As always, a “2016 movie” is defined as a movie released in 2016 (or the last couple years) which I had a reasonable opportunity to see (played theaters within an hour’s drive of here, or came out on blu-ray) for the first time in 2016. So, Carol is a 2016 movie, and I guess Elle and Jackie will be 2017 movies.

The ranking of some of these is shaky. I’m not sure exactly how much I like The Handmaiden or Cosmos or Hateful Eight or Everybody Wants Some!! or a couple others until I watch them again. I was going to make a separate “great but unranked” list but I’ll just wing it because who cares.

1. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)
4. The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer)
5. Experimenter (Michael Almereyda)
6. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
7. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
8. La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
9. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
10. Lemonade (Beyoncé Knowles)

11. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
12. Cosmos (Andrzej Zulawski)
13. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
14. Show Me a Hero (Paul Haggis)
15. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman)
16. The Handmaiden (Chan-wook Park)
17. The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
18. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
19. Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
20. One More Time With Feeling (Andrew Dominik)

21. Hail, Caesar! (Joel Coen)
22. Mia Madre (Nanni Moretti)
23. The Witch (Robert Eggers)
24. A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)
25. HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis)
26. Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
27. Office (Johnnie To)
28. Swiss Army Man (Daniels)
29. Sing Street (John Carney)
30. Chi-Raq (Spike Lee)

Runners-up:
The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
The Invitation (2015, Karyn Kusama)
The Meddler (Lorene Scafaria)
Where to Invade Next (2015, Michael Moore)
Francofonia (2015, Aleksandr Sokurov)