REVIEW OF 2016 - BEST FILM

1. MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (Claude Barras)

2. RAW (Julia Ducournau)

3. TONI ERDMANN (Maren Ade)

4. THE WOMAN WHO LEFT (Charo Santos-Concio)

5. HEART OF A DOG (Laurie Anderson)

6. THE EXQUISITE CORPUS (Peter Tscherkassky)

7. THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (Albert Serra)

8. YOUR NAME. (Shinkai Makoto)

9. SILENCE (Martin Scorsese)

10. FIELD NIGGAS (Khalik Allah)

11. ELLE (Paul Verhoeven)

12. ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH (Dane Komljen)

13. THE LOVE WITCH (Anna Biller)

14. MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins)

15. ARRIVAL (Denis Villeneuve)

16. THE ORNITHOLOGIST (Joao Pedro Rodrigues)

17. 3 1/2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS (Marc Silver)

 

18. NO HOME MOVIE (Chantal Akerman)

19. JAMES WHITE (Josh Mond)

20. O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA (Ezra Edelman)

21. THE LITTLE PRINCE (Mark Osborne)

22. THE RED TURTLE (Michael Dudok de Wit)

23. THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER (Brady Corbet)

24. THE FITS (Anna Rose Holmer)

25. GRADUATION (Cristian Mungiu)

26. PARIS 05:59 (Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau)

27. NOCTURAMA (Bertrand Bonello)

28. KEKSZAKALLU (Gaston Solnicki)

29. UNDER THE SHADOW (Babak Anvari)

30. INNER WORKINGS (Leonardo Matsuda)

REVIEW OF 2016 - BEST DIRECTION

1. Claude Barras (MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE)

2. Maren Ade (TONI ERDMANN)

3. Lav Diaz (THE WOMAN WHO LEFT)

4. Julia Ducournau (RAW)

5. Dane Komljen (ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH)

6. Peter Tscherkassky (THE EXQUISITE CORPUS)

7. Martin Scorsese (SILENCE)

8. Albert Serra (THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV)

9. Anna Biller (THE LOVE WITCH)

10. Bertrand Bonello (NOCTURAMA)

REVIEW OF 2016 - BEST ANIMATED FILM

1. MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (Claude Barras)

2. YOUR NAME. (Shinkai Makoto)

3. THE LITTLE PRINCE (Mark Osborne)

4. THE RED TURTLE (Michael Dudok de Wit)

5. INNER WORKINGS (Leonardo Matsuda)

6. TOWER (Keith Maitland)

7. MOANA (Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Moore and Chris Williams)

8. THE BOY AND THE BEAST (Hosoda Mamoru)

9. KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS (Travis Knight)

10. PROLOGUE (Richard Williams)

REVIEW OF 2016 - BEST NEW DIRECTOR

1. CLAUDE BARRAS (MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE)

2. Julia Ducournau (RAW)

3. Dane Komljen (ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH)

4. Ezra Edelman (O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA)

5. Michael Dudok de Wit (THE RED TURTLE)

6. Babak Anvari (UNDER THE SHADOW)

7. Benedict Andrews (UNA)

8. Josh Mond (JAMES WHITE)

9. Brady Corbet (THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER)

10. James Schamus (INDIGNATION)

LFF 2016 REVIEW - MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (CLAUDE BARRAS)

In little more than an hour, Claude Barras and Celine Sciamma etch out a portrait of a whole world, created from the fabric of reality, both emotionally and physically. The tactility of stop-motion and the exaggeration of My Life as a Courgette's character design, constructing a world that feels real due to its dedication to artifice - the technical details that only adorn the stunning depth and power of this film's empathy. Barras and Sciamma, and the writer of the source novel, Gilles Paris, display a steadfast, accurate and hugely affecting appreciation of the thought processes and behavioural characteristics of children, and not just any children, but those with most troubled histories. If the precision of their collective approach engenders our empathy alongside theirs, it's the ways in which each element of that approach is combined with another that allows My Life as a Courgette to catch the viewer off guard, to engender emotions we hadn't even had cause to recollect, never mind expect. Subtle, insightful details in the framing, or the voice acting, or the exact calibration of tone in this ambitiously broad-ranging film reveal a limitless degree of perspectives within this cast of a small few characters, and the sensitivity of the film's staging will bring to mind one affective memory after another. We can all relate to being a child, but My Life as a Courgette is so exceptionally strong in eliciting close relations between itself and us that it convinces us to relate to foreign and unfamiliar experiences. That empathy: it doesn't just coax it out, it creates it anew. Not long into this outstanding film, one's response to the layered ambiguity, the tonal bravado, and the technical mastery will be of absolute submission - to relinquish all expectations and to resign oneself to the knowledge that, no matter where the filmmakers choose to take their film, our confidence in its quality need never diminish. And indeed, it only augments again and again.

LFF 2016 PREVIEW: MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE

One of the most emotionally acute and sharply observed films in recent memory

Jordan Cronk, Cinema Scope

[A] supremely humane and moving film

Elena Lazic, Little White Lies

A compact triumph of stop-motion animation

Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily

Claude Barras made a big splash indeed with a little film at Cannes in May: his debut film, the 66-minute stop-motion My Life as a Courgette drew raves aplenty from critics. Subsequently selected as Switzerland's official entry to the Oscar Foreign Language Film category, it has been a prominent fixture on the summer and autumn festival season, set to conclude with a slot at LFF next month. One of the shortest films on my schedule at the fest, and my only animated title, it's also one of my most hotly-anticipated. Co-adapted by Celine Sciamma, best known for another recent Cannes success, Girlhood.