au langage in 3D. Leave it to Godard to make a film that 1) cannot be screened in many of the theatres that would love to show it, including my own; and 2) resists the geographical democratisation of film distribution – at least within the United States – brought on by the rise of streaming services. (I have seen it in 2D, for the very little that that’s worth.)

GEOFF ANDREW

SENIOR FILM PROGRAMMER AT LONDON’S BFI SOUTHBANK AND THE AUTHOR OF A NUMBER OF BOOKS ON THE CINEMA. REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO SIGHT AND SOUND AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO TIME OUT LONDON.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
Das grosse Museum (The Great Museum, Johannes Holzhausen, 2014)
Ukkili kamshat (The Owners, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, 2014)
Des hommes et de la guerre(Of Men and War, Laurent Bécue-Renard, 2014)
And 15 further titles in more or less random order:
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Kuzu (The Lamb, Kutluğ Ataman, 2014)
Macondo (Sudabeh Mortezai 2014)
Stray Dog (Debra Granik, 2014)
Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Poromboiu, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Listen Up Phillip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
I don´t feel it was a particularly strong year, though there are unfortunately some films I´ve yet to see which might have made it in to my top 25. I am painfully aware I´ve seen very little from East Asia this year, and that is reflected in the list. But it did seem to be a good year for documentary.
Kis Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Kis Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)

MARTYN BAMBER 

CONTRIBUTOR TO CLOSE-UP FILM, CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK, AND SENSES OF CINEMA.
Favourite new release films from 2014 seen in the UK (in alphabetical order):
Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Earth to Echo (Dave Green, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Violette (Martin Provost, 2013)

LYNDEN BARBER

A SYDNEY-BASED FREELANCE FILM JOURNALIST AND SCREEN STUDIES TEACHER.
Top 12in alphabetical order (All titles released theatrically in Australia in 2014):
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014)
All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
La vie d’Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Runner up 12 in alphabetical order (all titles released theatrically in Australia in 2014):
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix Van Groeningen, 2013)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
God Help the Girl (Stuart Murdoch, 2014)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich), 2013
My Sweet Pepper Land (Huner Saleem, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Once My Mother (Sophia Turkiewicz, 2014)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

MICHAEL BARTLETT

FREELANCE FILM WRITER AND SUBTITLER BASED IN LONDON.
The Borderlands (Elliot Goldner, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill Of Freedom, Hong Sang-Soo, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Maps To The Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Silence (Pat Collins, 2012)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
 
Runners up
I found the following titles just as stimulating and entertaining as the ones above, but, for some reason, they haven’t lingered as powerfully in my memory. 
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
L’inconnu du lac (Stranger By The Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Independencia (Raya Martin, 2009)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
Most ludicrously overrated films of the year
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Three highly rated films that left me stone cold
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Best things to happen this year
Arrow Films’ superb Blu-Ray box set of Walerian Borowczyk’s early films. The publication of The Essential Raymond Durgnat (edited by Henry K Miller).

NICK BARTLETT

TEAM ASSISTANT AT BBC WORLDWIDE AND WRITER OF DEAD FINKS DON’T BLOG.
Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2014)
A subtle, understated thriller, that combines economic Walter Hillseque storytelling with a wryly dark sense of humour. There aren’t many twists (maybe one) and the plot unravels slowly but effectively, taking a look at the long-term effects of revenge from both sides. Short and to the point, with an outstanding central performance from Macon Blair as a character who really doesn’t want to be in a revenge thriller. Hands down the most gripping thriller of the year.
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
The richest, most entertaining and original film that the Coen brothers have made since No Country For Old Men (2007), this is a touching (but never sentimental) look at folk music just prior to the emergence of Bob Dylan. Oscar Isaac absolutely nails the title role, giving a charismatic performance as a bitter, self-loathing musician, and the soundtrack is irrepressibly catchy.
The Double (Richard Ayoade, 2013)
An odd mixture of dark comedy and bleak dystopian fantasy that somehow works really well. Darker and more mature than Submarine, The Double is a memorably dystopian, nightmarish psychological fantasy, with some coldly funny dialogue which belies the film’s haunting premise and chilling moments. Featuring beautiful cinematography, some truly poetic editing and not one, but two excellent performances from Eisenberg.
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
The most heartfelt and tonally mature film Jonze has made yet, Her is a poignant film with a really tender performance from Joaquin Phoenix. The ambiguous but touching ending manages to avoid being a cop-out and remains a genuinely sweet message about the need for human relationships.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The artificial backgrounds, centred shots, onscreen text and use of bright colours all let you know that you are watching a Wes Anderson film, but he manages to narrowly avoid the Tim Burton pitfalls by introducing several new elements into the mix. I think I have to accept that Anderson will never stray from his well-worn formula, but The Grand Budapest Hotel is a welcome change in overall tone, with beautiful cinematography, several tense set-pieces and a genuinely moving performance from Fiennes.
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The scariest film of the year and one that achieves its scares by building up atmosphere and tension from the word go. First time director Kent has brought her A game to this film, with crisp cinematography, haunting set design and a script that is by turns both funny and haunting. The central performances are both much stronger than you would expect from a standard horror film, and the monster is original and more importantly, terrifying. Reminiscent of Repulsion and M.R. James, the result is not only the best horror film, but one of the best films of the year.
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
A more mature film than the stylish Sexy Beast and the downright weird Birth, and more satisfying narratively than either, Under The Skin benefits from giving the audience enough credit to piece together most of the plot without overtly giving anything away. Visually one of the most beautiful films of the year, with some genuinely disturbing moments (The “processing” scene is one of those once seen, never forgotten sequences) and a surprisingly subtle performance from Scarlett Johansson, who manages to be both sympathetic and disarmingly creepy.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
A bit of an anomaly among the rest of Nolan’s work, Interstellar lacks the instant hook of something like Inception, the narrative tricks of Memento or The Prestige, or even the sheer entertainment value of the Dark Knight trilogy. That being said it is still an incredible experience, with awe inspiring cinematography, a beautiful score from Hans Zimmer and a predictably great performance from Matthew McConaughey. However, though it struggles manfully, it could easily, easily lose an hour.
Faults (Riley Stearns, 2014)
A darkly comic thriller with a genuinely unsettling tone which pervades throughout. The witty script is equal parts funny and sinister, and gives the audience no chance to predict what’s going to happen. Leland Orser and Mary Elizabeth Olstead give two compelling performances and the ominously ambiguous ending is chilling.
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
Playing out like a love letter to genre cinema, The Guest is Wingard’s best film, a no-holds-barred thrill ride pastiche of trashy 1980s pulp cinema, which refuses to take itself seriously and with twists that feel like you’re being let in on an amazing joke. Combing the aesthetics of Drive with John Carpenter style slasher films, The Guest features a knowing, clever script, an eclectic, retro soundtrack, a witty, clever script and an incredibly enjoyably tongue-in-cheek performance from Dan Stevens.
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Gone Girl is filled to the brim with great performances, and Fincher’s characteristic washed out palette works to devastating effect, but the dialogue is constituted of speeches and does not reflect the way that real people talk. There are some stunning set-pieces – the segment in Desi’s mansion is expertly put together, and the climax is genuinely shocking – and some nice character touches, especially in the characterisation of the detectives and Tanner Bolt. Overall though, there’s too much telling, and not nearly enough showing. While an excellent film for those who haven’t or don’t want to read the book, Gone Girl doesn’t offer many surprises for those who have.
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)

CONOR BATEMAN

MANAGING EDITOR OF 4:3, PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL AND SBS. 
Top theatrical releases in Australia, 2014 
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix van Groeningen, 2012)
Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012)
La Vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
 
Top Australian festival releases, 2014 
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
Non-Fiction Diary (Jung Yoon-suk, 2014)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Most overrated films, 2014 (Australian theatrical releases)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)

GUSTAVO BECK

NEW YORK-BASED BRAZILIAN FILMMAKER, CURATOR AND CRITIC.
  1. Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksey German, 2013)
  2. Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
  3. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
  4. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  5. Brûle la mer (Burn the Sea, Nathalie Nambot & Maki Berchache, 2014)
  6. Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air (Phillip Warnell, 2014)
  7. Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  8. Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
  9. Le Beau Danger (René Frölke, 2014)
  10. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)

SEAN BELL 

BLOGGER AT SEX AND THE ETERNAL CITY.
Top 10 Italian cinema/DVD releases for 2014:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Free of the usual dramatic arcs, Boyhood rambled over three hours, covering 12 years in a life of a family, but just like life, it was over all too soon. Watching the actors age naturally before us gave the film added pathos, but above all, Linklater and his fine cast proved that ordinary lives presented truthfully are inherently fascinating.
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Topping many a year’s best list in 2013 and deservedly nabbing Bruce Dern the Cannes Best Actor honour last year, Nebraska limped into Italian cinemas in late January where it played for precisely two weeks. Thank God then for DVD. I have now seen Alexander Payne’s small tale of forgiveness (forgiving yourself and forgiving your parents) three times and found myself laughing like a drain and being moved to tears every time. It is also responsible for a long overdue June Squibb revival.
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
It could be because the blue and grey hued photography is so beautiful or because T Bone Burnett has curated such a wonderful soundtrack. It could be because Oscar Isaac makes you care about a selfish character who is his own worst enemy or because he is supported by such fine actors as John Goodman and F. Murray Abraham. It could be because Inside Llewyn Davis speaks with such wry sadness about being in the music industry or it could just be because of Ulysses the cat, but this is my favourite Coens’ film since Barton Fink.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
A sublime Russian doll of a film from a director as much in love with the medium as he is the past. Ralph Fiennes has done comedy before (In Bruges) but his performance here is a masterclass in comic timing. 
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
This taut one-hander shouldn’t work but it does largely due to Tom Hardy at his very best and the superb voice work from Olivia Colman and Ruth Wilson.
20 Feet From Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013)
Essential viewing for music fans of all stripes – a documentary which gives overdue voice to some deserving voices. It’s the anti-X Factor – proper talent not in search of celebrity.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2014)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Mistaken For Strangers (Tom Berninger, 2013)
Worst:
There were some disappointments – L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie 2013) Deux jours, une unit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014) – and interesting misfires – Maps To The Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014) but nothing truly awful, then again I didn’t see Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay, 2014).
Nebraska
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)

PAMELA BIÉNZOBAS

CHILEAN FILM CRITIC BASED IN PARIS.
Favorite-film lists are essentially arbitrary and also limited to an aleatory universe of choice. Therefore, to sort my way through, I decided to push both aspects even further, and arbitrarily decided to limit my list to documentaries seen during 2014 (including some that had premiered internationally earlier, but that had their theatrical release this year in France, where I live). And since the instructions said “at least 10”, I arbitrarily decided to go for 11.
As I eagerly look forward to catching up with some recent documentaries I still haven’t had the chance to see, these are “my” best non-fiction experiences of 2014, in alphabetical order.
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014)
I know that despite its originality and formal quality, it is made for lovers of Nick Cave’s music. I am one, so it was made for me. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have much appreciated it, but it would not be here.
Au bord du monde (On the Edge of the World, Claus Drexel, 2013)
Respect, dignity and humanity. And the awareness and lucidity of how to transmit that through cinema.
Costa da morte (Coast of Death, Lois Patiño, 2013)
A film you do not only watch and listen to. You can feel the wind and the breeze of the Galician coast on your skin.
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
Had this list’s order not been alphabetical, it would have been on top. A masterclass on cinema, a concentrate of emotion and an ode to life, all in one.
Im Keller (In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl, 2014)
My first spontaneous reactions: i) It made me worry about my friends in Austria; ii) No matter how “normal” or “sane” you believe you are, you should never let Seidl film you.
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
The most precise gaze imaginable.
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Not at all among Wiseman’s best, it still makes it among the year’s best.
San zimei (Three Sisters, Wang Bing, 2012)
(Though it was presented in Venice 2012, it was only released in France in 2014.) Life, like it or not.
Senkyo 2 (Campaign 2, Kazuhiro Soda, 2013)
The subject has evolved in a dramatic way, but just like in Senkyo, that camera is always placed in the exact place, exact angle, and makes the exact move, turning each seemingly simple shot into a dense comment on Japanese society.
Tepecik Hayal Okulu (A Dream School in the Steppes, Güliz Saglam, 2014)
A film about an artist requires a special quality to fascinate you even when you had no previous idea about that person’s existence or work. This homage to Ahmet Uluçay exudes love of cinema and life in an irresistible way.
The Return to Homs (Talal Derki, 2013)
Images beyond words.
 

YVETTE BIRO

ESSAYIST, WRITER AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY GRADUATE FILM SCHOOL.
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Czlowiek z nadziei (Man of Hope, Andrzej Wajda, 2013)
Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, 2013)
Le Paradis (Alain Cavalier, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Cavalier Express (Alain Cavalier, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Stray Dogs (Ming-Liang Tsai, 2014)
Still the Water (Naomi Kawase, 2014)
Reprises:
Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971)
L’enclos (Enclosure, Armand Gatti, 1961)

MIMI BRODY

FREELANCE FILM CURATOR, USA.
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Amour fou
(Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit
(Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Plus three film discoveries from this year:
Her Man (Tay Garnett, 1930)
Daïnah la métisse (Dainah the Mulatto, Jean Grémillon, 1932)
Morgen beginnt das Leben (Life Begins Tomorrow, Werner Hochbaum, 1933)
 

THOMAS CALDWELL

DISCUSSES FILM ON 3RRR 102.7FM EVERY WEEK AND BOOK-TO-FILM ADAPTIONS ON ABC RADIO NATIONAL ONCE A MONTH.
Favourite ten films with a theatrical release in Melbourne, Australia in 2014
  1. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
  2. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
  3. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  5. Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)
  6. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
  7. La vie d’Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
  8. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
  9. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013)
  10. Nymphomaniac (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Honourable mentions
I thought this was a particularly strong year in cinema so here are fifteen more films, listed alphabetically, that have stayed with me for one reason or another:
52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013)
Big Hero 6 (Don Hall and Chris Williams, 2014)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
The Dark Horse (James Napier Robertson, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
The Infinite Man (Hugh Sullivan, 2014)
Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)
Favourite ten films not given a full theatrical release:
As usual, some of the best films I saw this year were not given a full theatrical release, but were still screened to Melbourne audiences at festivals or other special events.
  1. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
  2. Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksey German, 2013)
  3. Virunga (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014)
  4. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets (Florian Habicht, 2014)
  5. The Possibilities are Endless (James Hall and Edward Lovelace, 2014)
  6. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg, 2014)
  7. Jigoku de naze warui (Why Don’t You Play in Hell? Sion Sono, 2013)
  8. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
  9. Ping Pong Summer (Michael Tully, 2014)
  10. Housebound (Gerard Johnstone, 2014)
Charlie's Country
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)

MICHAEL CAMPI

LONG CAPTIVATED BY THE MOVIES WITH INVOLVEMENT IN NON-COMMERCIAL FILM EXHIBITION OVER MANY DECADES.
Highest achievers seen in 2014 in alphabetical order:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Camille Claudel 1915 (Bruno Dumont, 2013)
Gyeongju (Zhang Lu, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Love is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)*
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Shuiyin Jie (Trap Street, Vivian Qu, 2013)
Violet (Bas Devos, 2014)
* At the time of writing, I have not seen Tom à la Ferme (Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
Other works that have been enriching and stimulating reminders of the power of the movies in 2014:
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Brma paemnebi (Blind Dates, Levan Koguashvili, 2013)
Huang jin shi dai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Na pian hu shui (Lake August, Yang Heng, 2014)
Tui na (Blind Massage, Lou Ye, 2014)
Ya-gan-bi-haeng (Night Flight, Leesong Hee-il, 2014)
Ye (The Night, Zhou Hao, 2014)
However the film which affected me the most was Nakinureta haru no onna yo (A Woman Crying in Spring, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933) and presented in the final of three marvellous annual surveys of Japanese early sound films at the essential Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna during the European summer. A very early talkie for Japan and after which Shimizu directed more silent films, the film is said to have persuaded Yasujiro Ozu to direct his first sound film a couple of years later. The quiet emotional intensity of this melodrama focuses on two miners and a single mother bar hostess. The drama is conveyed so exquisitely in images and imaginative sounds that it was impossible for me to consider watching another film for the rest of that festival day. It will remain tantalising to ponder whether Shimizu could have seen Howard Hawks’ Tiger Shark, made the year before, which has a similar central male-female triangle but the emotions aren’t moving in necessarily familiar lines.

MICHELLE CAREY

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, CO-CURATOR, MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE AND AN EDITOR AT SENSES OF CINEMA.
P’tit Quinquin (L’il Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Trydno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Xi you (Journey To The West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrar, 2014)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Free Range/Ballaad Maailma Heakskiitmisest (Free Range/Ballad on Approving of the World, Veiko Öunpuu, 2013)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
La Princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
brouillard – passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Detour de Force (Rebecca Baron, 2014)
45 7 Broadway (Tomonari Nishikawa, 2013)
Photooxidation (Pablo Mazzolo, 2014)
The Unity of All Things (Alexander Carver & Daniel Schmidt, 2013)
Things (Ben Rivers, 2014)
Having now been enriched by cinema for over half my life, it’s humbling to see that my cinephilia is still on its journey. I’ve rediscovered, for example, the joys of independent American cinema, and there have been some excellent films at varying production levels from that country this year.
A personal highlight was being able to screen Out 1 – Noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, 1971) at MIFF, and the accompanying video essays (by Adrian Martin & Cristina Álvarez, Kevin B. Lee & Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Chris Luscri & David Heslin) produced for it by Chris Luscri.


NICOLÁS CARRASCO 

STAFF WRITER AT DESISTFILM.
In no particular order:
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Fantasmas de la ruta (Ghosts of the Road, José Celestino Campusano, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (L’il Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
Matar a un hombre (To Kill a Man, Alejandro Fernández Almendras, 2014)
Papusza (Joanna Kos & Krzysztof Krauze, 2013)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
The Raid 2: Berandal (Gareth Evans, 2014)
Solecito (Oscar Ruiz Navia, 2013)
Oculus (Mike Flanagan, 2013)
Soshite chichi ni Naru(Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)
Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
Spirits in Season (Stephen Broomer, 2012)
A Movie by Jen Proctor (Jennifer Proctor, 2010-12)
Picture Particles (Thorsten Fleisch, 2014)
Soft in the Head (Nathan Silver, 2013)
Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
Foudre (Manuela Morgaine, 2013)
Honourable mentions:
Great films from Cordoba, Argentina: Tres D (Rosendo Ruiz, 2014), El último verano (Leandro Naranjo, 2014), Atlántida (Inés María Barrionuevo, 2014), and Ciencias naturales (Matías Lucchesi, 2014).
Great films from Bolivia: El corral y el viento (Miguel Hilari, 2014), Adelante (Miguel Hilari, 2014), Primavera (Joaquin Tapia, 2014), and Plato Paceño (Carlos Piñeiro, 2013).
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)

MICHAEL J. CASEY

MOVIE CRITIC FOR BOULDER WEEKLY.
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
A movie where ambition is only matched by insight.
2. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Emotionally devastating in every way possible.
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Joy in three formats. Invention at 24 frames per second.
4. Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
A document of a life lived.
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Jarmusch answers the questions no one thought to ask.
6. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2014) / Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2014)
The Hero’s Journey rendered as a comedy then as a tragedy.
7. Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
A man, a plan and a car. Too bad life got in the way.
8. Keep on Keepin’ On (Alan Hicks, 2014)
A tale of two masters.
9. God Help the Girl­ (Stuart Murdoch, 2014)
Can a pop song save your life? Yes.
10. They Came Together (David Wain, 2014) 
Laughing out loud from start to finish

CELLULOID LIBERATION FRONT 

A MULTI-USE(R) NAME, AN “OPEN REPUTATION” INFORMALLY ADOPTED AND SHARED BY A DESIRING MULTITUDE OF INSURGENT SPECTATORS.
The CIA makes lists and so did the KGB, so why shouldn’t we?
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
A complex, multilayered and remarkably sharp film about the brutality of the greatest of all dreams.
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
For its ethical integrity, intellectual honesty and moral courage. The rarest qualities to be found in a documentary.
The Postman’s White Nights (Andrei Konchalovsky, 2014)
A minimal epic with no theories to be proved but an almost ancestral understanding of life and its immovable dynamics.
Belluscone: Una Storia Siciliana (Franco Maresco, 2014)
The year’s greatest film by the world’s greatest living director.
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
From paedo-celebrity culture to murderous self-obsession, the no longer repressed monsters of our daily horror are now ready for realism. There is no use for horror movies anymore, seems to insinuate a master of the genre.
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
With his antiquated youthfulness the director lucidly frames the decadence of our dying culture and stages the most romantic funeral.
She’s Funny That Way (Peter Bogdanovich, 2014)
The scripted alchemy of a heartfelt homage to the movies that once were coalesces into a film of rhythmic perfection.
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Damnation, perdition and the refusal of redemption. Ferrara’s cinema spews out from the gangrenous wounds of our putrescent world.
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
A film made in a place where none wants to go, let alone be found; the “wrong” side of history. The losing side.
The Humbling (Barry Levinson, 2014)
Al Pacino’s greatest performance since The Scarecrow.
Though I hesitate to keep “TV series” separate from “films”, primarily because I can hardly see any meaningful difference between the two, here are two stand-outs from this year’s serial output: House of Cards (Season 2) and Rectify (Season 2). 


CARLO CHATRIAN

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna(White Nights of the Postman, Andrey Konchalovskij, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Kaguya-hime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
P'tit Quinquin (Li'l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)

LESLEY CHOW

AUSTRALIAN FILM CRITIC AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF BRIGHT LIGHTS. ALSO WRITES ON MUSIC FOR THE QUIETUS.
Best films:
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Not since Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977) has a director so effectively worked the contrast between a gloomy, run-down city and erotic black magic. In Under the Skin, fascination comes in a series of kabuki-like trances, with Scarlett Johansson slithering across a polished floor.
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
The rocky landscape of Cappadocia works as well for Ceylan as Stromboli did for Rossellini: as a severe backdrop for a group of isolated characters. But in this world, entropy isn’t silence: if anything, it means an endless series of conversations, with constant sighs and exasperation as people tussle over the moral high ground, trying to determine who possesses more insight or courage. There are small, insistent assertions of superiority by almost every character, accompanied by a good dose of evil eye. In Ceylan, people can even fight over who has greater humility, with both parties offering to back down before a couple of parting shots.
There is a perpetual state of war between the characters: verbal reprisals will be made for the tiniest slights, leading to the kind of nutty, no-win exchanges we often hear in Hong Sang-soo. Common tactics include purporting to speak in generalities while making digs at one person, or sticking to an “objective” view of life that happens to flatter one’s own interests. All the while, the camera gazes at people with a forensic intensity reminiscent of Hong. What does it mean if a holy man has sly eyes and a wheedling manner, or if a woman with an angelic face puts on a sour expression? How far do these traits go in obscuring or revealing character? It’s to Ceylan’s credit that, despite all of the tiresome point-scoring, we are compelled to know more.
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
John Wick (Chad Stahelski & David Leitch, 2014)
Like many great crime thrillers, John Wick depicts the rules of the game as they exist between elegant, po-faced men. To that end, there are at least twelve superb cameos from character actors, and an elating sense of skill and camaraderie – comparisons with Boorman and Melville aren’t out of the question. In its seamless moves between genre and art installation, this is a film Nicolas Winding Refn should envy.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014) 
Mahi va Gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, 2014)
Along with James Gray, Amini is one of the few working directors who gives classicism a good name. In this debut feature, he already has the exact touch of a master: knowing which images should hover over us, what we should be faintly aware of, and when it’s time to blast us with light.

JOHN CONOMOS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SYDNEY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.
My following top ten list for this year is the result of what I have only seen in movie theatres, on television and watching DVDs. Anyway you look at it top ten lists are very subjective depending on one’s geography, personal circumstance and global exposure to film festivals, conferences and symposia. For me, though I have been familiar with the film and video essay form since the ‘70s and ‘80s, this year’s list contains a few recent examples of this proliferating genre.
I have disappointedly missed seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language. As a rule I see everything Godard does because, to state the obvious, since the 1960s he has been one of cinema’s essential weathervanes.
Furthermore, I should add that besides my top ten list I have also cited a number of books that I have read this year and that have enriched and expanded my understanding and pleasure of cinema. For me, cinema is still life’s gift that keeps on giving.
The list is not in any order of preference.
  1. Patience (After Sebald) (Grant Gee, 2012)
  2. The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula and Noël Burch, 2012)
  3. The Stuart Hall Project (John Akomfrah, 2013)
  4. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
  5. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
  6. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
  7. 20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, 2014.
  8. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
  9. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
  10. Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014
The film books that have engaged me the most this year were:
Adrian Martin, Mise en Scène and Film Style, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Wayne Koestenbaum, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, University of California Press, 2012
James Naremore, An Invention Without A Future, University of California Press, 2014
Henry Karl Miller, The Essential Raymond Durgnat, BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Patrick Keiller, The View From the Train, Verso, 2013 
 

ADAM COOK

CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER FOR MUBI, CONTRIBUTOR TO CINEMA SCOPE AND OTHERS.
I find that efforts to link the year’s films together under some sort of thematic umbrella can often be in vain, but I couldn’t help notice once I assembled a list that most of my favourite movies from 2014 have a particularly interesting relationship with time. Maybe it’s too broad – cinema’s relationship to time is an inherent quality, the recorded image’s dynamic with temporality being a large component of what makes the medium compelling and relevant – but more than usual the films gathered in this top ten bring this relationship to light. In the following films, the passage of time, the tension between the moving image and its properties therein, the palpable, ever-present moment of what’s on screen at any given second versus the time to which it belongs (both in reality and the reality of the diegesis), is especially pointed. The way a shot, due to its own pace and duration, can expand and bend time to its will, time as we understand it is subservient to cinema’s powers, at least when at the hand of its masters. In Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang makes this one of the film’s subjects, the contrast between the serene slow walk of Lee Kang-sheng’s monk and Denis Lavant’s enigmatic figure and the busy Marseilles around them changing how we look at what’s in the frame, and in turn, what’s around us – as if time and space is something determinable by a state of mind. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel pays tribute to the power of fiction to process history and experience. Much has been said about what Richard Linklater’s Boyhood does, less a coming-of-age film than a passing-of-time film, studying the transience of years as they flow by. Philippe Garrel’s Jealousy is more minute in how it fixes its attention, lamenting the passing of moment to moment, seeing each as monumental as a year in themselves. Pompeii profoundly makes a moment of human beauty immortal in the face of nature’s indifference. In Jersey Boys, Clint Eastwood looks at real life subjects that are contemporary to him, essentially looking at the years gone by of his lifetime, the pain, regret, highs, lows, nostalgia – not nearly enough has been said about how this film captures a sense of a life lived, and painfully/beautifully how quickly and brutally it happens. Continuity and time operate according to a different logic in the films of Hong Sang-soo, and his latest, Hill of Freedom, another effortlessly great movie, plays on this even more by revolving around a past we aren’t privy to. Left off of this list but deserving a mention, the Farrelly Brothers’ Dumb and Dumber To gets most of its power from the stalwartness of the film’s central relationship, and the irrelevance of time to its sincerity.
This collection of remarkable films point to that which may be most essential in the spirit of movie-going, not to pass time, but to expand it, even challenge it, to open up time and space, an act of resistance against the forces we otherwise remain bound to – a different way of navigating the world and ourselves.
  1. Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
  2. Kaguya-hime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2014)
  3. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  5. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
  7. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2014)
  8. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014) & American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
  9. Dan shen nan nu 2 (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2, Johnnie To, 2014)
  10. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014) and Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Honourable mentions:
Ja-yu-eui eon-duk (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)


KIERON CORLISS
 

DEPUTY EDITOR, SIGHT & SOUND.
Top ten in no particular order:
La sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Sorrow and Joy (Nils Malmros, 2014)
Studien zu Monet (Klaus Wyborny, 1998-2014)
João Bénard da Costa – Outros amarão as Coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)

JESÚS CORTÉS

SPANISH FILM WRITER FOR MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES: UN BLOG COMME LES AUTRES, FOCO REVISTA DE CINEMA, DÉTOUR AND SHANGRILA. CO-AUTHOR OF BOOK ON EUROPEAN FILMMAKERS, OJOS SIN ROSTRO (ÁRTICA, 2014)
30 best new and relatively recent films I have seen during the past year:
Sorg og Glaede (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Une autre vie (Another Life,Emmanuel Mouret, 2013)
J’enrage de son absence (Maddened By His Absence, Sandrine Bonnaire, 2012)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Pas son genre (Not My Type,Lucas Belvaux, 2014)
Au fil d’Ariane (Ariane’s Thread, Robert Guédiguian, 2014)
Feng ai (`Til Madness Do Us Part,Wang Bing, 2013)
Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier,Paul Vecchiali, 2014)
Se Eu Fosse Ladrão… Rouvaba (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2011)
Sosialismi (Socialism,Peter Von Bagh, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
Arrête ou je continue (If You Don’t, I Will,Sophie Fillières, 2014)
Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi,Hong Sang-Soo, 2013)
Frammenti (Franco Piavoli, 2012)
La Noche de enfrente (Night Across the Street, Raúl Ruiz, 2012)
L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Futatsume no mado (Still the Water, Kawase Naomi, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Phantom Power (Pierre Léon, 2014)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery, 2013)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Un Château en Italie (A Castle in Italy, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
O Velho do Restelo (Manoel de Oliveira, 2014)
João Bénard da Costa. Outros amarão as coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
La Isla Mínima (Marshland, Alberto Rodríguez, 2014)
L’Amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime, Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu, 2013)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
70 best older films, seen for the first time in 2014:
Tsuki wa Noborinu (Tanaka Kinuyo, 1955)
Amore Mio (My Love, Raffaello Matarazzo, 1964)
Smilin’ Through (Sidney Franklin, 1932)
Buon Natale… Buon Anno (Merry Christmas… Happy New Year, Luigi Comencini, 1989)
Internes Can´t Take Money (Alfred Santell, 1937)
Framed (Richard Wallace, 1947)
Jun’ai Monogatari (Imai Tadashi, 1957)
Private Lives (Sidney Franklin, 1931)
Guai ai Vinti (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954)
King of the Royal Mounted (William Witney and John English, 1940)
Utage (Gosho Heinosuke, 1967)
Broken Marriage (Ishmael Bernal, 1983)
L’Authentique procés de Carl-Emmanuel Jung (The Authentic Trial of Carl Emmanuel Jung, Marcel Hanoun, 1966)
Gan (Toyoda Shirô, 1953)
Whiplash (Lewis Seiler, 1948)
Shunkinsho: Okoto to Sasuke (Shimazu Yasujirô, 1935)
Six et demi onze (Jean Epstein, 1927)
Two of a Kind (Henry Levin, 1951)
Jirô Monogatari (The Tale of Jiro, HiroshiShimizu, 1955)
Mogliamante (Wifemistress, Marco Vicario, 1977)
Yoman (David Perlov, 1983)
Woman in Hiding (Michael Gordon, 1950)
Puccini (Carmine Gallone, 1953)
Toute une nuit (All Night Long, Chantal Akerman, 1982)
Paraíso Robado (Stolen Paradise, Julio Bracho, 1951)
The Secret Bride (William Dieterle, 1934)
Slava – Nam, Smert’ – Vragam (Yevgeni Bauer, 1914)
En Djungelsaga (The Flute and the Arrow, Arne Sucksdorff, 1957)
Leonora dos Sete Mares (Leonora of the Seven Seas, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1955)
If I Were Free (Elliott Nugent, 1933)
Cry Vengeance (Mark Stevens, 1954)
Trädgårdsmästaren (The Gardener, Victor Sjöström, 1912)
The Searching Wind (William Dieterle, 1946)
Black Widow (Nunnally Johnson, 1954)
La Vie à deux (Life Together, Clément Duhour, 1958)
The End of the Affair (Edward Dmytryk, 1955)
The Well (Leo Popkin and Russell Rouse, 1951)
South of St. Louis (Ray Enright, 1949)
Aïe (Ouch, Sophie Fillières, 2000)
Alba Regia (Mihály Szemes, 1961)
Tayna Vechnoi Nochi (The Mystery of the Eternal Night, Abram Room, Dimitriy Vasilev, 1956)
La Cobarde (Julio Bracho, 1953)
Night Editor (Henry Levin, 1946)
The Satan Bug (John Sturges, 1965)
Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009)
Gentille (Sophie Fillières, 2005)
Mirt Sost Shi Amit (Harvest: 3000 Years, Haile Gerima, 1976)
Il Tradimento (Double Cross, Riccardo Freda, 1951)
The Fallen Sparrow (Richard Wallace, 1943)
The song of Avila (Jonas Mekas, 1967)
Das Tagebuch des Dr Hart (The Diary of Dr. Hart, Paul Leni, 1916)
Tre Storie Proibite (Three Forbidden Stories, Augusto Genina, 1952)
Preferisco il Rumore del Mare (I Prefer the Sound of the Sea, Mimmo Calopresti 1999)
Historia de un Gran Amor (Julio Bracho, 1942)
Souvenir d’Italie (It Happened in Rome, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1957)
Ginebra en los Infiernos (Jaime Chávarri, 1969)
Zona Roja (Pink Zone, Emilio Fernández, 1976)
Buenaventura Durruti, Anarquista (Jean-Louis Comolli and Ginette Lavigne, 2000)
Biette (Pierre Léon, 2011)
Gahanu Lamai (Sumitra Peries, 1978)
Gli Stregoni (Raffaele Andreassi, 1961)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen, 1996)
La Seconda Volta (The Second Time, Mimmo Calopresti, 1995)
The Devil and Miss Jones (Sam Wood, 1941)
Jitsuroku Abe Sada (A Woman Called Abe Sada, Tanaka Noboru, 1975)
Mat (Mother, Mark Donskoy, 1955)
Three Hours to Kill (Alfred L. Werker, 1954)
Eine Stunde Glück (Wilhelm Dieterle, 1931)
Spaceways (Terence Fisher, 1953)
I Am Suzanne! (Rowland V. Lee, 1933)
50 best among revisited:
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
Beloved Infidel (Henry King, 1959)
Ensayo de un Crimen (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, Luis Buñuel, 1955)
Two Rode Together (John Ford, 1961)
The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953)
La Fille du Puisatier (The Well-Digger’s Daughter, Marcel Pagnol, 1940)
A Distant Trumpet (Raoul Walsh, 1964)
Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)
El Sol del Membrillo (The Quince Tree Sun, Víctor Erice, 1992)
Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)
Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965)
The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
Barbara (Nils Malmros, 1997)
The Naked and the Dead (Raoul Walsh, 1958)
Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman and Tony Brandt, 1978)
Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat (Drifting Clouds, Aki Kaurismäki, 1996)
Oublie-moi (Forget Me, Noémie Lvovsky, 1994)
Mata au hi Made (Til We Meet Again, Imai Tadashi, 1950)
The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960)
La prima notte di quiete (Indian Summer, Valerio Zurlini, 1972)
Scandal Sheet (Phil Karlson, 1952)
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959)
Ariane (Paul Czinner, 1931)
Je t’aime, Je t’aime (I Love You, I Love You, Alain Resnais, 1968)
Karl May (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, 1974)
L’Immorale (The Climax, Pietro Germi, 1967)
The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958)
Yellowstone Kelly (Gordon Douglas, 1959)
Bell Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958)
Shakha Proshakha (The Branches of the Tree, Satyajit Ray, 1990)
Tong nien wang shi (A Time to Live, A Time to Die, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1985)
Not Wanted (Ida Lupino and Elmer Clifton, 1949)
Hangman’s Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952)
Murder! (Alfred Hitchcock, 1930)
Backfire (Vincent Sherman, 1950)
Il ladro di bambini (The Stolen Children, Gianni Amelio, 1992)
Texasville (Peter Bogdanovich, 1990)
The Man from Colorado (Henry Levin, 1948)
Drenge (Boys, Nils Malmros, 1977)
L’étrange Mme X (The Strange Madame X, Jean Grémillon, 1951)
Trouble Along the Way (Michael Curtiz, 1953)
What Do You Think? (Jacques Tourneur, 1937)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977)
En Kärlekshistoria (A Swedish Love Story, Roy Andersson, 1970)
Szegénylegények (The Round-Up, Miklós Jancsó, 1966)
The Bottom of the Bottle (Henry Hathaway, 1956)
Solas (Benito Zambrano, 1999)
Never Say Goodbye (Jerry Hopper, 1956)
 

AL COSSAR 

PROGRAMMER, MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
Favourites January-December 2014, alphabetised. These films are those seen in multiplexes in Melbourne, queued for at far-flung festivals, or acquainted elsewhere and in-between. Some old at the start of this year, some new to the end. Many missed, and more to be acquainted with, but this is the most of what captured my curiosities this year:
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Kaguyahime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2014)
Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Olive Kitteridge (Lisa Cholodenko, 2014)
The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Tu dors Nicole (You’re Sleeping, Nicole, Stéphane Lafleur, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Minor Notes (Some explaining to do):
Re: Relatos Salvajes and Whiplash: Sometimes the rush and rhythm of an audience amplifies the detail in great storytelling, and these two films, fully formed as they may be to watch alone, were also some of the best “collective” viewing of the year. Relatos Salvajes played the 2000 odd-person screening at which I saw it like an agreeably sadistic maestro, provoking a near non-stop in-room score of gasps and laughs that was a joy in itself to hear.
Re: Tu Dors Nicole – Lucid beauty, meandering and precise.
Re: Deux jours, une nuit, The Overnighters, Snowpiercer: All a compelling, divergent kind of contemporary – in the case of Deux jours, une nuit, an economy of story and structure that moved me greatly. Snowpiercer, the polar (PUN INTENDED) opposite kind of film, used the bluster of the blockbuster format in dark, ridiculous, and wholly exciting ways to deliver an upfront but exacting 99% revenge fantasy. The Overnighters, by contrast, looked downstream into the limits of our own compassion, and while it might have been set in far-away North Dakota, but it’s a film that made me think about Australia in close, comparable ways.
Re: Magical Girl: The more distance I have from this film, the more it burrows into the dark cracks in my mind. Sleek, with a kind of brutal understatement to it; noir-ish, in a way that feels unfamiliar.
Re: Calvary: Lose the alphabetical ordering, yell at me to pick a favourite, and this is it. I was one of the seeming few wholly unconvinced with McDonagh’s The Guard, but I loved this film. I couldn’t shake its sadness, its wit, its perfect last shots. It’s a quiet story contemplating the depths of faith and sacrifice, one that also stars Dylan Moran in full snark mode as a confrontational, rich, bastardly bastard. Full marks.
Re: Li’l Quinquin, Olive Kitteridge: Event television now naturalised within the film festival world – Dumont’s hilarious, wilfully askew Quinquin launching in long-form at Directors Fortnight this year, now going into US theatrical release in early 2015; Olive Kitteridge similarly premiering at Venice. Both expansive, assured storytelling, both boasting some of the year’s best lead performances; both making perfect sense surrounded by the ‘larger canvases’ of film storytelling, as equals, and in many cases, more. 
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)


