December 23rd - BLOG EXTRA

Hursto's BEST OFs for 2016
Firstly Merry Christmas, Happy 2017, and happy times celebrating whatever else you are choosing to be festive about!  (Maybe Hannukah, maybe just being with friends, maybe going on a movie binge!!) For me movies hold up the ultimate mirror to life - be it the good, the bad or somewhere in between - and help me reflect on what it means to be a human being on this planet and in this society. But enough of philosophising! 
Choosing just ten best films is really difficult. But let's give it a crack, then break it down into categories. You can read my reviews of most of these by trawling through the bar on the right of this blog site. Now, are you ready for some serious lists? 

Top 10 (in no particular order and including foreign films)
Brooklyn
Nocturnal Animals
Sunset Song
Mahana
Heidi
I am the Blues
Mr Gaga
An
Son of Saul
Hacksaw Ridge

Honorable mentions:
The Revenant
Deepwater Horizon
I, Daniel Blake
The Big Short, 
Eye in the Sky
Sing Street
Room
Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Top Foreign language films
Heidi (German - No release, but one showing Jan 13, 11am, ACMI)
Mustang (Turkish)
Mr Gaga (Israeli )
Truman (Spanish)
Son of Saul (Hungarian)
Rams (Icelandic)
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombian) 
Land of Mine (Danish - seen only at Scandinavian film festival)
Rosalie blum (French)

Top documentaries
Mr Gaga
Monsieur Mayonnaise
I am the Blues (from HotDocs festival - not released)
Shakespeare Live

Top Australian Films (not many contenders this year!)
Hacksaw Ridge
Monsieur Mayonnaise
Pawno
The Daughter
Legend of Ben Hall

Top animations
Sing
The Jungle Book