Hacksaw Ridge, Moonlight, Silence and Zootopia Among American Film Institute (AFI) Top 10 of 2016

Erik Anderson December 8, 2016

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The American Film Institute (AFI) has chosen its Top 10 Films and Television shows of 2016.

MOVIES OF THE YEAR

ARRIVAL
FENCES
HACKSAW RIDGE
HELL OR HIGH WATER
LA LA LAND
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
MOONLIGHT
SILENCE
SULLY
ZOOTOPIA

While clear favorites like La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight and Sully made the cut, a few films that will see their Oscar Best Picture chances improved greatly today are Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, and Sully – all of which also made the National Board of Review last week. Among the snubs today: Jackie, Lion, and Loving. Each of those films needed a boost here, especially after also missing out on NBR’s Top 10 list.

Andrew Garfield ends up with two films on the list: Hacksaw Ridge and the yet-to-be-released Silence.

I’m kicking myself a bit for choosing The Jungle Book over Zootopia, which would have given me a perfect prediction score.

Last year, AFI matched up with Oscar’s Best Picture with just 6/10 – the same number as the year before. In 2013, they predicted 7 out of 10 and in 2012 they were 8 out of 10.

Here is a list of films that have made the Top 10s for BFCA, NBR, and AFI since the Best Picture expansion (Best Picture nominees in bold, winners have an asterisk):

2015
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight*

2014
Birdman*
Boyhood
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Unbroken

2013
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave*
The Wolf of Wall Street

2012
Argo*
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

2011
The Artist* (*given “Special Award” since it wasn’t an American production)
The Descendents
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

2010
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech* (*given “Special Award” since it wasn’t an American production)
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

2009
The Hurt Locker*
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

43 films that have made all three lists, and of those 43 only five have missed a Best Picture nomination – The Town, Inside Llewyn Davis, Saving Mr. Banks, Unbroken, and Nightcrawler.

Here are the films that hit all three precursors this year:

Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Sully

On the television side Atlanta, This Is Us and The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story were among the top 10. Speaking of O.J., a special citation was given to the documentary O.J.: Made in America.

TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

THE AMERICANS
ATLANTA
BETTER CALL SAUL
THE CROWN
GAME OF THRONES
THE NIGHT OF
THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
STRANGER THINGS
THIS IS US
VEEP

AFI SPECIAL AWARD

O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA

Honorees will gather on January 6, 2017, at the AFI AWARDS private luncheon, a noncompetitive and intimate event where AFI will reveal the jury rationales for each selection.

The AFI AWARDS luncheon will be sponsored by Audi, a supporter of AFI and its programs for the past 13 years. The event’s Patron of the Arts is Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, Vice President and Director of the Annenberg Foundation and founder of GRoW @ Annenberg. The event is also sponsored by American Airlines, the official airline of AFI. At the luncheon, AFI will present jury rationales providing artistic and cultural context for the selection of each honoree. Press coverage of the AFI AWARDS luncheon is strictly by invitation only. Photos will be available online through AFI immediately following the event.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.