As 2016 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our hands on the titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen. With the proliferation of streaming options, it’s thankfully easier than ever to play catch-up, and to assist with the process, we’re bringing you a rundown of the best titles of the year available to watch.
Curated from the Best Films of 2016 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.
Note that we’re going by U.S. theatrical releases and the streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available, check out our weekly column. In the meantime, see our rundown below, which will be updated as new titles hit streaming services, so make sure to bookmark. One can also click titles to see our official reviews or additional coverage.
13th (Ava DuVernay) // Netflix
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
April and the Extraordinary World (Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
American Honey (Andrea Arnold) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) //Amazon – iTunes – Google
Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Club (Pablo Larraín) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Cosmos (Andrzej Żuławski) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
De Palma (Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Francofonia (Alexander Sokurov) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Dheepan (Jacques Audiard) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Hail, Caesar! (Joel and Ethan Coen) // HBO Go – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Hell or High Water (David MacKenzie) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (Stephen Cone) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
High-Rise (Ben Wheatley) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Hunt For the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Indignation (James Schamus) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Into the Inferno (Werner Herzog) // Netflix
The Invitation (Karyn Kusama) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids (Jonathan Demme) // Netflix
Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene) // iTunes
Kicks (Justin Tipping) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Krisha (Trey Edward Shults) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Last Days in the Desert (Rodrigo García) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Little Men (Ira Sachs) Amazon – iTunes – Google
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (Werner Herzog) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) // Amazon Prime – iTunes
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Louder Than Bombs (Joachim Trier) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
The Measure of a Man (Stéphane Brizé) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols) //HBO Go – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Morris From America (Chad Hartigan) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro) // Netflix – iTunes – Google
The Nice Guys (Shane Black) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) // Amazon – iTunes
The Other Side (Roberto Minervini) // Fandor – Amazon
Pete’s Dragon (David Lowery) //Amazon – iTunes – Google
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Rams (Grímur Hákonarson) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Sing Street (John Carney) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Sully (Clint Eastwood) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Sunset Song (Terence Davies) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Tower (Keith Maitland) // iTunes
The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari) //Amazon – iTunes – Google
The Wailing (Na Hong-jin) // Netflix – Amazon – iTunes – Google
Weiner (Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg) // Amazon – iTunes – Google
Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz) // Amazon Prime – iTunes
The Witch (Robert Eggers) // Amazon Prime – iTunes – Google
Have any suggestions? Comment below or tweet @TheFilmStage to submit titles for consideration. See all new streaming options here.