TSPDT's 25 Most Critically-Acclaimed Films of 2016
by patrik-hallberg | created - 10 Aug 2017 | updated - 13 Sep 2022 | PublicBased on 2016 end-of-year ballots only
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1. Moonlight (I) (2016)
R | 111 min | Drama
A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert
Votes: 331,974 | Gross: $27.85M
2. Toni Erdmann (2016)
R | 162 min | Comedy, Drama
A practical joking father tries to reconnect with his hard working daughter by creating an outrageous alter ego and posing as her CEO's life coach.
Director: Maren Ade | Stars: Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl
Votes: 52,072 | Gross: $1.48M
3. Manchester by the Sea (2016)
R | 137 min | Drama
A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges
Votes: 313,896 | Gross: $47.70M
4. La La Land (2016)
PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 671,863 | Gross: $151.10M
5. Elle (I) (2016)
R | 130 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A successful businesswoman gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the unknown man who raped her.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling
Votes: 71,164
6. Paterson (2016)
R | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A quiet observation of the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Nellie, Rizwan Manji
Votes: 88,975 | Gross: $2.14M
7. Hell or High Water (II) (2016)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Toby is a divorced father who's trying to make a better life. His brother is an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch.
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham
Votes: 252,617 | Gross: $27.01M
8. Certain Women (2016)
R | 107 min | Drama
The lives of three women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.
Director: Kelly Reichardt | Stars: Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, James Le Gros
Votes: 15,658 | Gross: $1.03M
9. The Handmaiden (2016)
Not Rated | 145 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Moon So-ri
Votes: 172,840 | Gross: $2.01M
10. O.J.: Made in America (2016)
TV-MA | 467 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
Director: Ezra Edelman | Stars: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mike Albanese, Muhammad Ali, Marcus Allen
Votes: 21,900
11. American Honey (2016)
R | 163 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough, McCaul Lombardi
Votes: 46,465 | Gross: $0.66M
12. Arrival (II) (2016)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg
Votes: 771,539 | Gross: $100.55M
13. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
R | 100 min | Drama
After surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Briana Shann
Votes: 64,791 | Gross: $0.26M
14. Cameraperson (2016)
Not Rated | 102 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Exposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.
Director: Kirsten Johnson | Stars: Kirsten Johnson, Aisha Bukar, Eric W. Davis, Jacques Derrida
Votes: 3,246 | Gross: $0.10M
15. Love & Friendship (2016)
PG | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Lady Susan Vernon takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate and, while there, is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica--and herself too, naturally.
Director: Whit Stillman | Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell
Votes: 26,432 | Gross: $14.01M
16. Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
R | 117 min | Comedy
In 1980, a group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Zoey Deutch
Votes: 58,643 | Gross: $3.37M
17. Jackie (V) (2016)
R | 100 min | Biography, Drama
Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy fights through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband's historic legacy.
Director: Pablo Larraín | Stars: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup
Votes: 83,447 | Gross: $13.96M
18. Things to Come (2016)
PG-13 | 102 min | Drama
A philosophy teacher soldiers through the death of her mother, losing her book deal, and dealing with a husband who is cheating on her.
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob
Votes: 14,745 | Gross: $0.28M
19. I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
PG-13 | 93 min | Documentary, History
Writer James Baldwin tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, Remember This House.
Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X
Votes: 23,509 | Gross: $7.12M
20. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
R | 92 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.
Director: Robert Eggers | Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Julian Richings
Votes: 301,052 | Gross: $25.14M
21. Julieta (2016)
R | 99 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
After a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events involving her estranged daughter.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao, Inma Cuesta
Votes: 33,921 | Gross: $1.49M
22. The Lobster (2015)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a dystopian near future, according to the laws of The City, single people are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in 45 days or they're transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman
Votes: 296,675 | Gross: $8.70M
23. Silence (I) (2016)
R | 161 min | Drama, History
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano
Votes: 123,018 | Gross: $7.10M
24. 13th (2016)
TV-MA | 100 min | Documentary, Crime, History
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: Melina Abdullah, Michelle Alexander, Cory Booker, Dolores Canales
Votes: 37,683
25. Fire at Sea (2016)
114 min | Documentary
Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
Director: Gianfranco Rosi | Stars: Samuele Pucillo, Mattias Cucina, Samuele Caruana, Pietro Bartolo
Votes: 6,055 | Gross: $0.12M
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