Year-End Lists

The Playlist: The 20 Best Films Of 2015

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
   George Miller
2. Sicario
   Denis Villeneuve
3. The Duke of Burgundy
   Peter Strickland
4. Carol
   Todd Haynes
5. 45 Years
   Andrew Haigh
6. Inside Out
   Pete Docter
7. Room
   Lenny Abrahamson
8. Spotlight
   Tom McCarthy
9. Brooklyn
   John Crowley
10. Son of Saul
    László Nemes
11. Ex Machina
    Alex Garland
12. Steve Jobs
    Danny Boyle
13. Anomalisa
    Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
14. The End of the Tour
    James Ponsoldt
15. The Tribe
    Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
16. Tangerine
    Sean Baker
17. Mustang
    Deniz Gamze Ergüven
18. The Assassin
    Hou Hsiao-Hsien
19. Creed
    Ryan Coogler
20. The Diary of a Teenage Girl
    Marielle Heller

Just missing out on the top 20

• It Follows
  David Robert Mitchell
• Clouds of Sils Maria
  Olivier Assayas
• Crimson Peak
  Guillermo del Toro
• Mistress America
  Noah Baumbach
• Beasts of No Nation
  Cary Joji Fukunaga
• Wild Tales
  Damián Szifrón
• Far from the Madding Crowd
  Thomas Vinterberg
• A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
  Roy Andersson

Clocking up a vote or two

• Bridge of Spies
  Steven Spielberg
• Heaven Knows What
  Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
• The Good Dinosaur
  Peter Sohn
• The Walk
  Robert Zemeckis
• Magic Mike XXL
  Gregory Jacobs
• Spy
  Paul Feig
• James White
  Josh Mond
• Victoria
  Sebastian Schipper
• Youth
  Paolo Sorrentino
• Tokyo Tribe
  Sion Sono
• The Look of Silence
  Joshua Oppenheimer
• Eden
  Mia Hansen-Løve
• Queen of Earth
  Alex Ross Perry
• Entertainment
  Rick Alverson
• Tu Dors Nicole
  Stéphane Lafleur
• Bone Tomahawk
  S. Craig Zahler
• Arabian Nights
  Miguel Gomes
• What We Do in the Shadows
  Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi
• Slow West
  John Maclean
• Heart of a Dog
  Laurie Anderson
• Ballet 422
  Jody Lee Lipes
• Timbuktu
  Abderrahmane Sissako
• Experimenter
  Michael Almereyda
• The Pearl Button
  Patricio Guzmán
• Cartel Land
  Matthew Heineman
• Li’l Quinquin
  Bruno Dumont
• Listen to Me Marlon
  Stevan Riley
• Dope
  Rick Famuyiwa
• The Night Before
  Jonathan Levine
• Phoenix
  Christian Petzold
• Jauja
  Lisandro Alonso
• The Forbidden Room
  Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson
• Hard to Be a God
  Aleksey German
• Mississippi Grind
  Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
• Breathe
  Mélanie Laurent
• While We’re Young
  Noah Baumbach
• Cobain: Montage of Heck
  Brett Morgen
• The Martian
  Ridley Scott
• White God
  Kornél Mundruczó