The 50 best films of 2016 in the UK: the full list
2
Son of Saul
Traumatisingly plausible study of the brutalities of a Holocaust death camp, revolving around a Jewish Sonderkommando gas-chamber worker. An astonishing debut from Hungarian László Nemes. Read more
3
Arrival
Emotionally intelligent alien-contact sci-fi from Sicario’s Denis Villeneuve,with Amy Adams as the unhappy linguist called in to try and decipher communications from mysterious extraterrestrial arrivals. Read more
4
A Bigger Splash
Superbly acted four-hander from I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino, with Tilda Swinton’s musician having her idyllic holiday home invaded by fast-talking (and dancing) Ralph Fiennes. Read more
5
Fire at Sea
Low-key, elegiac documentary dealing with a toughly contemporary subject: the life-threatening trips taken by refugee boats across the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Read more
6
Love & Friendship
Whit Stillman consolidates his return with a superbly witty adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan (with a title borrowed from another early Austen), featuring Kate Beckinsale as a hardheaded society beauty. Read more
7
Little Men
Ira Sachs’s follow-up to Love Is Strange, a beautifully observed study of a liberally inclined family with money worries, and the effect it has on their son. Read more
8
The Revenant
Fantastically ambitious survival epic which won Oscars for Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro González Iñárritu, based on the real-life 19th-century bear attack on frontiersman Hugh Glass. Read more
9
Weiner
Freakishly topical documentary about disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner, whose addiction to sexting became a contentious feature of the Clinton-Trump presidential election. Read more
10
Sausage Party
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg put their potty-mouthed talents to work on a gross-out comedy animation, featuring food items who have only the haziest idea of what happens outside the supermarket shelves. Read more
11
Victoria
Mightily impressive single-shot thriller that follows its protagonist, played by Laia Costa, on a nerve-jangling nightmare through a long Berlin night. Read a full review
12
The Assassin
Beautifully shot martial arts fable by Taiwanese master director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, starring Shu Qi as an assassin sent to kill her cousin as a test. Read a full review
13
Nocturnal Animals
Tom Ford’s cruelly beautiful adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan, with Amy Adams as a woman disturbed by the manuscript of a novel she receives from her ex-husband. Read a full review
14
Room
Brie Larson won the best actress Oscar for her powerful performance as a kidnap victim confined to a small room, in an astute adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel. Read a full review
15
The Club
Jackie director Pablo Larraín skewers Chile’s culture of denial in the post-Pinochet era, through a troubling study of a retirement home for “sinning” priests. Read a full review
16
Spotlight
Hard-hitting paean to old-school investigative journalism, starring Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton as reporters on a team who spearheaded the Boston Globe’s 1990s investigation into clerical sex abuse. Read a full review
17
Our Little Sister
A tenderly observed story of three sisters whose lives are affected by the arrival of a fourth family member, a half-sister, from Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda. Read a full review
18
Paterson
Jim Jarmusch’s slow-burn study of a bus-driving poet, played elegantly and mysteriously by Adam Driver, whose apparently happy life in New Jersey suffers unexpected disruption. Read a full review
19
Hell or High Water
Robustly impressive bankrobber movie that carries some of the charge of the Hollywood new wave, starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster as brothers on a complicated criminal mission. Read a full review
20
Mustang
Surprisingly engaging comedy-drama about five Turkish sisters and their travails under restrictive, traditional customs by first-time director Deniz Gamze Ergüven. Read a full review
21
Doctor Strange
Marvel’s bizarre, surreal tale of Benedict Cumberbatch’s superpower-encumbered medic, enlisted by Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One to fight the evil Mads Mikkelsen. Read a full review
22
American Honey
Brit auteur Andrea Arnold heads to the US for a raucous, scabrous road trip following a group of hard-partying kids as they sell magazine subscriptions door to door. Read a full review
23
Things to Come
An exceptional performance by Isabelle Huppert ballasts Mia Hansen-Løve’s study of a philosophy professor mired in mid-life crises. Read a full review
24
Deadpool
An unexpected comedy hit for Ryan Reynolds as the “pansexual” Marvel character, a smartmouth, self-deconstructing superhero who battles Game of Thrones’s Ed Skrein as Ajax. Read a full review
25
Tale of Tales
Gomorrah’s Matteo Garrone conjures up an eccentric, exotic collection of 16th-century Italian folktales, with Salma Hayek, Toby Jones and John C Reilly among the talent on show. Read a full review
26
