Below, we collect every year-end Top Ten list published by major film critics and publications. This page will be updated throughout December and January whenever new lists are published; be sure to check back frequently.
Critics pick the best movies of 2015
Below is our updated running tally of the films most frequently mentioned by individual critics on the year-end Top Ten lists. Note that if a critic ranks more than the standard 10 films, we will not include films ranked 11th or worse. In case of a tie for first or second, each film will receive the full points for that position. Our points system works as follows:
- 3 points for each 1st place ranking
- 2 points for each 2nd place ranking
- 1 point for being ranked 3rd - 10th, or for being included on an unranked list
Films Mentioned on Most Critic Top 10 Lists - 2015
| Movie and Metascore |
# 1st Place |
# 2nd Place |
# Other |
Points |
| 1 | Carol | 4 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| 2 | Spotlight | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| 3 | 45 Years | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8 |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8 |
| 5 | Amy | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Tangerine | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| The Assassin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Phoenix | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Son of Saul | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 10 | Inside Out | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 11 | No Home Movie | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Clouds of Sils Maria | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Inherent Vice | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| The Duke of Burgundy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Room | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 16 | Cemetery of Splendor | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Mia Madre | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Labour in a Single Shot (shorts exhibition) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Helmut Berger, Actor | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 20 |
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Individual critic top ten lists
Below are the 16 individual top ten lists published by the film critics regularly included in Metacritic's score calculations, as well as a few extra lists from additional prominent film sources. Some critics merely list ten films without ranking them in order; such lists are displayed below, without numbers, in alphabetical order.
| J. Hoberman View full list |
- The Assassin
- The Guests
- No Home Movie
- Hard to Be a God
- Mexico at Midnight (MOMA screening series)
- Cemetery of Splendor
- Hamlet in the Rented World (A Fragment)
- Phoenix
- Continuous Variation
- The Walk
|
| James Quandt |
- Labour in a Single Shot (shorts exhibition)
- Visit, or Memories and Confessions
- Bleak Street
- Singularity
- Neon Bull
- Ashes
- Michaël Borremans retrospective
- Lost and Beautiful
- Actua I
- The Owners of Dixie
|
| Amy Taubin |
- No Home Movie
- The Knick (tv show)
- The Assassin
- Luminous Intimacy: The Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler (retrospective)
- Experimenter
- Amy
- My Golden Days
- Don’t Blink: Robert Frank
- Carol
- Mistress America
|
| John Waters View full list |
- Helmut Berger, Actor
- Cinderella
- The Forbidden Room
- Tom at the Farm
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Carol
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- Tangerine
- Fly Colt Fly: Legend of the Barefoot Bandit
- Love
|
Artforum
Cahiers du cinéma
| Staff |
- Mia Madre
- Cemetery of Splendor
- In the Shadow of Women
- The Smell of Us
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Jauja
- Inherent Vice
- Arabian Nights
- The Summer of Sangaile
- Journey to the Shore
|
Indiewire
| Eric Kohn View full list |
- Son of Saul
- Tangerine
- Heaven Knows What
- A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
- Buzzard
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Anomalisa
- Jafar Panahi's Taxi [aka Taxi Tehran]
- Heart of a Dog
- Carol
|
The Irish Times
| Donald Clarke View full list |
- 45 Years
- Catch Me Daddy
- The Duke of Burgundy
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- Inside Out
- It Follows
- Mommy
- A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
- Tangerine
- The Tribe
|
Little White Lies
| Staff View full list |
- Carol
- Sunset Song
- The Look of Silence
- Taxi Tehran
- Timbuktu
- Selma
- Eden
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Horse Money
- The Voices
|
Thompson on Hollywood
| Matt Brennan View full list |
- The Duke of Burgundy
- Phoenix
- Carol
- Clouds of Sils Maria
- Brooklyn
- 45 Years
- The Look of Silence
- Spotlight
- Tom at the Farm
- Mississippi Grind
|
| Ryan Lattanzio View full list |
- Carol
- Amy
- Queen of Earth
- Sicario
- Phoenix
- 45 Years
- James White
- Eden
- Stinking Heaven
- By the Sea
|
| Demetrious Matheou View full list |
- Carol
- The Assassin
- Inherent Vice
- Amy
- Girlhood
- Sicario
- Steve Jobs
- Jauja
- Spotlight
- 45 Years
- (tie) Radiator
|
| Anne Thompson View full list |
- Son of Saul
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Inside Out
- The Martian
- Spotlight
- Steve Jobs
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- Tangerine
- 45 Years
- Clouds of Sils Maria
|
| Susan Wloszczyna View full list |
- Spotlight
- 45 Years
- Amy
- Room
- Inside Out
- Grandma
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- I'll See You in My Dreams
- Shaun the Sheep Movie
- Clouds of Sils Maria
|
Time
| Stephanie Zacharek View full list |
- Spotlight
- Phoenix
- I'll See You in My Dreams
- Clouds of Sils Maria
- Iris
- Mustang
- Tangerine
- Creed
- The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
- Ex Machina
|
Time Out London
| Staff View full list |
- Carol
- Inherent Vice
- 45 Years
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Amy
- Inside Out
- It Follows
- Birdman
- Girlhood
- London Road
|
Vulture
| David Edelstein View full list |
- Room
- The Big Short
- Inside Out
- Listen to Me Marlon
- Heart of a Dog
- Spotlight
- Timbuktu
- Experimenter
- Mustang
- Chi-raq
|
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