I watched 200+ shorts this year, so this took some figuring out.
1. The Exquisite Corpus (2015, Peter Tscherkassky)
2. Masterworks of Avant-Garde Film
This blu-ray from Flicker Alley needs its own section, or else its individual films would’ve dominated the shorts list. Some revelatory works, beautifully restored. Links to the writeups, and my favorite creators from each:
Part one – Robert Florey, Ralph Steiner, Jay Leyda, Fischinger, Watson & Webber
Part two – Maya Deren, Rudy Burckhardt, Bute & Nemeth
Part three – Jim Davis, Hilary Harris, Bruce Baillie, Francis Thompson
Part four – Larry Jordan, Bruce Posner, Brakhage & Solomon
3. Lumière!
I’ve only watched part of the disc so far, so look for the second half to turn up on next year’s list.
Chapters 1 & 2
Chapters 3 & 4
4. Der Apfel (1969, Kurt Weiler)
5. Father and Daughter (2000, Michael Dudok de Wit)
6. Animations by Rein Raamat
Lend (1973)
a bunch more
7. Piper (2016, Pixar/Alan Barillaro)
8. Black Soul (2000, Martine Chartrand)
9. The Danish Poet (2006, Torill Kove)
10. Jammin’ the Blues (1944, Gjon Mili)
12. Uncle Yanco (1967, Agnès Varda)
13. By Brakhage, Volume 2
Program 2 (1967-1976)
Program 3 (1972-1982)
14. Spies (1943, Chuck Jones)
15. Carmen and Papageno (1933/35, Lotte Reiniger)
16. False Aging (2008, Lewis Klahr)
17. Lorenzo (2004, Disney/Mike Gabriel)
18. Harvie Krumpet (2003, Adam Elliot)
19. Blinkity Blank (1955, Norman McLaren)
20. We Can’t Live Without Cosmos (2014, Konstantin Bronzit)