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Highly likable new runner in the Harry Potter stakes, boasting an original JK Rowling script derived from the Hogwarts textbook and Eddie Redmayne as “magizoologist” Newt Scamander. Read a full review
27
The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino’s masterly revival western, with Samuel L Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tim Roth among a motley group holed up and fighting it out in a snowbound store. Read a full review
28
Dheepan
Palme d’Or winning thriller from A Prophet’s Jacques Audiard that follows Sri Lankan civil war escapees fending off threats and violence on a drug-ridden French housing estate. Read a full review
29
Joy
Unorthodox but charming biopic of Joy Mangano, inventor of the Miracle Mop and a shopping-TV success story, with a strong performance by Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role. Read a full review
30
The Childhood of a Leader
Prescient study by first-time director Brady Corbet of the origins of fascism, as depicted through the early years of a kid destined to become a dictator. Read a full review
31
Arabian Nights: Vols 1-3
Woozily audacious three-part docu-fantasy from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes that depicts Portugal’s austerity as a dream-nightmare inspired by Scheherazade’s tales cycle. Read a full review
32
Chronic
Sombre, disturbing drama from Mexican director Michel Franco, with Tim Roth as a carer of terminal illness people who cultivates an unhealthy significance in the final stages of his patients’ lives. Read a full review
33
Sing Street
Charming 1980s-set comedy from Once director John Carney about Dublin schoolboys who get a band together to try and impress local girls – particularly Lucy Boynton’s Raphina. Read a full review
34
Zootropolis
Entertaining and funny Disney animation about a bunny rookie cop, working in a city populated by animals, who gets a sniff of a missing mammal case and aims to prove her worth. Read a full review
35
Embrace of the Serpent
Oscar-nominated story of indigenous peoples in the Colombian Amazon, based on the journals of two 20th-century explorers and detailing the havoc wreaked by the west. Read a full review
36
The Light Between Oceans
Swoonsome, melodramatic weepie starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as a lighthouse-keeping couple who keep a baby they find drifting in an open boat in post-first-world-war Australia. Read a full review
37
Everybody Wants Some!!
Subtle 1980s-set comedy from Richard Linklater, conceived as a semi-sequel to Dazed and Confused, as it follows a bunch of jocks to college on baseball scholarships. Read a full review
38
From Afar
Raw, disturbing story from Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas (winner of Venice’s Golden Lion) about a well-off middle-aged man who falls in love with a teenage street thug. Read a full review
39
Cemetery of Splendour
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s follow-up to the Palme d’Or-winning Uncle Boonmee is an elegantly mysterious fable set largely in a hospital filled with soldiers who have succumbed to sleeping sickness. Read a full review
40
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
New Zealand-set comedy snappily directed by Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows), starring Sam Neill as a gruff backwoodsman who heads for the hills with teen delinquent Julian Dennison. Read a full review
41
High-Rise
Ben Wheatley’s phantasmagorical adaptation of JG Ballard’s housing-block dystopia, with Tom Hiddleston as a doctor caught in between-floors class warfare. Read a full review
42
I, Daniel Blake
Righteously angry, nerve-striking benefits assessment drama from Ken Loach, which won Loach the Palme d’Or at Cannes for the second time. Read a full review
43
The Witch
Creepy, disturbing horror with folk-tale elements. Set in 17th-century New England, it follows an immigrant family’s terror as they are tormented by a mysterious, witch-like entity. Read a full review
44
Wiener-Dog
Black-comic anthology of dachshund-themed stories by Todd Solondz, with Greta Gerwig, Danny DeVito and Ellen Burstyn among the dog owners whose emotional lives are anatomised. Read a full review
45
Hail, Caesar!
Tricksy Coen brothers comedy set in postwar Hollywood, with Josh Brolin as the film-biz fixer trying to hush up the disappearance of George Clooney’s biblical-epic star. Read a full review
46
The Eagle Huntress
Eye-opening documentary about a teenage girl who breaks taboos among Kazakh émigrés in Mongolia by becoming the first female to take up traditional eagle-hunting. Read a full review
47
Couple in a Hole
Oddball fable about a husband and wife living a primitive, off-the-grid life in an isolated French cave. Paul Higgins and Kate Dickie star. Read a full review
48
The Jungle Book
Live-action retelling of the Rudyard Kipling stories, directed with verve by Jon Favreau and garnished with impressive CGI-animated animal performances. Read a full review
49
The Clan
Gruesome Argentinian crime thriller from director Pablo Trapero, which offers a political edge in its study of a family who specialise in “disappearing” their kidnap victims. Read a full review
50
The Neon Demon
Nicolas Winding Refn’s follow-up to Only God Forgives: a self-consciously trashy and blood-soaked fable about the flesh-devouring LA fashion industry. Read a full review
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