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Now that I’ve reviewed all the Best Picture nominees, with the exception of Moonlight, I thought I’d rank them to give a clearer picture of my regard for each of them. As I said in my La La Land post, 2016 has produced one of the best crops of awards contenders in a while, most of which have earned a spot on my Top 365 list. While I haven’t seen the actual Best Picture winner, I’m still convinced that La La Land should have won, even though most of the others would have been worthy of winning in a weaker year. So here they are again in order:
Moonlight – not seen
6. Fences
5. Lion
4. Arrival
1. La La Land
And although my third blogiversary post listed my favorite newly watched films last year, here’s also a Top Twelve list of my favorite films of 2016 overall, just to put the previous ranking in perspective. I still haven’t seen nearly as many as a lot of bloggers, including ones of interest like Passengers, Moana, The Red Turtle, Queen of Katwe, and A Monster Calls, but this is the first year that I feel I’ve seen enough to warrant a list like this. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else with this particular ranking, so at least I know this list is all my own. Thus, here’s my countdown of all the films I enjoyed or would recommend from 2016, from least to best. I hope 2017 will be just as good or better!
First, the Runners-Up:
Race
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Kung Fu Panda 3
12. Doctor Strange
11. Star Trek Beyond
10. Lion
9. Eddie the Eagle
8. Arrival
7. Your Name
4. Zootopia
3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
1. La La Land
Rhyme and Reason 
great list SG! surprised Finding Dory is so high 🙂 only havent seen eddie the eagle and Your name from ur top 12. do u think i’d like them?
Thanks, Rob! I know Finding Dory is nowhere near the first, but I guess my fondness for the original carries over. Eddie the Eagle is a great feel-good movie, and Your Name is from the same director as 5 cm per Second (and much better IMO). Both are definitely worth watching.
Nice list! Really happy to see some great animated films on there; as for the Oscar films La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge are my 1-2 as well. Do you think 2017 has the potential to be like 2016 in terms of award-worthy movies? Furthermore, do you think animated films will ever get more respect for best overall film?
Thanks, Christian! 2016 was definitely a great year for animation; the jury’s still out on 2017, though. I’m looking forward to The Current War about Edison and Westinghouse, but it’s still a little too early to tell what will be award-worthy.
As much as I’d like animated films to get more respect, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Beauty and the Beast and Up are the only ones to earn Best Picture nominations, but if not even Inside Out can get nominated, despite universal acclaim, I suspect that animation is still considered a lesser medium, sadly. What do you think?
You’re welcome! I’d tend to agree about animation and the Oscars unfortunately. One of my goals at AniB Productions is to help change that perception about the medium, which is simply unfortunate, but what will be key is more people realizing it’s not “a kid’s medium” exclusively. Pixar’s success, for example, is incredible, but until they win a Best Picture nomination, I think they’ll be viewed as an incredible animation studio and not just an incredible studio, if that makes sense. As for this year in movies, I’d agree it’s hard to tell right now what will make the grade.
Solid list, but see Moonlight.
Not sure it’s my kind of movie, but I’ll try it sometime.
This list is great. I need to see a good few of these but I loved Arrival. Yes to intelligent science fiction.
Thanks, Vinnie! Here, here to intelligent sci-fi, as you said!
I hope we get some more of that in the future.