ANTTI ALANEN

FILM PROGRAMMER, CRITIC AND HISTORIAN, HELSINKI.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Eedenistä pohjoiseen (North of Eden, Virpi Suutari, 2014, documentary)
Paratiisin avaimet (Keys of Heaven, Hamy Ramezan, FI 2014, short film)
Sokurovin ääni (The Voice of Sokurov, Leena Kilpeläinen, FI 2014, documentary)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014, doc)
Mannerheim kuulee (Mannerheim Hears, Nalle Sjöblad, 2014), Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy trailer, a parody remake of the bunker scene of Der Untergang
Les Croix de bois (Wooden Crosses, Raymond Bernard, 1931, Pathé 2014 restoration)
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)

FRANCISCO ALGARÍN NAVARO

EDITOR LUMIÈRE MAGAZINE.
Not differentiating between films seen for the first or the second time, all true film-events:
…a Valparaíso (1964), La Seine a rencontré Paris (Joris Ivens, 1957)
3 Sóis (2009), Colocar o olho de peixe (2012), Colombo’s Column (2006), Eclipse ocular (2007), Ovo estrelado (2008), The Big Drinking Bout (2007), The Human Board (João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, 2009)
7th Cavalry (1956), Deadly Is the Female (1950), Terror in a Texas Town (1958), The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
A Countess from Hong Kong  (1967), A King in New York (1957), The Immigrant  (Charles Chaplin, 1917)
A Distant Trumpet (1964), A Lion is in the Streets (1953), Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, 1942)
À l’ombre de la canaille bleue (In the Shadow of the Blue Rascal, Pierre Clémenti, 1986)
À propos de Venise (2013), Der Tod des Empedokles oder: Wenn dann der Erde Grün von neuem Euch erglänzt (The Death of Empedocles, 1987), Dialogue d’ombres (2013), Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
A Star is Born (1954), Rich and Famous (George Cukor, 1981)
A través de las ruinas (1982), Baltazar (1975), Film Gaudí (1975), Gamelan (1981), La escena circular (1982), Lux Taal (2009), Un enano en el jardín (1981), Vadi-Samvadi (Claudio Caldini, 1981)
A Walk (2008), Der Schmetterling im Winter (2006), Franz (2011), Halbmond für Margaret (2004), Hier ist es zur Zeit sehr schön (2006), In die Erde gebaut (2008), India (2005), Junge Kiefern (2011), Kopfüber im Geäst (2009), Im Park (2008), Maria (2011), Maria und die Welt (1995), OH! die vier Jahreszeiten (1988) Paulina (2011), Terzen (1998), To be Here (2013), Zuoz (Ute Aurand, 2008)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, 2014), Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)
All that Heaven Allows (1955), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958)
Alouette, je te plumerai (1988), Vincent mit l’âne dans un pré (et s’en vint dans l’autre) (Pierre Zucca, 1975)
Angel (1937), Cluny Brown (1946), That Uncertain Feeling (1941), Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
Barn Rushes (1971), Blues (1970), Corn (1970), Doorway (1971), Four Shadows (1978),Harmonica (1971), Horizons (1973), Machette Gillette… Mama (1989), Mnemosyne Mother of Muses  (1987), Mouches Volantes (1976),Thought (1971),Tree of Knowledge (1981), Your Television Traveler (1991, Larry Gottheim)
Beijing 1988 (1988-2011), Bouquet 1-10 (1994-95), Bouquets 21-30 (2001-05), Impromptu (1989), Les Coquelicots (2000), Les Tournesouls (1982), Quiproquo (1992), Scènes de la vie française: Arles (1985), Scènes de la vie française: Avignon (1986), Scènes de la vie française: La Ciotat (1986), Scènes de la vie française: Paris (1986), Retour d’un repère (1979), Roulement, rouerie, aubage (1978), Voiliers et coquelicots (Rose Lowder, 2001)
blue mantle (2010), glow in the dark (january-june) (2002), lions and tigers and bears (2005-06), murmurations (2013), night light and leaping (2001), night side (2008), things we want to see (Rebecca Meyers, 2003-04)
Boyhood (2014), Dazed and Confused (1993), Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1991)
Berlin Tiger (2012), Narcissi (2013), Rose (Shiloh Cinquemani, 2013)
Boudu sauvé des eaux (Boudu Saved from Drowning, Jean Renoir, 1932)
Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2013)
By Pain and Rhyme and Arabesques of Foraging (2013), What Places of Heaven, What Planets Directed, How Long the Effects, or The General Accidents of the World (David Gatten, 2013)
Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)
Caprice (1967), Who’s Minding the Store? (Frank Tashlin, 1963)
Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), Pearl of the South Pacific (Allan Dwan, 1955)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), How Green Was my Valley (1941), Rio Grande (1950), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953) 
Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960)
Cuerpo a cuerpo (Paulino Viota, 1984)
Designing Woman (1957), Father of the Bride (1950), Father’s Little Dividend  (1951), Home from the Hill (1960), Meet me in St. Louis (1954), Some Came Running (1958), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Band Wagon (1953), The Long, Long Trailer (1953), The Reluctant Debutante (1958), Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli, 1962)
Dies Irae (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)
Duel in the Sun (1946), Northwest Passage (Book I – Rogers’ Rangers) (1940), Ruby Gentry (1952), The Wedding Night (King Vidor, 1935)
Eisbär, Passanten, Binsen, Brunnen,  Mädchen, Riesenrad, Flugzeuge II, Wasserfall, Unter den Seerosen, Weybridge, Feuerwerk (2006), Spiegelung, Innenhof,  Grauer Reiher II,  Drei Midtown-Skizzen,  Zelte am Kanal, Karpfen in Farbe schwimmend,  Grüner Ballon, Kettenkarussell, Netzwefer, Unter den Seerosen, Grabmäller,  Broadway, Pflasterzeichnen,  Golfhaus,  Bleierne Wellen, Schatten auf roter Wand, Schlittschuhlaufen, Warriors Mark, Louie,  Gletscher (2007), Vögel am Checkpoint, Ostberlin, Tunnel, Aus dem Empire State Building, Tortelloni, Wilde Wasser, Eisbär, Porte St. Denis, Columbis Circle, Rue Labat in Trauer, Moulin oder Spergelcafé, Hütte im Jardin tropical, Jardin tropical im Frühling, Portrait, Teetrinken, Roter Vorhang, Wassertanz II,  Für M., Schmetterlinge, Nach dem Feuer II,  Skulptur und Wasser, Nebel II, Winklerweiher, Wassertanz I, Nebel I, Künettegraben, Ingolstadt, Orangen, Mond und Sonne, Spinnweben und Fische (2010), Constellations (2012), Intensities (Helga Fanderl, 2014)
Envio 8 (2009), Envio 23 (2010), Envio 24 (2010), Envio 26 (Jeanette Muñoz, 2013)
February (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2014)
Flammes (Adolpho Arrietta, 1978)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Hatari! (1962), His Girl Friday (1940), Monkey Business (1952), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Rio Bravo (1959), Today We Live (1933), The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Himself as Herself (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)
Husbands (John Cassavetes, 1970)
Im Wiener Prater (2013), Nec spe nec metu (2013), The Paris Poetry Circle (2013), Warum es sich zu leben lohnt (Friedl vom Gröller, 2013)
Instants (Hannes Schüpbach, 2014)
Jack Smith: Cologne, 1974 (Birgit Hein, 1974)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
João Bénard da Costa. Outros amarão as coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
La Vie comme ça (Life the Way It Is, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1978)
Le Jardin qui bascule (The Garden That Tilts, Guy Gilles, 1975)
Leave her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
Macao (1952), Morocco (1930), The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
Manoel dans l’île des merveilles (Manuel on the Island of Wonders, Raoul Ruiz, 1984)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Mes sept lieux (My Seven Places, 2014), Tentatives de se décrire (Boris Lehman, 2005)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Night Noon (Shambhavi Kaul, 2014)
Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier, Paul Vecchiali, 2014)
O Velho do Restelo (The Old Man of Belem, Manoel de Oliveira, 2014)
Path of Cessation, Swimming Stone, Starlight, Vineyard IV (Robert E. Fulton, 1970)
Peeping Tom (1960), The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Photooxidation (Pablo Mazzolo, 2014)
Radio Adios (Henry Hills, 1982)
Renaissance Center / GM Tower (Nicky Hamlyn, 2012)
Run for Cover (1955), Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
Salomé (Werner Schroeter, 1971)
San Francisco (Anthony Stern, 1968)
Se eu fosse Ladrão… roubava (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2013)
Sea Series (John Price, 2008-14)
Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Stage Fright (1950), The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
Square Dance, Los Angeles County, California, 2013 (Sílvia das Fadas, 2013)
Strangers When We Meet (Richard Quine, 1960)
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
The Bellboy (1960), The Family Jewels (1965), Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis, 1966)
The Blue Gardenia (1953), While the City Sleeps (1956), You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Gravediggers of Guadix (rushes) (Marie Menken, 1961)
The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecil B. DeMille, 1952)
The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage, 1994)
The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955), Tight Spot (Phil Karlson, 1955)
Utskor: Either / Or (2013), We Had the Experience but Missed the Meaning (Laida Lertxundi, 2014)
  

MICHAEL J. ANDERSON

FILM CURATOR, OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART. 
  1. Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)
  2. Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
  3. L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guirauide, 2013)
  4. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
  5. Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
  6. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
  7. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
  8. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
  9. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
  10. Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
  11. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
  12. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
  13. Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
  14. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  15. A Spell to Ward off the Darkness (Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, 2013)
  16. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
  17. L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
  18. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
  19. Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
  20. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
  21. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
  22. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
  23. Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2013)
  24. Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
  25. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
From top to bottom, one of the best film-going years in ages.
My criterion was simple: films I saw in cinemas, or saw period, in my new capacity as programmer, for the first time in 2014. All but three are 2014 US commercial releases: late 2013 premieres, Her and The Wolf of Wall Street, both of which I saw last January, and Plemya, one of the very few 2015 US releases I managed to see in advance of its theatrical run.
My biggest blind spot? Not yet having seen Adieu au langage in 3D. Leave it to Godard to make a film that 1) cannot be screened in many of the theatres that would love to show it, including my own; and 2) resists the geographical democratisation of film distribution – at least within the United States – brought on by the rise of streaming services. (I have seen it in 2D, for the very little that that’s worth.)

GEOFF ANDREW

SENIOR FILM PROGRAMMER AT LONDON’S BFI SOUTHBANK AND THE AUTHOR OF A NUMBER OF BOOKS ON THE CINEMA. REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO SIGHT AND SOUND AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO TIME OUT LONDON.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
Das grosse Museum (The Great Museum, Johannes Holzhausen, 2014)
Ukkili kamshat (The Owners, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, 2014)
Des hommes et de la guerre(Of Men and War, Laurent Bécue-Renard, 2014)
And 15 further titles in more or less random order:
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Kuzu (The Lamb, Kutluğ Ataman, 2014)
Macondo (Sudabeh Mortezai 2014)
Stray Dog (Debra Granik, 2014)
Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Poromboiu, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Listen Up Phillip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
I don´t feel it was a particularly strong year, though there are unfortunately some films I´ve yet to see which might have made it in to my top 25. I am painfully aware I´ve seen very little from East Asia this year, and that is reflected in the list. But it did seem to be a good year for documentary.
Kis Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Kis Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)

MARTYN BAMBER 

CONTRIBUTOR TO CLOSE-UP FILM, CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK, AND SENSES OF CINEMA.
Favourite new release films from 2014 seen in the UK (in alphabetical order):
Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Earth to Echo (Dave Green, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Violette (Martin Provost, 2013)

LYNDEN BARBER

A SYDNEY-BASED FREELANCE FILM JOURNALIST AND SCREEN STUDIES TEACHER.
Top 12in alphabetical order (All titles released theatrically in Australia in 2014):
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014)
All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
La vie d’Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Runner up 12 in alphabetical order (all titles released theatrically in Australia in 2014):
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix Van Groeningen, 2013)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
God Help the Girl (Stuart Murdoch, 2014)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich), 2013
My Sweet Pepper Land (Huner Saleem, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Once My Mother (Sophia Turkiewicz, 2014)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

MICHAEL BARTLETT

FREELANCE FILM WRITER AND SUBTITLER BASED IN LONDON.
The Borderlands (Elliot Goldner, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill Of Freedom, Hong Sang-Soo, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Maps To The Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Silence (Pat Collins, 2012)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
 
Runners up
I found the following titles just as stimulating and entertaining as the ones above, but, for some reason, they haven’t lingered as powerfully in my memory. 
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
L’inconnu du lac (Stranger By The Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Independencia (Raya Martin, 2009)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
Most ludicrously overrated films of the year
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Three highly rated films that left me stone cold
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Best things to happen this year
Arrow Films’ superb Blu-Ray box set of Walerian Borowczyk’s early films. The publication of The Essential Raymond Durgnat (edited by Henry K Miller).

NICK BARTLETT

TEAM ASSISTANT AT BBC WORLDWIDE AND WRITER OF DEAD FINKS DON’T BLOG.
Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2014)
A subtle, understated thriller, that combines economic Walter Hillseque storytelling with a wryly dark sense of humour. There aren’t many twists (maybe one) and the plot unravels slowly but effectively, taking a look at the long-term effects of revenge from both sides. Short and to the point, with an outstanding central performance from Macon Blair as a character who really doesn’t want to be in a revenge thriller. Hands down the most gripping thriller of the year.
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
The richest, most entertaining and original film that the Coen brothers have made since No Country For Old Men (2007), this is a touching (but never sentimental) look at folk music just prior to the emergence of Bob Dylan. Oscar Isaac absolutely nails the title role, giving a charismatic performance as a bitter, self-loathing musician, and the soundtrack is irrepressibly catchy.
The Double (Richard Ayoade, 2013)
An odd mixture of dark comedy and bleak dystopian fantasy that somehow works really well. Darker and more mature than Submarine, The Double is a memorably dystopian, nightmarish psychological fantasy, with some coldly funny dialogue which belies the film’s haunting premise and chilling moments. Featuring beautiful cinematography, some truly poetic editing and not one, but two excellent performances from Eisenberg.
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
The most heartfelt and tonally mature film Jonze has made yet, Her is a poignant film with a really tender performance from Joaquin Phoenix. The ambiguous but touching ending manages to avoid being a cop-out and remains a genuinely sweet message about the need for human relationships.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The artificial backgrounds, centred shots, onscreen text and use of bright colours all let you know that you are watching a Wes Anderson film, but he manages to narrowly avoid the Tim Burton pitfalls by introducing several new elements into the mix. I think I have to accept that Anderson will never stray from his well-worn formula, but The Grand Budapest Hotel is a welcome change in overall tone, with beautiful cinematography, several tense set-pieces and a genuinely moving performance from Fiennes.
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The scariest film of the year and one that achieves its scares by building up atmosphere and tension from the word go. First time director Kent has brought her A game to this film, with crisp cinematography, haunting set design and a script that is by turns both funny and haunting. The central performances are both much stronger than you would expect from a standard horror film, and the monster is original and more importantly, terrifying. Reminiscent of Repulsion and M.R. James, the result is not only the best horror film, but one of the best films of the year.
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
A more mature film than the stylish Sexy Beast and the downright weird Birth, and more satisfying narratively than either, Under The Skin benefits from giving the audience enough credit to piece together most of the plot without overtly giving anything away. Visually one of the most beautiful films of the year, with some genuinely disturbing moments (The “processing” scene is one of those once seen, never forgotten sequences) and a surprisingly subtle performance from Scarlett Johansson, who manages to be both sympathetic and disarmingly creepy.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
A bit of an anomaly among the rest of Nolan’s work, Interstellar lacks the instant hook of something like Inception, the narrative tricks of Memento or The Prestige, or even the sheer entertainment value of the Dark Knight trilogy. That being said it is still an incredible experience, with awe inspiring cinematography, a beautiful score from Hans Zimmer and a predictably great performance from Matthew McConaughey. However, though it struggles manfully, it could easily, easily lose an hour.
Faults (Riley Stearns, 2014)
A darkly comic thriller with a genuinely unsettling tone which pervades throughout. The witty script is equal parts funny and sinister, and gives the audience no chance to predict what’s going to happen. Leland Orser and Mary Elizabeth Olstead give two compelling performances and the ominously ambiguous ending is chilling.
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
Playing out like a love letter to genre cinema, The Guest is Wingard’s best film, a no-holds-barred thrill ride pastiche of trashy 1980s pulp cinema, which refuses to take itself seriously and with twists that feel like you’re being let in on an amazing joke. Combing the aesthetics of Drive with John Carpenter style slasher films, The Guest features a knowing, clever script, an eclectic, retro soundtrack, a witty, clever script and an incredibly enjoyably tongue-in-cheek performance from Dan Stevens.
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Gone Girl is filled to the brim with great performances, and Fincher’s characteristic washed out palette works to devastating effect, but the dialogue is constituted of speeches and does not reflect the way that real people talk. There are some stunning set-pieces – the segment in Desi’s mansion is expertly put together, and the climax is genuinely shocking – and some nice character touches, especially in the characterisation of the detectives and Tanner Bolt. Overall though, there’s too much telling, and not nearly enough showing. While an excellent film for those who haven’t or don’t want to read the book, Gone Girl doesn’t offer many surprises for those who have.
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)

CONOR BATEMAN

MANAGING EDITOR OF 4:3, PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL AND SBS. 
Top theatrical releases in Australia, 2014 
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix van Groeningen, 2012)
Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012)
La Vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
 
Top Australian festival releases, 2014 
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
Non-Fiction Diary (Jung Yoon-suk, 2014)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Most overrated films, 2014 (Australian theatrical releases)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)

GUSTAVO BECK

NEW YORK-BASED BRAZILIAN FILMMAKER, CURATOR AND CRITIC.
  1. Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksey German, 2013)
  2. Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
  3. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
  4. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  5. Brûle la mer (Burn the Sea, Nathalie Nambot & Maki Berchache, 2014)
  6. Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air (Phillip Warnell, 2014)
  7. Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  8. Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
  9. Le Beau Danger (René Frölke, 2014)
  10. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)

SEAN BELL 

BLOGGER AT SEX AND THE ETERNAL CITY.
Top 10 Italian cinema/DVD releases for 2014:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Free of the usual dramatic arcs, Boyhood rambled over three hours, covering 12 years in a life of a family, but just like life, it was over all too soon. Watching the actors age naturally before us gave the film added pathos, but above all, Linklater and his fine cast proved that ordinary lives presented truthfully are inherently fascinating.
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Topping many a year’s best list in 2013 and deservedly nabbing Bruce Dern the Cannes Best Actor honour last year, Nebraska limped into Italian cinemas in late January where it played for precisely two weeks. Thank God then for DVD. I have now seen Alexander Payne’s small tale of forgiveness (forgiving yourself and forgiving your parents) three times and found myself laughing like a drain and being moved to tears every time. It is also responsible for a long overdue June Squibb revival.
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
It could be because the blue and grey hued photography is so beautiful or because T Bone Burnett has curated such a wonderful soundtrack. It could be because Oscar Isaac makes you care about a selfish character who is his own worst enemy or because he is supported by such fine actors as John Goodman and F. Murray Abraham. It could be because Inside Llewyn Davis speaks with such wry sadness about being in the music industry or it could just be because of Ulysses the cat, but this is my favourite Coens’ film since Barton Fink.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
A sublime Russian doll of a film from a director as much in love with the medium as he is the past. Ralph Fiennes has done comedy before (In Bruges) but his performance here is a masterclass in comic timing. 
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
This taut one-hander shouldn’t work but it does largely due to Tom Hardy at his very best and the superb voice work from Olivia Colman and Ruth Wilson.
20 Feet From Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013)
Essential viewing for music fans of all stripes – a documentary which gives overdue voice to some deserving voices. It’s the anti-X Factor – proper talent not in search of celebrity.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2014)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Mistaken For Strangers (Tom Berninger, 2013)
Worst:
There were some disappointments – L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie 2013) Deux jours, une unit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014) – and interesting misfires – Maps To The Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014) but nothing truly awful, then again I didn’t see Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay, 2014).
Nebraska
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)

PAMELA BIÉNZOBAS

CHILEAN FILM CRITIC BASED IN PARIS.
Favorite-film lists are essentially arbitrary and also limited to an aleatory universe of choice. Therefore, to sort my way through, I decided to push both aspects even further, and arbitrarily decided to limit my list to documentaries seen during 2014 (including some that had premiered internationally earlier, but that had their theatrical release this year in France, where I live). And since the instructions said “at least 10”, I arbitrarily decided to go for 11.
As I eagerly look forward to catching up with some recent documentaries I still haven’t had the chance to see, these are “my” best non-fiction experiences of 2014, in alphabetical order.
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014)
I know that despite its originality and formal quality, it is made for lovers of Nick Cave’s music. I am one, so it was made for me. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have much appreciated it, but it would not be here.
Au bord du monde (On the Edge of the World, Claus Drexel, 2013)
Respect, dignity and humanity. And the awareness and lucidity of how to transmit that through cinema.
Costa da morte (Coast of Death, Lois Patiño, 2013)
A film you do not only watch and listen to. You can feel the wind and the breeze of the Galician coast on your skin.
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
Had this list’s order not been alphabetical, it would have been on top. A masterclass on cinema, a concentrate of emotion and an ode to life, all in one.
Im Keller (In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl, 2014)
My first spontaneous reactions: i) It made me worry about my friends in Austria; ii) No matter how “normal” or “sane” you believe you are, you should never let Seidl film you.
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
The most precise gaze imaginable.
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Not at all among Wiseman’s best, it still makes it among the year’s best.
San zimei (Three Sisters, Wang Bing, 2012)
(Though it was presented in Venice 2012, it was only released in France in 2014.) Life, like it or not.
Senkyo 2 (Campaign 2, Kazuhiro Soda, 2013)
The subject has evolved in a dramatic way, but just like in Senkyo, that camera is always placed in the exact place, exact angle, and makes the exact move, turning each seemingly simple shot into a dense comment on Japanese society.
Tepecik Hayal Okulu (A Dream School in the Steppes, Güliz Saglam, 2014)
A film about an artist requires a special quality to fascinate you even when you had no previous idea about that person’s existence or work. This homage to Ahmet Uluçay exudes love of cinema and life in an irresistible way.
The Return to Homs (Talal Derki, 2013)
Images beyond words.
 

YVETTE BIRO

ESSAYIST, WRITER AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY GRADUATE FILM SCHOOL.
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Czlowiek z nadziei (Man of Hope, Andrzej Wajda, 2013)
Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, 2013)
Le Paradis (Alain Cavalier, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Cavalier Express (Alain Cavalier, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Stray Dogs (Ming-Liang Tsai, 2014)
Still the Water (Naomi Kawase, 2014)
Reprises:
Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971)
L’enclos (Enclosure, Armand Gatti, 1961)

MIMI BRODY

FREELANCE FILM CURATOR, USA.
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Amour fou
(Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit
(Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Plus three film discoveries from this year:
Her Man (Tay Garnett, 1930)
Daïnah la métisse (Dainah the Mulatto, Jean Grémillon, 1932)
Morgen beginnt das Leben (Life Begins Tomorrow, Werner Hochbaum, 1933)
 

THOMAS CALDWELL

DISCUSSES FILM ON 3RRR 102.7FM EVERY WEEK AND BOOK-TO-FILM ADAPTIONS ON ABC RADIO NATIONAL ONCE A MONTH.
Favourite ten films with a theatrical release in Melbourne, Australia in 2014
  1. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
  2. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
  3. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  5. Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013)
  6. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
  7. La vie d’Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
  8. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
  9. Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013)
  10. Nymphomaniac (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Honourable mentions
I thought this was a particularly strong year in cinema so here are fifteen more films, listed alphabetically, that have stayed with me for one reason or another:
52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013)
Big Hero 6 (Don Hall and Chris Williams, 2014)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
The Dark Horse (James Napier Robertson, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
The Infinite Man (Hugh Sullivan, 2014)
Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)
Favourite ten films not given a full theatrical release:
As usual, some of the best films I saw this year were not given a full theatrical release, but were still screened to Melbourne audiences at festivals or other special events.
  1. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
  2. Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksey German, 2013)
  3. Virunga (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014)
  4. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets (Florian Habicht, 2014)
  5. The Possibilities are Endless (James Hall and Edward Lovelace, 2014)
  6. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg, 2014)
  7. Jigoku de naze warui (Why Don’t You Play in Hell? Sion Sono, 2013)
  8. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
  9. Ping Pong Summer (Michael Tully, 2014)
  10. Housebound (Gerard Johnstone, 2014)
Charlie's Country
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)

MICHAEL CAMPI

LONG CAPTIVATED BY THE MOVIES WITH INVOLVEMENT IN NON-COMMERCIAL FILM EXHIBITION OVER MANY DECADES.
Highest achievers seen in 2014 in alphabetical order:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Camille Claudel 1915 (Bruno Dumont, 2013)
Gyeongju (Zhang Lu, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Love is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)*
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Shuiyin Jie (Trap Street, Vivian Qu, 2013)
Violet (Bas Devos, 2014)
* At the time of writing, I have not seen Tom à la Ferme (Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
Other works that have been enriching and stimulating reminders of the power of the movies in 2014:
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Brma paemnebi (Blind Dates, Levan Koguashvili, 2013)
Huang jin shi dai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Na pian hu shui (Lake August, Yang Heng, 2014)
Tui na (Blind Massage, Lou Ye, 2014)
Ya-gan-bi-haeng (Night Flight, Leesong Hee-il, 2014)
Ye (The Night, Zhou Hao, 2014)
However the film which affected me the most was Nakinureta haru no onna yo (A Woman Crying in Spring, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933) and presented in the final of three marvellous annual surveys of Japanese early sound films at the essential Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna during the European summer. A very early talkie for Japan and after which Shimizu directed more silent films, the film is said to have persuaded Yasujiro Ozu to direct his first sound film a couple of years later. The quiet emotional intensity of this melodrama focuses on two miners and a single mother bar hostess. The drama is conveyed so exquisitely in images and imaginative sounds that it was impossible for me to consider watching another film for the rest of that festival day. It will remain tantalising to ponder whether Shimizu could have seen Howard Hawks’ Tiger Shark, made the year before, which has a similar central male-female triangle but the emotions aren’t moving in necessarily familiar lines.

MICHELLE CAREY

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, CO-CURATOR, MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE AND AN EDITOR AT SENSES OF CINEMA.
P’tit Quinquin (L’il Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Trydno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Xi you (Journey To The West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrar, 2014)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Free Range/Ballaad Maailma Heakskiitmisest (Free Range/Ballad on Approving of the World, Veiko Öunpuu, 2013)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
La Princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
brouillard – passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Detour de Force (Rebecca Baron, 2014)
45 7 Broadway (Tomonari Nishikawa, 2013)
Photooxidation (Pablo Mazzolo, 2014)
The Unity of All Things (Alexander Carver & Daniel Schmidt, 2013)
Things (Ben Rivers, 2014)
Having now been enriched by cinema for over half my life, it’s humbling to see that my cinephilia is still on its journey. I’ve rediscovered, for example, the joys of independent American cinema, and there have been some excellent films at varying production levels from that country this year.
A personal highlight was being able to screen Out 1 – Noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, 1971) at MIFF, and the accompanying video essays (by Adrian Martin & Cristina Álvarez, Kevin B. Lee & Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Chris Luscri & David Heslin) produced for it by Chris Luscri.


NICOLÁS CARRASCO 

STAFF WRITER AT DESISTFILM.
In no particular order:
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Fantasmas de la ruta (Ghosts of the Road, José Celestino Campusano, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (L’il Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
Matar a un hombre (To Kill a Man, Alejandro Fernández Almendras, 2014)
Papusza (Joanna Kos & Krzysztof Krauze, 2013)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
The Raid 2: Berandal (Gareth Evans, 2014)
Solecito (Oscar Ruiz Navia, 2013)
Oculus (Mike Flanagan, 2013)
Soshite chichi ni Naru(Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)
Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
Spirits in Season (Stephen Broomer, 2012)
A Movie by Jen Proctor (Jennifer Proctor, 2010-12)
Picture Particles (Thorsten Fleisch, 2014)
Soft in the Head (Nathan Silver, 2013)
Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
Foudre (Manuela Morgaine, 2013)
Honourable mentions:
Great films from Cordoba, Argentina: Tres D (Rosendo Ruiz, 2014), El último verano (Leandro Naranjo, 2014), Atlántida (Inés María Barrionuevo, 2014), and Ciencias naturales (Matías Lucchesi, 2014).
Great films from Bolivia: El corral y el viento (Miguel Hilari, 2014), Adelante (Miguel Hilari, 2014), Primavera (Joaquin Tapia, 2014), and Plato Paceño (Carlos Piñeiro, 2013).
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)

MICHAEL J. CASEY

MOVIE CRITIC FOR BOULDER WEEKLY.
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
A movie where ambition is only matched by insight.
2. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Emotionally devastating in every way possible.
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Joy in three formats. Invention at 24 frames per second.
4. Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
A document of a life lived.
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Jarmusch answers the questions no one thought to ask.
6. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2014) / Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2014)
The Hero’s Journey rendered as a comedy then as a tragedy.
7. Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
A man, a plan and a car. Too bad life got in the way.
8. Keep on Keepin’ On (Alan Hicks, 2014)
A tale of two masters.
9. God Help the Girl­ (Stuart Murdoch, 2014)
Can a pop song save your life? Yes.
10. They Came Together (David Wain, 2014) 
Laughing out loud from start to finish

CELLULOID LIBERATION FRONT 

A MULTI-USE(R) NAME, AN “OPEN REPUTATION” INFORMALLY ADOPTED AND SHARED BY A DESIRING MULTITUDE OF INSURGENT SPECTATORS.
The CIA makes lists and so did the KGB, so why shouldn’t we?
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
A complex, multilayered and remarkably sharp film about the brutality of the greatest of all dreams.
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
For its ethical integrity, intellectual honesty and moral courage. The rarest qualities to be found in a documentary.
The Postman’s White Nights (Andrei Konchalovsky, 2014)
A minimal epic with no theories to be proved but an almost ancestral understanding of life and its immovable dynamics.
Belluscone: Una Storia Siciliana (Franco Maresco, 2014)
The year’s greatest film by the world’s greatest living director.
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
From paedo-celebrity culture to murderous self-obsession, the no longer repressed monsters of our daily horror are now ready for realism. There is no use for horror movies anymore, seems to insinuate a master of the genre.
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
With his antiquated youthfulness the director lucidly frames the decadence of our dying culture and stages the most romantic funeral.
She’s Funny That Way (Peter Bogdanovich, 2014)
The scripted alchemy of a heartfelt homage to the movies that once were coalesces into a film of rhythmic perfection.
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Damnation, perdition and the refusal of redemption. Ferrara’s cinema spews out from the gangrenous wounds of our putrescent world.
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
A film made in a place where none wants to go, let alone be found; the “wrong” side of history. The losing side.
The Humbling (Barry Levinson, 2014)
Al Pacino’s greatest performance since The Scarecrow.
Though I hesitate to keep “TV series” separate from “films”, primarily because I can hardly see any meaningful difference between the two, here are two stand-outs from this year’s serial output: House of Cards (Season 2) and Rectify (Season 2). 


CARLO CHATRIAN

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna(White Nights of the Postman, Andrey Konchalovskij, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Kaguya-hime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
P'tit Quinquin (Li'l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)

LESLEY CHOW

AUSTRALIAN FILM CRITIC AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF BRIGHT LIGHTS. ALSO WRITES ON MUSIC FOR THE QUIETUS.
Best films:
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Not since Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977) has a director so effectively worked the contrast between a gloomy, run-down city and erotic black magic. In Under the Skin, fascination comes in a series of kabuki-like trances, with Scarlett Johansson slithering across a polished floor.
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
The rocky landscape of Cappadocia works as well for Ceylan as Stromboli did for Rossellini: as a severe backdrop for a group of isolated characters. But in this world, entropy isn’t silence: if anything, it means an endless series of conversations, with constant sighs and exasperation as people tussle over the moral high ground, trying to determine who possesses more insight or courage. There are small, insistent assertions of superiority by almost every character, accompanied by a good dose of evil eye. In Ceylan, people can even fight over who has greater humility, with both parties offering to back down before a couple of parting shots.
There is a perpetual state of war between the characters: verbal reprisals will be made for the tiniest slights, leading to the kind of nutty, no-win exchanges we often hear in Hong Sang-soo. Common tactics include purporting to speak in generalities while making digs at one person, or sticking to an “objective” view of life that happens to flatter one’s own interests. All the while, the camera gazes at people with a forensic intensity reminiscent of Hong. What does it mean if a holy man has sly eyes and a wheedling manner, or if a woman with an angelic face puts on a sour expression? How far do these traits go in obscuring or revealing character? It’s to Ceylan’s credit that, despite all of the tiresome point-scoring, we are compelled to know more.
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
John Wick (Chad Stahelski & David Leitch, 2014)
Like many great crime thrillers, John Wick depicts the rules of the game as they exist between elegant, po-faced men. To that end, there are at least twelve superb cameos from character actors, and an elating sense of skill and camaraderie – comparisons with Boorman and Melville aren’t out of the question. In its seamless moves between genre and art installation, this is a film Nicolas Winding Refn should envy.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014) 
Mahi va Gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, 2014)
Along with James Gray, Amini is one of the few working directors who gives classicism a good name. In this debut feature, he already has the exact touch of a master: knowing which images should hover over us, what we should be faintly aware of, and when it’s time to blast us with light.

