From Nick Schager’s introduction to Slant Magazine’s Top 25 Films of 2011: “The auteurs had it in 2011, which delivered such a feast of fantastic domestic and international cinema that it’s difficult to remember a year in which it was harder to compile a consensus Top 25. Nonetheless, best-of-year rankings wait for no critic, and our list is practically overflowing with films by young and old masters at the apex of their games, be it Terrence Malick’s sumptuous spiritual odyssey The Tree of Life, Edward Yang’s long-unreleased 1991 classic A Brighter Summer Day, or Abbas Kiarostami’s formalist masterwork Certified Copy.” Click here to read the feature and see if your favorite films of the year made our list. And see below for a list of the films that just missed making it onto our list, followed by our contributors’ individual ballots. Happy reading.
26. The Interrupters
27. To Die Like a Man
28. Le Havre
29. Petition
30. A Useful Life
Polytechnique
32. Midnight In Paris
33. Bellflower
34. Love Exposure
35. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Putty Hill
37. Road to Nowhere
38. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Incendies
Drive
41. The Descendants
The Mouth of the Wolf
43. Foreign Parts
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
The Inheritors
46. Melancholia
Senna
48. Carnage
49. Bridesmaids
Heartbeats
Ed Gonzalez
1. Certified Copy
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Nostalgia for the Light
4. Margaret
5. Tomboy
6. Polytechnique
7. The Tree of Life
8. A Separation
9. Leap Year
10. In the Family
Honorable Mention: Attack the Block, Beginners, Bridesmaids, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Final Destination 5, Incendies, Mysteries of Lisbon, Poetry, Tuesday, After Christmas, Sucker Punch
Nick Schager
1. The Tree of Life
2. Certified Copy
3. A Separation
4. Poetry
5. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
6. Tuesday, After Christmas
7. Nostalgia for the Light
8. Foreign Parts
9. Meek’s Cutoff
10. Bellflower
Honorable Mention: The Adventures of Tintin, Carnage, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, A Dangerous Method, Drive, Incendies, The Sleeping Beauty, Take Shelter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Warrior
Andrew Schenker
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. To Die Like a Man
3. Mysteries of Lisbon
4. El Sicario, Room 164
5. Extraordinary Stories
6. Take Shelter
7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
8. Beginners
9. Margaret
10. Le Havre
Honorable Mention: The Interrupters, In the Family, Kaboom, Love Exposure, Nostalgia for the Light, Of Gods and Men, Petition, Polytechnique, Terri, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Jaime N. Christley
1. Certified Copy
2. Mysteries of Lisbon
3. Midnight In Paris
4. A Dangerous Method
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
6. Tuesday, After Christmas
7. The Descendants
8. Film Socialisme
9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
10. The Three Musketeers
Honorable Mention: Beginners, Carnage, Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Ides of March, J. Edgar, Poetry, Silver Bullets, The Skin I Live In, The Tree of Life
Bill Weber
1. Film Socialisme
2. Certified Copy
3. A Brighter Summer Day
4. Of Gods and Men
5. Petition
6. Le Havre
7. Mysteries of Lisbon
8. The Inheritors
9. In the Family
10. Tuesday, After Christmas
Honorable Mention: Coriolanus, A Dangerous Method, The Interrupters, Into the Abyss, Johnny Mad Dog, Margaret, Meek’s Cutoff, Poetry, A Separation, Tomboy
Jesse Cataldo
1. Certified Copy
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. The Tree of Life
4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
5. Extraordinary Stories
6. Mysteries of Lisbon
7. Film Socialisme
8. Nostalgia for the Light
9. Meek’s Cutoff
10. Margaret
Honorable Mention: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Beginners, Drive, Heartbeats, I Saw the Devil, Outrage, Poetry, A Separation, The Time That Remains, Tuesday, After Christmas
Glenn Heath Jr.
1. Mysteries of Lisbon
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
4. The Tree of Life
5. Certified Copy
6. In the Family
7. A Separation
8. Nostalgia for the Light
9. Margaret
10. Hugo
Honorable Mention: The Arbor, A Dangerous Method, Drive, Heartbeats, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek’s Cutoff, Rango, Rebirth, Shit Year, Take Shelter
Chuck Bowen
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. A Separation
3. Hugo
4. Take Shelter
5. Putty Hill
6. El Sicario, Room 164
7. Tuesday, After Christmas
8. The Interrupters
9. Melancholia
10. Cold Weather
Honorable Mention: 13 Assassins, Bellflower, Bridesmaids, Circo, Go Go Tales, Leap Year, Rampart, The Skin I Live In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Tree of Life
Diego Costa
1. Tomboy
2. Leap Year
3. Poetry
4. The Time That Remains
5. Beginners
6. A Useful Life
7. The Mouth of the Wolf
8. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
9. Senna
10. El Sicario, Room 164
Honorable Mention: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Incendies, The Interrupters, In the Family, Pariah, Position Among the Stars, The Skin I Live In, Submarine, To Die Like a Man, The Tree of Life
Simon Abrams
1. The Tree of Life
2. Certified Copy
3. Mysteries of Lisbon
4. Take Shelter
5. Margaret
6. The Skin I Live In
7. Road to Nowhere
8. Love Exposure
9. The Time That Remains
10. Pina
Honorable Mention: L’Amour Fou, Bellflower, A Dangerous Method, Meek’s Cutoff, Of Gods and Men, Poetry, Sleeping Beauty, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, United Red Army, A Useful Life
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