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For Film Comment’s Seventh Annual Critics’ Poll we invited our contributors and colleagues to rank their top 20 films of the year, plus the 10 best unreleased films they discovered on any festival sorties. (In the latter category, 10 had their U.S. premieres at the 44th New York Film Festival and at least two more will be shown in our annual Film Comment Selects series.) In each ballot from the 80-plus critical chorus, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on.

The full results and a chance for readers to give us their top 10 lists and comments on the movies of 2006 will be posted in early January.

BEST FILMS OF 2006
(Released theatrically in the U.S.)

1. The Departed (Martin Scorsese, U.S.) 779 points
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania) 740
3. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy) 657
4. L’Enfant (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne,
Belgium/France) 611
5. The Queen (Stephen Frears, U.K./France/Italy) 587
6. Borat (Larry Charles, U.S.) 455
7. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, U.S.) 474
8. United 93 (Paul Greengrass, France/U.K./U.S.) 432
9. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain) 429
10. Inland Empire (David Lynch, U.S./France/Poland) 414
11. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan) 379
12. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, U.S.) 363
13. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, U.S.) 352
(tie) Flags of Our Fathers (Clint Eastwood, U.S.) 352
14. Tristram Shandy (Michael Winterbottom, U.K.) 333
15. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro,
Mexico/Spain/U.S.) 322
16. Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, U.S.) 318
17. Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski, U.S.) 223
18. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, U.S.) 246
19. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, U.K./U.S.) 244
20. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, U.K./Czech Republic/Germany/U.S. ) 228

BEST UNRELEASED FILMS OF 2006
(*Currently without U.S. distribution)

1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria) 253
2. The Host (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea/Japan) 139
3. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa,
Portugal/France/Switzerland)* 127
4. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France/Austria) 111
5. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands/U.K./Germany/Belgium) 108
6. Still Life (Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong/China)* 107
(tie) Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo,
South Korea)* 107
7. Private Fears in Public Places (Alain Resnais,
France/Italy) 104
8. Belle Toujours (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France)* 84
9. Offside (Jafar Panahi, Iran) 76
10. The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, Ireland/U.K./Germany/Italy/Spain) 70
11. Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, Canada/U.S.)* 68
12. Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali/France) 64
13. Triad Election (Johnnie To, Hong Kong) 60
14. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, Germany/U.S.)* 53
15. In Between Days (So Yong Kim, U.S./Canada/South Korea)* 50
16. Into Great Silence (Philip Gröning, France/Switzerland/Germany) 44
17. When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee, U.S.) 43
18. Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev, U.S.)* 40
19. The Go Master (Tian Zhuangzhuang, Japan/China)* 29
20. Red Road (Andrea Arnold, U.K./Denmark) 38

Participants: Sam Adams, Thom Andersen, Melissa Anderson, Dudley Andrew, Steve Anker, David Ansen, Paul Arthur, Michael Atkinson, Saul Austerlitz, Marjorie Baumgarten, Nick Bradshaw, Richard Brody, Michael Chaiken, Chris Chang, Tom Charity, Godfrey Cheshire, Gary Crowdus, Giulia D’Agnolo-Vallan, Mike D’Angelo, Manohla Dargis, Bilge Ebiri, Cheryl Eddy, David Edelstein, Justine Elias, David Fear, F.X. Feeney, Paul Fileri, Scott Foundas, Chris Fujiwara, Graham Fuller, Roger Garcia, Susan Gerhard, Gary Giddins, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Larry Gross, Dennis Harvey, Molly Haskell, Grady Hendrix, Logan Hill, J. Hoberman, Robert Horton, Johnny Ray Huston, Harlan Jacobson, Kent Jones, Kristin M. Jones, Dave Kehr, Lisa Kennedy, Glenn Kenny, Laura Kern, Stuart Klawans, Robert Koehler, Michael Koresky, Nathan Lee, Dennis Lim, Phillip Lopate, Tim Lucas, Cynthia Lucia, Scott Macaulay, Guy Maddin, Maitland McDonagh, Don McMahon, Wesley Morris, Rob Nelson, Chris Norris, Geoffrey O’Brien, Mark Olsen, Mark Peranson, Tony Pipolo, Richard Porton, John Powers, James Quandt, Alissa Quart, Nicolas Rapold, Bérénice Reynaud, Jim Ridley, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Joshua Rothkopf, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, Paul Schrader, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Gavin Smith, Roger Smith, Vivian Sobchack, Chuck Stephens, Bob Strauss, Jim Supanick, Amy Taubin, José Teodoro, Desson Thomson, Kenneth Turan, Michael Wilmington, Donald Wilson

© 2006 by The Film Society of Lincoln Center

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