JOHN CONOMOS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SYDNEY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.
My following top ten list for this year is the result of what I have only seen in movie theatres, on television and watching DVDs. Anyway you look at it top ten lists are very subjective depending on one’s geography, personal circumstance and global exposure to film festivals, conferences and symposia. For me, though I have been familiar with the film and video essay form since the ‘70s and ‘80s, this year’s list contains a few recent examples of this proliferating genre.
I have disappointedly missed seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language. As a rule I see everything Godard does because, to state the obvious, since the 1960s he has been one of cinema’s essential weathervanes.
Furthermore, I should add that besides my top ten list I have also cited a number of books that I have read this year and that have enriched and expanded my understanding and pleasure of cinema. For me, cinema is still life’s gift that keeps on giving.
The list is not in any order of preference.
  1. Patience (After Sebald) (Grant Gee, 2012)
  2. The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula and Noël Burch, 2012)
  3. The Stuart Hall Project (John Akomfrah, 2013)
  4. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
  5. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
  6. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
  7. 20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, 2014.
  8. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
  9. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
  10. Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014
The film books that have engaged me the most this year were:
Adrian Martin, Mise en Scène and Film Style, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Wayne Koestenbaum, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, University of California Press, 2012
James Naremore, An Invention Without A Future, University of California Press, 2014
Henry Karl Miller, The Essential Raymond Durgnat, BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Patrick Keiller, The View From the Train, Verso, 2013 
 

ADAM COOK

CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER FOR MUBI, CONTRIBUTOR TO CINEMA SCOPE AND OTHERS.
I find that efforts to link the year’s films together under some sort of thematic umbrella can often be in vain, but I couldn’t help notice once I assembled a list that most of my favourite movies from 2014 have a particularly interesting relationship with time. Maybe it’s too broad – cinema’s relationship to time is an inherent quality, the recorded image’s dynamic with temporality being a large component of what makes the medium compelling and relevant – but more than usual the films gathered in this top ten bring this relationship to light. In the following films, the passage of time, the tension between the moving image and its properties therein, the palpable, ever-present moment of what’s on screen at any given second versus the time to which it belongs (both in reality and the reality of the diegesis), is especially pointed. The way a shot, due to its own pace and duration, can expand and bend time to its will, time as we understand it is subservient to cinema’s powers, at least when at the hand of its masters. In Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang makes this one of the film’s subjects, the contrast between the serene slow walk of Lee Kang-sheng’s monk and Denis Lavant’s enigmatic figure and the busy Marseilles around them changing how we look at what’s in the frame, and in turn, what’s around us – as if time and space is something determinable by a state of mind. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel pays tribute to the power of fiction to process history and experience. Much has been said about what Richard Linklater’s Boyhood does, less a coming-of-age film than a passing-of-time film, studying the transience of years as they flow by. Philippe Garrel’s Jealousy is more minute in how it fixes its attention, lamenting the passing of moment to moment, seeing each as monumental as a year in themselves. Pompeii profoundly makes a moment of human beauty immortal in the face of nature’s indifference. In Jersey Boys, Clint Eastwood looks at real life subjects that are contemporary to him, essentially looking at the years gone by of his lifetime, the pain, regret, highs, lows, nostalgia – not nearly enough has been said about how this film captures a sense of a life lived, and painfully/beautifully how quickly and brutally it happens. Continuity and time operate according to a different logic in the films of Hong Sang-soo, and his latest, Hill of Freedom, another effortlessly great movie, plays on this even more by revolving around a past we aren’t privy to. Left off of this list but deserving a mention, the Farrelly Brothers’ Dumb and Dumber To gets most of its power from the stalwartness of the film’s central relationship, and the irrelevance of time to its sincerity.
This collection of remarkable films point to that which may be most essential in the spirit of movie-going, not to pass time, but to expand it, even challenge it, to open up time and space, an act of resistance against the forces we otherwise remain bound to – a different way of navigating the world and ourselves.
  1. Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
  2. Kaguya-hime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2014)
  3. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  5. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
  7. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2014)
  8. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014) & American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
  9. Dan shen nan nu 2 (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2, Johnnie To, 2014)
  10. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014) and Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Honourable mentions:
Ja-yu-eui eon-duk (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)


KIERON CORLISS
 

DEPUTY EDITOR, SIGHT & SOUND.
Top ten in no particular order:
La sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Sorrow and Joy (Nils Malmros, 2014)
Studien zu Monet (Klaus Wyborny, 1998-2014)
João Bénard da Costa – Outros amarão as Coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)

JESÚS CORTÉS

SPANISH FILM WRITER FOR MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES: UN BLOG COMME LES AUTRES, FOCO REVISTA DE CINEMA, DÉTOUR AND SHANGRILA. CO-AUTHOR OF BOOK ON EUROPEAN FILMMAKERS, OJOS SIN ROSTRO (ÁRTICA, 2014)
30 best new and relatively recent films I have seen during the past year:
Sorg og Glaede (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Une autre vie (Another Life,Emmanuel Mouret, 2013)
J’enrage de son absence (Maddened By His Absence, Sandrine Bonnaire, 2012)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Pas son genre (Not My Type,Lucas Belvaux, 2014)
Au fil d’Ariane (Ariane’s Thread, Robert Guédiguian, 2014)
Feng ai (`Til Madness Do Us Part,Wang Bing, 2013)
Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier,Paul Vecchiali, 2014)
Se Eu Fosse Ladrão… Rouvaba (If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2011)
Sosialismi (Socialism,Peter Von Bagh, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
Arrête ou je continue (If You Don’t, I Will,Sophie Fillières, 2014)
Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi,Hong Sang-Soo, 2013)
Frammenti (Franco Piavoli, 2012)
La Noche de enfrente (Night Across the Street, Raúl Ruiz, 2012)
L’Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Futatsume no mado (Still the Water, Kawase Naomi, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Phantom Power (Pierre Léon, 2014)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery, 2013)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Un Château en Italie (A Castle in Italy, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
O Velho do Restelo (Manoel de Oliveira, 2014)
João Bénard da Costa. Outros amarão as coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
La Isla Mínima (Marshland, Alberto Rodríguez, 2014)
L’Amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime, Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu, 2013)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
70 best older films, seen for the first time in 2014:
Tsuki wa Noborinu (Tanaka Kinuyo, 1955)
Amore Mio (My Love, Raffaello Matarazzo, 1964)
Smilin’ Through (Sidney Franklin, 1932)
Buon Natale… Buon Anno (Merry Christmas… Happy New Year, Luigi Comencini, 1989)
Internes Can´t Take Money (Alfred Santell, 1937)
Framed (Richard Wallace, 1947)
Jun’ai Monogatari (Imai Tadashi, 1957)
Private Lives (Sidney Franklin, 1931)
Guai ai Vinti (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954)
King of the Royal Mounted (William Witney and John English, 1940)
Utage (Gosho Heinosuke, 1967)
Broken Marriage (Ishmael Bernal, 1983)
L’Authentique procés de Carl-Emmanuel Jung (The Authentic Trial of Carl Emmanuel Jung, Marcel Hanoun, 1966)
Gan (Toyoda Shirô, 1953)
Whiplash (Lewis Seiler, 1948)
Shunkinsho: Okoto to Sasuke (Shimazu Yasujirô, 1935)
Six et demi onze (Jean Epstein, 1927)
Two of a Kind (Henry Levin, 1951)
Jirô Monogatari (The Tale of Jiro, HiroshiShimizu, 1955)
Mogliamante (Wifemistress, Marco Vicario, 1977)
Yoman (David Perlov, 1983)
Woman in Hiding (Michael Gordon, 1950)
Puccini (Carmine Gallone, 1953)
Toute une nuit (All Night Long, Chantal Akerman, 1982)
Paraíso Robado (Stolen Paradise, Julio Bracho, 1951)
The Secret Bride (William Dieterle, 1934)
Slava – Nam, Smert’ – Vragam (Yevgeni Bauer, 1914)
En Djungelsaga (The Flute and the Arrow, Arne Sucksdorff, 1957)
Leonora dos Sete Mares (Leonora of the Seven Seas, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1955)
If I Were Free (Elliott Nugent, 1933)
Cry Vengeance (Mark Stevens, 1954)
Trädgårdsmästaren (The Gardener, Victor Sjöström, 1912)
The Searching Wind (William Dieterle, 1946)
Black Widow (Nunnally Johnson, 1954)
La Vie à deux (Life Together, Clément Duhour, 1958)
The End of the Affair (Edward Dmytryk, 1955)
The Well (Leo Popkin and Russell Rouse, 1951)
South of St. Louis (Ray Enright, 1949)
Aïe (Ouch, Sophie Fillières, 2000)
Alba Regia (Mihály Szemes, 1961)
Tayna Vechnoi Nochi (The Mystery of the Eternal Night, Abram Room, Dimitriy Vasilev, 1956)
La Cobarde (Julio Bracho, 1953)
Night Editor (Henry Levin, 1946)
The Satan Bug (John Sturges, 1965)
Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009)
Gentille (Sophie Fillières, 2005)
Mirt Sost Shi Amit (Harvest: 3000 Years, Haile Gerima, 1976)
Il Tradimento (Double Cross, Riccardo Freda, 1951)
The Fallen Sparrow (Richard Wallace, 1943)
The song of Avila (Jonas Mekas, 1967)
Das Tagebuch des Dr Hart (The Diary of Dr. Hart, Paul Leni, 1916)
Tre Storie Proibite (Three Forbidden Stories, Augusto Genina, 1952)
Preferisco il Rumore del Mare (I Prefer the Sound of the Sea, Mimmo Calopresti 1999)
Historia de un Gran Amor (Julio Bracho, 1942)
Souvenir d’Italie (It Happened in Rome, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1957)
Ginebra en los Infiernos (Jaime Chávarri, 1969)
Zona Roja (Pink Zone, Emilio Fernández, 1976)
Buenaventura Durruti, Anarquista (Jean-Louis Comolli and Ginette Lavigne, 2000)
Biette (Pierre Léon, 2011)
Gahanu Lamai (Sumitra Peries, 1978)
Gli Stregoni (Raffaele Andreassi, 1961)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen, 1996)
La Seconda Volta (The Second Time, Mimmo Calopresti, 1995)
The Devil and Miss Jones (Sam Wood, 1941)
Jitsuroku Abe Sada (A Woman Called Abe Sada, Tanaka Noboru, 1975)
Mat (Mother, Mark Donskoy, 1955)
Three Hours to Kill (Alfred L. Werker, 1954)
Eine Stunde Glück (Wilhelm Dieterle, 1931)
Spaceways (Terence Fisher, 1953)
I Am Suzanne! (Rowland V. Lee, 1933)
50 best among revisited:
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
Beloved Infidel (Henry King, 1959)
Ensayo de un Crimen (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, Luis Buñuel, 1955)
Two Rode Together (John Ford, 1961)
The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953)
La Fille du Puisatier (The Well-Digger’s Daughter, Marcel Pagnol, 1940)
A Distant Trumpet (Raoul Walsh, 1964)
Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)
El Sol del Membrillo (The Quince Tree Sun, Víctor Erice, 1992)
Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)
Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965)
The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
Barbara (Nils Malmros, 1997)
The Naked and the Dead (Raoul Walsh, 1958)
Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman and Tony Brandt, 1978)
Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat (Drifting Clouds, Aki Kaurismäki, 1996)
Oublie-moi (Forget Me, Noémie Lvovsky, 1994)
Mata au hi Made (Til We Meet Again, Imai Tadashi, 1950)
The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960)
La prima notte di quiete (Indian Summer, Valerio Zurlini, 1972)
Scandal Sheet (Phil Karlson, 1952)
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959)
Ariane (Paul Czinner, 1931)
Je t’aime, Je t’aime (I Love You, I Love You, Alain Resnais, 1968)
Karl May (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, 1974)
L’Immorale (The Climax, Pietro Germi, 1967)
The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958)
Yellowstone Kelly (Gordon Douglas, 1959)
Bell Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958)
Shakha Proshakha (The Branches of the Tree, Satyajit Ray, 1990)
Tong nien wang shi (A Time to Live, A Time to Die, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1985)
Not Wanted (Ida Lupino and Elmer Clifton, 1949)
Hangman’s Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952)
Murder! (Alfred Hitchcock, 1930)
Backfire (Vincent Sherman, 1950)
Il ladro di bambini (The Stolen Children, Gianni Amelio, 1992)
Texasville (Peter Bogdanovich, 1990)
The Man from Colorado (Henry Levin, 1948)
Drenge (Boys, Nils Malmros, 1977)
L’étrange Mme X (The Strange Madame X, Jean Grémillon, 1951)
Trouble Along the Way (Michael Curtiz, 1953)
What Do You Think? (Jacques Tourneur, 1937)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977)
En Kärlekshistoria (A Swedish Love Story, Roy Andersson, 1970)
Szegénylegények (The Round-Up, Miklós Jancsó, 1966)
The Bottom of the Bottle (Henry Hathaway, 1956)
Solas (Benito Zambrano, 1999)
Never Say Goodbye (Jerry Hopper, 1956)
 

AL COSSAR 

PROGRAMMER, MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
Favourites January-December 2014, alphabetised. These films are those seen in multiplexes in Melbourne, queued for at far-flung festivals, or acquainted elsewhere and in-between. Some old at the start of this year, some new to the end. Many missed, and more to be acquainted with, but this is the most of what captured my curiosities this year:
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Kaguyahime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2014)
Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Olive Kitteridge (Lisa Cholodenko, 2014)
The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Tu dors Nicole (You’re Sleeping, Nicole, Stéphane Lafleur, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Minor Notes (Some explaining to do):
Re: Relatos Salvajes and Whiplash: Sometimes the rush and rhythm of an audience amplifies the detail in great storytelling, and these two films, fully formed as they may be to watch alone, were also some of the best “collective” viewing of the year. Relatos Salvajes played the 2000 odd-person screening at which I saw it like an agreeably sadistic maestro, provoking a near non-stop in-room score of gasps and laughs that was a joy in itself to hear.
Re: Tu Dors Nicole – Lucid beauty, meandering and precise.
Re: Deux jours, une nuit, The Overnighters, Snowpiercer: All a compelling, divergent kind of contemporary – in the case of Deux jours, une nuit, an economy of story and structure that moved me greatly. Snowpiercer, the polar (PUN INTENDED) opposite kind of film, used the bluster of the blockbuster format in dark, ridiculous, and wholly exciting ways to deliver an upfront but exacting 99% revenge fantasy. The Overnighters, by contrast, looked downstream into the limits of our own compassion, and while it might have been set in far-away North Dakota, but it’s a film that made me think about Australia in close, comparable ways.
Re: Magical Girl: The more distance I have from this film, the more it burrows into the dark cracks in my mind. Sleek, with a kind of brutal understatement to it; noir-ish, in a way that feels unfamiliar.
Re: Calvary: Lose the alphabetical ordering, yell at me to pick a favourite, and this is it. I was one of the seeming few wholly unconvinced with McDonagh’s The Guard, but I loved this film. I couldn’t shake its sadness, its wit, its perfect last shots. It’s a quiet story contemplating the depths of faith and sacrifice, one that also stars Dylan Moran in full snark mode as a confrontational, rich, bastardly bastard. Full marks.
Re: Li’l Quinquin, Olive Kitteridge: Event television now naturalised within the film festival world – Dumont’s hilarious, wilfully askew Quinquin launching in long-form at Directors Fortnight this year, now going into US theatrical release in early 2015; Olive Kitteridge similarly premiering at Venice. Both expansive, assured storytelling, both boasting some of the year’s best lead performances; both making perfect sense surrounded by the ‘larger canvases’ of film storytelling, as equals, and in many cases, more. 
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)




AARON CUTLER

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER WHO KEEPS A CRITICISM WEBSITE, THE MOVIEGOER.
My most pleasurable film-going event of last year came on 17 October at the Centro Cultural São Paulo with a DCP projection of the new film Le Beau Danger. The German director René Frölke’s third feature-length work offers a documentary portrait of Norman Manea, a still-active septuagenarian Romanian writer who was sent to a concentration camp as a child during the Second World War, left his Communist birth country voluntarily as an adult, andhas lived in the United States for many years since.
Manea’s novels, short stories, and essays have been translated into over twenty languages, a spreading-out that Le Beau Danger emphasises as we see and hear its small, owlish leading man engage with present-day interlocutors across several countries about his life and art. These scenes of a person cheerfully opening himself up to others appear both in black-and-white and in colour, and are rendered both in 16mm and in DV.
They emerge and recede in dialogue with a series of unusual silent images: White, grain-heavy text plates upon which run passages from Manea’s writing. The words give glimpses of young people pursuing each other through woods, and come sometimes as single phrases, sometimes as long blocks of lines. They can be read or else allowed just to wash over a viewer with softly shimmering shapes that evoke long journeys taken, along with lingering temptations of return.
The film’s title comes from Michel Foucault’s phrase for the traps encountered when aligning an author with his work. Throughout Le Beau Danger, we are called upon to imagine how Manea and his words might actually fit each other, whether through transmission, reconciliation, or otherwise. We are also led to read ourselves into his stories, and to consider how someone might ease the pain of exile by turning the world into his home.
Here are ten strong additional film works that I watched in 2014:
Alentejo, Alentejo (Sérgio Tréfaut, 2014)
Ang mga tigmo sa akong pagpauli(Riddles of My Homecoming, Arnel Mardoquio, 2013)
Biganeh (Stranger, Bahram Tavakoli, 2014)
Copacabana, Mon Amour (Rogério Sganzerla, 1970), in a new restoration from Mercúrio Produções
For Michael Brown (Travis Wilkerson, 2014)
Una giornata particolare (A Special Day, Ettore Scola, 1977) in a new restoration from CSC – Cineteca Nazionale di Roma in collaboration with Surf Film
Monument Film (Peter Kubelka, 2012) a dual-projection work consisting of 1960’s Arnulf Rainer and 2012’s Antiphon
Sea Series #9 (John Price, 2013)
Sleeping District (Tinne Zenner, 2014)
Songs from the North (Soon-Mi Yoo, 2014)




TONI D’ANGELA

FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LA FURIA UMANA.
1. (ex aequo) Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014), Three Landscapes (Peter Hutton, 2013)
3. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
No order
Educação sentimental (Sentimental Education, Júlio Bressane, 2013)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer,2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Shorts
Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2014)
Serpentine (Stephanie Wuertz, 2014)
Deep Sleep (Basma Alsharif, 2014)
Psalm IV: “Valley of the Shadow” (Phil Solomon, 2013)
White Ash (Leighton Pierce, 2014)
Video installation
Parallel I-IV (Harun Farocki) at Fronteira Documentary & Experimental International Film Festival)
TV series
True Detective
The Knick
Extra
Rushes from Andrea Tonacci, Os Arara (1981-83)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)

FERGUS DALY

FILM CRITIC AND WRITER
Best recent films seen in 2014
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Un conte de Michel de Montaigne (Jean-Marie Straub, 2013)
Dialogue d’ombres (Jean-Marie Straub, 2013)
God’s Pocket (John Slattery, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
HSP: There Is No Escape From The Terrors Od The Mind (Rouzbeh Rashidi, 2013)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
Jimmy’s Hall (Ken Loach, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Muppets Most Wanted (James Bobin, 2014)
Night Regulation (Maximilian Le Cain, 2014)
Return of Suspicion (Dean Kavanagh, 2014)
Still the Water (Naomi Kawase, 2014)
War Story (Mark Jackson, 2014)
Worst films of 2014
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Best TV series
American Horror Story: Freakshow (FX)
Olive Kitteridge (HBO)
Peaky Blinders (BBC)
Rectify (Sundance Channel)
True Detective (HBO)
Best film criticism
Rouzbeh Rashidi’s speech after the Iranian Shorts 2 program at the Cork Film Festival. What began as a Q&A developed into an impassioned defence of an ultra-radical approach to filmmaking: part improvised manifesto, part riveting love poem.
Dean Kavanagh, “A Reaction to Maximilian Le Cain’s Night Regulation” (online at www.deankavanagh.com)
Those of us who still have a modicum of faith in American independent filmmaking were in for a mixed year. It’s bad enough that the Hollywood Establishment has for years been handing out Oscars to British actors just for showing up at the ceremony, passport in hand, now indie auteurs like Jim Jarmusch and Wes Anderson have fallen for the postcolonial notion that British actors have some kind of innate charm that will compensate for sub-standard scrip-writing, even if they practice the kind of acting completely at odds with these filmmakers cinematic styles. Alex Ross Perry’s use of Jonathan Pryce demonstrated how the British acting tradition can be integrated into a post-mumblecore aesthetic if the writing is skillful enough in the first place. Charm and “Cool” are never givens.
While Naomi Kawase, Philippe Garrel and Olivier Assayas made their best films in over a decade, Max Le Cain, Dean Kavanagh and Rouzbeh Rashidi continued to prove how much they’ve raised the bar for filmmaking in Ireland. Meanwhile the English filmmaker John Michael McDonagh mercifully denied that the appalling Calvary was an Irish film. And to further the current absurd situation, another Englishman Ken Loach made the best commercial Irish film of the year, Jimmy’s Hall.
 

ADRIAN DANKS

10 best “new” films screening somewhere in Melbourne (in order of preference):
1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
2. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
3. The Silences (Margot Nash, 2014)
4. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
5. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
6. Dot Matrix (Richard Tuohy, 2013)
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
8. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman) 2013
9. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese) 2013
10. Life on Tape (Oscar Strangio, 2014)
Bubbling Under: Life Itself (Steve James, 2014); Her (Spike Jonze, 2013); Fargo (TV Series, 2014); Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014); Queen and Country (John Boorman, 2014); Don’t Throw Stones (Mike Brook, 2014); How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois, 2014); Me and Me Dad (Katrine Boorman, 2012)
6 overrated films by major auteurs:
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, 2013) – has it ended yet?
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Retrospective rediscoveries:
At home:
Robert Altman: Combat: “Cat and Mouse” (1962); Kraft Suspense Theatre: “Once Upon a Savage Night” (1964); Thieves Like Us (1974); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988); Vincent & Theo (1990) – full-length TV version
Delmer Daves: Destination Tokyo (1943); Dark Passage (1947); The Last Wagon (1956); 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Un’ora sola ti vorrei (Alina Marazzi, 2002); Battleground (William Wellman, 1949); Experiment in Terror (Blake Edwards, 1962); The Spectre of Hope (Paul Carlin,
2002)
At the Melbourne Cinémathèque:
Le trou (Jacque Becker, 1960); Xia nü (A Touch of Zen, King Hu, 1971); Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947); Gishiki (The Ceremony, Nagisa Oshima, 1971); Shônen (Boy, Nagisa Oshima, 1969); Casque d’or (Jacques Becker, 1952)
At MIFF:
Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, 1962)
At ACMI:
The Lusty Men
(Nicholas Ray, 1952); Documenteur (Agnès Varda, 1981); Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) – more for Tangerine Dream live than the often striking but pulpy film itself

DUSTIN DASIG

PROFESSOR, COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA STUDIES; FILM HISTORY AND CRITICISM; SECURITY TRAINING; DIRECTOR; FILM CRITIC, PHILIPPINES.
Best films of 2014:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Miyazaki Hayao, 2013)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho (The Way He Looks, Daniel Ribeiro, 2014)
Grzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom, Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross, 2013)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, The End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao, 2013)
Notable Films:
Soshite chichi ni Naru(Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Miss Violence (Alexandros Avranas, 2013)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam, 2013)
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)

MICHAEL DA SILVA

GRADUATE STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.
The usual caveats about my list apply: I focus on primarily English-language films released in Toronto in 2014. Several of my favourite films this year were shown in competition at 2013 festivals but only received even limited Canadian releases this year. If I had to remove the nominally 2013 films from my list, I would add Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014). Perhaps I would also add Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014). Lest the list below should suggest that I do not have a sense of humour, note that I also enjoyed Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s films. I particularly enjoyed The Lego Movie. It may have been added to my list instead. Among non-English language films, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014).
As an update, my favourite 2013 film that I saw after completing my World Poll 2013 submission was Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013). I thought it did an excellent job of showing the tedium that attends to art production. This year’s best film about art production, Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014), instead tended to follow the Darren Aronofsky route and show the pains that attends to it; its message transcends the art context.
2014’s most overrated films were Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014) (which I nonetheless enjoyed) and The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014) (which I did not).
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The Unknown Known (Errol Morris, 2013)
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu,2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)

MÓNICA DELGADO

PERUVIAN FILM CRITIC, MANAGING EDITOR OF DESISTFILM. 
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Maïdan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Mercuriales (Virgil Vernier, 2014)
Réveillon (Cristi Puiu, 2014) episode from Les ponts de Sarajevo (Bridges of Sarajevo, 2014)
J’ai oublié! (I Forgot!, Eduardo Williams, 2014)
Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
A Vizinhança do Tigre (The Hidden Tiger,Affonso Uchoa, 2014)
Haganenet(The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Xi You (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
El corral y el viento (The Corral and the Wind, Miguel Hilari, 2014)
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
Special Mention
Violet (Bas Devos, 2014)

WHEELER WINSTON DIXON 

JAMES RYAN PROFESSOR OF FILM STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, EDITOR OF BOOK SERIES NEW PERSPECTIVES ON WORLD CINEMA.
Ten most interesting films of 2014 
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2014)
Poziția copilului (Child’s Pose, Călin Peter Netzer, 2013)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
 
Ten least interesting films of 2014 
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (Francis Lawrence, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord & Chris Miller, 2014)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay, 2014)
Fury (David Ayer, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller, 2014)
The Maze Runner (Wes Ball, 2014)
 
I had to really struggle to find ten really successful films in 2014; more and more, thoughtful work is being consigned to the margins of distribution, dumped on streaming VOD if it’s released at all. Theatres just run mainstream junk, and Netflix has wiped out all the niche video stores on a worldwide basis, and is now actively doing pre-sales deals on new films, tailoring the content to reach the widest number of viewers. Under The Skin was, for me, the single best film of 2014, and it opened in only a few theatres in the US and then vanished; Godard’s dazzling 3D film is also having trouble finding bookings.
Meanwhile, Nightcrawler aspires to some sort of gritty authenticity, but manages only to look contrived and derivative; Fury is just another by-the-numbers war film, and only Captain America: The Winter Soldier manages to blend serious social commentary with action filmmaking in the style of Republic serials – but all in all, it’s a bleak landscape. Without a theatrical release, independent films get no publicity at all, and most people aren’t even aware of their existence. The new model seems to be a director makes one good, small film; uses it as a calling card to sell out to the majors; makes junk for the rest or her/his career. For the rest, oblivion.

PATRICK DORNER 

GRADUATE STUDENT IN DRAMATICS, THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA.
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
All is Lost (J. C. Chandor, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 & 2 (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)

MARIE-PIERRE DUHAMEL

FILM CURATOR, TRANSLATOR AND INDEPENDENT FILM TEACHER, PARIS.
I did not see all the films, nor did I attend all the festivals… and maybe I did not see enough… but quantity is irrelevant. Many great films by great directors came out in 2014, but my list is about the films, from various horizons and genres, that somehow outmaneuvered my expectations and shamed my laziness (so many films to see…). Films that not only “delivered” but renewed the awe or stirred a fruitful confusion.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Tian zhu ding (Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Os Maias (The Maias, João Botelho, 2014)
Haider (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014)
La Cina è vicina (China is Near, Marco Bellocchio, 1967)
Comrades (Bill Douglas, 1987)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
February (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2014)

DZONDUNKELLICHT

PLANS TO WRITE ON FILM AND PHILOSOPHY. IN THE MEANTIME, HE TRAVELS FOR CINEMA.
New and Recent
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Simindis kundzuli (Corn Island, George Ovashvili, 2014)
Nabat (Elchin Musaoglu, 2014)
A vida invisível (The Invisible Life, Vítor Gonçalves, 2013)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green, 2014)
Saatvin sair (The Seventh Walk, Amit Dutta, 2013)
Tiantang jiaoluo (A Corner of Heaven, Zhang Miaoyan, 2014)
Onirica – Psie pole (Field of Dogs, Lech Majewski, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noo (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, 2014)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Xi you (Journey To The West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono, 2014)
Coming to Terms (Jon Jost, 2013)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Tie dao (The Iron Ministry, J.P. Sniadeckis, 2014)
Meurtre à Pacot (Murder in Pacot, Raoul Peck, 2014)
Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
Educação sentimental (Sentimental Education, Júlio Bressane, 2013)
Lettres à Max (Letters To Max, Eric Baudelaire, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
Nobi (Fires On The Plain, Shinya Tsukamoto, 2014)
Pays barbare (Barbaric Land, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Episode of the Sea (Siebren de Haan and Lonnie van Brummelen, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
O Velho do Restelo (The Old Man of Belem, Manoel de Oliveira, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Zwei Museen (Two Museums, Heinz Emigholz, 2014)
The Guests (Ken Jacobs, 2014)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
Parallel I-IV (Harun Farocki, 2012-14)
Detour de Force (Rebecca Baron, 2014)
Natural History (James Benning, 2014)
Le Beau Danger (René Frölke, 2014)
Loubia hamra (Bloody Beans, Narimane Mari, 2013)
72-82 (William Raban, 2014)
Lucifer (Gust Van Den Berghe, 2014)
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Ce qu’il reste de la folie (What Remains of Madness, Joris Lachaise, 2014)
Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
The Island of St. Matthews (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2013)
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
Dólares de arena (Sand Dollars, Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, 2014)
Repertory, Restored, Remastered, Revived
Vedreba (Tengiz Abuladze, 1968)
Jai Bhim Comrade (Anand Patwardhan, 2011)
The Formative Years I-II (Heinz Emigholz, 1977)
Moana with Sound (Robert Flaherty, Frances Hubbard Flaherty and Monica Flaherty; 1926/1980)
Horror Dream (Sidney Peterson, 1947)
Night of The Ghouls (Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1958)
House of Strangers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949)
Level 5 (Chris Marker, 1996)
The Sun Film (John Cage and Richard Lippold, 1956)
Shen Nu (The Goddess, Wu Yonggang, 1934)
Out 1: Noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, 1971)
Puntos suspensivos o Esperando a los bárbaros ((…) or Waiting For The Barbarians, Edgardo Cozarinsky, 1971)
Détruire dit-elle (Destroy, She Said, Marguerite Duras, 1969)
Les trottoirs de Saturne (The Sidewalks of Saturn, Hugo Santiago, 1986)
Spark of Being (Bill Morrison, 2010)
Water and Power (Pat O’Neill, 1989)
Pride of Place (Kim Longinotto & Dorothea Gazidis, 1976)
Jim Shvante (marili svanets) (Salt For Svanetia, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1930)
Buba (Nutsa Gogoberidze, 1930)
Unheimlich I: Secret Dialogue (Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki, 1977-1979)
Tetri karavani (White Caravan, Eldar Shengelaia, 1964)
Long men kezhan (Dragon Inn, King Hu, 1967)
Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)
Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
Juan Moreira (Leonardo Favio, 1973)
München-Berlin Wanderung (Walking From Munich to Berlin, Oskar Fischinger, 1927)
Vtackovia, siroty a blazni (Birds, Orphans and Fools, Juraj Jakubisko, 1969)
M (Joseph Losey, 1951)
Baal (Volker Schlöndorff, 1970)
Epic of Everest (Captain John Noel, 1925)
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)
Sayat Nova (The Color of Pomegranates, Sergei Parajanov, 1968)
Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (Yang Fudong, 2003-07)
Todo Modo (Elio Petri, 1976)
Untitled Joseph Cornell Film (The Wool Collage) (Joseph Cornell, 1940-55)
Perfect Film (Ken Jacobs, 1985)
Zum Vergleich (In Comparison, Harun Farocki, 2009)
Best Retrospectives/Events
Discovering Georgian Cinema @ BAM/PFA + MoMA
Heinz Emigholz @ IFFR
Chris Marker @ BAMcinématek
Derek Jarman @ BAMcinématek
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation @ MoMA
Gregory Markopoulous @ Anthology Film Archives + HFA
John Ford @ Viennale + Austrian Film Museum
Wavelengths @ TIFF
Projections (erstwhile Views From The Avant-Garde) @ NYFF
Experimenta @ LFF
Jodie Mack @ AFW + OtherFilm + Gertrude Comtemporary
Luther Price @ ACMI + Gertrude Contemporary
Xi You (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
Xi You (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)

VASSILIS ECONOMOU

FILM CRITIC AND CINEPHILE; WRITES FOR BLOG 24 FOIS LA VÉRITÉ PAR SECONDE.
This was one of the most polarised years. On one hand many of my favourite and “experienced” directors are still active, they released impressive new films, participated in film festivals, won awards and also they have reached the top positions of my list. On the other hand, new filmmakers, especially from emerging cinematic countries, and many of them with their debut feature films, captured my attention instantly and they are also among the best films of this year. This was also a festival-driven year. Despite the fact that some of the major film festivals are still afraid to provoke their audience, there are some films that kept my expectations high. Also, as it happens in the recent years, the innovation lies in the parallel sections and the lesser-known film festivals. I think that 2014 was a mainly European year, it seems that despite the crisis the creative part of our continent is still powerful and can always deliver something new. Unfortunately I have missed some films that I firmly believe that they could easily make it into my top 20, so I already keep some places reserved for my next year’s classification. Talking about classification I have to mention that it is difficult, almost impossible, to exactly select which film was better than the other just because to me, each one of them had a different impact and for that reason I have included them in my selection. So the films are classified in groups of 5 just to be sure that every single one could get a right spot in this 2014 list.
Positions 20 – 16
Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, 2014)
Patardzlebi (Brides, Tinatin Kajrishvili, 2014)
Viharsarok (Land of Storms, Ádám Császi, 2014)
Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)
Nabat (Elchin Musaoglu, 2014)
Positions 15 – 11
Blind (Eskil Vogt, 2014)
Nicije dete (No One’s Child, Vuk Rsumovic, 2014)
Arta (Art, Adrian Sitaru, 2014)
Tri Dritare dhe një Varje (Three Windows and a Hanging, Isa Qosja, 2014)
Fehér Isten (White God, Kornél Mundruczó, 2014)
Positions 10 – 6
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier, 2013)
Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna (The Postman’s White Nights, Andrei Konchalovsky, 2014)
Positions 5 – 1
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language 3D, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Special Mention and beyond classification: Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)

RUSSELL EDWARDS 

SYDNEY-BASED FILM CRITIC WHO FREQUENTLY COMMUTES TO ASIA TO WATCH FILMS.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
The Infinite Man (Hugh Sullivan, 2014)
Durak (The Fool, Yury Bykov, 2014)
Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014)
Kano (Umin Boya, 2014)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)

WILLIAM EDWARDS

FILM FANATIC, SYDNEY. 
Top ten 
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)
Still Life (Uberto Pasolini, 2013)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Amour Fou (Mad Love, Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Fehér Isten (White God, Kornél Mundruczó, 2014)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
 
Worst five
August: Osage County (John Wells, 2013)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery, 2013)
Blood Ties (Guillaume Canet, 2013)
Möbius(Eric Rochant, 2013)
The Railway Man (Jonathan Teplitzky, 2013) 
Amour Fou (Mad Love, Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Amour Fou (Mad Love, Jessica Hausner, 2014)

TED FENDT

PROJECTIONIST, TRANSLATOR AND FILMMAKER BASED IN NEW YORK.
2014 Top Ten (alphabetical by director): 
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, Jacques Doillon, 2013)
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
Gebo et l’ombre (Gebo and the Shadow, Manoel de Oliveira, 2012)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Here’s to the Future! (Gina Telaroli, 2014)

DONAL FOREMAN

IRISH FILMMAKER AND CRITIC BASED IN NEW YORK CITY.
I didn’t see enough of new cinema this year to make any claims about the current state of the art, beyond a vague sense of an ongoing trend towards narratives of crisis and revolution in commercial cinema and a stubbornly consistent introspection on behalf of most of our stalwart auteurs. But I’d like to single out three YouTube videos as my picks of the year: three unedited amateur pieces that have played important, albeit problematic, roles in the ongoing struggles against police and state violence in my adopted home of New York City.
1)    The Cecily McMillan video
In Manhattan on 17 March, 2012, the six month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Cecily McMillan, a participant in the protests, was arrested and charged with assaulting a cop by elbowing him in the face – a reflex action, Cecily claimed, in response to the cop grabbing her breast. One murky, low-res video of the incident was used both by the prosecution and defence in the subsequent trial that took place in April 2014. Defence claimed a black shape on screen was the cop’s arm grabbing Cecily’s breast. The prosecution insisted it was merely a shadow. Cecily was convicted of assault and sentenced to three months in jail and five years of probation.
2)    The Eric Garner video
In Staten Island on 17 July, 2014, Eric Garner, a black man, was held in a chokehold by a white cop that resulted in his death, while passer-by Ramsey Orta filmed the incident at close range. The video went viral, with Garner’s last words resulting in the widely disseminated slogans and hashtags #ThisStopsToday and #ICan’tBreathe, all further mobilising the resistance that had emerged in the US after the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. But despite this unambiguous documentation, a New York grand jury chose not to indict the cop on any charge – although the video’s author was indicted on an ostensibly unrelated charge.
3)    “NYPD Lieutenants Assaulted on Brooklyn Bridge”
On 13 December, 2014, protesters blocked the Brooklyn Bridge after a protest of tens of thousands marched against racist police violence. In one incident on the bridge, a group of protesters attempted to prevent a cop from arresting someone for allegedly throwing a trash can. A video of the incident, filmed and uploaded by Chris Nooney with the aforementioned title and widely spread through mainstream news outlets, was used to identify six protesters by the NYPD, who announced a reward of $12,000 for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
The aesthetic significance of these videos may be negligible, their authors more “filmers” than filmmakers as Jonas Mekas might put it – but each seems motivated by a certain faith in moving-image making as a means of witnessing and documenting, and as a result exposing injustice and holding its perpetrators accountable. This concept of filming as intervention is often embraced by protest movements, as evident in the popular chant “The whole world is watching!” – or, in Nooney’s video, from the fascinating refrain of “Record it!” screamed endlessly by an offscreen protester (perhaps unaware that the uploading of such a recording would end up being tantamount to collaboration with the police.) It is also implicit in the now popular call for cops to wear “body cameras”. What the state’s response to the aforementioned videos indicate, however, is the uneasier reality that such images can also be a means of surveillance and incrimination; can be interpreted in the state’s favour wherever ambiguities exist; and, where they are unequivocal, can simply be ignored. The latter is the case with the Eric Garner video, perhaps the most politically important and necessary video of the year because of how it has highlighted these profound contradictions between justice and the law, between reality and ideology.

GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER

PROFESSOR OF FILM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 
Ten best films of 2014 
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Poziția copilului (Child’s Pose, Călin Peter Netzer, 2013)
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam, 2013)
Les beaux jours (Bright Days Ahead, Marion Vernoux, 2013)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Ten most overrated films of 2014
 
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 & 2 (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu,2014)
Le Week-End (Roger Michell, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
There were so many great films in 2014 that I could easily list another ten. Many of my choices were released earlier abroad, but finally made it to the USA via pay per view or DVD. I did not bother with a Top Ten list of the Worst films, many of which are mind numbing, infantile, CGI laden spectacles that crowd the multiplex. Theatres (other than arthouses) are now mostly just “content providers,” and the content provided has precious little to do with cinema. I see little point in trashing blockbusters like Transformers and the like: to me they are simply not movies or films, they are merely content – designed to sell more product and merchandise. Instead, I provide a list of the over-rated. These are films that I expected to be better, some of which I still have decidedly mixed feelings.
It is encouraging that despite all the odds, there are still so many well-made, thoughtful independent and foreign films. We must support the work of those passionate and uncompromising filmmakers who keep the art form alive and well. That they succeed in finding funding (and finding an audience) in an increasingly bottom line driven climate – one that is hostile towards anything cinematic or challenging – is in itself a testament to the power of the cinema as an enduring art form.

