Best movies of 2017

[oscar jubis]

I've seen enough 2017 releases to feel good about posting a canon for the year. Of course, no one has seen all the worthwhile films, much less give them the attention, alertness, and reflection they deserve. Of course, this list is a snapshot judgement since I will continue to explore and think about these films and will continue to watch the many I've missed. I have decided to exclude documentaries. The four that could compete with the fiction films listed are: Dawson City: Frozen Time, Faces Places, I Am Not Your Negro and Ex Libris.

Best Movie of 1954 is Anatahan(Restored, uncensored cut)


2017 Top 10
Mudbound
The Death of Louis XIV
Twin Peaks
Phantom Thread
The Florida Project
Lady Bird
A Quiet Passion
The Red Turtle
The Shape of Water
The Woman Who Left


The Lost City of Z, War for the Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner 2049, A Quiet Passion, Dunkirk, The Beguiled, Good Time, Graduation, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, Marjory Prime.

* (Restored, uncensored cut of 1954 release)

[Chris Knipp]

BAFTA Awards. (Found in Variety.)

(CK comment:)
I do not think these are all good choices, though by accident, some are. Particularly, I think it is unfortunate to choose Three Billboards as "Outstanding British Film." How nice it would have been to choose God's Own Country, or even the very silly and mainstream but at least superficially British Paddington2. How can they choose I Am Not a Witch when they could have chosen Lady Macbeth? The Handmaidenwhen they could have chosen Loveless or The Salesman?

BAFTA FILM AWARDS (winners in bold)

BEST FILM
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Peter Spears
DARKEST HOUR Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh

DIRECTOR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya
SALLY HAWKINS The Shape of Water
SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird

LEADING ACTOR
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Phantom Thread
DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out
GARY OLDMAN Darkest Hour
JAMIE BELL Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Call Me by Your Name

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour
LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird
LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World
HUGH GRANT Paddington 2
SAM ROCKWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
WILLEM DAFOE The Florida Project
WOODY HARRELSON Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling
LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Alice Birch
PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE GHOUL Gareth Tunley (Writer/Director/Producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (Producers)
I AM NOT A WITCH Rungano Nyoni (Writer/Director), Emily Morgan (Producer)
JAWBONE Johnny Harris (Writer/Producer), Thomas Napper (Director)
KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen (Director)
LADY MACBETH Alice Birch (Writer), William Oldroyd (Director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ELLE Paul Verhoeven, Saïd Ben Saïd
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh
THE HANDMAIDEN Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim
LOVELESS Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky
THE SALESMAN Asghar Farhadi, Alexandre Mallet-Guy

DOCUMENTARY
CITY OF GHOSTS Matthew Heineman
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck
ICARUS Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
JANE Brett Morgen

ANIMATED FILM
COCO Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
LOVING VINCENT Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart
MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE Claude Barras, Max Karli

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
GET OUT Jordan Peele
I, TONYA Steven Rogers
LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME James Ivory
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh
MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin
PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King

ORIGINAL MUSIC
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer
DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli
DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood
THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Roger Deakins
DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel
DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis

EDITING
BABY DRIVER Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker
DUNKIRK Lee Smith
THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory

PRODUCTION DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
THE SHAPE OF WATER Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau

COSTUME DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran
DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran
I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson
PHANTOM THREAD Mark Bridges
THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira

MAKE UP & HAIR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn
DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji
I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips
WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten

SOUND
BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth, Theo Green
DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten
THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

VISUAL EFFECTS
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson
DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees tbc
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees tbc

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
HAVE HEART Will Anderson
MAMOON Ben Steer
POLES APART Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low

BRITISH SHORT FILM
AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster
COWBOY DAVE Colin O’Toole, Jonas Mortensen
A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Patrick Campbell
WORK Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell
WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
DANIEL KALUUYA
FLORENCE PUGH
JOSH O’CONNOR
TESSA THOMPSON
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET

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[Chris Knipp]

I'm adding one to my Best Documentaries list:

Abacus (Steve James, Mark Mitten and Julie Goldman 2017)

It's Oscar-nominated, I've seen it, I liked it, so why not? An important theme, the power of big money, and Steve James is an honorable filmmaker.

[oscar jubis]

I just watched COCO for the second time in five days. It doesn't seem that there are any critics who put any animated films in their top 10s. I think there are a lot of critics who adhere to the genre theory that argues that live action films are better than animated films, and that certain genres are inherently inferior than others. I love Pixar's Coco and Inside Out and I would have a difficult time justifying leaving them out of a list of major films of the past few years. That thought extends to The Red Turtle, which actually is in my Top 10.

[cinemabon]

Roger Deakins' recognition long overdue. I've been watching interviews of him on YouTube. Such an unassuming man and yet extremely knowledgeable man who has helped so many directors achieve more to their projects than they first envisioned. He brings so much depth and experience. I've admired him for a long time.

[oscar jubis]

Roger Deakins and his brother reportedly walked four miles to see a movie from their little town near Devon, UK. That's how you learn to respect the art form. He spent his teens painting. That's a good way to lear framing, composition, and the use of light and color. Worth admiring, for sure.
Did you watch Coco?

[cinemabon]

I have not seen Coco yet and as you know, I'm a huge fan of animation in all of its forms. I missed it in the theaters (a minor family crisis over the holiday break) and look forward to catching it on DVD. I'd have preferred "Loving Vincent" since I saw the doc on how it was made. I did not see that film either; therefore, can't judge one over the other. (my bad - the current colloquialism) I'm somewhat familiar with the Mexican holiday though should brush up on the custom before I see it. Thanks for the info on Deakins. Such a soft spoken man. In the group of cinematographers, he spoke last. When he did, the others just sat and listened as if it was time for the professor to speak. That's posted through the Hollywood Reporter, which runs a YouTube program prior to the Oscars about Directors, Set Designers, Costume, Cinematographers, Editors and so on. Very informative.