2016 Little Fox Movie Awards (Part 5): Top 16 and Individual Winners

I've had about seven months to sit on this list, so I feel pretty good about most of these. I wanted to watch American Honey, Silence, and Toni Erdmann again before releasing a finalized version of the list, but they're each in the three-hour range and, as you'll see, I'm very much a fan of all three, so I'll just watch them on my own time. So yeah, I'd say I'm pretty content. Otherwise? Everything I said at the start of this venture remains true. Here's the Top 16 Films (yes, I'm extending it to a Top 16) of 2016.

Top 16 Films of '16

1. 20th Century Women (Mike Mills) - No film held me as warmly while stoking a distant, curious, graceful affection for its characters.

2. Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve) - Such a subtly precarious vision of entangled ideals/individual choice, the ways in which they do/don’t liberate.

3. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) - Artful control of a very rare milieu and character-type, even as psychology and drama constantly shapeshift.

4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) - Singular vision of totalitarian compatibility and self-isolating rebellion; open to which is a more dubious fate.

The remaining titles on the Top 16 are after the jump:

5. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho) - As confident in its environmental beauty as it is besotted with its fierce, spontaneous lead performance

6. Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi) - Haunting, precarious travails of migrants’ journey, incisively intercut with a surprising, Guzmán-like survey of their destination.

7. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) - Barriers of cultural/human fear and ambiguity broken by links of circular enlightenment; ideal for post-Trump era.

8. Dheepan (Jacques Audiard) - Audiard, a virtuoso sculptor of psychology and rhythm, orchestrates another steady document of bruised, brutal personalities.

9. Elle (Paul Verhoeven) - Brazen refusal to dilute the complexity/contradictions of its central character, preferring to render both as empowering.

10. American Honey (Andrea Arnold) - Sprawling, musical, ambitious plunge into dank, prismatic Americana, refracted through young girl’s coming into her own.

11. Spa Night (Andrew Ahn) - Thrillingly confident debut, even when its influences show; represents inner-lives of oft-neglected demographics with remarkable empathy.

12. Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar) - The past eludes us, shrouding our ever-estranged present in enigmatic abandon and binding us by it.

13. Moana (Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker, Chris Williams) - Peak of Disney’s recent high-quality output, with great tunes, awesome hero, and much-needed boost of positivity.

14. Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (Stephen Cone) - Coming-of-age beats organically braided to gradual coming-to-grips tale, with nimbly detailed personalities; every character a keeper.

15. Silence (Martin Scorsese) - Complex yet restrained in its moral, cultural, denominational tensions and agony; Scorsese’s best in a decade.

16. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson) - One artist’s memoirs as experiential vignettes, detailing how she experiences her work rather than its impact.

Honorable Mentions: The Edge of Seventeen, The Fits, Love & Friendship, Neruda, Pete's Dragon, Sing Street, Toni Erdmann, Trapped, Zootopia

And now the individual winners from each previously announced category:

Best Director: Mia Hansen-Løve (Things to Come)

Best Actress: Annette Bening (20th Century Women)

Best Actor: Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight)

Best Supporting Actress: Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women)

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Best Original Screenplay: 20th Century Women

Best Adapted Screenplay: Love & Friendship

Best Cinematography: Moonlight

Best Costume Design: A Bigger Splash

Best Film Editing: 20th Century Women

Best Production Design: The Handmaiden

Best Sound Mixing: The Fits

Best Sound Editing: Arrival

Best Original Score: Jackie

Best Original Song: Sing Street "Drive it Like You Stole It"

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: The Neon Demon

Best Visual Effects: Arrival

-- And that's a wrap! Let me know your favorites of last year, whether you're just getting to it or if you want to share it again.