JEAN-MICHEL FRODON

FRENCH FILM CRITIC (SLATE.FR) AND PROFESSOR.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Bai ri yan huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014)
Mille Soleils (A Thousand Suns, Mati Diop, 2013)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
Nymphomaniac (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Ma’a al-Fidda (Silvered Water: Syria Self-Portrait, Wiam Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed, 2014)
Futatsume no mado (Still the Water, Naomi Kawase, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)

CYNTHIA FUCHS

FILM REVIEWS EDITOR, POPMATTERS.
1. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
2. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield, 2014)
3. The Return to Homs (Talal Derki, 2013)
4. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
5. Actress (Robert Greene, 2014)
6. Fifi az Khoshhali Zooze Mikeshad(Fifi Howls from Happiness, Mitra Farahani 2013)
7. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (Sam Fleischner, 2013)
8. Elena (Petra Costa, 2012)
9. Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
10. L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
11. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
12. Virunga (Orlando Von Einsiedel, 2014)
13. Point and Shoot (Marshall Curry, 2014)
14. Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Best Undistributed Film:
Approaching the Elephant (Amanda Wilder, 2014)

HUGO E. GAMARRA

FOUNDER/DIRECTOR 23rd INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF PARAGUAY.
My selection of best films include only films seen at cinemas and festivals:
Azú (Luis Alberto Lamata, 2013)
Before I Disappear (Shawn Christensen, 2014)
Dans la maison (In the House, François Ozon, 2012)
El cuarto desnudo (The Naked Room, Nuria Ibañez Castañeda, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Haemoo (Shim Sung-Bo, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Le passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
O menino e o mundo (The Boy and the World, Alé Abreu, 2013)
Revelando Sebastião Salgado (Meeting Sebastiao Salgado, Betse de Paula, 2013)
Retrospective titles seen at festivals:
Cuando besa mi marido (When My Husband Kisses, Carlos Schlieper, 1950)
Hijo de hombre (Son of Man, Lucas Demare, 1961)
La ley de Herodes (Herod’s Law, Luis Estrada, 1999)
Shunko (Lautaro Murúa, 1960)
Letyat zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006)

GEOFFREY GARDNER

BLOGS AWAY ON MATTERS OF INTEREST.
My top twelve in alphabetical order:
Adieu au langage (Good bye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf De Heer, 2013)
Huang jin shi dai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
Haider (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang Soo, 2014)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Nuoc (2030, Nguyen Vo Nghiem-Minh, 2014)
Hwajang (Revivre, Im Kwontaek, 2014)
Kışuykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Nakinureta haru no onna yo (A Woman Crying in Spring, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)

ANDREW GILBERT 

PHD STUDENT, PUBLISHED IN SCREEN MACHINE AND CLÉO. 
Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2014)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones, 2014)
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Proxy (Zack Parker, 2013)
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)

ANTONY I. GINNANE 

PRODUCER, DISTRIBUTOR AND COMMENTATOR, MELBOURNE / LOS ANGELES. PRESIDENT OF FG FILM PRODUCTIONS (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD / IFM WORLD RELEASING INC.
Top 10 (Eligibility: 2014 theatrical, festival or premiere DVD or VOD first release in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand) listed alphabetically by title:
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Godard’s most visually beautiful film since Pierrot le Fou. As usual chock full of conflicting debates concerning reason and emotion. Formal and yet playfully exploratory notably in its unusual 3D framings. The two sets of couples bicker and ponder the world and each other’s failures and Godard’s dog Roxy is a mute observer.
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
Clint Eastwood interrogates the psychological make up of the modern warrior – both in war and at home. He blends sequences of extraordinary tension with long reflective pauses. The adrenaline addiction of patriotism is viewed through an ice cold eye. No director working today dissects legends better.
John Wick (Chad Stahelski, David Leitch [uncredited], 2014)
Co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski in their first feature fashion a powerful and kinetic revenge thriller driven by the rage of a returned hitman (Keanu Reeves) whose puppy, a last gift from his dead wife, is killed by gangsters – up there with Get Carter and The Limey.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Christopher Nolan’s meditative sci-fi epic blends new age mysticism in the vein of 2001- A Space Odyssey with the environmentalistic concerns of Silent Running and a sense of family obligations drawn from many a John Ford war movie. Cutting edge VFX and spectacular performances make for a significantly innersive experience.
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
David Cronenberg brings his blow-torch to Hollywood and the film industry in this acerbic analysis which rivals Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve in its bitchy intensity Cronenberg has always practised an anthropological approach to his cinema subjects and here he casts his laser gaze over Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Carrie Fisher and the rest in a pitiless stare.
Metro Manila (Sean Ellis, 2013)
Sean Ellis’ hard-eyed crime thriller set against the exotic backgrounds of Manila. A struggling couple move to the big city. The husband’s job as a security van driver sucks him into a web of corruption. The third act is reminiscent of Bruce Beresford’s almost forgotten Money Movers.
A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn 2014)
Anton Corbijn follows The American with another slick and polished piece of procedural espionage, double cross and Le Carre text set in a grimly foreboding Hamburg – ethnically divided and on the European front line of Islamic unrest. One of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last great performances.
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
One can always rely on Abel Ferrara to approach provocative material in a way that pushes limits. Here he shows us the lead up to the Dominique Strauss – Kahn sexual assault case and its aftermath. Depardieu rivals Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant for orgiastic nihilism. Ferrara’s fundamental disbelief in goodness or redemption imbues the film with a real sense of hysteria.
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Another Scorsese rise and fall saga peppered with excess, melodramatic intrigue and capitalistic critique. Like Casino, Wall Street returns to Scorsese’s recurring themes of guilt, forgiveness, avarice and unfulfilled dreams. There are layers of black comedy – almost slapstick here – unusual in Scorsese’s recent work – as if the sheer madness of the tale can only be understood through the lens of extreme cruelty.
Other titles that have excited or inspired me during the year include:
La Vie d’Adele: chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Alex Gibney, 2012)
300: Rise of the Empire (Noam Murro, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Sabotage (David Ayer, 2014)
Dom Hemmingway (Richard Shepard, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 & 2 (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
X Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer, 2014)
Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)
Chef (Jon Favreau, 2014)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, (2014)
Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Fury (David Ayer, 2014)
Exodus: Gods and Kings (Ridley Scott, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

LEO GOLDSMITH

PHD STUDENT AT NYU AND FILM EDITOR FOR BROOKLYN RAIL.
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Brûle la mer (Burn the Sea, Nathalie Nambot & Maki Bechache, 2014)
El Futuro (Luís Lopez Carrasco, 2013)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Fe26 (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2014)
Lettres à Max (Letters to Max, Eric Baudelaire, 2014)
Gowanus Canal (Sarah Christman, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Infiltrators (Khaled Jarrar, 2012)
Kissing Point (Peggy Ahwesh, 2014)
Loubia hamra (Bloody Beans, Narimane Mari, 2013)
As Cidades e as Trocas (Trading Cities, Luísa Homem & Pedro Pinho, 2014)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Butter on the Latch (Josephine Decker, 2014)

CARMEN GRAY

FILM EDITOR, DAZED.
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Master of precision Sergei Loznitsa’s urgent, shiver-inducing portrait of protest remarkably captures the rhythms of mass mood in the making of a revolution.
Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014)
This astonishingly unique, bold dance of brutality and alienation left my head reeling. 
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Ostlund, 2014)
The devil is in the details of human behaviour in this startlingly original and blackly hilarious provocation, in which primal nature shatters illusion. 
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Sumptuously shot and wickedly irreverent, this is a take-down of delusional romanticism with fascinatingly ambiguous layers and strange touches. 
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
This nightmarishly surreal but searingly human portrait of the horror of radical historical denial is no less essential as testimony than its predecessor The Act of Killing.
Nymphomaniac (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Von Trier’s playfully irreverent, sly twist on the morality tale is an assault on hypocrisy and an unexpected delight. 
Krov (Blood, Alina Rudnitskaya, 2013)
A raw and intimate, absurdist tragicomedy of economic desperation from a brave Russian filmmaking talent. 
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
A smart, atmospheric and wholly innovative riff on the horror genre inspired by the virality of Twitter. 
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, 2014)
This innovative take on the rock bio was a thrilling, insightful and humorous investigation into the nature of creative inspiration. 
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Comical and gothic-tinged, this is a wonderfully original exploration of the banality within routine extremity.
Eût-elle été criminelle… (Even If She Had Been a Criminal…, Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2006)
Included in program of political resistance shorts Know Your Enemy curated by Bristol’s Encounters festival and screened at this year’s Vienna Independent Shorts, this is a truly devastating and haunting interrogation of blinding hatred, meticulously constructed from archival footage.

ROBERT GREENE

FILMMAKER, FILM EDITOR AND WRITER.
Top 10 in Cinematic Nonfiction that I saw in 2014
1. Ne me quitte pas (Niels van Koevorden and Sabine Lubbe Bakker, 2013)
2. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
3. Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
4. Living Stars (Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, 2014)
5. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
6. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
7. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield, 2014)
8. Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini, 2013)
9. Buffalo Juggalos (Scott Cummings, 2014)
10. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)

VICTOR GUIMARÃES

FILM CRITIC (CINÉTICA) AND PROGRAMMER (16TH FESTCURTASBH, CINECLUBE COMUM).
Two brief notes:
I considered films released since 2012 and watched in 2014.
I haven’t seen many important films of this year, but I think it’s fundamental to point out that I haven’t seen Godard’s Adieu au langage yet.
The irrevocable experiences or two ways of turning the world inside out (with cinema):
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horsey Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013) 
The reinvention of a style or 12 outstanding works by great filmmakers:
A vingança de uma mulher (A Woman’s Revenge, Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2012)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Atlantis (Ben Russell, 2014)
J’ai oublié (I Forgot, Eduardo Williams, 2014)
Cut (Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet, 2012)
vis à vis (Abigail Child, 2013)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
Dumb and Dumber To (Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
 
The ones that came out of the blue or when the urgency becomes form:
Our Terrible Country (Mohammad Ali Atassi and Ziad Homsi, 2014)
Il Segreto (cyop&kaf, 2013)
 
The first apex of a generation or a great year for Brazilian cinema:
A vizinhança do tigre (The Hidden Tiger, Affonso Uchôa, 2014)
Branco sai, preto fica (White Out, Black In, Adirley Queirós, 2014)
Nova Dubai (New Dubai, Gustavo Vinagre, 2014)
Em trânsito (Marcelo Pedroso, 2013)
Quintal (André Novais Oliveira, 2014)
Ela volta na quinta (She Will Be Back on Thursday, André Novais Oliveira, 2014)
Casa forte (Rodrigo Almeida, 2014)
Mundo incrível remix (Amazing World Remix, Gabriel Martins, 2014)
Karioka (Takumã Kuikuro, 2014)
Brasil S/A (Brazilian Dream, Marcelo Pedroso, 2014)




LUCAS HAMMER

FILMMAKER, CRETIN.
The best that I saw:
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
Her (Spike Jones, 2013)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Stoker (Park Chan-wook, 2013)
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006)
True Detective (Cary Fukunaga & Justin Lin, 2014)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Cheap Thrills (E. L. Katz, 2014)
The worst that I saw:
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Francis Lawrence, 2014)
Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, 2013)
The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann, 2013)
Fast and Furious 6 (Justin Lin, 2013)  

MICHAEL HELMS

WRITES FOR L’ECRAN FANTASTIQUE AND FANGORIA AND TALKS ABOUT HORROR FILMS ON 3RRR AND 3CR BROADCASTING OUT OF MELBOURNE.
2014 has been a stellar year for Australian and New Zealand horror films. From Wolf Creek 2, Australia’s first horror film sequel, to the micro-budget outback Yowie epic There’s Something In The Pilliga, the bar has now been raised to the point where it may be too difficult to hit such heights ever again. Also a great year for Scarlett Johansson films, films about films and filmmakers, and factual documentaries from New Zealand. All the following were seen in cinemas and a drive-in somewhere in Australia and are all worthy of repeat viewings. Listed in no order of preference other than Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler rules…
Wolf Creek 2 (Greg McLean, 2013)
The Raid 2: Berandal (Gareth Evans, 2014)
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Frank (Lenny Abrahamson, 2014)
Led Zeppelin Played Here (Jeff Krulik, 2014)
Willow Creek (Bobcat Goldthwait, 2013)
Wetlands (David Wnendt, 2013)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Snowpiercer (Joon-ho Bong, 2013)
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story Of Cannon Films (Mark Hartley, 2014)
Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
Housebound (Gerard Johnstone, 2014)
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Turkey Shoot (Jon Hewitt, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Predestination (The Spierig Brothers, 2014)
Charlie’s Farm (Chris Sun, 2014)
Inner Demon (Ursula Dabrowsky, 2014)
Starry Eyes (Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer, 2014)
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey Of Richard Stanley’s The Island Of Doctor Moreau (David Gregory, 2014)
The Search For Weng Weng (Andrew Leavold, 2014)
There’s Something In The Pilliga (Dane Millerd, 2014)
Under A Kaleidoscope (Addison Heath, 2014)

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)

ALAIN HERTAY

TEACHES CINEMA STUDIES AT THE HAUTE ECOLE DE LA PROVINCE DE LIÈGE, BELGIUM. CONTRIBUTOR TO LA FURIA UMANA AND CULTUROPOING.
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume I (Lars von Trier, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume II (Lars von Trier, 2013)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2013).

LEE HILL

WRITER BASED IN LONDON, ENGLAND. AUTHOR OF A GRAND GUY: THE ART AND LIFE OF TERRY SOUTHERN AND A BFI BOOK ON EASY RIDER.
Nymphomaniac: Volume I & II (Lars von Trier, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Examen d’état (National Diploma, Dieudo Hamadi, 2014)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Bai ri yan huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
War Book (Tom Harper, 2014)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Happy Valley (Euros Lyn, Sally Wainwright and Tim Fywell, BBC One, 2014)
The Honourable Woman (Hugo Blick, BBC Two/Sundance TV, 2014)
The Missing (Tom Shankland, BBC One/Starz, 2014)
The Fall Season Two (Allan Cubitt, BBC Two, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Altman (Ron Mann, 2014)
Not so Guilty Pleasures: Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014), Fury (David Ayer, 2014), The Salvation (Kristian Levring, 2014), 3 Coeurs (Three Hearts, Benoît Jacquot, 2014), Frank (Lenny Abrahamson, 2014), My Old Lady (Israel Horovitz, 2014) and Camp X-Ray (Peter Sattler)
Reissues: Far From The Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), Ride The Whirlwind / The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966)
Overrated: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Notes: My list is generally in order of viewing. I confess that I found I had a lot of bad luck given my usual random movie going habits, particularly at this year’s London Film Festival. I can safely say that with a couple of exceptions, the best British filmmaking was on the small screen and it was a relief to see that the Beeb may be slowly crawling out of the weight of cooking programs, reality TV and “light entertainment” (a safe haven for more than a few sexual psychopaths it seems) that have dominated its ratings for over a decade. I missed Boyhood, Birdman and Inherent Vice – films that will have to fight it out in my imagination next year. Was it a great year in film? Not for this gambler. I saw far too many mediocre, underwritten and uninspired films and was seriously tempted to a best list of 1975 or 1939. But I came out of the casino that is Film Now with the shirt on my back, a couple of chips and a spring in my step. Onto the next town.

WAI HO

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER, CHINA.
1. Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Alexey German, 2013)
2. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
3. Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
4. Monica Z (Waltz for Monica, Per Fly, 2013)
5. To mikro psari (Stratos, Yannis Economides, 2014)
6. Tui Na (Blind Massage, Lou Ye, 2014)
7. Welkome Home (Angelina Nikonova, 2014)
8. Ničije dete (No One’s Child, Vuka Ršumović, 2014)
9. Violet (Bas Devos, 2014)
10. Mercuriales (Virgil Vernier, 2014)
The other 14 titles that I really liked:
Episode of the Sea (Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan and the inhabitants of Urk, 2014)
Srok (The Term, Alexei Pivovarov, Pavel Kostomarov and Alexandr Rastorguev, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Je suis à toi (All Yours, David Lambert, 2014)
Westen (West, Christian Schwochow, 2013)
Yeshche odin god (Another Year, Oxana Bychkova, 2014)
Lošėjas (The Gambler, Ignas Jonynas, 2013)
Dat donyaye to sa’at chand ast? (What’s the Time in Your World?, Safi Yazdanian, 2014)
Thwara Zanj (Zanj Revolution, Tariq Teguia, 2013)
Gyeongju (Zhang Lü, 2014)
Sivas (Kaan Müjdeci, 2014)
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
Je suis le peuple (I am the People, Anna Roussillon, 2014)
Jingcha Riji (To Live and Die in Ordos, Ning Ying, 2013)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)

JOSHUA HOFFMANN

FILMMAKER LIVING IN BERLIN.
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, 2014)
Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Le passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
Poziția copilului (Child’s Pose, Călin Peter Netzer, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 & 2 (Lars von Trier, 2013)
The Salt of the Earth (Juliano Ribeiro Salgado & Wim Wenders, 2014)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
Love Steaks (Jakob Lass, 2013)
Most overrated films of 2014
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Sochite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)

ALEXANDER HORWATH

DIRECTOR, AUSTRIAN FILMMUSEUM.
Of all (feature-length) films that premiered in 2014, I probably saw less than 1 percent.
From these, here are the 17 I liked best. I am listing them in three ranked groups, and in these groups they are listed alphabetically by director.
1
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
2
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Bird People (Pascale Ferran, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Souvenir (André Siegers, 2014)
3
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Und in der Mitte, da sind wir (And There We Are, in the Middle, Sebastian Brameshuber, 2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
Wenn es blendet, öffne die Augen (When It Blinds, Open Your Eyes, Ivette Löcker, 2014)
Il giovane favoloso (Leopardi, Mario Martone, 2014)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)

PETER HOURIGAN

MELBOURNE TEACHER (RETIRED) AND FILM LOVER. 
Some great experiences happened in Melbourne’s commercial cinemas. 
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
La vie d’Adèle: chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
Grand Budapest Hotel (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Haider (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014): Bollywood meets Hamlet¸ in a drama satisfying in its own right, but thrilling in the way it is true to Shakespeare, Bollywood and cinema.
Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski , 2013)
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Lilting (Hong Khaou, 2014): Ben Whishaw excels in this moving look at relationships, language and silence that grows richer and more complex with each viewing. 
La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Furs, Roman Polanski 2013): Polanski has fun in giving a notorious literary work a new screen life.
From the Melbourne International Film Festival, and other film seasons.
10,000km (Long Distance, Carlos Marques-Marcet, 2014)
Imaginative variations of cinematic styles make this two-hander a moving picture of the impact of separation on a relationship.
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater (Gabe Klinger, 2013)
An exemplary study of two enormously different filmmakers leaves you wanting to explore the work of both in greater depth.
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2014)
A married couple, an architect-designed house, and an impending move recreated like a high-tech mosaic.
Love is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014)
That it stirs memories of Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey 1937) albeit in such a different relationship (well, in one way – both are loving) is a tribute to this warm film.
Violet (Bas Devos, 2014)
Nobody wants to live through what it’s like to see your best friend stabbed. The stunning visuals are part of the overwhelming impact of this Belgian film.
And from Bologna
The Cinema Ritrovato has been an exhilarating part of my film-going for the last several years. This year, it made me re-evaluate my views on William Wellman, especially how alive and satisfying are his pre-code movies, such as Beggars of Life (1928), Other Men’s Wives (1931), and of course Wild Boys of the Road (1933).
A focus on Polish 1960s New Wave and CinemaScope had some absolute glories on the enormous screen of Arlecchino Cinema, none more overwhelming than Andrzej Wajda’s Popioły (Ashes, 1965) and Faraon (Pharaoh, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1966).

BRIAN HU

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE SAN DIEGO ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL.
  1. Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013) and Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
  2. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  3. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
  4. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
  5. Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014) and Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
  6. Pleng khong kao (The Songs of Rice, Uruphong Raksasad, 2014)
  7. Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2014)
  8. Daan gyun naam yu 2 (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2, Johnnie To, 2014)
  9. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
  10. Tui na (Blind Massage, Lou Ye, 2014)
  11. Adieu au language (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  12. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
  13. Bai ri yan huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014)
  14. Bird People (Pascale Ferran, 2014)
  15. 15. Selma (Ava Duvernay, 2014)
  16. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
  17. Bokutachi no kazoku (Our Family, Yuya Ishii, 2014)
  18. Kkeut-kka-ji-gan-da (A Hard Day, Kim Seong-hun, 2014)
  19. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
  20. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)

CHRISTOPH HUBER

CURATOR, AUSTRIAN FILMMUSEUM.
16 (+4) sensations 
Trydno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao, 2013)
Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014) & Es werde Stadt (Dominik Graf, 2014) & Die reichen Leichen (Dominik Graf, 2014) & Polizeiruf 110: Smoke On the Water (Dominik Graf, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013)
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
00 Schneider – Im Wendekreis der Eidechse (Helge Schneider, 2013)
La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014)
Stromberg – Der Film (Arne Feldhusen, 2014)
Odessa Crash Test (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2014) & Vanitas Vanity (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2014)
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Queen and Country (John Boorman, 2014)
Quai d’Orsay (Bertrand Tavernier, 2013)
 
20 treasure troves
Solo (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1970) & L’Albatros (Love Hate, Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1971) & Un linceul n’a pas de poches (No Pockets in a Shroud, Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1974) & Litan (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1982)
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: You Better Watch Out! (Monte Hellman, 1989) & Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (Brian Yuzna, 1990)
Tanja – Die Nackte von der Teufelsinsel (Julius Hofherr, 1967) & Herbstromanze (Jürgen Enz, 1980)
John Ford Simulating Battle of Midway (1942) & D-Day to D plus 3 (John Ford, George Stevens, 1944)
La morte vivante (The Living Dead Girl, Jean Rollin, 1982) & Perdues dans New York (Lost in New York, Jean Rollin, 1989)
Wallenstein (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961) & Wallenstein (Franz Peter Wirth, 1978) & Wallenstein (Franz Peter Wirth, 1987)
Romance of Radium (Jacques Tourneur, 1937) & The Face Behind the Mask (Jacques Tourneur, 1938)
Inserts (John Byrum, 1974) & Take Off (Armond Weston, 1978)
W szponach seksu (In the Grips of Sex, Julian Józef Antonisz, 1969) & Dodatkowe wole trawienne magistra kizolla (Magister Kizoll’s Additional Digestive Goitre, Julian Józef Antonisz, 1983)
Ruusujen aika (A Time of Roses, Risto Jarva, 1969) & Olavi Virta (Peter von Bagh, 1972) & Yhden miehen sota (One Man’s War, Risto Jarva, 1973)
Bare et liv – historien om Fridtjof Nansen (Just a Life – The Story of Fridtjof Nansen, Sergei Mikaeljan, 1968) & Ni liv (Nine Lives, Arne Skouen, 1957)
Lo Strangolatore di Vienna (The Mad Butcher, Guido Zurli, 1971) & Welcome to Arrow Beach (Laurence Harvey, 1974)
Un condé (The Cop, Yves Boisset, 1970) & R.A.S. (Nothing to Report, Yves Boisset, 1973)
James Batman (Artemio Marquez, 1966) & Ôgon batto (The Golden Bat, Satô Hashime, 1966)
Leptirica (The She-Butterfly, Djordje Kadijevic, 1973) & Prokletinja.(That Damned Thing, Branko Pleša, 1975)
Erzide dawanou (The Sandwich Man, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1983) & Lianlian fengchen (Dust in the Wind, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)
Torque (Joseph Kahn, 2004) & Pit Stop (Jack Hill, 1969)
Crime Does Not Pay Series No. 39: Plan for Destruction (Edward L. Cahn, 1943) & The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler (James Hogan, 1943) & Enemy of Women (Alfred Zeisler, 1944) Hitler (Stuart Heisler, 1962)
Oni (Demon, Kawamoto Kihachiro, 1972) & Kataku (House of Flames, Kawamoto Kihachiro, 1972)
Die Brut des Bösen (Roots of Evil, Christian Anders, Antonio Tarruella, 1979) & Die Todesgöttin des Liebescamps (Love Camp, Christian Anders, 1981)
33 thrills
 
Breaking Point (Ron Silberman Jr. [=Bo Arne Vibenius], 1975)
Tôkyô orinpikku (Tokyo Olympics, Ichikawa Kon, 1965)
Pierwszy dzien wolności (The First Day of Freedom, Aleksander Ford, 1964)
Captain From Castile (Henry King, 1947)
Mannen från Mallorca (The Man from Majorca, Bo Widerberg, 1984)
La spiaggia (Riviera, Alberto Lattuada, 1954)
Le démon dans l’île (Demon Is on the Island, Francis Leroi, 1983)
Hell to Eternity (Phil Karlson, 1960)
Lenin w polsce (Lenin in Poland, Sergej Jutkevic, 1965)
Chibusa yo eien nare (The Eternal Breast, Tanaka Kinuyo, 1955)
Through the Looking Glass (Jonas Middleton, 1976)
Kaasua, komisario Palmu! (Gas, Inspector Palmu!, Matti Kassila, 1961)
Nazareno Cruz y e lobo (Leonardo Favio, 1975)
Attacco allo stato (Political Target, Michele Soavi, 2006)
Wrong Is Right (Richard Brooks, 1982)
Dark Age (Arch Nicholson, 1987)
Nakinureta haru no onna yo (A Woman Crying in Spring, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1933)
Die Standarte (Ottokar Runze, 1977)
Nocturne indien (Alain Corneau, 1989)
The Chapman Report (George Cukor, 1962)
Jazz of Lights (Ian Hugo, 1954)
Yatsuhaka-mura (Village of Eight Gravestones, Nomura Yoshitarô, 1977)
Het huis (The House, Louis van Gasteren, 1961)
Night of Fear (Terry Bourke, 1972)
Sieben Tage Frist (School of Fear, Alfred Vohrer, 1969)
Information Please (Office of War Information Bureau of Motion Pictures, 1944)
Balanta (The Oak, Lucian Pintilie, 1992)
De gamle (The Elderly, Henning Carlsen, 1961)
Castle Keep (Sydney Pollack, 1969)
Freud a fumetti (Corrado Farina, 1970)
Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (Rolf Olsen, 1969)
Maria Denis e le sue prigioni (Giorgio Bianchi, 1948)
Das Wiener Kettensägenmassaker (Martin Nechvatal, 1993)

ZACHARY INGLE

PH.D. CANDIDATE IN FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
The Fault in Our Stars (Josh Boone, 2014)
Big Hero 6 (Don Hall & Chris Williams, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Nymphomaniac: Volumes I & II (Lars von Trier, 2014)
Honourable mentions: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014), Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

TARA JUDAH

CRITIC, PROGRAMMER AND BROADCASTER, AUSTRALIA AND ENGLAND.
Australian Theatrical Release
1. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
2. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
3. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
4. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
5. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
6. Tian shu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013)
7. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
8. Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
9. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
10. Le Passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
Equal 11th Place:
= 11 John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)
= 11 Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
International Film Festival Premieres
1. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
3. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2014)
4. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
5. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
6. Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
7. Moebius (Kim Ki-duk, 2013)
8. Ruin (Michael Cody, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, 2013)
9. Aleppo. Notatki z Ciemnosci (Aleppo. Notes From the Dark, Michal Przedlacki, Wojciech Szumowski, 2014)
10. Starred Up (David Mackenzie, 2013)
Honorable just-outside-of-my-top-ten mentions:
11. Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance, Hans Petter Moland, 2014)
12. Gabriel (Lou Howe, 2014)
Repertory Films
1. R… Ne Répond Plus (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1981)
Digi Beta, 29th Festival International de Films de Fribourg
2. Khane-ye Doust Kodjast? (Where is the Friend’s Home?, Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
35mm film print, 29th Festival International de Films de Fribourg
3. Aria (Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple, 1987)
35mm film print, Derek Jarman retrospective, BFI 2
4. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Virgin 35mm restored film print, Australian Centre for the Moving Image in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
5. Nightfall (James Benning, 2012)
James Benning: An Outsider Visionary, Sydney Film Festival
6. American Dreams (Lost and Found) (James Benning, 1984)
James Benning: An Outsider Visionary, Sydney Film Festival
7. Blue (Derek Jarman, 1993)
35mm film print, Film Society Lincoln Center
8. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort, Jacques Demy, 1967)
Restored and remastered DCP, Brooklyn Academy of Music
9. Sebastiane (Paul Humfress, Derek Jarman, 1976)
Digital projection, Derek Jarman retrospective, BFI Studio
10. Lacan Palestine (Mike Hoolboom, 2012)
Digital projection, Show & Tell: Mike Hoolboom, Anthology Film Archives
Ruin (Michael Cody, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, 2013)
Ruin (Michael Cody, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, 2013)

DOMINIK KAMALZADEH

FILM CRITIC AND JOURNALIST, VIENNA
10 double-features
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter and Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Ma’a al-Fidda (Silvered Water: Syria Self-Portrait, Wiam Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
L’Enlèvement de Michel Houellebecq (The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq, Guillaume Nicloux, 2014)
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Und in der Mitte, da sind wir (And There We Are, in the Middle, Sebastian Brameshuber, 2014)
Wenn es blendet, öffne die Augen (When It Blinds, Open Your Eyes, Ivette Löcker, 2014)
Heaven Knows What (Benny & Josh Safdie, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
Maps of the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Sils Maria (Clouds of Sils Maria, Olivier Assayas, 2014)

DANIEL KASMAN

DIRECTOR OF CONTENT, MUBI.
New
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Avraham (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2014)
Canopy (Ken Jacobs, 2014)
Catalogue (Dana Berman Duff, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014)
December (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2014)
Deorbit (Makino Takashi, Telcosystems, 2014)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To, 2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
Blue (Shiloh Cinquemani, 2013)
Blue Loop, July (Mike Gibisser, 2014)
Educação sentimental (Sentimental Education, Júlio Bressane, 2013)
Episode of the Sea (Siebren de Haan and Lonnie van Brummelen, 2014)
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
Ginza Strip (Richard Tuohy, 2014)
La guerre d’Algérie! (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Navad Lapid, 2014)
Hwajang (Revivre, Im Kwon-taek, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
João Bénard da Costa – Outros amarão as Coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
Jodie Mack’s cinematic rock concert: New Fancy Foils (2013), Undertone Overture (2013), Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project (2013), Let Your Light Shine (2013)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, 2014)
Ma’a al-Fidda (Silvered Water: Syria Self-Portrait, Wiam Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed, 2014)
Mange tes morts (Eat Your Bones, Jean-Charles Hue, 2014)
Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
Muisteja – Pieni elokuva 1950-luvun Oulusta (Remembrance: A Small Movie About Oulu in the 1950s, Peter Von Bagh, 2013)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Nobi (Fires on the Plain, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, 2014)
Pan (Anton Ginzburg, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Poetry for Sale (Friedl vom Gröller, 2013)
Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2014)
Sea of Vapors (Sylvia Schedelbauer, 2014)
Sea Series #9, 11, 12, 13, 14 (John Price, 2014)
Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013)
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
Threnody for the Victims of Marikana (Aryan Kaganof, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksey German, 2013)
Twelve Tales Told (Johann Lurf, 2014)
A Vida Invisível (The Invisible Life, Vítor Gonçalves, 2013)
Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Xi you xiang mo pian (Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, Stephen Chow and Derek Kwok, 2013)
Old
Sankt Gotthard Part V (Pathé Revue, 1913)
Epic of Everest (J.B.L. Noel, 1924)
The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
Doctor Bull (John Ford, 1933)
Wee Willie Winkie (John Ford, 1937)
The Light Ahead (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1939)
Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939)
John Ford Footage Simulating Battle of Midway (John Ford, 1942)
Kill or Be Killed (Len Lye, 1942)
Le Ciel est à vous (The Woman Who Dared, Jean Grémillon, 1944)
Her Sister’s Secret (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946)
I Love Trouble (S. Sylvan Simon, 1948)
Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949)
Susana (Luis Buñuel, 1951)
Der verlorene (The Lost One, Peter Lorre, 1951)
A Portrait of Ga (Margaret Tait, 1952)
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
L’amour d’une femme (The Love of a Woman, Jean Grémillon, 1953)
Ensayo de un crimen (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, Luis Buñuel, 1955)
La Maison aux images (Jean Grémillon, 1955)
The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955)
Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955)
Yôkihi (Princess Yang Kwei Fei, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955)
Haute Lisse (Jean Grémillon, 1956)
Barabbas (Richard Fleischer, 1961)
Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life, Dino Risi, 1962)
Commercials for d-c-fix and INKU GF-Kante (Anonymous [Peter Kubelka], 1963/65)
7 Women (John Ford, 1965)
Schmeerguntz (Gunvor Nelson, Dorothey Wiley, 1966)
L’authentique procès de Carl-Emmanuel Jung (The Authentic Trial of Carl-Emmanuel Jung, Marcel Hanoun, 1967)
Le départ (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1967)
The Honey Pot (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1967)
Strangulation (Günter Brus & Anni Brus Stenzel, 1968)
Hell’s Angels (Ernst Schmidt Jr., 1969)
Sand, or Peter and the Wolf (Caroline Leaf, 1969)
Fog Line (Larry Gottheim, 1970)
Quarry (Richard Rogers, 1970)
Forma Otwarta – Gra na twarzy aktorki (Open Form – Game on an Actress’s Face, KwieKulik Group, 1971)
The New Centurions (Richard Fleischer, 1972)
Point Source (Tony Hill, 1973)
Shift (Ernie Gehr, 1974)
33 Yo-Yo Tricks (P. White, 1976)
Fiat 126p (Zygmunt Rytka, 1976)
Zwischen zwei Kriegen (Between Two Wars, Harun Farocki, 1978)
Skønheden og udyret (Beauty and the Beast, Nils Malmros, 1983)
Tian xia di yi (All the King’s Men, King Hu, 1983)
Zai na he pan qing cao qing (The Green Green Grass, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1983)
Artificial Paradise (Chick Strand, 1986)
Leben – BRD (How to Live in the German Federal Republic, Harun Farocki, 1990/1993)
Alpsee (Matthias Müller, 1995)
Sik san (The God of Cookery, Stephen Chow and Lik-chi Lee, 1996)
Sullivans Banken (Sullivan’s Banks, Heinz Emigholz, 2000)
Maillarts Brücken (Maillart’s Bridges, Heinz Emigholz, 2001)
At kende sandheden (Facing the Truth, Nils Malmros, 2002)
Western 4.33 (Aryan Kaganof, 2002)
Goff in der Wüste (Goff in the Desert, Heinz Emigholz, 2003)
D’Annunzios Höhle (D’Annunzio’s Cave, Heinz Emigholz, 2005)

SIMON KILLEN

MELBOURNE-BASED DISTRIBUTOR.
14 from 2014 cinema
Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
Argentina’s entry in the Oscars for 2015 – like Twilight Zone on steroids. DO make sure you see this in a cinema with as many people as possible.
Dark Horse (James Napier Robertson, 2014)
In what’s been a banner year for NZ cinema, this film stands out for me. The central performance by Cliff Curtis is jaw-dropping. Ill-deserved flop in Oz – catch it in repertory if you can.
The Babadook(Jennifer Kent, 2014)
I don’t play favourites but suspect this might be my favourite film of the year. Absolute world class genre cinema from Australia, and Essie Davis proves there’s nothing she can’t do!
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pancho Velez, 2013)
From the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab (that one’s for you LLL), comes yet another piece of compelling cinema that defies all sense of logic. A trip and a half.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
I haven’t checked, but I might be the same age as Linklater. It feels like we are growing at exactly the same pace. He’s a genius, I have no doubt about that. He just keeps learning and growing, and pushing the boundaries. His notebook doodles seems to arrive as entertaining populist cinema. How does he do it??
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
I finished the year by watching this, and Maps to the Stars on the same day. Both are disturbing dramas about America, disturbing cause they may as well be documentaries. Very smart cinema with the car chase of the year for added value.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
If you are in the mood, a Ceylan film can lift you, heart and soul, to another universe. Just like his last two features, Three Monkeys and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, I gave in and reaped the rewards.
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
It took me an age to see this, so glad that I did. Painterly direction, down in the mouth as wonderful canvas, and a truckload of empathy.
Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof & Charlie Siskel, 2014)
Like Keep on Keeping On, a documentary that originated in crowd-funding – a story that had to be told. A real wonder.
Il capitale umano (Human Capital, Paolo Virzi, 2013)
I saw this film more than any other in 2014 as its distributor. It’s a big step up for Virzi, an Italian director going places. Few roles as well acted as Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s this year. 
Keep on Keeping On (Alan Hicks, 2014)
A love letter to music, to Clark Terry, and to teaching, communicated with rigour and discipline. 
Das grosse Museum (The Great Museum, Johannes Holzhausen, 2014)
Fourth documentary in my list, it’s been that kind of year. Multiple views of the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna. Respectful, fascinated and occasionally cheeky. A crowd-pleaser for the culture vulture in your life. 
What We Did in the Shadows (Taika Waititi/Jermaine Clement, 2014)
Best film to take a 15 year-old daughter who also loves New Zealand to this year. I was giggling before the credits finished. A truly embarrassing performance by me, but daughter went back to see it with friends later that week. The first Kiwi vampire film to pass $1,000,000 at Oz box office. Choice!
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Best conversation starting film at the arthouse this year as it turns out. At first I thought the trailer told the whole tale. More fool me. It sits in your mind like a pesky weevil, “Why did she say that?” “Why did he do that?”…
Meanwhile in the repertory section….
I honestly reckon that there was no cinematic pleasure greater this year than revisiting the Commedia all’Italiana section of MIFF this year. It’s been a passion project for Michelle Carey for a long time, and by gosh it turned out brilliantly. All titles were superb: The Easy Life, Mafioso, Divorce Italian Style, and The Boom – but the stand-out for me was Mario Monicello’s Big Deal on Madonna Street. Such a complete piece of cinema, I cannot wait to see it again…
Somehow I missed Wim Wender’s Pina last year at the cinema, but the wait was worth it – in 3D at ACMI as part of the Melbourne Cinémathèque this year, it was, and is, a marvel.
And bless the Cinémathèque again for the Jacques Becker season, especially Casque d’or.
Did I mention the Cinémathèque? The Sam Peckinpah season was also superb. Anything better than seeing Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia on the big screen? Not much, but then the joy of discovering a rarely seen gem like Major Dundee Lucky, lucky Melbourne.
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)

RAINER KNEPPERGES

FILMMAKER, COLOGNE, GERMANY.
My 66 favourite films seen in 2014 for the first time. In chronological order: my momentary mini-history of film:
Das Mädchеn ohne Vaterland (Urbаn Gаd, 1912)
Down to the Sea in Ships (Elmer Clifton, 1922)
La Perle (The Pearl, Henri d’Ursel, 1929)
Reaching for the Moon (Edmund Goulding, 1930)
La Tête d’un homme (Julian Duvivier, 1933)
S.O.S. Eisberg (S.O.S. Iceberg, Arnold Fanck, 1933)
Le Paquebоt Tenacity (S.S. Tenacity, Juliеn Duvivier, 1934)
The Passing of the Third Floor Back (Berthold Viertel, 1935)
The Crusades (Cecil B. DeMille, 1935)
Sidewalks of London (Tim Whelan, 1938)
La Fin du jour (The End of the Day, Julien Duvivier, 1939)
Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940)
Saloon Bar (Walter Forde, 1940)
The Ghost Train (Walter Forde, 1941)
The Male Animal (Elliott Nugent, 1942)
Dark Waters (André de Toth, 1944)
Falbalas (Paris Frills, Jacques Becker, 1945)
The Chase (Arthur D. Ripley, 1946)
Und über uns der Himmel (Josef von Báky, 1947)
The October Man (Roy Ward Baker, 1947)
My Favorite Brunette (Elliot Nugent, 1947)
Encore: Winter Cruise (Anthony Pellissier, 1951)
The Yellow Balloon (J. Lee Thompson, 1953)
Dangerous Mission (Louis King, 1954)
Cesta do Pravěku (Journey to the Beginning of Time, Karel Zeman and Fred Ladd, 1955)
Marianne de ma jeunesse (Marianne of My Youth, Julien Duvivier, 1955)
Blonde Sinner (J. Lee Thompson, 1956)
La Traversée de Paris (Four Bags Full, Claude Autant-Lara, 1956)
Storm Center (Daniel Taradash, 1956)
Woman in a Dressing Gown (J. Lee Thompson, 1957)
The Living Idol (Albert Lewin and René Cardona, 1957)
The Brothers Rico (Phil Karlson, 1957)
Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958)
Tiger Bay (J. Lee Thompson, 1959)
Ce corps tant désiré (Way of the Wicked, Luis Saslavsky, 1959)
North West Frontier (J. Lee Thompson, 1959)
Assembly Line (Mort Heilig, 1962)
The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller, 1964)
Return From the Ashes (J. Lee Thompson, 1965)
The Drinking Party (Jonathan Miller, 1965)
Unter dir der Himmel (Hermann Stöss, 1965)
Incompreso (Misunderstood, Luigi Comencini, 1967)
Die Liebesgeschichte unserer Zeit (Make Love Not War, Werner Klett, 1968)
Whistle And I’ll Come To You (Jonathan Miller, 1968)
Operator (Nell Cox, 1969)
Before Winter Comes (J. Lee Thompson, 1969)
Werwölfe (Werner Klett and Michael Wewerka, 1973)
Tales from the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972)
The Odd Couple: Password (Alex March, 1972)
The Hello Machine (Carroll Ballard, 1974)
Reise ins Jenseits (Journey into the Beyond, Rolf Olsen, 1975)
Liza’s Pioneer Diary (Nell Cox, 1976)
Als wär’s von Beckett (As It Was Beckett, Lutz Mommartz, 1976)
Jutro wstane rano i oparze sie herbata (Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea, Jindřich Polák, 1977)
Tutti defuntitranne i morti (All the SoulsExcept the Dead,Pupi Avati, 1977)
Koko, A Talking Gorilla (Barbet Schroeder, 1978)
Taxi zum Klo (Taxi to the Toilet, Frank Ripploh, 1980)
Herbstromanze (Jürgen Enz, 1980)
Typisch Weiber (Claus Strigel, Bertram Verhaag and Walter Harrich, 1981)
Vlčí Bouda (Wolf Chalet, Vera Chytilova, 1986)
Spoorloos (The Vanishing, George Sluizer, 1988)
City by the Sea (Michael Caton-Jones, 2002)
That Man: Peter Berlin (Jim Tushinski, 2005)
Der schwarze Panther (The Black Panther, Bruno Sukrow, 2011)
Louie: Daddy’s Girlfriend (Louis C.K., 2012)
The Last Elvis (Armando Bo, 2012)
My 2014 top 14:
 
