Season’s Greetings!
Seventy-two feature films were nominated across thirteen separate ballots in Front Row Reviews’ annual year-end poll. As ever, each ballot was limited to a pool of films receiving a UK commercial release in 2015, and our scoring system remained: each ballot was ranked, with the top five films receiving 10-2 points and the remaining five receiving a point each.
Like previous years, a further 2 points were given for every mention a film received after its first, in order to favour overall popularity in the event of ties. Without these bonus points, we would this year have had a clear-cut top ten, though as it is we’ve trimmed our overall favourites to an elite list of seven titles, owing to the small handful of films that would have tied for eighth place. These films receive top place, if you like, among the honourable mentions: Birdman, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, It Follows, Sicario and Tangerine. Of these, Sicario received the most individual votes (four).
Of the thirteen contributors who participated in this year’s poll, four listed the eventual winner as their number one; four others had it in their top ten, while five didn’t vote for it at all.
Needless to say, from all the Front Row Reviews team, many thanks and very best wishes to everyone who’s enjoyed reading these pages this past year. Here’s to 2016. See you…
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7. Whiplash
Damien Chazelle · USA · 2014
6. Force Majeure
Ruben Östlund · Sweden · 2014
5. Stray Dogs
Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan/France · 2013
4. Inside Out
Pete Docter · USA · 2015
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
George Miller · Australia/USA · 2015
2. 45 Years
Andrew Haigh · UK · 2015
1. Carol
Todd Haynes · USA · 2015
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Individual ballots
| Genevieve Bicknell |
Alice Bishop | Ollie Coleman | |
| 1 | Force Majeure | Tangerine | 45 Years |
| 2 | Theeb | Carol | Carol |
| 3 | Tell Spring Not to Come This Year | Sicario | Whiplash |
| 4 | The Wolfpack | It Follows | The Falling |
| 5 | The Closer We Get | Crimson Peak | The Lobster |
| 6 | Carol | Dope | Brooklyn |
| 7 | Brooklyn | Unfriended | The Duke of Burgundy |
| 8 | Salt of the Earth | Sisters | Going Clear |
| 9 | Tangerine | Irrational Man | Appropriate Behavior |
| 10 | Taxi Tehran | The Peanuts Movie | Selma |
| Stuart Downey | Jonathan Glen | Jen Kilchenmann | |
| 1 | Carol | Carol | Carol |
| 2 | Mad Max: Fury Road | Song of the Sea | Force Majeure |
| 3 | It Follows | 45 Years | 45 Years |
| 4 | 45 Years | Inherent Vice | Clouds of Sils Maria |
| 5 | Sicario | Macbeth | The Theory of Everything |
| 6 | The Martian | Ex Machina | Appropriate Behaviour |
| 7 | Tangerine | Stray Dogs | Song of the Sea |
| 8 | Ex Machina | Clouds of Sils Maria | Mistress America |
| 9 | Grandma | The Tale of Princess Kaguya | Amy |
| 10 | Inside Out | The Lobster | Grandma |
| Rob Munday | Katherine Naylor | Michael Pattison | |
| 1 | Catch Me Daddy | Whiplash | Stray Dogs |
| 2 | Birdman | Inside Out | Home From Home: Chronicle of a Vision |
| 3 | Hyena | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | National Gallery |
| 4 | Inherent Vice | White God | Li’l Quinquin |
| 5 | The Goob | Housebound | The Tribe |
| 6 | The Lobster | Love Is Strange | Sicario |
| 7 | Enemy | It Follows | The Last of the Unjust |
| 8 | Ex Machina | Trainwreck | Amour Fou |
| 9 | Shaun the Sheep Movie | The Treatment | Chappie |
| 10 | Love & Mercy | Shaun the Sheep Movie | The Dorkels |
| Pete Thornton | Matt Turner | David Upton | |
| 1 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Stray Dogs | Carol |
| 2 | Mad Max: Fury Road | Horse Money | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| 3 | Birdman | Hard to Be a God | Selma |
| 4 | 45 Years | Carol | The Tribe |
| 5 | The Look of Silence | The Tale of Princess Kaguya | Inside Out |
| 6 | Sicario | The Look of Silence | 45 Years |
| 7 | White God | Blackhat | Mommy |
| 8 | Ex Machina | The Duke of Burgundy | It Follows |
| 9 | The Lobster | Chappie | Magic Mike XXL |
| 10 | Whiplash | 45 Years | The Diary of a Teenage Girl |
| Greg Wetherall | |||
| 1 | Inside Out | ||
| 2 | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | ||
| 3 | Amy | ||
| 4 | Phoenix | ||
| 5 | Sherpa | ||
| 6 | Salt of the Earth | ||
| 7 | Force Majeure | ||
| 8 | Brooklyn | ||
| 9 | The Gift | ||
| 10 | Ex Machina |
