Another year, another list of favourites. 2017 has been a … turbulent year in the real world but a stellar one for film. You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately, VIFF coverage aside, but I have been going to the movies. As of this writing, I watched 323 films in 2017, 70 of which were 2017 releases. Not too shabby, considering that I only go to one festival.

Before we get to my dozen favourites, there are a few things worth sharing. First, here are a few that I haven’t seen yet:

• Call Me By Your Name (wr. James Ivory, dir. Luca Guadagnino)
• The Florida Project (wr. Chris Bergoch & Sean Baker, dir. Sean Baker)
• I, Tonya (wr. Steven Rogers, dir. Craig Gillespie)
• The Post (wr. Josh Singer & Liz Hannah, dir. Steven Spielberg)
• Phantom Thread (wr & dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Professor Marston and The Wonder Women (wr. & dir. Angela Robinson)

Some of these were due to scheduling on my part (I have a day job!) and some on the film’s part (Neither The Post nor I, Tonya are out here yet), but all of them seem like precisely the kind of movies that would end up near the top of my list.

Second, these choices are presented alphabetically except my favourite, which will come last. There are various reasons for this, but mostly it comes down to the fact that they are all good movies that I have a hard time grading relative to each other because they are all so different. Consider also that some of them I have seen multiple times and others just once, and that second-viewings are often where I end up solidifying an opinion and you end up with a list that looks like this.

Third, I don’t have any honourable mentions, but I will probably write further thoughts on 2017 in a separate post.

So without any further ado, here are my favourite dozen

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