What we consider to be the best of this year represents a combination of the movies that had the greatest emotional impact on us, matched with movies that felt innovative or groundbreaking. Here are the films Ryan considers to be this year’s best:

"Perhaps more than any other year, 2015 represents the industry facing growing pains with fewer people going to theaters yet more movies being created than ever before. Because I saw more movies this year than I have in the past, this list represents a more unusual curation of cinema".
What we consider to be the best of this year represents a combination of the movies that had the greatest emotional impact on us, matched with movies that felt innovative or groundbreaking. Here are the films Nelson considers to be this year’s best:

As each fall season brings the year’s Academy Award-vying Oscar hopeful films, so to brings AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi, which CINEMACY attended this former weekend. Held in the heart of Hollywood at (formerly Grauman’s) TCL Chinese Theatre, the film festival features an impressive range of diverse films and special events, where new American Independent films play alongside documentaries from the Netherlands and feature-length narratives from China, and beyond. The festival’s opening night film this past Thursday was the highly anticipated drama 'By The Sea', directed by Angelina Jolie who also co-stars alongside her husband, Brad Pitt. READ MORE...

'Grandma', a Sundance alum that opens on August 21st, is the story of a teenager who goes to her eccentric grandmother (played by Lily Tomlin) for money to get an abortion. Her grandma is also broke, so they endeavor to collect the money they need by the end of the day. You can read my review here and I highly suggest skipping the trailer, which unfortunately gives away some great moments better experienced in context. This piece is not a review: instead it’s a look at why this feels like a pivotal contribution to the pregnancy subgenre. READ MORE...

For years, I passively took the old adage that Jaws represented the birth of the modern blockbuster at face value, never considering that the film’s impact was anything beyond financial. Due to its massive box office success, Hollywood took note and launched us into an enduring era of bloated budgets and event pictures that continues stronger than ever today. Re-watching the film again for its recent 40-year anniversary, I was more interested to note how the perfectly realized storytelling elements of Jaws have become the template for modern big-budget filmmaking. READ MORE...

74 feature films. 60 short films. 50+ new media works from 35 countries. This year's Los Angeles Film Festival is about to get real. Monday's pre-festival screening of Dope kicked off the Los Angeles Film Festival, setting the bar high for the rest of the week. The Rick Famuyiwa-directed, Shameik Moore-starring high school comedy not only continues to draw praise from the critics- it premiered at Sundance- but it also drew a large number of celebrity attendees. And despite what you've read on gossip sites, it was not all about Kylie Jenner. READ MORE...

An introspective look at the career of 36-year-old actor Anthony Mackie and his roles just shy of the spotlight. A common trajectory for actors in Hollywood is starring in independent movies that gain traction and launch them into more meaty and prominent roles. One particular actor seems to be destined for this track, yet still isn’t quite there. This is Anthony Mackie. Over the course of this piece, I will examine the various characters Mackie has played, and ask why he is still finding himself in these kinds of roles. READ MORE...

An exploration of film noir cinema of old and new and its oftentimes dope detective. Director Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation is an obvious homage to film noir, and Doc being the film’s fractured, updated take on the hard-boiled detective. Though film noir is often treated as a relic, the genre is thankfully kept alive by neo-noirs like Inherent Vice, and the detective heroes remain as relevant and uniquely appealing as ever. READ MORE...

In Machina, humans have evolved highly enough to assume the role of creator of life, taking out the need for such deity's reverence. Yet as writer and director Alex Garland shows, there can be devastating effects in playing God, creating self-aware sentiments that show that when all you have left is "from the machine," the state of "life" itself is one that might not only apply to humans. READ MORE...

Happy Earth Day! While we should be celebrating this holiday 365 days a year, April 22nd marks a day when we come together to say one collective "We Love You" to our planet. We've sifted through thousands of films on Netflix to come up with the top 10 best Earth Day movies to watch today, tomorrow, and any other time you feel like appreciating Mother Nature. READ MORE...

Ambient, an originally scripted sci-fi episodic story about a self-aware computer virus that pushes mankind to the brink of extinction, is now available to watch online. We live in a great time, where the future knows no bounds. On one hand, this modern age, with its incredible technological advances, could, in fact, lead to a dystopian downfall, birthing self-aware sentinels with runaway artificial intelligence that would then threaten all of human existence as we know it. READ MORE...

Last year was a great year for science fiction, reaffirming the genre’s place in the mainstream. As always, it’s refreshing to see ambitious sci-fi's like Guardians of the Galaxy, Snowpiercer, and even the severely flawed Interstellar receive their fair share of love in year-end lists alongside typical non-genre prestige pics. READ MORE...

Selma, this year’s much-touted biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr., opens on a close-up shot of the good doctor as he self-consciously rehearses a speech in between complaining to his wife about his wardrobe—not on one of Dr. King’s legendary speeches or on some childhood tragedy that inspires his eventual triumphs in civil rights leadership. It’s not a grand moment, but it is an honest one. The film’s intimacy is immediate and enduring. READ MORE...

Nelson Tracey shares his thoughts on Marion Cotillard and Steve Carell's selections, Selma and The Lego Movie's snubs, and much more. There is a lot to take in this year, as is the case usually, and Oscar nominations are proof that you never know exactly what to expect from this morning, no matter how much thought goes into predictions. READ MORE...