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Adam McKay, 2013)
August: Osage County (John Wells, 2013)
Brazzaville Teen-Ager (Michael Cera, 2013)
Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
Griechischer Wein (Greek Wine, Bruno Sukrow, 2014)
The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones, 2014)
The Judge (David Dobkin, 2014)
The M Word (Henry Jaglom, 2014)
Martins Feuer (Martin’s Fire, Bruno Sukrow, 2013)
Das Millionengrab (Too Old For This Shit, Sebastian Natoo and Thomas Oberlies, 2014)
Oktober November (October November,Götz Spielmann, 2013)
Oltre il guado (Across the River,Lorenzo Bianchini, 2014)
Les rencontres d’après minuit (You and The Night, Yann Gonzalez, 2013)

ROBERT KOEHLER

FILM CRITIC, LOS ANGELES.
1. Forma (Ayumi Sakamoto, 2013)
2. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
3. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
4. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, 2014)
5. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
6. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
7. Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014)
8. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
9. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)

BOGNA M. KONIOR

COMPLETING A PHD ON CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIAN VISUAL ARTS AND NEW ANIMISM.
Best films of the year
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, 2013)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Huang Jin Shi Dai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
Återträffen(The Reunion, Anna Odell, 2013)
 
Outrage and insanity
Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono, 2014)
Kawaki (The World of Kanako, Tetsuya Nakashima, 2014)
Horns (Alexandre Aja, 2013)
Extraordinary Production History
White Shadow (Noaz Deshe, 2013)
 
Worst film of the year
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)

JAY KUEHNER

WRITER AND CONTRIBUTOR TO CINEMA SCOPE AND FANDOR, INSTRUCTOR AT THE NORTHWEST FILM FORUM AND PROGRAMMER TO THE HENRY ART GALLERY IN SEATTLE WASHINGTON.
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Adieu au language (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-Soo, 2014)
Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki, 2014)
Lettres à Max (Letters to Max, Eric Baudelaire, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, US, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Ventos de Agosto (Autumn Winds, Gabriel Mascaro, 2014)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
La creazione di significato (The Creation of Meaning, Simone Rapisarda Casanova, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)

ADAM KUNTAVANISH

US CRITIC AND EDITOR FOR THE TORONTO-BASED ONLINE PUBLICATION NEXT PROJECTION.
2014 world premiere favourites:
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Like a confection from its diegetic pastry shop Mendl’s, Anderson’s latest finely-crafted marvel is colourful, deeply-felt, and deceptively slight; enjoy its surface to reveal a core of hardened melancholy within.
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
The foremost realists and moralists of the contemporary cinema place Marion Cotillard at the centre of a harrowing, parable-like weekend of argument and negotiation, fighting for her place in the capitalist machine.
Zero Motivation (Talya Lavie, 2014)
An Israeli amalgam of Office SpaceJarhead, and Brazil with a feminist spin, this satiric and personal debut constantly surprises with wit, candour and magical realist jabs at the stifling routine of sexist drudgery and paperwork.
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2014)
What could have been only a feature-length toy commercial also became a fast-paced, eye-popping paean to creativity sans boundaries, embracing the whole of pop culture as the building blocks of a free imagination.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
The inimitable JLG once again aggressively and adventurously pushes the boundaries of his own art, exploiting the medium of 3D into results both mind-bending and head-aching.
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
A scabrous, funny portrait of literary male egotism, revelling from a distance in the verbal dexterity and interpersonal gracelessness that can go hand in hand.
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Perhaps no other horror film has combined psychological acuity, poisoned family dynamics, and Gothic loneliness with as much assurance as this Australian debut.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
An epic, earthbound experiment in narrative duration filmed across twelve years, Boyhood exerts an undeniable cumulative power in its offhand, snapshot approach to the coming-of-age tale.
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
Despite its well-worn narrative structure and destruction-heavy third act, this instalment of the ever-increasing Marvel Comics universe boasts unexpected depths of feeling and exciting, idiosyncratic characters and personality.
Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
This buoyant journey through the life and opinions of a great Chicagoan eulogises a departed man who went from a conduit for populist film culture to a public figure transcending his role as mere movie critic.
A few 2014 US premiere favourites:
The following made their non-festival premieres within the US in 2014 (and I didn’t include them in last year’s poll):
Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Snowpiercer (Joon-ho Bong, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)

The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)

SAMUEL LA FRANCE 

CURATES FILM PROGRAMS FOR TIFF CINEMATHEQUE AND PLEASURE DOME IN TORONTO, AND WRITES FOR CINEMA SCOPE.
Amour fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Blight (John Smith, 1996)*
Brouillard (Alexandre Larose, 2009-2014)
Former Models (Benjamin Pearson, 2013)
Hacked Circuit (Deborah Stratman, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
MY BBY 3L8W (Neozoon, 2014)
Orrizonti Orrizonti! (Anna Marziano, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
*Retrospective screening at Media City Film Festival

EUGENIA LAI

CINEPHILE BASED IN NEW YORK, PARIS AND HONG KONG.
Best Commercial Releases (alphabetical order by director)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Uroki garmonii (Harmony Lessons, Emir Baigazin, 2013)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Vic + Flo ont vu un ours (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, Denis Côté, 2013)
L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini, 2013)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matias Piñeiro, 2014)
Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
Pelo malo (Bad Hair, Mariana Rondón, 2014)
Borgman, (Alex Van Warmerdam, 2013)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014
Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
 
Best Repertoires/Retrospective/Festivals (alphabetical order by director)
Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Anderson, 1975)
North on Evers (James Benning, 1992)
11 x 14 (James Benning, 1977)
Utopia (James Benning, 1998)
Matou a Família e Foi ao Cinema (Killed the Family and Went to the Movies, Júlio Bressane, 1969)
Libera me (Alain Cavalier, 1993)
I cannibali (The Year of the Cannibals, Liliana Cavani, 1970)
Schwitzkasten (Clinch, John Cook, 1978)
Puntos suspensivos o Esperando a los bárbaros ((…) or Waiting for the Barbarians, Edgardo Cozarinsky, 1971)
San Clemente, (Raymond Depardon, Sophie Ristelhueber, 1982)
Duffer, (Joseph Despins/William Dumaresq, 1971)
Crónica de un niño solo (Chronicle of a Boy Alone, Leonardo Favio, 1965)
Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (Images of the World and the Inscription of War, Harun Farocki, 1989)
Leben – BRD (How to Live in the German Federal Republic, Harun Farocki, 1990)
Videogramme einer Revolution (Videograms of a Revolution, Harun Farocki/ Andrei Ujica, 1992)
Ein Tag im Leben der Endverbraucher (A Day in the Life of a Consumer, Harun Farocki, 1993)
Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten (Harun Farocki, 2013)
Players Vs. ángeles caídos (Alberto Fischerman, 1969)
Copacabana me engana(Copacabana Fools Me, Antonio Carlos de Foutoura, 1968)
Pays barbare (Babaric Land, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013)
Echoes of Silence, (Peter Emanuel Goldman, 1967)
O Homem das Multidões (The Man of the Crowd, Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães, 2013)
La dentellière (The Lacemaker, Claude Goretta, 1977)
Anna (Alberto Grifi and Massimo Sarchielli, 1975)
Den vita sporten (The White Match, (Roy Andersson, Kalle Boman, Lena Ewert, Staffan Hedqvist, Lennart Malmer, Jorgen Persson, Ingela Romare, Inge Roos, Axel Rudor-Lohmann, Rudi Spee, Bo Widerberg, 1968)
Una vita violenta (Violet Life, Paolo Heusch/Brunello Rondi, 1962)
São Bernardo, (Leon Hirzman, 1972)
Istoria mias kalpikis liras (The Counterfeit Coin, Yorgos Javellas, 1955)
Gaav (The Cow, Dariush Mehrjui, 1969)
Low Tide (Roberto Minervini, 2012)
The Passage (Roberto Minervini,, 2011)
Giorgobistve (Falling Leaves, Otar Iosseliani, 1966)
The Potted Psalm (Sidney Peterson, 1946)
The Petrified Dog (Sidney Peterson, 1948)
Mr. Frenhofer and the Minotaur (Sidney Peterson, 1949)
Les statues meurent aussi (Statues also Die, Alain Resnais, 1953)
Good News: Von Kolporteuren, toten Hunden und anderen Wienern, (Good News: Newspaper Salesmen, Dead Dogs and Other People from Vienna, Ulrich Seidl, 1990)
Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1968)
Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday, Edgar G.Ulmer, Robert Siodmak, Curt Siodmak, Fred Zinneman, Rochus Gliese, 1930)
La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques? (Can Dialectics Break Bricks?, René Viénet, 1973)

MARC LAURIA

FREELANCE CINEPHILE AND SCREENWRITER.
Eastern European Lunacy Dept.
Trudno Byt Bogom (Hard to Be a God, Alexei German, 2013)
Student (Darezhan Omirbayev, 2012)
Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau Metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Lav Diaz Long Take Dept.
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Uncle Jean, Working! Dept.
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
The New Hollywood is Still Alive! Dept.
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)

KEVIN B. LEE

FOUNDING EDITOR AND CHIEF VIDEO ESSAYIST OF FANDOR KEYFRAME; VIDEO ESSAYIST FOR SIGHT & SOUND MAGAZINE; VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING AND EDUCATION OF DGENERATE FILMS.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Dear White People (Justin Simien, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Ichijo Sayuri: Nureta yokujo (Ichijo’s Wet Lust, Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1972)
Parallel (Harun Farocki, 2014)
La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)

DENNIS LIM

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING, FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER.
  1. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
  2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
  3. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
  4. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  5. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
  6. Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
  7. P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
  8. La Princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
  9. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
  10. Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)

DANA LINSSEN

FILM CRITIC, WRITER AND EDITOR OF FILMKRANT.
DANA LINSSEN 

JOSH B. MABE

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CHICAGO FILMMAKERS, AND FILMMAKER.
1. a new favourite filmmaker:
After Hours (Karen Yasinsky, 2013)
&
The Lonely Life of Debby Adams (Karen Yasinsky, 2013)
2. action & process collapse onscreen & within:
Transformers: The Premake (Kevin B Lee, 2014)
3. craft & emotion:
Another Song About The Sea (Jeremy Bessoff, 2013)
4. warmhearted Warhol:
The Mystery of Life (Stephen Cone, 2014)
5. smile and a wink:
Nine Gates (Pawel Wojtasik, 2012)
6. tiny moments:
What Are You Doing? (Courtney Prokopas, 2014)
&
Abductive Object #4 (Kera MacKenzie, 2013)
&
All Things (Ryan Murray, 2013)
7. sixteen:
A Study in Natural Magic (Charlotte Pryce, 2013)
&
Conservatory (Stephen Broomer, 2013)
&
Photooxidation (Pablo Mazzolo, 2013)
&
Shades of Grey (Robert Todd, 2014)
8. building a more infuriating mousetrap:
Control (Chris Bravo & Lindsey Schneider, 2014)
9. Chicago underground:
Bus Stop Angel (Kenny Reed, 2014)
&
Theatre of Cruelty (Devin Cain, 2013)
10. details:
Auf dem Boden der Tatsachen (A Matter of Fact, Roshanak Zangeneh, 2013)
&
Homeostatic (John Rash, 2013)

MIGUEL MARÍAS

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 2009
Sorg og Glæde (Sorrow and Joy, Nils Malmros, 2013), J’enrage de son absence (Maddened by His Absence, Sandrine Bonnaire, 2012), The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013), Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014), Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009), Pas son genre (Not My Type, Lucas Belvaux, 2014), Futatsume no mado (Still the Water, Naomi Kawase, 2014), Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014), Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier, Paul Vecchiali, 2014), Se eu fosse ladrão …roubava (If I Was a Thief, I’d Steal, Paulo Rocha, 2011), Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013), Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising, Arnaud Des Pallières, 2013), Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014), Au fil d’Ariane (Ariane’s Thread, Robert Guédiguian, 2013), La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013), Les trois désastres, part of 3x3D; Jean-Luc Godard, 2013).
B) Great films seen for the first time, made before 2009
Barbara (Nils Malmros, 1997), Amore mio (My Love, Raffaello Matarazzo, 1964), Guai ai vinti (Vae victis) (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954), Buon Natale Buon Anno (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Luigi Comencini, 1989), Private Lives (Sidney A. Franklin, 1931), Utage (Banquet/Rebellion in Japan, Goshō Heinosukē, 1966/7), Mata au hi made (Till We Meet Again, Imai Tadashi, 1950), Jun’ai Monogatari (The Story of Pure Love, Imai Tadashi, 1957), Shunkinsho: Okoto to Sasuke (Otoko and Sasuke; Shimazu Yasujirō, 1935), Gan (The Mistress/Wild Geese, Toyoda Shirō, 1953), Yukiguni (Land of Snow, Toyoda Shirō, 1957), Smilin’ Through (Sidney A. Franklin, 1932), Ma l’amor mio non muore! (Love Everlasting, Mario Caserini, 1913), Leonora dos Sete Mares/Leonora de los Siete Mares (Leonora of the Seven Seas, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1955), Jirō monogatari (Tale of Jirō, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1955), Shōnenki (Boyhood/A Record of Youth, Kinoshita Keisukē, 1951), Il sole negli occhi (Empty Eyes, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1953), Broken Marriage (Ishmael Bernal, 1983), Byl mesiats maí (It Was in May, Marlen Khutsiiev, 1970), Craig’s Wife (Dorothy Arzner, 1936), Internes Can’t Take Money (Alfred Santell, 1937), The Bride Wore Red (Dorothy Arzner, 1937), Prestige (Tay Garnett, 1932), Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland (Ein Drama aus Balkanländern) (The Girl Without Fatherland, Urban Gad, 1912), Framed/Paula (Richard Wallace, 1947), Backfire (Vincent Sherman, 1950), This Is My Love (Stuart R. Heisler, 1954), The Trap (Norman Panama, 1959), Cry Vengeance (Mark Stevens, 1954), Whiplash (Lewis B. Seiler, 1948), Roma città libera (La notte porta consiglio)(Rome: Free City, Marcello Pagliero, 1946), So Evil My Love (Lewis Allen, 1948), The Mating Call/Rex Beach’s ‘The Mating Call’ (James Cruze, 1928), (Maruhi) Shikijō mesu ichiba (Confidential: She Beast Market/ Secret: Sex Market, Tanaka Noboru, 1974), Tenshi no Harawata: Nami (Angel Guts: Nami, Tanaka Noboru, 1979), (Maruhi) Jorō seme jigoku (Prostitute Torture Hell/The Hell-Fated Courtesan, Tanaka Noboru, 1973), Point de depart (Starting Place / Point de départ, Robert Kramer, 1994), Chi to Suna (Fort Graveyard; Okamoto Kihachi, 1965), Edogawa Ranpo ryōki-kan: Yaneura no sanposha (Watcher in the Attic; Tanaka Noboru,1976)
C) Very good films seen for the first time, made since 2009
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhang-ke, 2013), Feng ai (‘Till Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013), Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014), La Venus à la fourrure (Venus in Furs,Roman Polanski, 2013), San zimei (Three Sisters, longer version of Gudu, Wang Bing, 2013), Dabba/The Lunchbox (Ritesh Batra, 2013), Prologo sa ‘Ang Dakilang Desaparecido’ (Prologue to ‘The Great Desaparecido’, Lav Diaz, 2014), Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014),
Biette (Pierre Léon, 2010), Gudu (Wang Bing, 2012), Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013), Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, Jacques Doillon, 2013), L’Amour est un crime parfait (Love Is the Perfect Crime; Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu, 2013), Miele (Honey, Valeria Golino, 2013), Arrête ou je continue (If You Don’t, I Will, Sophie Fillières, 2014), País de todo A 100 (The Palace Without Stairs, Pablo Llorca, 2014), Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014), La isla mínima (Alberto Rodríguez, 2014), La Sirga (The Towrope, William Vega, 2012), Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014), E Agora?Lembra-me (What Now?Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013), La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014), Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014), Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014), Phantom Power (Pierre Léon, 2014), The Monuments Men (George Clooney, 2014), El Gran salto adelante (The Great Leap Forward, Pablo Llorca, 2014), Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery, 2013)
D) Interesting failures
O velho do restelo (The Old Man of Belém, Manoel de Oliveira, 2014), La Fille et le Fleuve (The Girl and the River, Aurélia Georges, 2014), Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
E) Very good films seen for the first time, made before 2009
Flight to Mars (Lesley Selander, 1951), Slava nam, smért vragam (The Last Raid, Ievgenií Bauer, 1914), Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959), Trädgårdsmästaren (The Broken Spring Rose/The Cruelty of the World, Victor Sjöström, 1912), Mát (Mother, Mark Donskoí, 1955), Neotpravliennoie písmo (Letter Never Sent, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1959), Who Is The Black Dahlia? (Joseph Pevney, 1975), 5 Steps to Danger (Henry S. Kesler, 1957), I sogni mouiono all’alba (Dreams Die at Dawn, Indro Montanelli, Mario Creveri & Enrico Gras, 1961), Goodbye, My Fancy (Vincent Sherman, 1951), La cieca di Sorrento (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1952), Shopworn (Nicholas Grinde/Nick Grindé, 1932), Jitsuroku Sada Abe (A Woman Called Abe Sada,Tanaka Noboru,1975), If I Were Free (Elliott Nugent, 1933), The Hoodlum (Sidney A. Franklin, 1919), “The Lonely” (S1,Ep.7 of The Twilight Zone, Jack Smight, 1959), “Time Enough at Last”(S1, Ep.8 of The Twilight Zone, John Brahm, 1959), Nigorie (Muddy Water/An Inlet of Muddy Water; Imai Tadashi, 1953), Hakkinbon bijin ranbu yori:semeru! (Beauty’s Exotic Dance: Torture, Tanaka Noboru, 1977), Mogliamante (Wife, Lover, Marco Vicario, 1977), The Growler Story (John Ford, 1957), Aïe (Ouch, Sophie Fillières, 2000), Rommanzo d’Amore (All for Love, Duilio Coletti, 1950), Walk the Proud Land (Jesse Hibbs, 1956), The Saga of Hemp Brown/Hemp Brown (Richard Carlson, 1958), Night Unto Night (Donald Siegel, 1949), Right Cross (John Sturges, 1950), Wild Orchids (Sidney A. Franklin, 1929), Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen (Darkness Fell in Gotenhafen, Frank Wisbar, 1960), Bogdan Khmélnitskií (Igór Savchenko, 1941), The Secret Bride (William Dieterle, 1934), Melodie immortali (Mascagni) (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1952), La Carne e L’Anima (Flesh and Soul, Wladimir Strichewsky, 1945), Adauchi (Revenge, Imai Tadashi, 1964), Traktoristi (Tractorists, Ivan Pyríiev, 1939), La Bugiarda (La mentirosa/Le Partage de Catherine) (Six Days A Week, Luigi Comencini, 1965), La città calda (Raffaele Andreassi, 1962), Menzogna (Falsehood, Ubaldo Del Colle, 1952), Gentille (Good Girl, Sophie Fillières, 2005), “Nightmare as a Child” (S1, Ep.29 of The Twilight Zone, Alvin Ganzer, 1960), The Gun Woman (Frank Borzage, 1918), Noi peccatori (Guido Brignone, 1953), Love Letters/Passion Play (Amy Holden Jones, 1983), Zona Roja (Red Zone/Pink Zone, Emilio “Indio” Fernández, 1976), Valerie (Gerd Oswald, 1957), Highways by Night (Peter Godfrey, 1942), Ushimitsu no Mura (Village of Doom, Tanaka Noboru, 1983), The True Story of Lynn Stuart (Lewis B. Seiler, 1958), I giorni contati (Counted Days, Elio Petri, 1962), During This Time (Wolfram Brackhahn, Ben Webster & Oscar Peterson concert at the 84th NDR Jazzworkshop in Studio II, Hannover, December 14, 1972), The Age of Innocence (Philip Moeller, cl .Jane Loring, 1934), The House of the Seven Gables (Joe May, 1940), V bolshom gorodé (In the Big City, Mikhail Averbakh & Mark Donskoí, 1928), Those Endearing Young Charms (Lewis Allen, 1945), Singapore Sling: O anthropos pou agapise ena ptoma (Nikos Nikolaidis, 1990), Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (J.D. Athens, 1989)
F) Great films rediscovered or re-evaluated by a new vision 
Chibusa yo eien nare (Eternal Breasts, Tanaka Kinuyō, 1955), Tsuki wa noborinu (The Moon Has Risen, Tanaka Kinuyō, 1955), The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953), Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946), Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950), Donovan’s Reef (John Ford, 1963), Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964), La Marseillaise (Jean Renoir, 1938), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (Vincente Minnelli, 1962), Bonne chance! (Lucky Partners, Sacha Guitry & Fernand Rivers, 1935), Mne dvadtsat let (I Am 20, Marlen Khutsiiev, 1964), The Man I Love (Raoul Walsh, 1947), Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), Our Daily Bread (Hell’s Crossroads, King Vidor, 1934), The Miniver Story (H.C. Potter, collab. Victor Saville, 1950), Delitto d’amore (Somewhere Beyond Love, Luigi Comencini, 1974), Bird of Paradise (King Vidor, 1932), Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937), The Proud Ones (Robert D. Webb, 1956), Il Boia di Lilla (La vita avventurosa di Milady) (Vittorio Cottafavi, 1952), Torna! (Come Back!, Raffaello Matarazzo, 1954), The World Moves On (John Ford, 1934), The Horse Soldiers (John Ford, 1959), Peter Pan (Hamilton Luske, Clyde A. Geronimi & Wilfred Jackson; s.Ben Sharpsteen; p.Walt Disney), The Sicilian (Michael Cimino, 1987), The Two-Headed Spy (Andre de Toth, 1958), Ten North Frederick (Philip Dunne, 1958), La ragazza di Bube (Bube’s Girl, Luigi Comencini, 1963), Pane amore e gelosia (Bread, Love and Jealousy, Luigi Comencini, 1954), La Punition ou Les Mauvaises Rencontres (The Punishment; Jean Rouch, 1962), The Unfaithful (Vincent Sherman, 1947), Vénus aveugle (Tragédie des temps modernes) (Blind Venus, Abel Gance, 1941), Backlash (John Sturges, 1956), The Rawhide Years (Rudolph Maté, 1955), Who’s Minding the Store? (Frank Tashlin, with,prod. Jerry Lewis, 1963), The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965), Cabezas cortadas/Cabeças Cortadas (Cutting Heads, Glauber Rocha, 1970), Esther and the King/Ester e il Re (Raoul Walsh; cl. Mario Bava, 1960), La valigia dei sogni (Luigi Comencini, 1953), Ruthless (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1948), Nana (Lady of the Boulevards, Dorothy Arzner, 1934)
G) Very good pictures rediscovered or re-evaluated (not always for the best) by a new vision 
Stranded (Frank Borzage, 1935), Je l’ai été 3 fois! (Sacha Guitry, 1952), My Favorite Wife (Garson Kanin, story, prod. Leo McCarey, 1940), L’Ange Noir (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1994), Rock-A-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958), Pane amore e fantasia (Bread, Love and Fantasy, Luigi Comencini, 1953), Back to God’s Country (Joseph Pevney, 1953), The Wild North (Andrew Marton, 1952), The Best of Everything (Jean Nagulesco, 1959), Historias extraordinarias (Extraordinary Tales, Mariano Llinás, 2008), The Good Fairy (William Wyler, 1935), The Abyss (James Cameron, 1989), Le Fond de l’air est rouge (A Grin Without A Cat, Chris Marker, 1977/93), The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, 1947), Cinq et la peau (Five and the Skin; Pierre Rissient, 1982), The Man From Colorado (Henry Levin, 1948), Night Passage (James Neilson; prep. Anthony Mann, 1957), The Human Factor (Otto Preminger, 1979), John O’Hara’s ‘From the Terrace’/From the Terrace (Mark Robson, 1960), Crepúsculo (Twilight, Julio Bracho, 1945), No Room for the Groom (Douglas Sirk, 1952), La Commune (Paris 1871) (Peter Watkins, 2000), China Gate (Samuel Fuller, 1957), The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke, 1978), The Crooked Way (Robert Florey, 1949), The Battle at Apache Pass (George Sherman, 1952), Tension at Table Rock (Charles Marquis Warren, 1956), Smoke Signal (Jerry Hopper, 1955), The House of the Seven Hawks (Richard Thorpe, 1959), Five Star Final (Mervyn Leroy, 1931), Kon-Tiki (Thor Heyerdahl, 1950)
PS1: Breaking my usual behaviour, I must say that, despite very heavy competition, the worst, dumbest, ugliest, most unfunny and most despicable thing I have suffered this year is Bruno Dumont’s four-part TV miniseries P’tit Quinquin (2014), which curiously nobody else seems to find objectionable.
PS2: To top such sorry disappointments as were already, among other more serious things in a time of crisis like this, the latest three David Cronenberg films and the latest three Abel Ferrara movies, for the first time ever in his long and fruitful career I have been bitterly disappointed by the latest film of Jean-Luc Godard, the filmmaker which I consider the greatest and most original to have surged since 1959. But I have seen five times (both on unnecessary/useless 3D and on 2D, my eyes would rather endure the “flat” version) Adieu au langage (2014) and cannot believe he actually directed such a collection of bits and pieces plagiarised from most of his films made since 1979 or so. The credits remaining characteristically cryptic on the film itself, and unusually vague and incomplete elsewhere, I’m tempted to believe, after listening to his presentation of the film at Locarno, that its failure should be at least partly credited to Fabrice Aragno, who I’m sure did much more than merely “photograph” it. Moreover, you can hear Godard’s voice, but I did not catch his other usual signature, which he could not refrain even on anonymous militant shorts like Cinétracts (1968): while Marker or Resnais respected that title, Godard rebaptised his own segments as Filmtracts and all of them were full of his very recognisable handwriting… Nevertheless, I must confess that I still find Adieu au langage, despite being very minor Godard, much more interesting than most highly praised and awarded films of the year, from Dolan to Von Trier, from Wes Anderson to Scorsese, from Glazer to Pawlikowski, from Sachs to Korine, from Nolan to Leigh, from Loach to Dupieux, from Wiseman to Ferran, from Schrader to Hue, from Gondry to Reichardt…
Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)

DUNCAN MCLEAN

FILM STUDIES LECTURER AND MOVIE REVIEWER
The ten best in alphabetical order:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Incredibly ambitious and effectively executed. A truly unique cinematic experience. 
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
A poignant, powerful yet still funny film that cements McDonagh and Gleeson as a director/actor combination to watch.
Chef (John Favreau, 2014)
An endearing celebration of food, cooking, creativity, passion and family. A joyous film. 
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
This 1930s style caper film is the most complete realisation yet of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic. 
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
What seemed like a questionable step for Marvel Studios turned into the most exciting, fun and fresh blockbuster in decades.
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
A beautifully shot character study of a flawed but undeniably talented folk singer. Best soundtrack of the year.
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
A brave rethinking of how to tell a story on screen, reimagining the very nature of what is cinematic. 
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
A most peculiar film. When you get to the end you don’t quite know what you have seen but you know that you have seen something.
What We Do in the Shadows (Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi, 2014)
Took a subject (vampires) and a form (mockumentary) that both seemed tired and combined them to make a vibrant, original and downright funny film. 
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
An emotionally and psychologically brutal debut feature with some amazing performances. 
Other Notable Films
The Dark Horse (James Napier Robertson, 2014)
The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014)
Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, 2013)
The Lego Movie (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)

DAVID MELVILLE

LECTURER IN HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR AND GOTHIC EXCESS, EDINBURGH, UK.
Should I perhaps disqualify myself from compiling such lists? My passion is for old movies and much contemporary cinema has no appeal to me at all. Still, here are five films that caught my eye in the past 12 months…
Grace of Monaco (Olivier Dahan, 2014)
Why has this film been so vilified? In past decades, a glamorous star suffering grandly in opulent surroundings was the essence of what movies were about. Nicole Kidman (a far better actress than the original) gives a heartbreaking performance as an intelligent woman who makes a bad decision and feels trapped – but has to make her life work anyway. Wait till you’re alone with the curtains closed…and have a good old-fashioned sob.
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
The swansong of the late, great Alain Resnais explores a world as exotic, rarefied and downright peculiar as the rambling corridors of that hotel in Marienbad – the acid-tinged picture postcard world of Alan Ayckbourn’s English middle class. As immediate and sharply observed as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, as enchanting and diaphanous as a dream, a deceptively lighthearted end to a monumental career.
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
The perfect antidote to Twilight and its bloodless ilk, here is a film to redefine vampires for the new millennium. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston excel as the world-weary-Boho-chic sophisticates next door. The hypnotic locations will have you checking flights to Tangier and (yes!) Detroit. It’s one small sip for the Undead but one giant gulp for contemporary horror…
La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast, Christophe Gans, 2014)
Who would be brave enough (or stupid enough) to remake Jean Cocteau? The director of Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) turns in a dazzling rococo fairytale, dedicated to the age-old motto that too much is never enough. Léa Seydoux shows a flair for interspecies (as well as same-sex) love and Vincent Cassel is the monster you want to take home to Mum.
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The number of times I have watched Girl on a Motorcycle and thought, “Ah, if only this were a good film!” Now, all of a sudden, it is. A sexy outsider in black leather drives around on a series of fatal erotic encounters. The men involved may wind up dead…but you can’t say they don’t enjoy the experience. A film that makes Michel Faber accessible and Scarlett Johansson interesting. Which is the greater achievement? 
I would say that Noah (Darren Aronofsky, 2014) was the worst film made this year, but then I’d have to admit I’d seen it.
Aimer, Boire et Chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Aimer, Boire et Chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)

ADRIAN D. MENDIZABAL

FILM BLOGGER AT AUDITOIRE, CONTRIBUTOR TO NEW DURIAN CINEMA, TRANSIT JOURNAL, SINEKULTURA FILM JOURNAL, GRADUATE STUDENT AT THE UP FILM INSTITUTE.
  1. Alipin ng Sining (Art Slave, Joyce Rochelle Montañano, 2013)
  2. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
  3. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
  4. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
  5. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
  6. Dagitab (Sparks, Giancarlo Abrahan, 2014)
  7. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
  8. Violator (Eduardo Dayao, 2014)
  9. Lucy (Luc Besson, 2014)
  10. Dancing Decay (Bill Morrison, 2014)
  11. Droga! (Miko Revereza, 2013)

NINA MENKES

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER AND FACULTY MEMBER AT CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS.
I am not able to list ten films that I deeply loved from 2014. These three, all by women, stunned me with their beauty, powerful cinematic form and many levels of radiant truth.
Le meraviglie (The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher, 2014)
An amazing work that reveals the magical within the ordinary.
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, 2014)
Immaculately crafted film about the horrific sexism in Israeli law.
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Stunning, important documentary, radical in form and in the depth of its integrity.

PETER MEREDITH

LONG TIME FILM LOVER FROM SYDNEY.
Still Life (Uberto Pasolini, 2013)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix van Groeningen, 2012)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014)
Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013)
Hemma (Home, Maximilian Hult, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Tim’s Vermeer (Teller, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)

MADS B. MIKKELSEN

PROGRAMMER, CPH:DOX.
The real film is the one that lives in your memory. Besides being among my personal highlights of 2014 (and beyond), the 10 films below have a thing in common. If you can figure out what it is, send me a mail and I will send you a handmade diploma and a little gift. It’s something you would really want. In no particular order:
End of Summer (Jóhann Jóhannson, 2014)
æ ofaní æ (Time and Time and Again, Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir & Markús Þór Andrésson, 2014)
Episode of the Sea (Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, 2014)
Reduit (John Skoog, 2014)
The Dent (Basim Magdy, 2014)
Subconscious Society (Rosa Barba, 2014)
Xi You (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Szenario (Scenario, Philip Widmann & Karsten Krause, 2014)
Remainder (Omer Fast, coming soon)
An avant-première. Fast’s adaptation of Tom McCarthy’s brilliant novel will be the ideal film to see again… and again…

DAVID MILLER

PROGRAMMER, KESWICK FILM CLUB AND FESTIVAL.
Razredni sovraznik (Class Enemy, Roc Bicek, 2013)
A masterpiece that brilliantly depicts the impact of a suicide on those supposedly closest to the victim and what the system does to protect itself.
Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
An astonishing film that, whilst by no means comfortable viewing, is riveting and quite unlike anything else seen in 2014.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
To see a person grow up before your eyes is quite amazing in its achievement.
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
A superb central performance by Timothy Spall and a tremendous evocation of a bygone era make this a wonderfully enjoyable piece of cinema even if Mr Turner himself is hardly a pleasant character.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Pure enjoyment from start to finish.
Vi är bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
Thoroughly entertaining with great central performances that effortlessly transport you back to days of carefree youth and friendship.
La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream, Diego Quemada-Díez, 2013)
Much of its power lies in what you do not see, but what you do see is very powerful.
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
A masterpiece or total rubbish? Brilliant or pretentious twaddle? Whatever your opinion, this is a film that gets you talking and that is what makes it an essential contribution.
Dabba (The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra, 2013)
Bitter-sweet and beautifully played. A masterclass in acting by Irrfan Khan.
Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
Six self-contained stories linked by the theme of vengeance make for some laugh-out-loud moments amid the darkest of black comedies.

