The end-of-year cavalcade of awards bestowments and ranked lists continues apace today, with one of the more prestigious critical bodies weighing in. Sight and Sound, the official film magazine of the BFI, runs an annual poll of United Kingdom-based writers and compiles a list of the year’s 20 finest films from the results. (Naturally, their cutoff dates for what qualifies as a “2016 release” are based on British release dates, which is how Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper landed on this list, though it will receive a U.S. run in the spring.) It’s a nicely balanced list well-stocked with festival favorites, but the most notable (and heartening) aspect of the ranking must be the strong showing from female filmmakers, who make up three of the top five selections.

Maren Ade, the young German filmmaker behind the deadpan comedy Toni Erdmann may have gotten shut out at Cannes. But the rapturous reception it received from the press has finally translated to some greater recognition, as the polled critics voted the film to the top slot, and by a reportedly wide margin. Joining her in the top five are America’s Kelly Reichardt, who directed an ensemble including Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern to excellence in the whisper-quiet drama Certain Women, as well as Britain’s own Andrea Arnold, who helmed the road odyssey American Honey this year. (France’s Mia Hansen-Løve scored the eighth spot for her coming-of-middle-age drama Things to Come.)

The usual list-toppers of 2016 fill out the rest of the selections, with Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea taking the #2 and #7 spots, respectively. The rest is a mix of Cannes selections (Elle! I, Daniel Blake! Paterson!) and other acclaimed outliers (nice to see Bertrand Bonello’s sexy terrorism thriller Nocturama getting a little love despite its incendiary subject matter). Read on for the full list below via the BFI, and for those readers that tend to use year-end lists as a guide for catching up on missed releases — this one’s a great place to start.

1. Toni Erdmann, by Maren Ade
2. Moonlight, by Barry Jenkins
3. Elle, by Paul Verhoeven
4. Certain Women, by Kelly Reichardt
5. American Honey, by Andrea Arnold
6. I, Daniel Blake, by Ken Loach
7. Manchester by the Sea, by Kenneth Lonergan
8. Things to Come, by Mia Hansen-Løve
9. Paterson, by Jim Jarmusch
10. The Death of Louis XIV, by Albert Serra
11. Personal Shopper, by Olivier Assayas
=11. Sieranevada, by Cristi Puiu
13. Fire At Sea, by Gianfranco Rosi
=13. Nocturama, by Bertrand Bonello
=13. Julieta, by Pedro Almodóvar
16. La La Land, by Damien Chazelle
=16. Cameraperson, by Kirsten Johnson
18. Love & Friendship, by Whit Stillman
19. Aquarius, by Kleber Mendonça Filho
=19. Victoria, by Sebastian Schipper

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