I love lists. Most of the time lists are just a bunch of middle brow stuff voted on by committee which is usually not particularly interesting except for those that put the list together.
But thanks to an email from our own Kurt Halfyard I got to look at a list that I’m reprinting here for three reasons: One, it’s thought provoking and stretches the limits of art and dumps most of the Hollywood garbage that is out there for actually good titles. Two, I haven’t even heard of a lot of these titles and can’t wait to dive into more. And three, the site it was originally posted on doesn’t allow commenting unless you’re a registered member and I wanna discuss!
I couldn’t find the info as to who or how this list was put together other than the original post’s opening paragraph which simply states, “60 film historians, festival programmers and archivists from around the world.” So here is the best 30 films TIFF has offered up in its existence. It’s actually more like 50 with ties but who cares? I think this list is more about discovery than it is about the rankings.
Film titles and countries of origin are followed by the number of votes each film received.
1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) – 53 votes
2. Platform (Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong, China/China/Japan/France) – 49 votes
3. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke, China) – 48 votes
4. Beau travail (Claire Denis, France) – 46 votes
5. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, China) – 43 votes
6. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Thailand/Germany/Italy) – 38 votes
7. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania) – 35 votes
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, Hungary) – 35 votes
8. Éloge de l’amour ( In Praise of Love ) (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/ France) – 34 votes
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, Romania) – 33 votes
10. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands) – 32 votes
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