OLAF MÖLLER

CINEPHILE, WRITER, TRANSLATOR AND CURATOR, COLOGNE.
Olaf Möller’s Eleven Friends
Team Manager Team (Films of the Year) 
Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
Huángjīn shídài (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
First Team (Line-up in strictly alphabetical order)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
L’Étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps (The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, 2013)
Kaguya-hime no monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Ničije dete (No One’s Child, Vuk Ršumović, 2014)
Qessehā (Tales, Raḫšān Banī-Etemād, 2014)
Songs From the North (Yu Sunmi, 2014)
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (Margaret Honda, 2014)
Torneranno i prati (Greenery Will Bloom Again; Ermanno Olmi, 2014)
Tsili (Amos Gitai, 2014)
 
Substitutes
The Airstrip – Aufbruch der Moderne, Teil III (The Airstrip – Decampment of Modernism, Part III; Heinz Emigholz, 2014), Angely revolucii (Angels of Revolution; Aleksej Fedorčenko, 2014), Dólares de arena (Sand Dollars; Laura Amelia Guzmán & Israel Cárdenas, 2014), Epistrofī́ stīn odó Aiólou (Éxi laïkés zōgrafiés) (Return to Aeolus Street (Six popular paintings), María Kourkoúta, 2013), Ich seh Ich seh (Goodnight Mommy, Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala, 2014), Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014), Maʾa l-fiḍḍā (Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait; UsāmaMuḥammad& Wi’ām Sīmāf Badraḫan, 2014), Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014), Non-fiction diary (Chǒng Yunsǒk, 2014),Ōnāyum Āṭṭukkuṭṭiyum (The Wolf and the Lamb, Miṣkiṉ, 2013), Russische Nationalbibliothek – Sankt Petersburg, Russland [contribution to Kathedralen der Kultur] (Cathedrals of Culture – National Library, St. Petersburg, Russia; Michael Glawogger, 2014), Studien zu Monet (Aus dem Imaginären Museum) (Studies on Monet (From the Imaginary Museum), Klaus Wyborny, 2014)
+Polizeiruf 110 – Smoke on the Water (Dominik Graf, 2014)
Extended Team
3 Histoires d’Indiens (3 Indian Tales; Robert Morin, 2014), Aimer, boire et chanter(Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014), Bacanal do Diabo! e Outras Fitas Proibidas de Ivan Cardoso (Orgy of the Devil, Ivan Cardoso, 2013), Belluscone. Una storia siciliana (Belluscone. A Sicilian History; Franco Maresco, 2014), Burying the Ex (Joe Dante, 2014), Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assyas, 2014), Ḏīb(Theeb, Naǧī Abū Nuwār), Al doilea joc (The Second Game; Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014), Do svidanija, mama (Goodbye, Mom, Svetlana Proskurina, 2013), Fury (David Ayer, 2014), Gompen og andre beretninger om overvåking i Norge 1948-1989 (Gompen and Other Tales of Surveillance in Norway 1948-89; Lene Berg, 2014), Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014), Os Maias – cenas da vida romântica (The Maias, Story of a Portuguese Family, João Botelho, 2014), Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014), To Mikró Psári (Stratos, Giánnīs Oikonomídīs, 2014), Nobi (Fires on the Plain; Tsukamoto Shin’ya, 2014), Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014), Stella Cadente (Falling Star, Lluís Miñarro, 2014), Sturm und Drang (Yamada Isao, 2013), Taṅka Mīṉkaḷ (Golden Fish, Rām, 2013), Threnody for the Victims of Marikana (Aryan Kaganof, 2014), Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014), Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014), Zerrumpelt Herz (The Council of Birds; Timm Kröger, 2014)
+ Die Frau mit einem Schuh (Michael Glawogger, 2014),Die reichen Leichen. Ein Starnbergkrimi (Dominik Graf, 2014)
Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions, theatrical creations by filmmakers, and other creations and happenings such as these)
Afsan’s Long Day (The Young Man Was, Part 2) (Na ͑ îm Mohaiyemen), “Blink Comparator: Her Luminous Distance” (slideshow performance; Aura Satz), “By any means necessary” (film installation; Wolfgang Plöger, 2013), “Komm in meinen Wigwam” (theatrical production; Wenzel Storch), Model Workers (William E. Jones), “Nosferatu lebt!” (theatrical production; Jörg Buttgereit), Spiral of Time Documentary Film (16mm negative strobe-light double and triple exposed – painted with brine shrimp – dripped, splattered and sprayed with salted liquids: balsamic and red wine vinegar, lemon and limejuice, temporary flourescent hair dyes – photos from friends Mark Titchner, Karen Russo, Aaron Moulton and Ignacio Uriarte and some google maps – texts by Jwest and Chris Markers’ Sans Soleil script – shot by Peter West, strobed by Jwest, hands by Ariel West, telecine by Tom Sartori) (Jennifer West, 2013), “SSEENNSSEESS” (multi-media installation; Mika Taanila, 2013), V~ (Manuel Knapp), “Vanitas Vanity” (video installation; Norbert Pfaffenbichler) // “Le Voleur des miroirs” (Overhead projector-performance; Daniel Barrow, 2013)
Olaf Möller’s Eleven Veterans 2014
Team Manager Team (Revelations of the Year)
Oidhche sheanchais (A Night of Storytelling, Robert Flaherty, 1935)
Les Tambours d’avant (Tourou et Bitti) (Jean Rouch, 1971)
First Team (Line-Up in strictly alphabetical order)
Amore mio (My Love, Raffaello Matarazzo, 1964)
Bitoku no yoromeki (But the Flesh Is Weak, Nakahira Kō, 1957)
Celles qui s’en font (Germaine Dulac, 1930)
Dance of the Moods (Claude Friese-Greene?, 1923)
[Festa pirotecnica nel cielo di Londra] (1904; Charles Urban Trading Company?)
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (Ministry of Information, 1945/2014)
El grito (Leobardo López Aretche, 1968)
Ned med vaabnene (Lay Down Your Arms!, Holger-Madsen, 1914)
No pincha! (Tobias Engel & Gilbert Igel & René Lefort, 1970)
Rasskaz o prostom slučae (A Simple Case, Vsevolod Pudovkin & Michail Doller, 1932)
Retour d’un repère (Rose Lowder, 1979)
Substitutes
Black Devil Doll from Hell (Chester Novell Turner, 1984), Das Blumenwunder (Max Reichmann?, 1925), Ché pha wa daw nu nu (Tender Are the Feet, Maung Wunna, 1972), Conchita und der Ingenieur (Macumba, Franz Eichhorn & Hans Hinrich, 1954), Danse serpentine (Henry Joly?, 1896), Documents officiels de la Section Cinématographique de l’Armée Française. Les Annales de la Guerre no. 8 (Luca Comerio, 1916), [Enema Medley] (~ 1960-62) // Die Flakschießlehre(Filmgruppe des Chefs Ausbildungswesen iA. Reichsminister der Luftfahrt und Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe, 1940s), Forma Otwarta – Gra na twarzy aktorki (Open Form – Game on the Actress’s Face, Zofia Kulik & Przemysław Kwiek & Jan S. Wojciechowski & Bartłomiej Zdrojewski & Paweł Kwiek &Tatiana Dębska & Jacek Zalewski & Ewa Lemańska, 1971), K3 ili Čisto nebo bez oblaka (Mihovil Pansini, 1963), Les Kiriki, acrobates japonais (Kiri-kis, Segundo de Chomón, 1907), Nakinureta haru no onna yo (A Woman Crying in Spring, Shimizu Hiroshi, 1933), Nāves ēnā (In the Shadow of Death, Gunārs Piesis, 1971), Nous ne sommes plus des enfants (We Are Not Children, Augusto Genina, 1935), Peppy Graceful Dance (Irving Klaw, ~1950s), Perawan Di Sarang Sindikat (Lethal Hunter, Arizal, 1990), Pitāmakaṉ (Pālā, 2003), Sissignora (Yes, Madam, Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942), Soviel nackte Zärtlichkeit (So Much Naked Tenderness, Günter Hendel, 1968), Troppo tardi t’ho conosciuta! (I Met You Too Late, Emanuele Caracciolo [& Carmine Gallone?], 1939), Tusalava (Len Lye, 1929), Yes, We Have No ——- ! (Adrian Brunel?, 1924), Yūwaku (Temptation, Nakahira Kō, 1957), Žurnal politsatiry no 2 (Ivan Ivanov-Vano [Čto Gitler chočet i čto on polučit / What Hitler Wants and What He Will Get], Ol’ga Chodataeva [Bej fašistkich piratov / Beat the Fascist Pirates], Valentina & Zinaida Brumberg (Bej vraga na fronte i v tylu! / Beat the Enemy on the Front and Rear!], Aleksandr Ivanov (Krepkoe rukopožatie / A Firm Handshake], 1941)
+ La palla è rotonda. 1a puntata: Il più bel gioco del mondo (Raffaele Andreassi, 1973)
Extended Team
1,2,3… Ćwiczenie operatorskie (1,2,3… Cinematographer’s Exercise, Paweł Kwiek, 1972), 2 Everything 2 Terrible II – Tokyo Drift (Everything Is Terrible!, 2010), Abnormal: Ingyaku (Celluloid Nightmare, Satō Hisayasu, 1988), Abunai koto nara zeni ni naru (Danger`s Where the Money Is!, Nakahira Kō, 1962), Addio giovinezza! (Good-bye, Youth, Augusto Genina, 1918), Addio giovinezza! (Augusto Genina, 1927), Addio giovinezza! (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1940), Añcātē (Do Not Fear, Miṣkiṉ, 2008), Ani. La città dalle mille chiese (Società Anonima Ambrosio, 1911), Un anno di scuola (A Year of School, Franco Giraldi, 1977), Apache Rifles (William Witney, 1964), Après Mein Kampf, mes crimes! (My Crimes After Mein Kampf, Alexandre Ryder, 1939), L’arroseur arrosé (Henri Joly?, 1896), Assaut de boxe entre deux champions de Joinville (Henri Joly?, 1896), De bedienden van de familie Sanders (Hendricus Johan Andries Sanders, 1937), Bili, bem, i budem bit’ (Have Beaten, Are Beating, Will Beat, Dmitrij Babičenko, 1941), Camera Thrills of the War! (Eugene Castle [ed.], ~1940s), Chatrapati (Kōḍūri Śrīśaila Śrī Rājamuḷi, 2005), Children’s Magical Death (Timothy Asch & Napoleon Chagnon, 1974), Chizu no nai machi (A Town Not on the Map, Nakahira Kō, 1960), Čolpon – Utrennjaja zvezda (Čolpon – The Morning Star, Roman Tichomirov, 1959), Constantine (Éclair Scientia, 1913), Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang (Richard Villarosa Somes, 2012), Le Coucher de la mariée (Albert Kirchner, 1896), The Counterfeit Traitor (George Seaton, 1962), Dānav (Makrand Dēśpāṇḍē, 2003), Le Déjeuner de Pierrot (Albert Kirchner?, 1896/1897), Dodatkowe wole trawienne magistra Kiziołła (Magister Kiziołł’s Additional Digestive Goitre, Julian Józef Antonisz, 1983), Dracula (Dario Argento, 2012), Un Drame dans les airs (Gaston Velle, 1904), Egypt and Her Defenders (Kineto Limited, 1914), EMS Nr.1 (Ralph Lundsten, 1966), Enfants au bois (Henri Joly?, 1896), Eros-Center Hamburg (Erotic Center, Günter Hendel, 1969), Eye For Eye [fragment] (Albert Capellani & Alla Nazimova, 1918), [Famille stéphanoise au Bois-Noir] (Pierre Petit?, 1897), I fantasmi del fallo (Rony Daopoulo & Maria Grazia Belmonti & Annabella Miscuglio, 1981), Der Favorit der Königin (Franz Seitz, 1922), La Fille de Delft (A Tragedy in the Clouds, Alfred Machin, 1914), Finnland im Kampf (Erwin Oscar Stauffer, 1941), Il focolare domestico (Nino Oxilia, 1914), Gelin (Bride, Ömer Lütfi Akad, 1973), Gendaikko (Modern Children, Nakahira Kō, 1963), Il giorno più corto (The Shortest Day, Sergio Corbucci, 1963), Graf Porno und seine Mädchen… (Günter Hendel, 1968), La guerra d’Italia a 3000 metri sull’Adamello (Luca Comerio, 1916), Gyūnyūya Frankie (Milkman Frankie, Nakahira Kō, 1956), Hate (Sami van Ingen, 2012), [Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming] (~1942-45), Hikaru umi (Bright Sea, Nakahira Kō, 1963), Hitler’s Reign of Terror (Cornelius Vanderbildt & Mike Mindlin, 1933/39?), [Home 2] (Joanna Hogg, 1980), Honra à Índia Portuguesa (Tobis Portuguesa, 1963), Hunting Deer and (1953), Huǒshān qíng xuè (Loving Blood of the Volcano, Sūn Yú, 1932), In a Japanese Garden (Karl Freund, 1928), Ishmael (Richard Villarosa Somes, 2010), I Was an American Spy (Lesley Selander, 1951), Jìngxióng nǚxiá · Qiū Jǐn (The Knight Woman of Mirror Lake, Herman Yau, 2011), Kinjirareta Technique (Forbidden Techniques: Fancy Footwork, Mukai Kan, 1966),Kinocirk: Mul’t-satira v 3-ch attrakcionach (Kino-Circus: A Cartoon Satire in 3 Acts, Leonid Amal’rik & Olga Chodataeva, 1942), Klątwa Doliny Węży (Curse of Snakes’ Valley, Marek Piestrak, 1987), Kuroi tobakushi: Akuma no hidarite (The Black Gambler: Devil`s Left Hand, Nakahira Kō, 1966), Living London [fragment] (Charles Urban Trading Company, 1904), The Love Rebellion (Joe Sarno, 1967), Ma l’amore mio non muore! (Love Everlasting, Mario Caserini, 1913), The Man I Love (William Wellman, 1929), Le mani ignote (By Unseen Hands, Enrique Santos, 1914), Mennyt manner (The Lost Land, Antti Kari, 1982), Mermaid’s Boudoir (~1950s), The Mikado (Fred Watts?, 1926), Mikkai (A Secret Rendezvous, Nakahira Kō, 1959), Milenky starého kriminálníka (The Lovers of an Old Criminal, Svatopluk Innemann, 1927), Mocny człowiek (Strong Man, Henryk Szaro, 1929), [Monson Collection: Vienna 1938] (Lafayette P. Monson, 1938), Multiple SIDosis (Sid Laverents, 1970), Nantā (Pālā, 2001), Natsu no arashi (Summer Storm, Nakahira Kō, 1956), Ne toptat’ fašistskomu sapogu našej rodiny (Fascist Boots Shall not Trample Our Homeland, Aleksandr Ivanov & Ivan Ivanov-Vano, 1941), The Nightingale’s Courtship (Robert J. Cullen, 1926-27), Notizie per tutti ([Guilio Questi,] Michelangelo Antonioni, 1956), Onna no uzu to fuchi to nagare (Whirlpool of Flesh, Nakahira Kō, 1964), Other Men’s Women (William Wellman, 1931), Pain à la campagne (Société Pathé Frères, 1907), Pān Sinh Tōmar (Tigmānśu Dhūliyā, 2012), Parada (The Parade, Jerzy Kucia, 1986), Perchance to Scream (Harrison Marks, 1967), Place de l’Opéra (Ernest Normandin?, 1896), Pollātavaṉ (Ruthless Man, Veṟṟimāṟaṉ, 2007), Prater (Friedrich Kuplent, 1929), Przygoda z piosenką (Adventure with a Song, Stanisław Bareja, 1968), Quarry (Richard P. Rogers, 1970), A Question of People (Roberto Rossellini [& Giuseppe Cino?], 1974), Ridi pagliaccio! (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1941), Romolo e Remo (Duel of the Titans, Sergio Corbucci, 1961), Ryōjin nikki (The Hunter`s Diary, Nakahira Kō, 1964), Der schwarze Panther (Bruno Sukrow, 2011), Sister Mary Jane’s Top Note (Lewin Fitzhamon, 1907), Sretanje (Vladimir Petek, 1963), Storie sulla sabbia (Stories in the Sand, Riccardo Fellini, 1963), The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler (James Hogan, 1943), Suna no ue no shokubutsugun (Flora on the Sand, Nakahira Kō, 1964), Szpital przemienienia (Hospital of Transfiguration, Edward Żebrowski, 1979), Das Tagebuch des Verführers (Michael Hild, 1978), Tales From the Quadead Zone (Chester Novell Turner, 1987), Tanja die Nackte von der Teufelsinsel (Julius Hofherr, 1967), Tausend Takte Übermut (Ernst Hofbauer, 1965), Tavamāy Tavamiruntu (Cēraṉ, 2005), I terribili 7 (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1963), THC Films [excerpts] (Oskar Dawicki, 1996), Le Théâtre populaire arabe (Films Éclair, 1911), These Are the Men (Alan Osbiston & Dylan Thomas, 1943), Through the Looking Glass (Jonas Middleton, 1976), Tiger Morse (Reel 14 of ****) (Andy Warhol, 1967), Tomahawk Trail (Lesley Selander, 1957), Trooper Hook (Charles Marquis Warren, 1957), [Untitled Stag Film] (~1950s), Vainqueurs et vaincus (Société des établissements Gaumont, 1912), La vie cosmopolite au Caire (Alfred Machin, 1913), [Vues Lumière: no. 409 – no. 416: Bethléem – Beyrouth – Damas – Constantinople] (Alexandre Promio?, 1897), W47 Stormy (~1958), W szponach seksu (In the Grips of Sex, Julian Józef Antonisz, 1969), Wessen Aurach, dessen Traun. (Arnold Schicker, 1984), The Wishing Ring, an Idyll of Old England (Maurice Tourneur, 1914)
+ Derrick – Tote Vögel singen nicht (Alfred Vohrer, 1976), EastEnders – Dot’s Story (Joanna Hogg, 2003)
Medical Staff
(film/video-based/related installations, film/video art projects, films seen in exhibitions, and other creations and happenings such as these)
“2’45”” (film performance; William Raban, 1973), “3rd Light” (installation with digital video projection; Paul Chan, 2006), 10 Meest (10 Men, Mark Raidpere, 2003), A-Z (Manfred Kuttner, 1963), “Demi pas” (laterna magica performance; Julien Maire, 2004), End Credits(Chang Yŏnghye & Marc Voge, 2007), My Best Thing (Frances Stark, 2011), “On/Off” (performance; Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder, 2004), “Point Source” (performance; Tony Hill, 1973), Une Seconde d’Eternité (D’après une idée de Charles Baudelaire) (Marcel Broodthares, 1970), United Red Army. The Young Man Was: Part 1 (Na ͑ îm Mohaiyemen, 2012), Volker Bradke (Gerhard Richter, 1966), “Wavelength” (installation; Michael Baers, 2006/14), “Weekend” (audio piece for cinema; Walther Ruttmann, 1930), White Calligraphy, Re-Read (1967/2010) (Iimura Takahiko)

BRENT MORROW

CINEPHILE AND INFREQUENT KEEPER OF THE BLOG TECHNICOLOR RED, MELBOURNE.
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Godzilla
 (Gareth Edwards, 2014)
Gone Girl
 (David Fincher, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
 (Wes Anderson, 2014)
It Follows
 (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
Jauja
 (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
The Knick
Season 1 (Steven Soderbergh, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Listen Up Philip
 (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Please Like Me
Season 2 (Matthew Saville, 2014)
Turist
 (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Xi You
 (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
All men. Burn it down. Feels okay to put TV with films when one director makes the lot. Equally excellent or better shows this year: HannibalTransparentMad MenBroad CityGirls.
Just missed out: Everything but the last act of Non-Stop (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2014), which does wonders with shallow/rack focus and its onscreen text messages. A great pleasure watching this unsung craftsman.
Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)

OONA MOSNA      

PROGRAM DIRECTOR MEDIA CITY FILM FESTIVAL; FOUNDING DIRECTOR MOBILE FRAMES.
Gradual Speed (Els van Riel, 2013)
Intensities (Helga Fanderl, 2014)
Poetry for Sale (Friedl vom Gröller, 2013)
THE PARIS POETRY CIRCLE (Friedl vom Gröller, 2013)
Not Far At All (Peter Gidal, 2014)
vis à vis (Abigail Child, USA, 2013)
Sous un ceil changeant (Under a Changing Sky, Jean Claude Rousseau, 2014)
Fe26 (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2014)
Sun Song (Joel Wanek, 2013)
Gente Perra (Anja Dornieden, Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, 2014)
Wayward Fronds (Fern Silva, 2014)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Atlantis (Ben Russell, 2014)
REVOLUTIONS IN 16MM FILM – Curated by Haden Guest and Katja Wiederspahn /2014 edition of the Viennale (including films by the following individuals):
Ben Norman / Mark LaPore / Luke Fowler / António Campos / Matthias Müller
/ Marjorie Keller / Margaret Tait / Chick Strand / Kurt Kren / Irving
Klaw / Aldo Tambellini / Shirley Clarke / Timothy Asch / Napoleon A.
Chagnon / Ben Rivers / Matthew Buckingham / Nathaniel Dorsky / Larry
Gottheim / Richard Tuohy / Els van Riel / Tacita Dean / Leobardo López
Aretche / Richard Serra / Michel Brault / Marcel Carrière / Claude
Fournier / Claude Jutra / Gaëlle Rouard / Sid Laverents / Tobias Engel /
René Lefort / Gilbert Igel / Marie Menken / Leslie Thornton / Gary
Beydler / Robert Nelson / Carolee Schneemann / Richard P. Rogers / Bruce
Baillie / Paul Sharits / Jodie Mack / Deryck Calderwood / Rose Lowder /
Gunvor Nelson / Dorothy Wiley / Ernie Gehr / Nathaniel Dorsky / Storm De
Hirsch / Runa Islam / Jean Rouch / Matsumoto Toshio.

JORGE MOURINHA

LIVES IN LISBON AND WRITES ABOUT FILM IN NEWSPAPER PÚBLICO AND AT HIS PERSONAL BLOG, THE FLICKERING WALL.
One film to rule them all:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
One that almost ruled them all:
Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014)
20 runners-up, in alphabetical order:
20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, 2014)
L’Abri (The Shelter, Fernand Melgar, 2014)
Angelii Revolyutsii (Angels of Revolution, Aleksei Fedorchenko, 2014)
Branco sai, Preto fica (White In, Black Out, Adirley Queirós, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Concerning Violence (Göran Hugo Olsson, 2014)
The Congress (Ari Folman, 2013)
Ma’a al-Fidda (Silvered Water, a Syria Self-Portrait, Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxian2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Lettres à Max (Letters to Max, Eric Baudelaire, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Quand je serai dictateur (Yaël André, 2013)
Snakeskin (Daniel Hui, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Joon-ho Bong, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

V.A. MUSETTO

LONGTIME NEW YORK CRITIC; CONTRIBUTES TO INDIEWIRE, FILM COMMENT.
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
It Felt Like Love (Eliza Hittman, 2013)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Flesh of My Flesh (Denis Dercourt, 2014)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
Big Bad Wolves (Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado, 2013)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)

PETER NAGELS

CINEPHILE, LIBRARIAN AND DREAM RESEARCHER, MELBOURNE.
Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley, 2014)
Film language has never been so smooth. Let’s hope there are more Kickstarter projects like this one.
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Transcendence (Wally Pfister, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean Luc Godard, 2014)
Finally 3D has graduated from the blockbuster and become intellectualised.
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
The Infinite Man (Hugh Sullivan, 2014)
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Wonders found on DVD:
Pasažieri (Passengers, Jurģis Tūbelis, 2009)
Post-Soviet Latvian cinema has thrown up quite a few gems.
The Girl from Nowhere (La fille de nulle part, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2012)

JAMES NAREMORE

AUTHOR OF AN INVENTION WITHOUT A FUTURE: ESSAYS ON CINEMA (2014).
1. Ida (Panel Pantikowski, 2014)
2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
3. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. Adieu au language (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
6. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
7. Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
8. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
9. Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
10. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Most over-rated movie of the year: The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Ned Benson, 2014).

BORIS NELEPO

FILM CRITIC AND PROGRAMMER; CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO SÉANCE MAGAZINE AND CORRESPONDENT FOR FESTIVAL DEL FILM LOCARNO.
20. Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
19. Le Paradis (Paradise, Alain Cavalier, 2014)
18. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
17. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
16. Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley, 2014)
15. João Bénard da Costa – Outros amarão as Coisas que eu amei (João Bénard da Costa – Others Will Love the Things I Loved, Manuel Mozos, 2014)
14. Snakeskin (Daniel Hui, 2014)
13. Phantom Power (Pierre Léon, 2014)
12. Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
11. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
10. Nuits blanches sur la jetée (White Nights on the Pier, Paul Vecchiali, 2014)
9. She’s Funny That Way (Peter Bogdanovich, 2014)
8. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
7. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
6. Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
5. Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
4. Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
3. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
2. Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehnsucht (Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision, Edgar Reitz, 2013)
1. Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)

BEN R. NICHOLSON

FREELANCE FILM CRITIC IN THE UK, AND EDITOR AT CINEVUE.
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Terence Nance, 2012)
Hross í oss (Of Horses and Men, Benedikt Erlingsson, 2013)

SVENERIK OLSEN

ARTIST RESIDING IN MINNEAPOLIS.
1. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
2. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
3. Vi Är Bäst! (We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson, 2013)
4. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
6. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
7. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
8. Abus de Faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat, 2013)
9. Jeune & jolie (Young & Beautiful, François Ozon, 2013)
10. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)

MICHAEL PATTISON

UK FILM CRITIC.
Of the 362 features and 378 shorts/mid-lengths I’ve seen so far this year – and after trimming away new-to-me home-viewings and all re-watches – 13 were what I’d call great. In the second brackets is where I saw each film:
Deseret (James Benning, 1995) (Bradford Int’l Film Festival)
casting a glance (James Benning, 2007) (Bradford Int’l Film Festival)
Karpopotnik/ Karpotrotter (Matjaž Ivanišin, 2013) (Rotterdam/IndieLisboa/Dokufest)
Die andere Heimat – Chronik einer Sehnsucht (Home From Home: Chronicle of a Vision, Edgar Reitz, 2013) (Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival)
Border Warfare (John McGrath, 1989) (Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival)
The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (John McGrath, 1990) (Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival)
The Reckoning (Jack Gold, 1969) (Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival)
Leviathan (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2014) (New Horizons)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014) (New Horizons)
Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis, 1974) (Dokufest)
American Dream (Barbara Kopple, 1990) (Dokufest)
Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976) (Dokufest)
Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014) (Locarno/Warsaw/Ljubljana)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)

YOANA PAVLOVA

FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE PLAY-FORM FOR INDEPENDENT FILM CRITICISM FESTIVALISTS.COM; BULGARIAN JOURNALIST AND RESEARCHER BASED IN PARIS.
My personal 10 cinematic highlights of 2014, focusing on festival premieres and special events: 
* Every once in a while, Cannes’ Palme d’Or lands in the hands of someone who truly deserves it, and 2014 was one of these happy exceptions. Seven months later, I am still overwhelmed with delight that the award went to Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who has merited this type of recognition long ago. As today’s Turkish cinema is largely involved in local political and social processes, I also enjoyed the fact that the filmmaker and his cast did not miss the opportunity to direct international attention to current affairs in Turkey.
* Speaking of Cannes, which this year hosted two stunts by Jean-Luc Godard, it is amazing as to what degree his films keep provoking the same reaction of adoration, for nearly six decades. The same old tricks up the sleeve, and casting a dog cannot make things anew, sorry.
* With carefully engineered products like Haganenent (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014) or Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014), Cannes’ Critics Week still plays very safe. At this point, in my opinion, the programme of ACID (a section of whose existence many fellow colleagues are not even aware) remains the last resort for true discoveries in the field of independent production, especially when it comes to French cinema.
* Last but not least about Cannes, I am excited to see Lav Diaz put into the limelight of big festivals, yet this attitude of the West suddenly “discovering” his cinema, places the historical traumas his films explore on a whole new level. I wonder what Alexis Tioseco would have said.
* Being a Bulgarian, I cannot skip the triumphant festival tour of two new features from my home country, respectively – of two strong female protagonists. Viktoria (Maya Vitkova, 2014) and Urok (The Lesson, Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, 2014) are clearly among the best European films of the year, with their brave narrative approach and amazing visual style (both were shot by one and the same DOP – Krum Rodriguez).
* Zooming further on the Balkans, it is mandatory to mention Romanian cinema and its newly re-discovered soft spot for employing archival materials, in the tradition of Andrei Ujică. Three new films mark this trend, all of them amazingly accomplished: București, unde ești? (Where Are You Bucharest?, Vlad Petri, 2014), Padurea (The Forest, Sinisa Dragin, 2014) and my favorite Al doilea joc (The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014).
* Re documentary cinema in 2014, now when “fact vs fiction” has been relativised seemingly enough, it appears that there is a new shift towards playing around the thin line between private and public, a method that works very well in films like Actress (Robert Greene, 2014) or Songs from the North (Soon-Mi Yoo, 2014). And then there is also Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014), a documentary that prompts us to consider how much we would like to see and to know, of a reality where there is nothing intimate left.
* As for the film I personally found the most memorable, funny, clever, and brave in 2014, this is Fort Buchanan (Benjamin Crotty, 2014). A “small” film from Locarno’s line-up, which I first discovered thanks to the recommendation of James Lattimer in our daily Pardo co-vlog with kino-zeit.de. I could not recommend this debut and its dark humour enough, mostly when it comes to puns with LGBTQ culture clichés and the way French society can be perceived by a young American filmmaker.
* In terms of retrospectives, my coup de cœur goes to the extensive Tsai Ming-liang celebration in France this spring plus the Eastern Promises showcase at the San Sebastián IFF in the autumn.
* At the end, I would like to highlight the Henri Langlois exhibition at the Cinémathèque Française: it offers an intriguing insight to the whole (Western) cinema culture of 20th century, as well as the origins and the practice of cinephilia.

ANTONI PERIS

FILM REVIEWER FOR DIGITAL MEDIA: MIRADIS DE CINE, TRANSIT, CULTURACA; BASED IN BARCELONA.
Another really good year for cinema and moviegoers. Unfortunately in Spain many great films still wait to be commercially released. Nevertheless some mainstream movies offered more than fun, great cinema. Also it has been a really interesting year for TV series and True Detective (Nic Pizzolatto – writer; Cary Joji Fukunaga – director, 2014) has been a hit both for script, rhythm, acting and mise en scène.
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
2. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
3. Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 2014)
4. What We Do in the Shadows (Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)
5. Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014)
6. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
7. Boyhood (Richard. Linklater, 2014)
8. El futuro (Luis López Carrasco, 2013)
9. Costa da morte (Coast of Death, Lois Patiño, 2013)
10. La fille du 14 juillet (Antonin Peretjatko, 2013)
11. L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
12. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin. Scorsese, 2013)
13. Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
14. Inside Llewyn Davies (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
15. Oslo, 31 august (Olso, August 31st, Joachim Trier, 2011)
16. Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
17. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
18. Redemption (Miguel Gomes, 2013)
19. Exhibition (Joanna Hoggs, 2013)
20. Child of God (James Franco, 2013)
21. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
22. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
23. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-Ho, 2013)
24. The Canyons (Paul Schrader, 2013)
25. La pirogue (Moussa Touré, 2012)

ALEX ROSS PERRY

FILMMAKER, USA.
1. Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
2. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2014)
3. Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
5. Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2014)
6. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
7. River of Fundament (Matthew Barney, 2014)
8. Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2014)
9. Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 2014)
10. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg, 2014)
Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)

ANDRÉA PICARD

FILM WRITER AND CURATOR, WAVELENGTHS, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
  1. P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
  2. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
  3. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
  4. Nathalie Granger (Marguerite Duras, 1972, re-released in 2014)
  5. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
  6. Das Spektrum Europas (Cristi Puiu, from Bridges of Sarajevo, 2014)
  7. Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
  8. Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub, 2014)
  9. Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill Of Freedom, Hong Sang-Soo, 2014)
  10. The Innocents (Jean-Paul Kelly, 2014) & brouillard – passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, 2014) & The Dragon is the Frame (Mary Helena Clark, 2014)
Best opening scenes: La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014) & Ventos de Agosto (Winds of August, Gabriel Mascaro, 2014)
Best retrospective: Marguerite Duras at the Centre Pompidou
Best moving image installation: Christoph Schlingensief at the Malmö Konsthall

MEHDI PILEHVARIAN

FILM SCHOLAR AND CINEPHILE.
1. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
2. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
3. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
4. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
5. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
6. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
7. Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
10. En Duva Satt på en Gren Och Funderade på Tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
12. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
13. Anime Nere (Black Souls, Francesco Munzi, 2014)
14. Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales, Damián Szifrón, 2014)
15. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
16. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
17. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)

JIT PHOKAEW

CINEPHILE, BANGKOK, THAILAND.
Favourite foreign films
1. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
2. Dreileben – Etwas Besseres als den Tod (DreilebenBeats Being Dead, Christian Petzold, 2011)
3. La fièvre monte à El Pao (Fever Mounts at El Pao, Luis Buñuel, 1959)
4. My Sister’s Quinceañera (Aaron Douglas Johnston, 2013)
5. The Congress (Ari Folman, 2013)
6. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
7. A Corte do Norte (True and Tender Is the North, João Botelho, 2008)
8. Kristy (Oliver Blackburn, 2014)
The Other Side of the Underneath (Jane Arden, 1972)
10. All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)
11. Deu tae-ro ra-i-beu (The Terror Live, Kim Byeong-woo, 2013)
12. Return of Suspicion (Dean Kavanagh, 2014)
La fille du 14 juillet (The Rendez-vous of déjà-vu, Antonin Peretjatko, 2013)
14. Nerven (Robert Reinert, 1919)
15. Working Girls (Ishmael Bernal, 1984)
16. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
17. Avalon (Axel Petersén, 2011)
18. Taki no shiraito (The Water Magician, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1933)
19. Ke tu qiu hen (Song of the Exile, Ann Hui, 1990)
20. Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
21. God Help the Girl (Stuart Murdoch, 2014)
22. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
23. Savage Witches (Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais, 2012)
24. Kebun binatang (Postcards from the Zoo, Edwin, 2012)
25. Sing gei cha low (The Teahouse, Kuei Chih-hung, 1974)
26. L’illusion comique (The Screen Illusion, Mathieu Amalric, 2010)
27. The Look of Love (Michael Winterbottom, 2013)
Dreileben – Komm mir nicht nach (Dreileben ­– Don’t Follow Me Around, Dominik Graf, 2011)
29. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
30. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
31. Haider (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014)
32. Verdun, visions d’histoire (Léon Poirier, 1928)
33. The Rocket (Kim Mordaunt, 2013)
34. Pouta (Walking Too Fast, Radim Spacek, 2009)
35. The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1976)
Favourite Thai films
 
1. Wang pikul (Village of Hope, Boonsong Nakphoo, 2013)
2. Mam anna hua nom macaron ponyangkam lae garnsuksa kan puentarn (Madame Anna, Nipples, Macaron, Ponyangkam, and Basic Education, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2014)
3. Pavang rak (Concrete Clouds, Lee Chatametikool, 2013)
4. Nang pee san sanook, nang pee san sanook? (I’m Sin, Pissanupong Rattana, 2014)
5. Sming (Pan Visitsak, 2014)
6. Tone (Piak Poster, 1970)
7. Poo bao thai barn e-san indy (PBTB E-San Indy, Uhten Sririwi, 2014)
8. Niras kao wonggot (The Mazes Trilogy, Prap Boonpan, 2014, 268 minutes)
9. Tookae ruk pang mak (Chiang Khan Story, Yuthlert Sippapak, 2014)
10. Peen gleaw (Oranuch, 1994)
11. Dek gae dad (Goodbye, Nakorn Chaisri, 2014)
12. The Eyes Diary (Chookiat Sakveerakul, 2014)
12. Pop naa pluak (Ugly Ghost, Baa-Ram-Ewe Team, 2014)
14. Rak pasa arai (Myanmar in Love in Bangkok, Nichaya Boonsiripan, 2014)
15. Rew thalu rew (Vengeance of an Assassin, Panna Rittikrai, 2014)
16. Jong-arng payong (Noi Kamolwatin, 1971)
17. Dog kaew (Padej Pakdeevijit, 1980)
18. Fak wai nai gai thoe (The Swimmers, Sopon Sukdapisit, 2014)
19. We Try, We Tried (Preechaya Sukkasem and Ittisak Treesanga, 2014)
20. Kru lae nak rian (Teacher and Student, Sarawut Intaraprom, 2014)
Favourite foreign short films
1. Taprobana (Gabriel Abrantes, 2014)
2. The Karman Line (Oscar Sharp, 2014)
3. WARS (Josef Dabernig, 2001)
4. Listón de plástico negro de 120 mts. de largo x 4 mts. de ancho colgado sobre el puente del Incienso (Black Ribbon of 120 mts. Long x 4 mts. Wide Hanged Over the “Incienso” Bridge, Aníbal López, 2003)
5. Pequeño bloque de cemento con pelo alborotado conteniendo el mar (Little Block of Cement with Disheveled Hair Containing the Sea, Jorge López Navarrete, 2014)
6. Pantomina sa mga anyong ikinubli ng alon (Pantomimes for Figures Shrouded by Waves, Jon Lazam, 2013)
7. Pacífico (Jonathas de Andrade, 2010)
8. Anaïs (Julie Benegmos, 2013)
9. Violin Phase (Eric Pauwels, 1985)
10. Insein Rhythm (Soe Moe Aung, 2013)
11. Één, twee, drie, piano! (Nienke Deutz, 2013)
12. I’ve Heard 3 Stories (Marwa Arsanios, 2009)
13. A Few Crumbs for the Birds (Annemarie Jacir, 2005)
14. On Such and Such a Day, At Such and Such a Time (Natalie Khoo, 2013)
15. Cabezón (Big Head, Jairo Boisier, 2013)
16. Isósceles (Michelle Garza, 2013)
17. Misterio (Chema García Ibarra, 2013)
18. T’étais où quand Michael Jackson est mort? (Where Were You When Michael Jackson Died?, Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux, 2014)
19. Wir sind wieder da (We’re Here Again, Annika Eriksson, 2010)
20. In Diverse Estimations Little Moscow (Asli Çavuşoğlu, 2011)
21. Birds (Ulu Braun, 2014)
22. Home & Key (Shwan Attoof, 2014)
23. Bishtar az do saat (More Than Two Hours, Ali Asgari, 2013)
24. Strach (Little Secret, Martin Krejcí, 2013)
25. Z1 (Gabriel Gauchet, 2013)
26. Nightless – ver.5 (Tamura Yuichiro, 2010)
27. Spring Equinox (Wang Yinuo, 2013)
28. The Bohemian Rhapsody Project (Ho Tzu Nyen, 2006)
29. The Weather Report (Paul Murphy, 2014)
30. Sepatu baru (New Shoes, Aditya Ahmad, 2013)
Favourite Thai short films
 
1. Pasa tee ter mai kaojai (Awareness, Wachara Kanha, 2014)
2. Olds (Watcharapon Seangarunroj, 2014)
3. Kor hai namkang lalai (Long For, Phawinee Sattawatsakul, 2014)
4. Talod pai (Endlessly, Sivaroj Kongsakul, 2013)
5. Myth of Modernity (Chulayarnnon Siriphol, 2014)
6. Pramual pap lae siang kong kwam pid wang (A Compilation of Images and Sound of Disappointment, Nattawoot Nimitchaikosol, 2014)
7. Endless, Nameless (Pathompon Tesprateep, 2014)
8. Drink Sky on Rabbit’s Field (Lost Control) (Arnont Nongyao, 2014)
9. Wan nan kong duen (Menstrual Synchrony, Jirassaya Wongsutin, 2014)
10. La gun tee! loke nee he krong (Ending Straight World, Tanaset Siriwattanadirek, 2014)
11. Menu prod kong nong nam (Favorite Meal of Nong-Nam, Piyamon Khasom, 2014)
12. Pa lung barn kong meow (Carnivore Eater, Thanatpond Nakprom, 2014)
13. Gal wayla buddol (Pigpot-theory, Parnwart Charenyost, 2013)
14. Tongfar nai wantee 1 pruedsajigayon puttasaggarat 2556 (1112013, Theeraphat Ngathong, 2013)
15. Ta mee krai songsai nai prajao lao rueng nee hai kao fung (Talk to You Later, Suwanun Pohgudsai, 2014)
16. Mano kana (Moment in Mind, Eakalak Anantasomboon, 2014)
17. Puen pang (Teeranit Siangsanoh, 2014)
18. Kong khmer (Khmer Talisman, Pissamai Duangnoi, 2013)
19. Where Is My Shorts? (Anuwat Amnajkasem, 2013)
20. Jeb paud (Agony, Akara Pacchakkhaphati, 2013)
21. Mong yam tee ngam tee sood (The Most Beautiful Time, Teeraphan Ngowjeenanan, 2014)
22. The Fucking Life (Karan Wongprakarnsanti, 2014)
23. A Secret to My Mom (Siriluck Sangnam, 2014)
24. Siao nueng kong kwam penpaidai tangmod nai garn hai tae ja rub rue mai rub kor laew tae pijarana (A Fragment of All the Possibilities of the Action of Giving, But Whether You will Take the Gift or Not Depends on Your Decision, Nattawoot Nimitchaikosol, 2014)
25. Forest (Satayu Nanan, 2014)
26. Ka-nong kruan (Namfon Udomlertlak, 2014)
27. Rot mail (A Bus, Pongsakorn Ruedeekunrungsi, 2014)
28. Jer gun (See You, Nuttapol Pawangthut, 2014)
29. Susan wayla (Grandma, Kasiti Sangkul, 2014)
30. /’spel,baund/ (Nath Eimkhanthongsug, 2014)
31. Prayoke bog lao (Present Simple Tense, Adisak Chanchaipoom, 2014)
32. Kon rayam (Scumbag, Sompong Soda, 2014)
33. Teerak rao rak gun mai dai (Darling, We Can’t Love Each Other, Nok Paksnavin, 2014) (music video)
34. Wai deg (The Youth, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai and Chayajee Krittayapongsakorn, 2014)
35. Plastic (Sakulphet Phetsang, 2013)
36. A River Runs Through It (Wittaya Kanthapan, 2014)
37. Yellow Summer (Nattagarn Tamsamsoo, 2013)
38. Friendship lem 2 (The Second Friendship Book, Phakchayot Charrunchon, 2014)
39. Billboard (Ratchanon Ketramrit, 2014)
40. Hag wa fun pai (Kid-Nap, Natchanol Vatanakuljaras, 2014)
41. Stranger (Nitaz Sinwattanakul, 2013)
42. That XXXX (Seriphab Sutthisri, 2014)
43. Sushi nue kon (Shokunin, Nuttachai Jiraanont, 2014)
44. Rukkachart (Arboretum of Dystopia, Suparach Jaraspetch, 2013)
45. Like Teacher, Like Fan (Patitta Jitthanon, 2013)
Favourite documentaries
 
1. Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz (This Year in Czernowitz, Volker Koepp, 2004)
2. Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (Images of the World and the Inscription of War, Harun Farocki, 1989)
3. L’image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
4. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000)
5. A Wang (So Be It, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, 2014)
6. Barn (Home, Patiparn Amornthipparat, 2014)
7. Life in a Foreign Land: Burmese in Japan (Toshikuni Doi, 2012)
8. Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik (Workers Leaving the Factory, Harun Farocki, 1995)
9. Personas (BK Lim, 2012)
10. Rough Aunties (Kim Longinotto, 2008)
11. Une étrange cathédral dans la graisse des ténèbres (A Strange Cathedral in the Thick of Darkness, Charles Najman, 2011)
12. To Singapore, with Love (Tan Pin Pin, 2013)
13. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013)
14. Respite (Harun Farocki, 2007)
15. The Master (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2014)
16. Nang pluey (Nude Documentary Film, Pimploy Sudla, 2014)
17. Kampuchea (Cambodia, Narodom Sihanouk, 1965)
18. Plia (Lice in the Wonderland, Boonyarit Wiangnon, 2014)
19. Autofocus (Boris Poljak, 2013)
20. Kon kom kwan (Wiroon Kingpaiboon, 2013)
21. Pleng khong kao (The Songs of Rice, Uruphong Raksasad, 2014)
22. Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2013)
23. Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line (Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper, 2012)
24. Mama (Lidia Sheinin, 2013)
25. Advanced Style (Lina Plioplyte, 2014)
26. Muen nangsue bot sumpart bang bang lem nueng (Talking Heads Spoke Out, Namfon Udomlertlak and Supannee Sa-nguanpong, 2013)
27. Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers and Jeff Dupre, 2012)
28. Laddaland Playground (Angsana Pintharat, 2013)
29. Pa-O (Ice in Wonderland, Sarut Ratanavijit, 2014)
30. E sao transistor (Transistor Girls, Santi Taepanich, 2014)
Favourite animations
1. Die Verwitterte Melodie (Weatherbeaten Melody, Hans Fischerkoesen, 1943)
2. Sieben Mal am Tag beklagen wir unser Los und nachts stehen wir auf, um nicht zu träumen (Seven Times a Day We Bemoan Our Lot and at Night We Get Up to Avoid Our Dreams, Susann-Maria Hempel, 2013)
3. Maman (Ugo Bienvenu and Kevin Manach, 2013)
4. Plo play (Neither Lit Nor Dark, Chanon Treenet, 2013)
5. Hoshi o ou kodomo (Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Makoto Shinkai, 2011)
6. Symphony No.42 (Reka Bucsi, 2014)
7. Les contes de la nuit (Tales of the Night, Michel Ocelot, 2011)
8. Die sieben Raben (The Seven Ravens, Ferdinand Diehl, 1937)
9. The Bird and the Fish (Kanitharin Thailamtong, 2013)
10. Poo pitak (Guardian, Thitichon Juicharoen, 2014)
11. 21KE (21 Grams, Sun Xun, 2010)
12. Nyuszi és Öz (Rabbit and Deer, Péter Vácz, 2013)
13. Gamma Scape (George Johnson and Tom Norman, 2013)
14. Tacky, Sticky & Glutinous (David Maingault, 2013)
15. Le tableau (The Painting, Jean-François Laguionie, 2011)
16. Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
17. Meitantai Conan: Ijigen no sunaipâ (Detective Conan: Dimensional Sniper, Kôbun Shizuno, 2014)
18. Kaguyahime no monogatari (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Isao Takahata, 2013)
19. Goat in a Sketchbook (Worawut Wattanatham and Chaiya Takviriyanan, 2014)
20. Schwarz-Weiβ-Rot (Black-White-Red, Helmut Herbst, 1964)
Favourite video installations
1. TNT (Robert Vater, 2006)
2. Ich tank (David Larcher, 2003)
3. You Would Come Back There to See Me Again Tomorrow (Tsuda Michiko, 2013)
4. Crude Carrier (Pascal Fendrich and Bernd Härpfer, 2009)
5. Monday 2 Monday (Varsha Nair and Lena Eriksson, 2011-2014)
6. The Chopped Arm (Jihye Park, 2008)
7. Golden Teardrop (Arin Rungjang, 2013)
8. Vestige of Life (Maki Satake, 2008-2009)
9. Quartet (Otomo Yoshihide, 2013)
10. Cris (Wuttigorn Kongkha, 2014)
11. Vertigo Rush (Johann Lurf, 2007)
12. Around 11.00-12.00 hrs. (Nut Sawasdee, 2012/2014)
13. You Come (Oliver Stotz, 2007)
14. Schauer (Doris Schmid, 2004)
15. Para/Noise (Matthias Neuenhofer, 2010)
16. Hear/Her (Akenaree Jainam, 2014)
17. Beach (Julius Redillas, 2014)
18. Hong kon uen (The Room of the Other, Surachai Petsangrot, 2014)
19. I am Still Running (Sutthamon Worapong, 2014)
20. Sweeper (Crys Cole, 2009)


FIDEL JESÚS QUIRÓS

EDITOR, LATIN AMERICAN FILM WEBSITE IN HAVANA, CUBA.
Last film year was marked by the arrival of digital projection to Cuba during the Havana Film Festival. This event is truly my only annual rendezvous with the cinema, so this list is only the best of the few films I saw in 2014.
As many did last year, I included in my list the Polish film Ida, a surprising turn at the way in which cinema looks at reality, to tell an intimate story that reveals how communist Poland silenced the country’s Jewish heritage. I also enjoyed the superb Italian film The Great Beauty, which blends verbal debate and breathtaking visuals. From the French, I enjoyed the corrosive Me, Myself and Mum, and the stern fable of female sexual discovery Young & Beautiful, both denouncing male brutalisation of love and demolishing all gender stereotypes. Not far from this, the Swedish film Something Must Break is a love story between an androgynous young man and a “straight” boy who tried to feminise him to fit into his hetero world. Germany’s Inbetween Worlds reveals the lyricism and pathos of the encounter of two very different cultures, East and West, through a complex tapestry of fraternal love, friendship and honour.
From French North America, 2010’s Incendies was like a brand new film for me, its illumination on love, hate and strength of spirit span beyond any given film year. From the US film factory I chose Labor Day, a quietly passionate drama that Kate Winslet’s riveting acting will turn into a classic. The cousin Scots offered Under the Skin, a tantalising film that begins as a dull piece of cinema and gradually becomes an hypnotic act of body dance, minimalist music and abstract backgrounds for the abyss of sexual attraction.
Latin America has stopped being an emerging cinema to become the solid ground for inspired, exceptional films such as the Golden Dream, where spared dialogues, actual facts and stunning images reconstruct the ordeal of three Central American teenagers that try to cross the US border. The Brazilian Futuro Beach made an immersion in the abyss of male sex, love and desire; it dives into the Brazilian Atlantic coast and re-emerges in the ultramodern Berlin to follow its hero alienation.
Cuban cinema was consecrated at last year’s Havana Film Festival. Conducta, within the environment of marginalisation, excels as a moral tale of the love, endurance and dedication of an aging female teacher and an alienated elementary school student. An instant audience success was Dress as a Maid, beginning as an old socialist realism film, turning to into a gender-oriented flick of transsexual identity, and ending as a love story amid a convulsive social landscape. I was also pleased by the first 3D animated Cuban feature, Meñique, a national version of a French fairytale, full of its own original ideas, bright imagination and kind ideals of which we are all in need of these days.
The best of the films I saw in 2014:
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table!(Me, Myself and Mum, Guillaume Gallienne, 2013)
Jeune & jolie (Young & Beautiful, François Ozon, 2013)
Nånting Måste gå Sönder (Something Must Break, Ester Martin Bergsmark, 2014)
Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds, Feo Aladag, 2014)
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)
Labor Day (Jason Reitman, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Dream, Diego Quemada-Díez, 2013)
Praia do Futuro (Futuro Beach, Karim Ainouz, 2014)
Conducta (Ernesto Daranas, 2014)
Vestido de Novia (Dressed as a Maid, Marilyn Solaya, 2014)
Meñique (Ernesto Padrón, 2014)
Jeune & Jolie (Young & Beautiful, François Ozon, 2013)
Jeune & Jolie (Young & Beautiful, François Ozon, 2013)

ROBERT & CAROL REIMER

ROBERT REIMER IS PROFESSOR OF GERMAN AND CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURE STUDIES UNC CHARLOTTE UNIVERSITY. HE COAUTHORED WITH CAROL REIMER A DICTIONARY OF HOLOCAUST CINEMA FOR SCARECROW PRESS.
Some of these films may have come out in 2013. But we viewed all in the theatre in 2014 in France. Of 42 films seen, here’s our list:
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones, 2014)
Saving Mr. Banks (John Lee Hancock, 2013)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Wish I was Here (Zach Braff, 2014)
The Hundred Foot Journey (Lasse Hallström, 2014)
Before I Go to Sleep (Rowan Joffe, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Third Person/Puzzle (Paul Haggis, 2014)
Begin Again (John Carney, 2013)
Worst films:
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Into the Storm (Steven Quale, 2014)
Noah (Darren Aronofsky, 2014)

BÉRÉNICE REYNAUD

FILM CRITIC AND CURATOR WHO TEACHES AT THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS.
By alphabetical order (of original film’s title):
Adieu au language (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
To be coherent, one shouldn’t write anything about this film, obviously designed to send language back to primeval nothingness. At the beginning there was The Word, and, at the end of history, the dogs (throughout his career, Godard has been fond of mentioning Clifford D. Simak’s CityDemain les Chiens in French – in which dogs are taking over once humanity has extinguished itself). In exquisitely designed 3D, you have girls, books, couples. And a dog. Speechless as they all are. As what is going to remain of us. Plus a subtle, raw, physical emotion. And this is what the film gives us, gave me.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Yes, I am putting it in this list; yes, it is a remarkable achievement; yes the writing is intelligent, the acting excellent; yes, it deeply struck a chord with US audiences. Yet, I cannot help thinking that Boyhood is looking toward the past, certainly not the future and not even the present. In spite of its “modern” aspects (extended families, separated and remarried parents, step-fathers and half-siblings, the father’s progressive politics, the mother’s struggles), it’s a time capsule of an America that is no more: white suburbs, established rites of passage, unquestioned gender and ethnic identities, a national territory unchallenged by the rest of the world, no real vanishing point. Boyhood may be the best of a certain American cinema, but it marks the end of an era.
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Because of the melancholia. Because of the painterly aspects, the reference to photography. Because, as it is often the case with Costa, his cinematic field offers me a canvas onto which I can project other images. Superimposed to his sadness at the failure of the 1974 Revolução dos Cravos (Carnation Revolution), I could hear and see echoes of the still-undigested colonial war Portugal waged for so many years. (My friend Martim Avilez, who fought in that war and never forgot, recently died in an institution for badly damaged veterans… so it was on my mind, but Costa’s work has a hallucinatory effect…) Because it’s easy to fall in love with Ventura. Because maybe I did.
Chuangru Zhe (Red Amnesia, Wang Xiaoshuai, 2014)
Boldly centered around the physical/emotional landscape of a widowed mother in her 70s (an elegant performance by veteran actress Lv Zhong), Red Amnesia is a ghost story of sorts, in which the return of repressed Chinese history asserts itself with a melancholic vengeance. This may be Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai’s best film ever, digging through the layers of the visible – the mundane reality of China walking toward increased consumerism and material comfort – to reveal a long-hidden sorrow, the unsolved guilt of ordinary people who had to make do just to survive.
The Dog (Alison Berg and Frank Keraudren, 2013)
A media victim after his 125 minutes of fame (the length of Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, 1975), never cashing on it after being given the illusion of being the master of his own destiny, working class maverick John Wojtowicz was still alive when documentarians Berg and Keraudren contacted him (he died of cancer during the shooting). Behind “the dog” who kept the police at bay and the crowd chanting for him while he was trying to rob a bank in Brooklyn, there is a charismatic, complex man, certainly lost, yet a paradoxically defining figure of queer identity, with two wives (one woman, one man), children, a powerful mother and energy galore.
Ghesseh-ha (Tales, Rakhshan Banietemad, 2014)
The best Iranian film in years, invisible in its own country save for a series of screenings at the latest Fajr Film Festival, a sum of Banietemad’s work (both fictional and documentary): characters from some of her earlier films meet and have complex, intimate interactions over the landscape of contemporary Tehran. Workers organise to obtain back wages, women fight for their right to happiness in the streets, on the workplace and in their homes, lost souls wander away from the cinematic field. Societal issues are often perceived through the prism of the fraught relationships between men and women, culminating in a powerful scene of romantic mismatch/longing in a van driven through the night.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Or what does cinematic freedom really feel like. Entertaining a rich conversation with the history of literature, the history of the world (Europe between WWI and WWII) with its assorted canon of bigotry, persecution and class divide (providing some of the film’s most powerful scenes), architecture, fine arts and good acting (the cast is a joy to behold), Anderson has crafted a finely tuned masterpiece. Acknowledging influences, such as that of Stefan Zweig in this case, is another way of asserting originality, and, as usual, Anderson is his own screenwriter, which makes for a tight, intelligent, always surprising plot. Pure pleasure – not even a guilty one.
Huangjin Shidai (The Golden Era, Ann Hui, 2014)
One of the two great films of the year (with Listen Up Philip) to successfully approach the creative meanderings of what it means to be a writer. Written in collaboration with ace screenwriter Li Quang, the film moves back and forth between different time frames and subjective/objective points of view to create an impressionistic, intimate portrait of both an artist and an era. Born the same year as the short-lived Chinese Republic, in 1911, and dying in Hong Kong at the age of 31, Xiao Hong, through her writings, sublimated the material conditions of her existence – civil war, social unrest, Japanese invasion, abject poverty, and the acute contradictions of the female condition during the Republican era. Hui’s sensitive, kaleidoscopic mise en scène does her justice while keeping her mystery intact.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
It may not be cool to put the Palme d’Or winner in your list, but two scenes won me over. A drunken working-class man destroying the money given to him by a well-meaning woman (yes, the mise en scène had prepared the stage and you could see it coming, but even then, the emotional impact is staggering); an older husband explaining to his younger wife why he can’t leave her even though their marriage is dead. Both scenes involve Melisa Sözen; in the first, she is the one who learns; in the second, the one to learn from. A metaphor for Ceylan’s screenwriting collaboration with his wife, Ebru Ceylan?
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
One of the most intelligent films made about a writer who is also a chauvinist pig, an unsympathetic character – as well as, surprisingly, someone we care about. Having him disappear from the diegesis for about one third of the film was a stroke of genius; we realised that we missed the asshole. Yet it also goes deeper: as in Ann Hui’s equally compelling The Golden Era, the film respects the mystery of the creative process, the obscure correspondences between life and art, whether or not it is important to like a writer to appreciate his/her work – but, ultimately, why it matters for public freedom that writers should be allowed to misbehave in peace.
The Many Faces of Comrade Gelovani (Mikheil Antadze, 2014)
Take a super-smart undergraduate CalArts student from Georgia, have him enrol in a class about YouTube filmmaking with James Benning, add, in the background, the undissipated shadow of Stalinism and Russian imperialism, and this is what happens. Delving into the history of Soviet propaganda film, Antadze came upon the figure of Mikheil Gelovani, an actor who, to his misfortune, knew how to imitate Stalin’s Georgian accent to perfection. From 1938 to 1953, this is all he did – playing him in films by the likes of Kuleshov, Romm and Kalatozov – risking his sanity and the mood swings of the deified leader in the process. (Disclaimer: I teach at CalArts, Antadze took classes with me and I made possible the international premiere of the film in Vienna.)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
I will take a stance about Mommy in my report on the AFI. For the time being, I’ll say that it’s as much for the scenes between the two women (played by two extraordinary actresses, Anne Dorval as the mother and Suzanne Clément as the neighbour) and for the scenes between mother and son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon). In all cases, it’s a film about the endurance of misplaced love (as in the best of Dolan’s previous work) – a film about saying goodbye.
Nånting måste gå sönder (Something Must Break, Ester Martin Bergsmark, 2014)
There is always something magical in the collaboration between the two Swedes, filmmaker Bergsmark and writer/performer Eli Levén, as evidenced in their previous film together, Pojktanten (She Male Snails, 2012). In this more traditional narration of a sexually ambiguous young man in love with a straight boy, Bergsmark displays an increased mastery of the medium, without losing the nonchalance, whimsicality and sheer refusal of conventions, boundaries and fixed identities that have made the work so endearing.
Nv daoyan(Female Directors, Yang Mingming, 2012)
I am deeply grateful to my Beijing friends for introducing me to this gem, that has so far shown very little in China and elsewhere, but marks one of the most exciting directing debuts of late. Unemployed art school graduates Mingming and Yue take turns filming each other with a small camera, exploring a range of issues rarely shown in any national cinema with such deadpan accuracy – from the complex waters of female friendship to “pussy” as a commodity, from the desire to use filmmaking as a weapon to the decision to make a baby – an up-in-your face, playful, sassy deconstruction of what it means to be a young woman now.
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Uneven as it may be, Ferrara’s work rarely leaves you untouched, but Pasolini is fated to occupy a special place in cinephilic hearts – despite being made mostly in English… First this was the role the vastly talented Willem Dafoe was born to play, and his physical identification with his model is astonishing. Second how breathtaking it is to find, in the role of Ninetto Davoli’s father, Ninetto Davoli himself, his hair white, but still casting the same generous and astonished gaze onto the world around him, whether it is designed by the Creator or by a non-conformist filmmaker. Third, Ferrara should be commended for attempting the impossible: shooting a few scenes of Pasolini’s last planned extravaganza, with Davoli traveling to the city of Sodom.
Party Girl (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burder and Samuel Theis, 2014)
The surprise winner of the Caméra d’Or, Party Girl is the brainchild of three graduates from La Fémis, who decided to follow the (love) life of an ageing bar hostess, Angélique Litzenburger, still working in a cabaret near the French-German boarder. A documentary? Yes, but Angélique, who has known many men in her life and still persists in living through desire alone, has had a few children, and Samuel Theis is her son. As the possibility of being reunited with a daughter once taken away from her and of marrying a former client arose almost simultaneously, the film morphs into fiction, to disturbing and exhilarating results.
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014).
A remarkable tour de force, simultaneously droll and poignant, burlesque and romantic, tracking the eternal (and nagging) question of good and evil through a pair of comedic bumbling cops and a couple of little kids in love, this immersion into the racist fantasies lurking in an un-bucolic landscape of meadows and manure could do for French television (and Dumont) what Twin Peaks did for the US (and Lynch): coining a new language, tapping into liberating creative forces.
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
As Muslim fundamentalism is on everybody’s mind, Sissako perfects an impossible feat: a visual and aural poem about the brief occupation of the Timbuktu Region of Mali by the militant Islamist group Ansar Dine. Never falling into sentimentalism or indignation, Sissako films every individual with palpable warmth and understanding, echoing Renoir and Satyajit Ray. And the film is through and through suffused with the almost-spiritual quality of the African light, and a mosaic of linguistic and musical traditions. Tragedy and death are shown as the result of small gestures – even in the wake of major historical upheavals.
The Thoughts That Once We Had (Thom Andersen, 2014)
Granted, I have only seen the film once, and this meticulous product of years of reading and lecturing about Deleuze’s Cinéma was not finished yet (even though it was a public screening in CalArts’ grand auditorium). It was, however, enough to see Thom Andersen jump from close-ups of manual labour shown by Dovzhenko, to a montage of Marlene Dietrich’s face in a succession of films by von Sternberg – from the uncut scene of Mike Hammer asking Christina to read him Christina Rossetti’s poem twice to breathtakingly beautiful shots of the sky and the sea excerpted from Godard… to know that I had to mention it here. I’ll see a new version in March, let’s wait for the 2015 list!
Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Black women played a seminal role in the Civil Rights Movement, but, more often than not (with the notable exception of Julie Dash’s The Rosa Parks Story, 2002), its history has mostly been told by male directors. Now, after finely analysing the plight of African American women in her first two films, Ava DuVernay intelligently tackles the three historical marches from Selma to Montgomery organized by Martin Luther King in 1965. Casting the British-born Nigerian actor David Oyelowo (already excellent in her earlier Middle of Nowhere, 2012), she depicts a complex, passionate, vulnerable and sometimes insecure Civil Rights leader, deeply conflicted about the harm his decisions may cause his followers or his family – nevertheless media-savvy in his desire to put pressure on President Johnson. A story of men and women rather than a story of heroes – yet a story that shaped our political landscape.
Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)

STUART RICHARDS

SENSES OF CINEMA ADMINISTRATOR WITH A PHD FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, PROGRAMMER FOR THE MELBOURNE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL.
This is a biased list. Being an early career researcher who focuses on queer cinema, I have a keen interest in films with LGBTI themes. It should be no surprise then that my highlights for 2014 consist of a majority of queer films. While the below list is in no particular order, I must say that my top film for the year was Dolan’s Mommy. The film is his strongest film to date and revels in his stylistic flourishes.
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
Turist (Force Majeure,Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks, Daniel Ribeiro, 2014)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Pride (Matthew Warchus, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Lilting (Hong Khaou, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson, 2014)
52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013)

JEREMY RIGSBY

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, MEDIA CITY FILM FESTIVAL, WINDSOR, CANADA.
1. Not Far at All (Peter Gidal, England, 16mm, 2014)
2. Gradual Speed (Els Van Riel, Belgium, 16mm, 2013)
3. Sound That and FE26 (Kevin Jerome Everson, USA, digital, 2013)
4. Main Hall (Philipp Fleischmann, Austria, 35mm, 2013)
5. Gente Perra (Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, Germany/Colombia, 2014)
6. Mille soleils (A Thousand Suns, Mati Diop, Senegal/France, digital, 2013)
7. Im Wiener Prater and NEC SPE NEC METU (Friedl vom Gröller, Austria, 16mm, 2013)
8. Orizzonti orizzonti! (Anna Marziano, Italy, digital, 2014)
9. Berlin Tiger and Rose (Shiloh Cinquemani, USA, 2012/13)
10. Not and Or (Simon Payne, England, digital, 2013)

PETER RIST

AUTHOR OF HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF SOUTH AMERICAN FILM AND CHAPTER OF ELECTRIC SHADOWS: A CENTURY OF CHINESE CINEMA.
2014 was an OK year for film, and here in Montreal it was good to catch up on some late entries from the previous year – Jia’s A Touch of Sin, Panh’s The Missing Picture – while the International Documentary Film Festival, RIDM in November, gets better all the time, and was notable for its retrospectives to James Benning and Kazuo Hara (complete), with both men in attendance. It was a very bad year for Hollywood films, and not much better for so-called U.S. “independents”, with Whiplash being arguably the most overrated film of the year, totally misrepresenting both jazz music and jazz education, while typifying in its Hollywood-ending what is wrong with Sundance existing as a professional calling-card festival. (I’ve never been there and have no interest in changing my travel plans.) Britain fared better, with my favourite sci-fi horror film in a long time, Glazer’s Under the Skin, and my favourite entertainment film of the year, the conventional, but charming Pride, while the flawed Mr. Turner impressively reflects the great painter’s sun worship through Dick Pope’s widescreen cinematography.Highlights of my year included being on the FIPRESCI jury at the Hong Kong IFF, where I admired Yang Hen’s third feature, Na pian hu shui (Lake August), and a couple of first features among others, as well as attending the amazing HK film market for the first time, where I saw one of my three 2014 “films for the ages”, Tsai’s Journey to the West; and seeing a nitrate print of Hitchcock’s Rebecca at the George Eastman House in Rochester (where they are doing a three-day all-nitrate festival in May, 2015!). It was also good to see the IMAX film projector used again, for Interstellar, although it was disconcerting to see the aspect ratio change from 70mm to anamorphic 35mm, often within the same scene. Poland was well served in Montreal this year with Ida and the Scorsese-sponsored retrospective: Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Night Train (1959) was a revelation. FanTasia has now become more than just a genre festival, and this year, they showed two impressive U.S. first features directed by women, Sarah Adina Smith’s The Midnight Swim, and Josephine Decker’s Butter on the Latch (2013). October’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC) continues to experience many technical glitches, but a lot of fine work does get shown, including retrospectives this year on Pedro Costa, and very early stereoscopic, i.e., 3D films from Canada’s National Film Board (1951-52), along with a digital restoration of King Hu’s Dragon Gate Inn (1968, finally sporting coherent English subtitles, thanks to Teresa Huang).
Three films for the ages:
Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language 3-D, Jean-Luc Godard 2014)
A short list of 10 others, in the order in which I saw them, and where:
 
Tian zhu ding (A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013) in release
Yoru no henrin (The Shape of Night, Noboru Nakamura, 1964) HKIFF
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) in release
28 (Prasanna Jayakody, 2014) at the World Film Festival (WFF)
Soko nomi nite hikari kagayaku (The Light Shines Only There, Mipo Oh 2014) WFF
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa 2014) FNC
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014) FNC
brouillard – passage#15 (Alexandre Larose, 2013) FNC (best short/Canadian film)
small roads (James Benning, 2011) RIDM
Gokushiteki erosu: Renka 1974 (Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974, Katsuo Hara 1974) RIDM
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)

ELOISE ROSS

MELBOURNE-BASED WRITER AND REVIEWER.
Best new Australian releases and festival viewings
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye To Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
All Is Lost (J. C. Chandor, 2013)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Tracks (John Curran, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Best repertory viewings
The Face Behind the Mask (Robert Florey, 1941), at the British Film Institute.
The Strange Woman (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946), 35mm print seen with Ulmer’s equally outstanding Detour (1945) at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947), at Melbourne Cinémathèque.
No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), 35mm print at New York Film Festival.
Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962), as part of Melbourne Cinémathèque’s season, Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poet of the Profane.
La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962), screened simultaneously in four different formats.
Kým sa skonči táto noc (Before Tonight Is Over, Peter Solan, 1965), digital restoration at Melbourne’s Czech and Slovak Film Festival.
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966), as part of Melbourne Cinémathèque’s season Cries and Whispers: Liv Ullmann’s Intimate Cinema.
Lions Love (Agnès Varda, 1969) at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
Best archival viewing
Walk on the Wild Side (Edward Dmytryk, 1962), 16mm print at the Museum of Modern Art
Worst new releases 
Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
Labor Day (Jason Reitman, 2013)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

JULIAN ROSS

SHORT FILM SELECTION COMMITTEE ADVISOR AT IFFR.
The Dent (Basim Magdy, 2014)
Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Mueda, Memória e Massacre (Mueda, Memory and Massacre, Ruy Guerra, 1972)
On the way to India Consciousness, I Reached China (Henry Francia, 1968)
Instants (Hannes Schüpbach, 2012)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
Hotel (Benjamin Nuel, 2013)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Des hommes et de la guerre (Of Men and War, Laurent Bécue-Renard, 2014)

MIRIAM ROSS

SENIOR LECTURER IN FILM AT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON.
2014 offered a fairly good demonstration of the way 3D cinema has become entrenched in recent years. Most of the major action blockbusters – particularly those that are part of wider franchises such as Marvel and DC – had 3D versions released. Similarly, most of the major computer-generated animations were exhibited in 3D, including the record-breaking Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, 2013). Although a variety of independent 3D films from around the world were made, few made it beyond their country of origin and/or a handful of film festivals. As a potential blip, or maybe as a sign of things to come, this was the first of recent years not to have an obvious Academy Awards contender (previous years produced Hugo [2011], Life of Pi [2012], Gravity [2013]).
These are my top three 3D films released in 2014 and the other close contenders:
1. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean Luc Godard, 2014)
Godard’s first feature length 3D film broke all the rules about what one should and should not do when shooting in 3D. It was often an agonising viewing experience but one that excelled in making us question everything we know about the process of three dimensional vision and how we view the world. 
2. The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet (2013, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Unafraid of using a presentational mode of visual expression, the film explored its depth budget with delight. It created a stunning hyper-reality that allows all the intricate details of its carefully crafted visual world to seem within touching distance of our grasp.
3. Step Up All In (Trish Sie, 2014)
Although Step Up All In has a terribly formulaic plot and frequent doses of wooden acting, it demonstrates exactly why dance on film is best showcased in 3D cinema. The film uses the full extent of deep space in order to show the spectacular kinetic abilities of its cast so that we can experience spectacular moments that would be lost in the 2D version.
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer, 2014)
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Marc Webb, 2014)
6. Amazonia (Thierry Ragobert, 2013)
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, 2014)
8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014)
9. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 2014)
10. 300: Rise of an Empire (Noam Murro, 2014)

DAN SALLITT

FILMMAKER AND FILM WRITER LIVING IN NEW YORK.
1. The Mend (John Magary, 2014)
2. Something, Anything (Paul Harrill, 2014)
3. Ja-yu-eui eon-deok (Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
4. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
5. The Monuments Men (George Clooney, 2014)
6. Casa Grande (Fellipe Barbosa, 2014)
7. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg, 2014)
8. The Rover (David Michôd, 2014)
9. Bing du (Ice Poison, Midi Z, 2014)
10. Dos disparos (Two Shots Fired, Martin Rejtman, 2014)
11. Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
12. Ellie Lumme (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, 2014)
13. White Strips (Tim Whitney, 2014)
All the above films received their world premieres in 2014. This list will certainly change quite a lot as 2014 films make their way to New York over the course of the next few years.
A few good films of recent years that crossed my path in 2014: Mes séances de lutte (Love Battles, Jacques Doillon, 2013); Pelo Malo (Bad Hair, Mariana Rondón, 2013); Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013); Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (Sam Fleischner, 2013); Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (Miss and the Doctors, Axelle Ropert, 2013); Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, 2013); Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini, 2013); Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 2013); El loro y el cisne (The Parrot and the Swan, Alejo Moguillansky, 2013); Elle s’en va (On My Way, Emmanuelle Bercot, 2013); Sebunsu kôdo (Seventh Code, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2013); La isla (The Island, Dominga Sotomayor and Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, 2013); Low Tide (Roberto Minervini, 2012); Finsterworld (Frauke Finsterwalder, 2013); “Singapore Panda” episode (Sun Koh) from Nan fang lai xin (Letters from the South, 2013); O Homem das Multidoes (The Man of the Crowd, Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães, 2013).

MARIA SAN FILIPPO

FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA.
1. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Officially opening mid-2015, though my most entrancing cinematic experience of last year. A poignant meditation on art as well as a delightful female buddy comedy with sublime performances by its three female leads.
2. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
With the Internet flooded by fan adoration and scholarly analyses already shooting down the pipeline, I’ll confine myself to calling this a unique, and uniquely terrifying, cinematic vision in every way.
3. Joanna Hogg trilogy: Unrelated (2007), Archipelago (2010), Exhibition (2013)
Finally available to US viewers via Netflix streaming, Hogg’s work to date is quietly devastating and revelatory. A Mike Leigh of the haute bourgeoisie.
4. Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
A near-disaster and its aftermath begets a crisis of faith for two vacationing couples, whose increasingly desperate attempts to address what happened are (despite a florid final act) nothing short of mesmerising.
5. Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs, 2014)
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a decades-old but just-married gay couple confronting the cruel new world of too-high Manhattan rents and reluctant family support. Simultaneously heartening and heartbreaking.
6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Less enthused than most (the Before trilogy remaining, for me, Linklater’s crowning achievement), I felt deflated by both kids becoming less interesting with each passing year. Yet Arquette’s and Hawke’s performances were touching, and the combination of epic span and micro-drama impressive.
7. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre, 2014)
Highly gratifying for being Jenny Slate’s much-deserved breakout, for giving bathroom humour feminist inflection, and for providing the abortion comedy antidote to Juno.
8. Io e te (Me and You, Bernardo Bertolucci, 2012)
A late gem from the 73 year-old master who still manages to shock, though here by not delivering the expected incest between half-siblings sharing a hideout. The Italian-language version of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” that accompanies their climactic encounter is a transcendent moment of film music.
9. Land Ho! (Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens, 2014)
10. The Trip to Italy (Michael Witterbottom, 2014)
Both feature a rascal-straight man duo living large in an exotic milieu, with droll discussions and imitations respectively alongside trenchant observations on male friendship and aging.
Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre, 2014)
Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre, 2014)

JOSÉ SARMIENTO

FILM CRITIC, PUBLICIST, MUSICIAN AND MUSIC PRODUCER FROM LIMA, PERÚ. FOUNDER AND FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DESISTFILM.COM.
Masterpieces:
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Alexei German, 2013)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Història de la meva mort (Story of my Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
Exhibition (Joanna Hogg, 2013)
Jewels (Sandro Aguilar, 2013)
Exceptional:
Free Range/Ballaad Maailma Heakskiitmisest (Free Range/Ballad on Approving of the World, Veiko Öunpuu, 2013)
Jigoku de Naze Warui (Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, Sion Sono, 2013)
Xi You (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-Liang, 2014)
Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2013)
I Forgot! (Eduardo Williams, 2014)
Les Rencontres d’après minuit (You and The Night, Yann Gonzalez, 2013)
A Million Miles Away (Jennifer Reeder, 2014)
Outstanding:
Tip Top (Serge Bozon, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Favula (Raúl Perrone, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
El Futuro (The Future, Luis López Carrasco, 2013)
The Volcano Exiles (Paula Gaitán, 2013)
Los Angeles Red Squad (Travis Wilkerson, 2013)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
The Ugly One (Eric Baudelaire, 2013)
Quite good:
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley, Alain Resnais, 2014)
Uncertain Terms (Nathan Silver, 2014)
Un conte de Michel de Montaigne (Jean-Marie Straub, 2013)
Encounters With Your Inner Trotsky Child (Jim Finn, 2013)
Costa da Morte (Coast of Death, Lois Patiño, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Le Dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Claude Lanzmann, 2013)
La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur, Roman Polanski, 2013)
Worth mentioning:
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
Soon (Jeanne Liotta, 2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
La distancia (The Distance, Sergio Caballero, 2014)
America (Valérie Massadian, 2013)
52 Tuesdays (Sophie Hyde, 2013)
Didn’t get to watch but would surely be in this list:
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)

REGINA SCHLAGNITWEIT

HEAD OF PROGRAM DEPARTMENT, AUSTRIAN FILMMUSEUM.
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Natural History (James Benning, 2014)
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)

DANIEL SCHMIDT

ARTIST AND FILMMAKER.
Some favourites, in no order:
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Fort Buchanan (Benjamin Crotty, 2014)
A Minute Ago (Rachel Rose, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Day is Done (Mike Kelley, 2005 – cinema installation)
Broad City Season 1 (Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson, 2014)
Here’s to the Future! (Gina Telaroli, 2014)
Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
Louie Season 4 (Louis C.K., 2014)
Jiao You (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Mille soleils (A Thousand Suns, Mati Diop, 2014)
Quickeners (Jeremy Shaw, 2014)
The Kroll Show Season 2 (Nick Kroll, 2014)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, 2014)
Ennui ennui (Gabriel Abrantes, 2013)
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
Venice 70: Future Reloaded (Paul Schrader, 2013)
La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
For the Plasma (Bingham Bryant & Kyle Molzan, 2014)
Ha-Shoter (Policeman, Nadav Lapid, 2011)
Special Features (James Kienitz Wilkens, 2014)
South Park Season 18 (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 2014)
Happy Birthday (Ed Atkins, 2014)
Things (Ben Rivers, 2014)
Still looking forward to seeing many new works including: Feng ai (‘Til Madness do Us Part, Wang Bing), Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa), Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson), Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie), La última película (Raya Martin & Mark Peranson), Mommy (Xavier Dolan), Haganenet (The Kindergarden Teacher, Nadav Lapid), Citizenfour (Laura Poitras), Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund), Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello), Les trois désastres (part of 3X3D, Jean-Luc Godard), Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz) and Pardé (Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi).
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)

HOWARD SCHUMANN

FREELANCE WRITER.
1. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
3. Locke (Steven Knight, 2014)
4. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
5. The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (Brian Knappenberger, 2014)
6. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)*
7. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
8. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller), 2014)
9. I Origins (Mike Cahill, 2014)
10. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
11. Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
12. Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
13. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)*
14. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)*
15. The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)*
16. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
17. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014)
18. Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2013)*
19. Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
20. Io e te (Me and You, Bernardo Bertolucci, 2012)*
*Released in Canada in 2014
Honorable mentions:

Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Ostlund, 2014)
Dos disparos (Two Shots Fired, Martin Rejtman, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2013)
In Search of Chopin (Phil Grabsky, 2014)
The Fault in Our Stars (Josh Boone, 2014)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
St. Vincent (Theodore Melfi, 2014)
Disappointing:
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
Chef (Jon Favreau, 2014)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

PEDRO EMILIO SEGURA BERNAL

FICUNAM’S DAILY EDITOR; MOVIE POSTER DESIGNER.
1. Adieu au langage (Goodbye To Language 3D, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
2. Bai ri yan huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, (Diao Yinan, 2014)
3. Boyhood (Richard Linkater, 2014)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. Clouds Of Sils Maria (Oliver Assayas, 2014)
6. La princesa de Francia (The Princess Of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
7. Historia del miedo (History Of Fear, Benjamin Naishat, 2014)
8. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
9. Maidan (Sergei Losnitsa, 2014)
10. Maps To The Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Shown in Mexico in 2014 with world release date from 2013:
1. Când se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau Metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu 2013)
2. Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013) / Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Hong Sang-soo, 2014)
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
4. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
5. L’inconnu du lac (Stranger By The Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
6. A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness (Ben Rivers & Ben Russell, 2013)
7. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
8. Trudno byt bogom (Hard To Be A God, Aleksei German, 2013)
9. Tom à la ferme (Tom At The Farm, Xavier Dolan, 2013)
10. Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, The End Of History, Lav Díaz, 2013) / Manakamana (Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez, 2013)

CHRISTOPHER SIKICH

TEACHER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND CINEPHILE, PHILADELPHIA.
Time cinematic and immemorial was projected in novel ways in 2014. The transformation of the various characters’ lives in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood in selected real time was breathtaking to witness. The possibilities of expanding humanity’s understanding of time as shown in Interstellar was truly mind-bending. To see lives mortal (Life Itself), immortal (Only Lovers Left Alive) and nearly forgotten (Finding Vivian Maier) with their flaws and foibles in widescreen was exhilarating. The following fit my bill at this moment for the greatest of the great 2014.
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
2. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
3. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
4. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
5. Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2013)
6. Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
7. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
8. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
9. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
10. Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2013)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)

MARK SPRATT

INDEPENDENT FILM DISTRIBUTOR IN AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND, AND CINEPHILE.
2014 was not a year that provided an abundance of joy and amazement in cinema screenings. Of those I saw however, these stand out as impressive in form and expression:
Mahi va gorbeh (Fish & Cat, Shahram Mokri, 2013)
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Fury (David Ayer, 2014)
Locke (Steven Knight, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
Ida (Pavel Pawilkowski, 2013)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
As with the past few years, long form television continued to supply a steady stream of rewarding viewing, including:
 
The Knick (Steven Soderbergh, 2014)
True Detective (2014)
Olive Kitteridge (Lisa Cholodenko, 2014)
Finally seen in retrospective screenings elsewhere, these were stunning discoveries:
A Reliogiosa Portuguesa (The Portuguese Nun, Eugène Green, 2009)
Satantango (Béla Tarr, 1994)
Ride the Pink Horse (Robert Montgomery, 1947)

BRAD STEVENS

AUTHOR OF MONTE HELLMAN: HIS LIFE AND FILMS (MCFARLAND, 2003), ABEL FERRERA: THE MORAL VISION (FAB PRESS, 2004), AND THE HUNT (VAMPTASY PUBLISHING).
Films of the Year (in preferential order)
1. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
2. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
3. Grace of Monaco (Olivier Dahan, 2014)
4. Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013)
5. Diaz: Don’t Clean Up This Blood (Daniele Vicari, 2012)
6. Uri Sunhi (Our Sunhi, Hong Sang-soo, 2013)
7. Les salauds (Bastards, Claire Denis, 2013)
8. La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
9. Passion(Brian De Palma, 2012)
10. Le passé (The Past, Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
Retrospective discoveries (in alphabetical order)
1. The Big Trail (Raoul Walsh, 1930)
2. Chibusa yo eien nare (The Eternal Breasts, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955)
3. Koibumi (Love Letters, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1953)
4. Nitrato argento (Silver Nitrate, Marco Ferreri, 1996)
5. Nuit de chien (This Night, Werner Schroeter, 2008)
6. Pilgrimage (John Ford, 1933)
7- Tsuki wa noborinu (The Moon Has Risen, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955)
8. Visions of Clair (Zachary Strong, 1977)
9. Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth, Akira Kurosawa, 1946)
10. Xiao cheng zhi chun (Spring in a Small Town, Fei Mu, 1948)

ISABEL STEVENS

WRITES FOR SIGHT & SOUND AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS.
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, 2014)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
La Princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
La sapenzia (Eugène Green, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Plemya (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki, 2014)
And a few other highlights:
Seeing Isao Takahata’s films on the big screen as part of the BFI’s Studio Ghibli retrospective, and a DVD/Blu-ray release of Paul Grimault’s The King and The Mockingbird, which was a formative influence on both Takahata and Miyazaki.
Dennis Kelly & Marc Munden’s Channel 4 series Utopia.
The Chris Marker collection on DVD & Blu-ray from Soda and exploring his installation work, books and photography at the Whitechapel’s Marker exhibition.
An exhibition of Noguchi Hisamitsu’s film posters at the Museum of Kyoto.

