Glenn Kenny: 50 Noteworthy Films of 2016 (released in the United States)
[see also 2020, 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012]
- Cosmos — Andrzej Zulawski
- Silence — Martin Scorsese
- Paterson — Jim Jarmusch
- Toni Erdmann — Maren Ade
- The Love Witch — Anna Biller
- Moonlight — Barry Jenkins
- The Fits — Anna Rose Holmer
- Things to Come — Mia Hansen-Løve
- Hail, Caesar! — Joel & Ethan Coen
- Evolution — Lucile Hadzihalilovic
- Baden Baden — Rachel Lang
- Cemetery of Splendor — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Everybody Wants Some!! — Richard Linklater
- High-Rise — Ben Wheatley
- Elle — Paul Verhoeven
- Creepy — Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Sully — Clint Eastwood
- No Home Movie — Chantal Akerman
- Love & Friendship — Whit Stillman
- The Childhood of a Leader — Brady Corbet
- April and the Extraordinary World — Franck Ekinci, Christian Desmares
Another ten, in no particular order
- The Other Side — Roberto Minervini
- Kate Plays Christine — Robert Greene
- 11 Minutes — Jerzy Skolimowski
- Bleak Street — Arturo Ripstein
- Paths of the Soul — Zhang Yang
- Kaili Blues — Bi Gan
- Wiener-Dog — Todd Solondz
- Indignation — James Schamus
- Miss Hokusai — Keiichi Hara
- Always Shine — Sophia Takal
- The Wailing — Na Hong-jin
- Kubo and the Two Strings — Travis Knight
- 13th — Ava DuVernay
Fifteen more, in little particular order
- My Golden Days — Arnaud Desplechin
- The Mermaid — Stephen Chow
- La La Land — Damien Chazelle
- Bleed for This — Ben Younger
- American Honey — Andrea Arnold
- Nocturnal Animals — Tom Ford
- Florence Foster Jenkins — Stephen Frears
- Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) — Abbas Fahdel
- The Nice Guys — Shane Black
- De Palma — Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow
- Joshy — Jeff Baena
- Hell or High Water — David Mackenzie
- Mountains May Depart — Jia Zhang-ke
Should be seen by every citizen of the United States at the very least
- Belladonna of Sadness — Eiichi Yamamoto
- Private Property — Leslie Stevens
- Only Yesterday — Isao Takahata