The American Film Institute released its annual list of the best American films of the year and I'm delighted to see that Zootopia made the cut! It's rare for animated films to show up on this list, although not unprecedented. The rest are fairly expected, although now that it's shown up on the BFCA, NBR and AFI top ten lists, I'd say it's definitely time to start taking Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge seriously in the Oscar race after all. I guess I've been totally asleep at the wheel on that one, but maybe I shouldn't have been. It got good reviews, it's a WWII film, apparently it's Gibson's best directed effort in decades, and it recently swept the Australian Oscars. I just figured Mel Gibson was still a pariah in Hollywood, but it makes sense for his comeback to happen in the year that Donald fucking Trump was elected president. Guess I should see it. Minus Zootopia, I wouldn't be too surprised if this matches the Oscar Best Picture list exactly, although there are usually one or two more that miss in the end.
AFI TOP TEN OF 2016
- Arrival
- Fences
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Hell or High Water
- La La Land
- Manchester By the Sea
- Moonlight
- Silence
- Sully
- Zootopia