CLINT STIVERS

TEACHES FILM HISTORY, CRITICISM, THEORY AND HOLLYWOOD FROM 1967-PRESENT AT GEORGIA TECH.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Frank (Lenny Abrahamson, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)

BEE THIAM TAN

EDITOR OF CINEMAS OF ASIA AND FILMMAKER WITH 13 LITTLE PICTURES COLLECTIVE.
Cheol-ae-kum (A Dream of Iron, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, 2014)
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Court (Chaitanya Tamhane, 2014)
E agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me, Joaquim Pinto, 2013)
Zemlya (Earth, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930) with live accompaniment by Bani Haykal at The Open, Singapore International Festival of Arts 2014
Last Trip Home (Han Fengyu, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Non-pik-syeon da-i-eo-li (Non-fiction Diary, Jung Yoon-Suk, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
Nymphomaniac: Volume I (Lars Von Trier, 2013)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)

ANTOINE THIRION

PROGRAMMER & FILM CRITIC, CAHIERS DU CINÉMA (2001-09), AND CO-FOUNDER & CO-EDITOR IN CHIEF INDEPENDENCIA (2009-13).
“The artists of our time are like men hypnotized, repeating over and over a dreary formula of futility. And I say: Break this evil spell, young comrade; go out and meet the new dawning life, take your part in the battle, and put it into new art; do this service for a new public, which you yourself will make [...] that your creative gift shall not be content to make art works, but shall at the same time make a world; shall make new souls, moved by a new ideal of fellowship, a new impulse of love, and faith – and not merely hope, but determination.”
– Upton Sinclair, Mammonart, quoted by Jonas Staal in “To Make a World, Part I: Ultranationalism and the Art of the Stateless State”, e-flux, 2014.
1. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
2. Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
3. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
4. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
5. Història de la meva mort (Story of My Death, Albert Serra, 2013)
6. Lettres à Max (Letters to Max, Éric Baudelaire, 2014)
7. Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
8. Three Landscapes (Peter Hutton, 2013)
9. La Princesa de Francia (The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro, 2014)
10. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
11. Mercuriales (Virgil Vernier, 2013)
12. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014)
13. The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki, 2014)
14. Too Many Cooks (Casper Kelly, 2014)
Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon (From What is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)

GORAZD TRUŠNOVEC

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF EKRAN MAGAZINE, SLOVENIA
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Plemya (The Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Nymphomaniac – Volume I: Extended Director’s Cut (Lars von Trier, 2014)
Rocks in My Pockets (Signe Baumane, 2014)
+ one guilty pleasure:
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)

KOEN VAN DAELE

PROGRAMMER AND CURATER WORKING IN LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA. HEAD OF PROGRAM KINODVOR.
Best Films of 2014 theatrically released in Slovenia in 2014:
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Best Films (of ’13 and ’14) screened in Slovenia in 2014, but unreleased in Slovenia:
Asha Jaoar Majhe (Labour of Love, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, 2014)
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, 2013)
Bird People (Pascale Ferran, 2014)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, 2014)
En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Im Keller (In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl, 2014)
Kosac (The Reaper, Zvonimir Jurić, 2014)
La Jalousie (Jealousy, Philippe Garrel, 2013)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to be a God, Aleksei German, 2013)
Turist (Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, 2014)
Queen and Country (John Boorman, 2014)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Best Films of 2014 that have not been screened in Slovenia:
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Belluscone. Una storia siciliana (Belluscone. A Sicilian Story, Franco Maresco, 2014)
Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna (The Postman’s White Nights, Andrei Konchalovsky, 2014)
Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
Ghesse-ha (Tales, Rakhshan Banietemad, 2014)
La Chambre bleue (The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric, 2014)
La Rançon de la gloire (The Price of Fame, Xavier Beauvois, 2014)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
She’s Funny That Way (Peter Bogdanovich, 2014)
Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)
Xi you (Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
The most memorable and most extraordinary screenings of 2014:
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014). Slovene theatrical premiere at the Grand Hotel Union, Ljubljana, 20 March, as part of The Year of the Cinema Season.
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) (Preceded by Cops, Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1922). Screened for a primary school audience as part of the Film Education in Cinemas conference, Kinodvor, Ljubljana, 8 May.
The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, 1956). Screened at Pin-Up Night at the former widescreen cinema, Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 8 May.
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994). A rare (the only?) 35mm projection at the last Cannes Film Festival. Screened in the presence of Tarantino, Uma Thurman and John Travolta at Cinéma de la plage, Cannes, 23 May.
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975). A near immaculate 35mm print screened as part of the 2nd 35mm film festival (preceded by 24 Frames per Century, Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2013; and Necktie, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2013) at Kinoteka, Ljubljana, 19 June.
The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928). Open air screening at Congress Square, Ljubljana, 25 June, as part of The Year of the Cinema Season & The Tramp 100.
World War I Double-bill: Maudite soit la guerre (Alfred Machin, 1914) accompanied on piano by Gabriel Thibaudeau. Followed by En Dirigeable sur les Champs de Bataille: Deuxième partie. De Nieuwpoort à Mont Kemmel (Lucien Lesaint & Jacques Trolley de Prévaux, 1918) accompanied by live computer soundtrack by Edison Studio and interrupted by thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Anti-war melodrama made just before the World War, followed by stupefying aerial shots of the remains of my home region (West-Flanders), taken the year following the Great War. Cinema Ritrovato, Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, 29 June.
Sosialismi (Socialism, Peter von Bagh, 2014). Screening introduced by Peter von Bagh at Cinema Ritrovato, Cinema Lumière – Sala Scorsese, Bologna, 1 July.
The Clock: or, 90 Minutes of Free Time program curated by Alexander Horwath as part of the 50th anniversary programme of the Austrian Filmmuseum. Cinema Ritrovato, Cinema Lumière – Sala Scorsese, Bologna, 4 July.
The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925). Accompanied live on piano by Neil Brand and screened as part of The Year of the Cinema Season and the events marking the centenary of World War I. National Opera Ljubljana (during World War I: Kino Central), Ljubljana, 7 September.
Herr Arnes Pengar (Sir Arne’s Treasure, Mauritz Stiller, 1919). Accompanied by an exceptional performance by Philip C. Carli on piano. Giornate del cinema muto, Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, 7 October.
Benshi Ichiro Kataoka accompanies Kenka Yasubei (Hot-Tempered Yasubei, Iwao Minato, 1928) and Chaplin’s Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman, 1914); His New Profession (Charles Chaplin, 1914); The New Janitor (Charles Chaplin, 1914); Dough and Dynamite (Charles Chaplin, 1914). On piano: Günter A. Buchwald. Giornate del cinema muto, Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, 7 October.
Die Nibelungen & Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Fritz Lang, 1924). One of the Lang movies that always left me cold. The exceptional musical accompaniment (Maud Nelissen, Frank Bockius, Romano Todesco, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry) made it a profoundly moving, unforgettable experience. Giornate del cinema muto, Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, 8 October.
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967). The opening of the Ljubljana International Film Festival and of the Year of Cinema Big Screen retrospective. Linhartova dvorana, Ljubljana, 12 November.
Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994). Followed by a Q&A with Béla Tarr and screened as part of the Big Screen retrospective at the Ljubljana International Film Festival. Slovenska kinoteka, 20 November.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)

TOM VINCENT

PROGRAM MANAGER – FILM, PERTH INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL, AUSTRALIA.
In the first three quarters of 2014 I saw many of the year’s best films at UK film festivals, all of which punched well above their weight by offering smart selections and presentations. In October I moved with my family to Australia, and so I’ll experience this year’s cinema in yet in new ways. I look forward keenly to this vital part of public life in our new home.
Here is my list in alphabetical order: 
Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964) at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater (Gabe Klinger, 2013)
FUCK ME (orange) (James Benning 2014)
L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Jiao you (Stray Dogs, Tsai Ming-liang, 2013)
Kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki 2013)
Khaneh siah ast (The House is Black, Forough Farrokhzad, 1963) at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Lego Movie (Christopher Miller & Phil Lord, 2014)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) UK re-release
Ohikkoshi (Moving, Shinji Sômai, 1993) UK re-release
Secrets of Nature (various/METAMONO, 1903-1927/2014)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Wonder (Mirai Mizue, 2014)

DAVID WALSH

WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE.
It seems that there is some change for the better, since it has been difficult in some recent years to come up with even ten titles. There is a growing seriousness about life in filmmaking, at the same time as a great many empty and self-absorbed works continue to be made and praised. To list the overrated films would be a major undertaking, and it would also tend to demonise the individual filmmakers (and critics), when the problem is a broader, socio-cultural one.
Best Films Released in the US in 2014:
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad, 2013)
A World Not Ours (Mahdi Fleifel, 2012)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)
Night Will Fall (Andre Singer, 2014)
The Kill Team (Dan Krauss, 2013)
Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen, 2013)
La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur, Roman Polanski, 2013)
Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2013)
L’écume des jours (Mood Indigo, Michel Gondry, 2013)
Devil’s Knot (Atom Egoyan, 2013)
Rich Hill (Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
Miss Julie (Liv Ullmann, 2014)
Belle (Amma Asante, 2013)
Pelo Malo (Bad Hair, Mariana Rondón, 2013)
Bella addormentata (Dormant Beauty, Marco Bellocchio, 2012)
Best Films Not Yet Released in the US:
99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani, 2014)
Iraqi Odyssey (Samir, 2014)
Good Kill (Andrew Niccol, 2014)
Tigers (Danis Tanovic, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Im Labyrinth des Schweigens (Labyrinth of Lies, Giulio Ricciarelli, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Le Beau Monde (High Society, Julie Lopes-Curval, 2014)
Kosac (The Reaper, Zvonimir Juric, 2014)
La Cour de Babel (School of Babel, Julie Bertuccelli, 2014)
Moratoriamu Tamako (Tamako in Moratorium, Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2013)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)

VIRGINIA WRIGHT WEXMAN

PROFESSOR EMERITA OF ENGLISH AND ART HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AND AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF FILM (SEVENTH EDITION) AND WEBSITE FILM FESTIVAL TOURISM.
Having moved to LA in 2013, I am now focusing on local fests, including the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (TCM); City of Lights, City of Angels French Film Festival (COL COA); Hola Mexico! Film Festival; Los Angeles Film Festival; CineCon; and AFI Fest. My few out-of-town excursions included the Palm Springs Film Festival; Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy; and the Wood’s Hole Film Festival. Here are some of the highlights from these festivals:
Best new international cinema:
Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014) (AFI)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014) (AFI)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix van Groeningen, 2012) (Palm Springs)
Heli (Amat Escalante, 2013) (Hola Mexico)
The Two Faces of January (Hossein Amini, 2014) (Los Angeles)
Club Sándwich (Club Sandwich, Fernando Eimbcke, 2013) (Los Angeles)
Best retrospective:
William Wellman (Bologna)
Best revivals:
How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941) (TCM)
Matrimonio all’italian (Marriage, Italian Style, Vittorio de Sica, 1964) (Bologna)
L’homme qui aimait les femmes (The Man Who Loved Women, Francois Truffaut, 1977) (COL COA)
Human Cargo (Allan Dwan,1936) (CineCon)

DEANE WILLIAMS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, FILM AND SCREEN STUDIES, MONASH UNIVERSITY.
Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan (Norte, End of History, Lav Diaz, 2013)
The Immigrant (James Gray, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do Us Part, Wang Bing, 2013)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Adam McKay, 2013)
Casa Grande (Fellipe Barbosa, 2014)

BARBARA WURM

TEACHER AT HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY; FREELANCE PROGRAMMER AND CRITIC.
Fiction
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
Angely revoljucii (Angels of Revolution, Aleksej Fedorčenko, 2014)
Huba (Wilhelm Sasnal & Anka Sasnal, 2014)
Dosvidanie, mama! (Goodbye, Mum!,Svetlana Proskurina, 2013)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters, Dominik Graf, 2014)
The Better Angels (A.J. Edwards, 2014)
The Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
3 Histoires d’Indiens (Three Indian Tales, Robert Morin, 2014)
Universal Truths – Old Timer
Trudno byt bogom (Hard to Be a God, Aleksei German, 2013) [thanks to “Around the World in 14 Films”!]
Contemporary Truths – New Comer
Ukkili kamshat (The Owners, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, 2014)
Non-Fiction
Le Beau Danger (René Frölke, 2013)
Judgement in Hungary (Eszter Hajdú, 2013)
Poslednij limuzin (The Last Limousine, Dar’ja Chlestkina, 2013)
Non-fiction Diary (Jung Yoon-suk, 2013)
Songs from the North (Yoo Soon-Mi, 2014)
Maidan (Sergej Loznitsa, 2014)
All Things Ablaze (Oleksandr Tečyn’skyj & Oleksij Solodunov & Dmytro Stoïkov, 2014)
Meine Mutter, der Krieg und ich (My Mother, a War and Me, Tamara Trampe & Johann Feindt, 2014)
Die Zeit vergeht wie ein brüllender Löwe (Time Goes By Like a Roaring Lion, Philipp Hartmann, 2013)
Im Keller (In the Basement,Ulrich Seidl, 2013)
Bucureşti, unde eşti? (Where Are You, Bucharest?, Vlad Petri, 2014)
 
REV
Sono yo no tsuma (That Night’s Wife, Ozu Yasujiro, 1930)
Der weiße Teufel (The White Devil, Aleksandr Volkov, 1930)
Pustoe mesto (Empty Space, Aleksandr Medvedkin, 1932)
Ninjo kamifusen (Humanity and Paper Balloon, Sadao Yamanaka, 1937)
Gonin no sekkohei (Five Scouts, Tasaka Tomotaka, 1938)
Oshidori utagassen (Singing Lovebirds, Masahiro Makino, 1939)
Sovest’ mira (The Conscience of the World, Abram Room, 1951)
Čolpon. Utrennjaja zvezda (Čolpon. Morning Star, Roman Tichomirov, 1959)
Paul Dessau (Richard Cohn-Vossen, 1966)
Spanien! (Spain!,Peter Nestler, 1973)
Unversöhnliche Erinnerungen (Klaus Volkenborn, Johann Feindt, Karl Siebig, 1979)
RIP
Not, that we got to see their films only in 2014, but this is indeed a year of big losses. They were either much too young to die or not yet old enough. In order of their appearance:
Alain Resnais (1922): Les Herbes folles (Wild Grass, 2009)
Robert Drew (1924): Faces of November (1964)
Günter Reisch (1927): Das Lied der Matrosen (The Sailors‘ Song, co-director: Kurt Maetzig, 1958)
Věra Chytilová (1929): O něčem jiném (Something Different, 1963)
Gennadij Poloka (1930): Odin iz nas (One of Us, 1970)
Wu Tianming (1939): Mei you hang biao de he liu (River Without Buoys, 1984)
Peter van Bagh (1943): Olavi Virta (1972)
Harun Farocki (1944): Die Bewerbung (The Interview, 1997)
Peter Liechti (1951): Hans im Glück – Drei Versuche, das Rauchen loszuwerden, (2003)
Michael Glawogger (1959): Die Frau mit einem Schuh (The Woman with One Shoe, 2014)
Florian Flicker (1965): No Name City (2006)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)

NEIL YOUNG

CRITIC / JOURNALIST AND PROGRAMMER / CONSULTANT (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, TRIBUNE, SIGHT & SOUND, VIENNALE, CROSSING EUROPE, ETC).
Blasts of the present (first-time views)
Au bord du monde (On the Edge of the World, Claus Drexel, 2013)
Buffalo Death Mask (Mike Hoolboom, 2013)*
The Claustrum (Jay Rosenblatt, 2014)*
Colterrain (Tina Frank, 2014)*
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014)
Ginza Strip (Richard Tuohy, 2014)*
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
Psychic Driving (William E Jones, 2014)*
P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
La reina (The Queen, Manuel Abramovich, 2013)*
Seven Boats (Hlynur Pálmason, 2014)*
Seventh Submarine (Allan Brown, 2014)*
Sonne Halt (Sun Stop, Dietmar Brehm, 2014)*
V~ (Manuel Knapp, 2014)*
Blasts from the past (first-time views)
Gerdy, zločesta vještica (Gerdy, The Wicked Witch, Ljubomir Šimunić, 1976)*
Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, Werner Herzog, 1974)*
Fabrika (Factory, Sergei Loznitsa, 2004)*
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (Games of Reflection and of Speed, Henri Chomette, 1926)*
Knopka (The Button, Robert Sahakyants, 1989)*
Low (R.E.M.) (James Herbert, 1990)*
La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache, 1973)
Mitbürger! (Fellow Citizens!, Walter Heynowski & Gerhard Scheumann, 1974)
Paura in citta (1181 dni pozneje ali vonj po podganah) (Davorin Marc, 1984)*
Schmeerguntz (Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley, 1966)*
Skuki radi (From Sheer Boredom, Artur Voytetsky, 1968)
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
Taranci (Ernest Abdyjaparov, 1995)*
* short

ALEXANDRA ZAWIA

FILM CRITIC FOR FILM & FEUILLETON, WIENER ZEITUNG, FURCHE, RAY AND FREELANCE.
1. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014)
2. P’tit Quinquin (Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont, 2014)
3. Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money, Pedro Costa, 2014)
4. Trudno byt bogom (Hard To Be A God, Aleksei German, 2013)
5. Kış uykusu (Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
6. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014)
7. Xi you (Journey To The West, Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)
8. Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014)
9. Branco Sai, Preto Fica (White Out, Black In, Adirley Queirós, 2014)
10. Mula sa kung ano ang noon (From What Is Before, Lav Diaz, 2014)
11. Dos Disparos (Two Shots Fired, Martín Rejtman, 2014)
12. Navajazo (Ricardo Silva, 2014)
13. Haganenet (The Kindergarten Teacher, Nadav Lapid, 2014)
14. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014)
15. Bai ri yan huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice, Yinan Diao, 2014)








Bonus:










Karina Longworth: 16 Favorite Movies of 2014 (as posted on Twitter in this series of tweets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
  • We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
  • The Immigrant – James Gray
  • Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
  • Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
  • Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  • Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  • Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
  • Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Bird People – Pascale Ferran
  • Tales of the Grim Sleeper – Nick Broomfield
  • Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
  • Laggies – Lynn Shelton
  • The One I Love – Charlie McDowell
  • Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
  • Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman






Christopher Orr: 30 Best Movies of 2014 (as published by The Atlantic)
  1. A Most Violent Year – J.C. Chandor
  2. Selma – Ava DuVernay
  3. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  5. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
  6. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  7. Gone Girl – David Fincher
  8. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
  9. Locke – Steven Knight
  10. Noah – Darren Aronofsky
  11. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
  12. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan

Honorable Mentions (Alphabetically)

  • American Sniper – Clint Eastwood
  • Big Hero 6 – Don Hall and Christ Williams
  • Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
  • Calvary – John Michael McDonagh
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo
  • Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman
  • The Hunger Games: Monckinjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
  • The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
  • A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn
  • Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
  • Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
  • The Skeleton Twins – Craig Johnson
  • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
  • The Theory of Everything – James Marsh
  • Top Five – Chris Rock
  • Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  • Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  • Whiplash – Damien Chazelle


    Steve Erickson: 20 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Gay City News)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. What Now? Remind Me – Joaquim Pinto
    3. Night Moves – Kelly Reichardt
    4. Actress – Robert Greene
    5. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    6. The King of Escape – Alain Guiraudie
    7. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    8. The Immigrant – James Gray
    9. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
    10. Selma – Ava DuVernay

    Runners-up (alphabetically)

    • The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    • Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
    • The Dog – Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren
    • John Wick – Chad Stahelski
    • The Naked Room – Nuria Ibañez
    • National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    • Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    • Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    • Vic + Flo Saw a Bear – Denis Côté
    • We Are Mari Pepa – Samuel Kishi Leopo




    Brian Darr: 10 Best Feature Films of 2014 (as published by Fandor’s Keyframe blog). See also this list of documentaries.
    1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    2. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    3. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
    4. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear – Denis Côté
    5. The Immigrant – James Gray
    6. Abuse of Weakness – Catherine Breillat
    7. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    8. The Dance of Reality – Alejandro Jodorowsky
    9. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    10. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang




    Wesley Morris: Top 30 Movies of 2014 (as published by Grantland)
    1. Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz
    2. Selma – Ava DuVernay
    3. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    4. Land Ho! – Martha Stephens & Aaron Katz
    5. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    6. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman
    7. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    8. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    9. Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
    10. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie

    20 more that easily could be one of the 10

    • Actress – Robert Greene
    • Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    • Bird People – Pascale Ferran
    • Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    • Dear White People – Justin Simien
    • The Double – Richard Ayoade
    • Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    • The Last of the Unjust – Claude Lanzmann
    • Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    • MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    • Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    • National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    • Non-Stop – Jaume Collet-Serra
    • The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
    • Pride – Matthew Warchus
    • The Raid 2 – Gareth Evans
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    • Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    • Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    • Wild – Jean-Marc Vallée




    Michael Phillips: 30 Best Movies of 2014 (as published by The Chicago Tribune)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    3. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    4. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    5. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
    6. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    7. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    8. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    9. Dear White People – Justin Simien
    10. Heaven Knows What – Josh & Benny Safdie

    Nos. 11-30 (in alphabetical order)

    • The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    • Black Box – Stephen Cone
    • Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof & Charlie Siskel
    • Frank – Lenny Abrahamson
    • Get on Up – Tate Taylor
    • Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    • Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    • Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    • Le Week-End – Roger Michell
    • Life Itself – Steve James
    • Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    • Low Down – Jeff Preiss
    • The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    • National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    • Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
    • The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
    • Selma – Ava DuVernay
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    • The Tribe – Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
    • Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer




    Dana Stevens: Top 20 Movies of 2014 (as published by Slate)

    Top Ten, in alphabetical order

    • The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    • Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    • Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    • Gone Girl – David Fincher
    • Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    • The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
    • Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    • The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    • Selma – Ava DuVernay
    • We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson

    10 Runners-Up (alphabetically)

    • Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
    • Child’s Pose – Calin Peter Netzer
    • The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    • Happy Valley – Amir Bar-Lev
    • Life Itself – Steve James
    • Locke – Steven Knight
    • Night Moves – Kelly Reichardt
    • Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
    • Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho






    Andrew O’Hehir: 21 Best Movies of 2014 (as published by Salon)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
    3. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    4. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    5. The Homesman – Tommy Lee Jones
    6. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    7. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    8. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    9. The Immigrant – James Gray
    10. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
    11. 20,000 Days On Earth – Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard

    Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order)

    • Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    • Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    • Concerning Violence – Göran Olsson
    • Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    • Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    • Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    • Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    • The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
    • Selma – Ava DuVernay
    • Whiplash – Damien Chazelle




    J.R. Jones: 20 Favorite Movies of 2014 (as published by The Chicago Reader)
    1. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    2. Calvary – John Michael McDonagh
    3. Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz
    4. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    5. Night Moves – Kelly Reichardt
    6. Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy
    7. Joe – David Gordon Green
    8. The Kill Team – Dan Krauss
    9. Everyday – Michael Winterbottom
    10. Cheap Thrills – E.L. Katz
    11. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
    12. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them – Ned Benson
    13. A Girl at My Door – July Jung
    14. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    15. Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
    16. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    17. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
    18. In Secret – Charlie Stratton
    19. Gloria – Sebastián Lelio
    20. Tim’s Vermeer – Teller




    Ben Sachs: 30 Favorite Films of 2014 (as published by The Chicago Reader)
    1. The Wind Rises – Miyazaki Hayao
    2. Rambleras – Daniela Speranza
    3. Mood Indigo – Michel Gondry
    4. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
    5. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    6. What Now? Remind Me – Joaquim Pinto
    7. Breakfast with Curtis – Laura Colella
    8. Jimmy P. – Arnaud Desplechin
    9. Thy Womb – Brillante Mendoza
    10. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    11. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    12. The Golden Era – Ann Hui
    13. Level Five – Chris Marker
    14. Clouds of Sils Maria – Olivier Assayas
    15. Camille Claudel 1915 – Bruno Dumont
    16. The President – Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    17. The Amazing Catfish – Claudia Sainte-Luce
    18. The Stuart Hall Project – John Akomfrah
    19. The Homesman – Tommy Lee Jones
    20. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    21. Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
    22. Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako
    23. Non-Stop – Jaume Collet-Serra
    24. Words and Pictures – Fred Schepisi
    25. Exhibition – Joanna Hogg
    26. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    27. Gloria – Sebastián Lelio
    28. Corner Stores – Amina Waheed
    29. Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
    30. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman




    A.A. Dowd: 15 Best Films of 2014 (as published by A.V. Club)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    3. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    4. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    5. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    6. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    7. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    8. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
    9. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    10. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    11. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
    12. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    13. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    14. The Immigrant – James Gray
    15. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson




    Ben Kenigsberg: 15 Best Films of 2014 (as published by A.V. Club)
    1. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    2. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    3. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    4. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    5. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    6. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    7. The Last of the Unjust – Claude Lanzmann
    8. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    9. The Immigrant – James Gray
    10. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
    11. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    12. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn
    13. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    14. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    15. Policeman – Nadav Lapid




    Nick Schager: 15 Best Films of 2014 (as published by A.V. Club)
    1. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    2. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    3. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    4. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    5. A Field in England – Ben Wheatley
    6. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    7. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    8. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    9. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    10. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
    11. A Most Violent Year – J.C. Chandor
    12. The Homesman – Tommy Lee Jones
    13. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    14. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn
    15. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller




    Ignatiy Vishnevetsky: 15 Best Films of 2014 (as published by A.V. Club)
    1. The Immigrant – James Gray
    2. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    4. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    5. Beloved Sisters – Dominik Graf
    6. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
    7. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    8. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    9. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    10. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    11. John Wick – Chad Stahelski
    12. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    13. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    14. Lucy – Luc Besson




    Mike D’Angelo: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve and A.V. Club)
    1. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    2. Coherence – James Ward Byrkit
    3. Bird People – Pascale Ferran
    4. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    5. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    6. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    7. Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy
    8. Proxy – Zack Parker
    9. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    10. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    11. Joe – David Gordon Green
    12. Lucky Them – Megan Griffiths
    13. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    14. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman
    15. John Wick – Chad Stahelski


Scott Tobias: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  4. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  5. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
  6. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
  7. The Immigrant – James Gray
  8. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
  9. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  10. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
  11. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
  12. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
  13. Selma – Ava DuVernay
  14. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  15. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle


Noel Murray: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  2. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  3. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  5. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 – Lars von Trier
  6. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
  7. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  8. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
  9. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman
  10. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  11. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  12. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
  13. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
  14. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
  15. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
Keith Phipps: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  3. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
  4. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  5. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  6. Selma – Ava DuVernay
  7. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  8. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  9. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
  10. Life Itself – Steve James
  11. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
  12. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
  13. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
  14. Night Moves – Kelly Reichardt
  15. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
Tasha Robinson: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  3. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  4. Song of the Sea – Tomm Moore
  5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  6. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
  7. Gone Girl – David Fincher
  8. Selma – Ava DuVernay
  9. Jodorowsky’s Dune – Frank Pavich
  10. Ernest & Celestine – Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier
  11. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  12. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
  13. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall and Christ Williams
  14. Bird People – Pascale Ferran
  15. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gu
Nathan Rabin: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
  4. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
  5. Life Itself – Steve James
  6. Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
  7. They Came Together – David Wain
  8. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
  9. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  10. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
  11. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
  12. Happy Valley – Amir Bar-Lev
  13. Happy Christmas – Joe Swanberg
  14. God Help the Girl – Stuart Murdoch
  15. Cheap Thrills – E.L. Katz
Genevieve Koski: Top 15 Films of 2014 (as published by The Dissolve)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. Life Itself – Steve James
  3. Gone Girl – David Fincher
  4. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  5. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  6. Wild – Jean-Marc Vallée
  7. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
  8. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  9. Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
  10. The Guest – Adam Wingard
  11. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  12. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
  13. We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
  14. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
  15. The Case Against 8 – Ben Cotner & Ryan White




The Dissolve: 20 Best Films of 2014
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  3. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  4. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  5. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  6. Life Itself – Steve James
  7. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  8. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  9. Gone Girl – David Fincher
  10. Selma – Ava DuVernay
  11. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
  12. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
  13. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
  14. Obvious Child – Gillian Robespierre
  15. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
  16. Bird People – Pascale Ferran
  17. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
  18. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
  19. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
  20. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry




    Kevin B. Lee: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Fandor where it’s accompanied by a video essay, “Better than Boyhood”)
    1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    2. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    3. What Now? Remind Me – Joaquim Pinto
    4. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    5. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    6. Dear White People – Justin Simien
    7. Policeman – Nadav Lapid
    8. The Dance of Reality – Alejandro Jodorowsky
    9. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear – Denis Côté
    10. Bad Hair – Mariana Rondon




    David Denby: 10 Best Movies of 2014 (as published by The New Yorker)
    1. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski

    The others, in alphabetical order

    • American Sniper – Clint Eastwood
    • A Most Violent Year – J.C. Chandor
    • Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    • Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    • Get on Up – Tate Taylor
    • Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    • National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    • Selma – Ava DuVernay
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho


Stephanie Zacharek: 28 Top Movies of 2014 (as published by The Village Voice)
  1. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  2. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  3. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
  4. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
  5. The Immigrant – James Gray
  6. Revenge of the Mekons – Joe Angio
  7. [tie] Pulp – Florian Habicht
  8. [tie] 20,000 Days On Earth – Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
  9. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
  10. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
  11. John Wick – Chad Stahelski
  12. Top Five – Chris Rock

And don’t forget

  • Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
  • Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
  • Get on Up – Tate Taylor
  • Fading Gigolo – John Turturro
  • Lucy – Luc Besson
  • Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
  • We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
  • Dear White People – Justin Simien
  • Selma – Ava DuVernay
  • Dormant Beauty – Marco Bellocchio
  • Bird People – Pascale Ferran
  • Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
  • Adult World – Scott Coffey
  • Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof & Charlie Siskel
  • Moebius – Kim Ki-duk


    Indiewire: Top 50 Films of 2014 (as voted by 220 critics) (see also: 2011, 2012, 2013)
    NOTE: Although there appear to be a few ties in the list when you examine the scores, Indiewire presents the films in this order, with no ties.
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    4. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    5. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    6. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    7. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    8. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    9. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    10. Selma – Ava DuVernay
    11. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    12. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    13. The Immigrant – James Gray
    14. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    15. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    16. Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
    17. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    18. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    19. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    20. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    21. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    22. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    23. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    24. Calvary – John Michael McDonagh
    25. We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
    26. A Most Violent Year – J.C. Chandor
    27. Closed Curtain – Kambuzia Partovi and Jafar Panahi
    28. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata
    29. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    30. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
    31. Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz
    32. Mommy – Xavier Dolan
    33. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
    34. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
    35. Life Itself – Steve James
    36. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    37. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    38. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
    39. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
    40. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    41. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
    42. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
    43. Locke – Steven Knight
    44. What Now? Remind Me – Joaquim Pinto
    45. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
    46. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 – Lars von Trier
    47. The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    48. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
    49. The Last of the Unjust – Claude Lanzmann
    50. Wild – Jean-Marc Vallée




    Slant Magazine: 25 Best Films of 2014
    1. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    2. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    3. The Immigrant – James Gray
    4. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    5. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    6. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    7. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    8. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    9. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    10. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    11. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    12. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    13. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    14. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    15. The Strange Little Cat – Ramon Zürcher
    16. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    17. Closed Curtain – Kambuzia Partovi and Jafar Panahi
    18. The Story of My Death – Albert Serra
    19. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    20. The Naked Room – Nuria Ibañez




    Manohla Dargis: 20 Best Movies of 2014 (listed alphabetically, as published by The New York Times)
    • American Sniper – Clint Eastwood
    • Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
    • Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    • Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    • The Dog – Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren
    • Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman
    • Gloria – Sebastián Lelio
    • Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    • The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    • Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    • Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
    • Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    • MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    • Manila in the Claws of Light – Lino Brocka
    • The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
    • National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    • Selma – Ava DuVernay
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    • Violette – Martin Provost
    • Top Five – Chris Rock




    A.O. Scott: Top 21 Films of 2014 (as published by The New York Times)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    3. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    4. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
    5. Selma – Ava DuVernay
    6. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    7. We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
    8. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    9. Dear White People – Justin Simien
    10. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent

    Runners-up (alphabetically)

    • Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince-Bythewood
    • Bird People – Pascale Ferran
    • The Dance of Reality – Alejandro Jodorowsky
    • Jodorowsky’s Dune – Frank Pavich
    • The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    • A Most Violent Year – J.C. Chandor
    • Particle Fever – Mark Levinson
    • Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    • Top Five – Chris Rock
    • Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    • Wild – Jean-Marc Vallée




    Fandor: Top 25 Films of 2014 (as voted by 100 of the Keyframe blog’s favorite critics and cineastes)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    3. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    4. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    5. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    6. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    7. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    8. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    9. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    10. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    11. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    12. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    13. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    14. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    15. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    16. Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
    17. [tie] Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    18. [tie] Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    19. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    20. [tie] National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    21. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    22. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
    23. [tie] The Dance of Reality – Alejandro Jodorowsky
    24. Maidan – Sergei Loznitsa
    25. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang




    Film Comment: 20 Best Films of 2014
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    4. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    6. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    7. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    8. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    9. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    10. The Immigrant – James Gray
    11. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    12. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    13. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    14. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    15. Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz
    16. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    17. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    18. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    19. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    20. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho




    Film Comment: 20 Best Films of 2014
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    4. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    6. Stranger by the Lake – Alain Guiraudie
    7. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
    8. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
    9. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    10. The Immigrant – James Gray
    11. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
    12. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    13. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
    14. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    15. Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz
    16. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    17. Stray Dogs – Tsai Ming-liang
    18. National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
    19. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    20. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho


    Eric Kohn: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Indiewire)
    1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    2. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
    3. MANAKAMANA – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
    4. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    5. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
    6. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    7. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
    8. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    9. The Double – Richard Ayoade
    10. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson




    Amy Taubin: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Artforum)
    1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    2. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    3. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
    4. Dreams are Colder than Death – Arthur Jafa
    5. Tales of the Grim Sleeper – Nick Broomfield
    6. Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako
    7. Level Five – Chris Marker
    8. White God – Kornél Mundruczó
    9. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors – Sam Fleischner
    10. The Knick – Steven Soderbergh




    James Quandt: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Artforum)
    1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    2. Amour fou – Jessica Hausner
    3. Horse Money – Pedro Costa
    4. Das Spektrum Europas – Cristi Puiu
    5. Hill of Freedom – Hong Sang-soo
    6. Jauja – Lisandro Alonso
    7. The Tribe – Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
    8. Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako
    9. Above and Below the Minhocão – Mark Lewis
    10. August Winds – Gabriel Mascaro




    J Hoberman: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Artforum)
    1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    2. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    3. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    4. The Americans (TV, FX) – various
    5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    6. The Marx Brothers TV Collection (DVD) – various
    7. Die Farbe – Sigmar Polke
    8. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
    9. Maps to the Stars – David Cronenberg
    10. The Congress – Ari Folman




    David Ehrlich’s video countdown of the 25 Best Films of 2014 (presented this year by Little White Lies Magazine).
    1. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
    2. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
    3. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
    4. Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
    5. Gone Girl – David Fincher
    6. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
    7. The Double – Richard Ayoade
    8. God Help the Girl – Stuart Murdoch
    9. Force Majeure – Ruben Östlund
    10. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata
    11. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
    12. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
    13. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
    14. Palo Alto – Gia Coppola
    15. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
    16. Mommy – Xavier Dolan
    17. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? – Sio Sono
    18. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
    19. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards
    20. Listen Up Philip – Alex Ross Perry
    21. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
    22. Selma – Ava DuVernay
    23. Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako
    24. We Are the Best! – Lukas Moodysson
    25. Lucy – Luc Besson




Cahiers du Cinéma: Top Ten Films of 2014 [see also: 2013, 2012]
  1. Li’l Quinquin – Bruno Dumont
  2. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
  3. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  4. Maps to the Stars – David Cronenberg
  5. The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki
  6. Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
  7. Mommy – Xavier Dolan
  8. Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
  9. Paradise – Alain Cavalier
  10. Our Sunhi – Hong Sang-soo
Sight & Sound: Top 20 Films of 2014 (a poll of 112 critics)
  1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  2. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
  3. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
  4. [tie] Horse Money – Pedro Costa
  5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
  6. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  7. Winter Sleep – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
  8. The Tribe – Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
  9. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
  10. [tie] Jauja – Lisandro Alonso
  11. [tie] Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
  12. [tie] National Gallery – Frederick Wiseman
  13. [tie] The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese
  14. [tie] Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
  15. The Duke of Burgundy – Peter Strickland
  16. Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
  17. [tie] Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
  18. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
  19. [tie] The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer
  20. [tie] The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki


John Waters: 10 Best Films of 2014 [as published by Artforum] [see also: 2011, 2012, 2013]
  1. Maps to the Stars – David Cronenberg
  2. Charlie Victor Romeo – Karlyn Michelson, Patrick Daniels, Robert Berger
  3. The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq – Guillaume Nicloux
  4. The Smell of Us – Larry Clark
  5. Gloria – Sebastián Lelio
  6. Who Took Johnny – David Beilinson, Michael Galinsky & Suki Hawley
  7. Li’l Quinquin – Bruno Dumont
  8. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 and 2 – Lars von Trier
  9. Violette – Martin Provost
  10. The Films of Joanna Hogg: “Unrelated,” “Archipelago,” and “Exhibition” – Joanna Hogg



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