Year-End Lists

Cahiers du Cinéma: Top Ten Films of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Mia Madre
   Nanni Moretti
2. Cemetery of Splendor
   Apichatpong Weerasethakul
3. In the Shadow of Women
   Philippe Garrel
4. The Smell of Us
   Larry Clark
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
   George Miller
6. Jauja
   Lisandro Alonso
7. Inherent Vice
   Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Arabian Nights
   Miguel Gomes
9. The Summer of Sangaile
   Alanté Kavaïté
10. Journey to the Shore
    Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Q Magazine: Top 50 Albums Of 2015

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Currents
   Tame Impala
2. Have You In My Wilderness
   Julia Holter
3. In Colour
   Jamie xx
4. The Magic Whip
   Blur
5. Music Complete
   New Order
6. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
   Courtney Barnett
7. B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
   Kurt Vile
8. Short Movie
   Laura Marling
9. To Pimp A Butterfly
   Kendrick Lamar
10. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
    Florence + The Machine
11. I Love You, Honeybear
    Father John Misty
12. What Went Down
    Foals
13. Divers
    Joanna Newsom
14. Key Markets
    Sleaford Mods
15. Born Under Saturn
    Django Django
16. Wildheart
    Miguel
17. Chasing Yesterday
    Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
18. Morning / Evening
    Four Tet
19. Compton
    Dr. Dre
20. Get To Heaven
    Everything Everything
21. Sub-Lingual Tablet
    The Fall
22. Matador
    Gaz Coombes
23. Hinterland
    LoneLady
24. Universal Themes
    Sun Kil Moon
25. Saturns Pattern
    Paul Weller
26. Born in the Echoes
    The Chemical Brothers
27. Marks to Prove It
    The Maccabees
28. Every Open Eye
    Chvrches
29. Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
    John Grant
30. Perpetual Motion People
    Ezra Furman
31. Wire
    Wire
32. Drones
    Muse
33. Natalie Prass
    Natalie Prass
34. FFS
    FFS
35. No Cities To Love
    Sleater-Kinney
36. On Your Own Love Again
    Jessica Pratt
37. West Kirby County Primary
    Bill Ryder-Jones
38. Coming Home
    Leon Bridges
39. Hairless Toys
    Róisín Murphy
40. Carrie & Lowell
    Sufjan Stevens
41. Star Wars
    Wilco
42. Are You Satisfied?
    Slaves
43. Communion
    Years & Years
44. My Love Is Cool
    Wolf Alice
45. The Day Is My Enemy
    The Prodigy
46. Danger in the Club
    Palma Violets
47. Y Dydd Olaf
    Gwenno
48. From Kinshasa
    Mbongwana Star
49. Highest Point in Cliff Town
    Hooton Tennis Club
50. Another One
    Mac DeMarco

American Songwriter: Top 50 Albums of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Traveller
   Chris Stapleton
2. Sprinter
   TORRES
3. Something More Than Free
   Jason Isbell
4. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
   Courtney Barnett
5. Complicated Game
   James McMurtry
6. High on Tulsa Heat
   John Moreland
7. Star Wars
   Wilco
8. Faith In the Future
   Craig Finn
9. Natalie Prass
   Natalie Prass
10. Carrie & Lowell
    Sufjan Stevens
11. To Pimp A Butterfly
    Kendrick Lamar
12. Every Open Eye
    Chvrches
13. Little Neon Limelight
    Houndmouth
14. B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
    Kurt Vile
15. Imaginary Man
    Rayland Baxter
16. Pageant Material
    Kacey Musgraves
17. All Your Favorite Bands
    Dawes
18. The Blade
    Ashley Monroe
19. Servant of Love
    Patty Griffin
20. Sermon on the Rocks
    Josh Ritter
21. Sound & Color
    Alabama Shakes
22. All These Dreams
    Andrew Combs
23. Nashville Obsolete
    Dave Rawlings Machine
24. The Most Lamentable Tragedy
    Titus Andronicus
25. Terraplane
    Steve Earle & The Dukes
26. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
    Drake
27. The Deslondes
    The Deslondes
28. The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
    Beach Slang
29. All a Man Should Do
    Lucero
30. Coming Home
    Leon Bridges
31. Second Hand Heart
    Dwight Yoakam
32. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
    Florence + The Machine
33. Untethered Moon
    Built to Spill
34. Fading Frontier
    Deerhunter
35. Honeymoon
    Lana Del Rey
36. On Your Own Love Again
    Jessica Pratt
37. The Traveling Kind
    Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
38. The Waterfall
    My Morning Jacket
39. For Use and Delight
    Promised Land Sound
40. Feels Like
    Bully
41. In The Blazes
    Aaron Lee Tasjan
42. 25
    Adele
43. Pacific Surf Line
    GospelbeacH
44. I Love You, Honeybear
    Father John Misty
45. Wake
    Nora Jane Struthers
46. The Phosphorescent Blues
    Punch Brothers
47. The Trackless Woods
    Iris DeMent
48. Didn’t He Ramble
    Glen Hansard
49. No Cities To Love
    Sleater-Kinney
50. Create Your Own Mythology
    Kristin Diable

Mojo Magazine: 50 Best Albums of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Have You In My Wilderness
   Julia Holter
2. To Pimp A Butterfly
   Kendrick Lamar
3. Music Complete
   New Order
4. Currents
   Tame Impala
5. Simple Songs
   Jim O’Rourke
6. West Kirby County Primary
   Bill Ryder-Jones
7. Music In Exile
   Songhoy Blues
8. From Kinshasa
   Mbongwana Star
9. Key Markets
   Sleaford Mods
10. Carrie & Lowell
    Sufjan Stevens
11. Shadows In The Night
    Bob Dylan
12. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
    Courtney Barnett
13. Ones and Sixes
    Low
14. No Cities To Love
    Sleater-Kinney
15. Nothing Important
    Richard Dawson
16. Black Messiah
    D’Angelo and The Vanguard
17. Highest Point in Cliff Town
    Hooton Tennis Club
18. The Magic Whip
    Blur
19. Divers
    Joanna Newsom
20. Allas sak
    Dungen
21. Still
    Richard Thompson
22. White Men Are Black Men Too
    Young Fathers
23. Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
    John Grant
24. Matador
    Gaz Coombes
25. Saturns Pattern
    Paul Weller
26. Star Wars
    Wilco
27. Coming Home
    Leon Bridges
28. Fresh Blood
    Matthew E. White
29. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album
    Earl Sweatshirt
30. Who Is The Sender?
    Bill Fay
31. Perpetual Motion People
    Ezra Furman
32. In Colour
    Jamie xx
33. Chasing Yesterday
    Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
34. Something More Than Free
    Jason Isbell
35. Anthems For Doomed Youth
    The Libertines
36. I Love You, Honeybear
    Father John Misty
37. For Use and Delight
    Promised Land Sound
38. Hinterland
    LoneLady
39. Crosseyed Heart
    Keith Richards
40. Sound & Color
    Alabama Shakes
41. The Epic
    Kamasi Washington
42. A Fool To Care
    Boz Scaggs
43. Uptown Special
    Mark Ronson
44. Primrose Green
    Ryley Walker
45. Beauty Behind the Madness
    The Weeknd
46. Goon
    Tobias Jesso Jr.
47. Fading Frontier
    Deerhunter
48. Rattle That Lock
    David Gilmour
49. Ibeyi
    Ibeyi
50. B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
    Kurt Vile

Kirkus Prize: Nonfiction 2015, awarded by Kirkus Reviews

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2022 • Fiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2021 • Fiction 2021 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2016 • Fiction 2015 • Nonfiction 2014 • Fiction 2014]

Winner

• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates

Finalists

• Whirlwind

  The American Revolution and the War That Won It
  John Ferling
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• The Deluge

  The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931
  Adam Tooze
• Pacific

  Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
  Simon Winchester
• The Invention of Nature

  Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
  Andrea Wulf

Kirkus Prize: Fiction 2015, awarded by Kirkus Reviews

[see also Fiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2023 • Nonfiction 2022 • Fiction 2022 • Nonfiction 2021 • Fiction 2021 • Nonfiction 2020 • Fiction 2020 • Nonfiction 2019 • Fiction 2019 • Nonfiction 2018 • Fiction 2018 • Nonfiction 2017 • Fiction 2017 • Nonfiction 2016 • Fiction 2016 • Nonfiction 2015 • Nonfiction 2014 • Fiction 2014]

Winner

• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara

Finalists

• The Incarnations
  Susan Barker
• A Manual for Cleaning Women

  Selected Stories
  Lucia Berlin
• Fates and Furies
  Lauren Groff
• The Story of My Teeth
  Valeria Luiselli
• The Book of Aron
  Jim Shepard

The Booker Prize: Best Fiction of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

Winner

• A Brief History of Seven Killings
  Marlon James

Shortlist

• Satin Island
  Tom McCarthy
• The Fishermen
  Chigozie Obioma
• The Year of the Runaways
  Sunjeev Sahota
• A Spool of Blue Thread
  Anne Tyler
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara

Longlist

• Did You Ever Have a Family
  Bill Clegg
• The Green Road
  Anne Enright
• The Moor's Account
  Laila Lalami
• The Illuminations
  Andrew O'Hagan
• Lila
  Marilynne Robinson
• Sleeping on Jupiter
  Anuradha Roy
• The Chimes
  Anna Smaill

Women's Prize for Fiction: 2015

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

Winner

• How to Be Both
  Ali Smith

Shortlist

• The Bees
  Laline Paull
• A God in Every Stone
  Kamila Shamsie
• A Spool of Blue Thread
  Anne Tyler
• The Paying Guests
  Sarah Waters
• Outline
  Rachel Cusk

Longlist

• The Life of a Banana
  PP Wong
• The Shore
  Sara Taylor
• The Walk Home
  Rachel Seiffert
• The Table of Less Valued Knights
  Marie Phillips
• The Country of Ice Cream Star
  Sandra Newman
• Station Eleven
  Emily St. John Mandel
• Elizabeth Is Missing
  Emma Healey
• Dear Thief
  Samantha Harvey
• I Am China
  Xiaolu Guo
• Aren't We Sisters?
  Patricia Ferguson
• Crooked Heart
  Lissa Evans
• The Girl Who Was Saturday Night
  Heather O’Neill

Cinema Scope: Top 10 Films of 2014

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Horse Money
   Pedro Costa
2. Goodbye to Language
   Jean-Luc Godard
3. Li’l Quinquin
   Bruno Dumont
4. Jauja
   Lisandro Alonso
5. Phoenix
   Christian Petzold
6. Inherent Vice
   Paul Thomas Anderson
7. The Kindergarten Teacher
   Nadav Lapid
8. Maidan
   Sergei Loznitsa
9. Journey to the West
   Tsai Ming-liang
10. From What Is Before
    Lav Diaz

Michael Sicinski: Top 12 Films of 2014 (limited to “poll-eligible” films)

[see also 25 Great Experimental Films of 2023 • The Best Experimental Films (That I Saw) in 2022 • The 30 Best Avant-Garde Feature Films of the 2010s • Top 50 Films of 2018 • Top 30 Experimental Films of 2018 • Top 25 Films of 2017 • Top 10 Films of 2016 • Top 10 Films of 2013 • Top 12 Films of 2012]

1. Two Days, One Night
   Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
2. The Strange Little Cat
   Ramon Zürcher
3. Stranger by the Lake
   Alain Guiraudie
4. Closed Curtain
   Kambuzia Partovi and Jafar Panahi
5. Actress
   Robert Greene
6. The Story of My Death
   Albert Serra
7. Snowpiercer
   Bong Joon-ho
8. Charlie Victor Romeo
   Karlyn Michelson, Patrick Daniels, Robert Berger
9. Only Lovers Left Alive
   Jim Jarmusch
10. What Now? Remind Me
    Joaquim Pinto
11. Stray Dogs
    Tsai Ming-liang
12. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear
    Denis Côté