Earlier this week, George Miller was quoted as saying that he was done with the Mad Max franchise, which came as a shock to many, especially since Miller has done nothing but talk up Mad Max sequels since before Fury Road even hit theaters. But as several suspected, Page Six had their story wrong, which just goes to show that you should always take their reports with a GIANT boulder of salt.

We’re in the middle of an Oscar season that’s more unpredictable than ever before, especially following Sunday’s particularly nutty Golden Globes. But in all the unknown, one possible indicator has appeared to (hopefully) make our Academy Awards forecasts a little easier.

Ever since Mad Max: Fury Road opened in theaters this summer, fans have been clamoring for updates on potential sequels. Director George Miller has abided that talk saying that while he wants to shoot a smaller movie first he had planned two additional Mad Max films. That’s the good news. The bad news? Miller now says he has no plans to return to direct any of those films.

For the first time in many years, people don’t know what to make of this year’s Oscar contenders. Usually there are one or two top frontrunners gunning for Best Picture while everyone else just struggles for recognition. This year, there are multiple legitimate candidates with the frontrunner changing seemingly every week...

The National Society of Film Critics, a group made up of fifty-three of the most esteemed, elite American film critics, recently convened for their 50th annual meeting to determine the finest films, performances, as well as other assorted creative and technical achievements in 2015...

Here’s a top 10 list that’s not so fun: 2015 saw a huge surge in film piracy, as the most pirated film of the year had 55 percent more downloads than 2014's more pirated film. This year’s most frequently illegally downloaded titles offer few — if any — surprises, and include the biggest blockbuster films of the year, like Furious 7 and Jurassic World, as well as a few of last year’s most popular studio offerings.

Quentin Tarantino’s tastes are…how should we say…a bit singular. In recent years, the director has declared under-seen indie Afternoon Delight, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Toy Story 3 as number one on his top 10 lists in their respective years, and though he admits he doesn’t have time to see a lot of new releases, his preferences are often very interesting. This year, Tarantino has gone with a more conventional pick for his favorite film, and it’s one that many of you (and many critics associations) agree with.

By this time of year we usually know who our Oscars frontrunners are. Last year it was Birdman v. Boyhood, and before that 12 Years a Slave and Gravity made the tops of award pundits’ ballots. This year’s race is turning out to be the most unpredictable in years. Earlier this fall Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight slid into the frontrunner spot when it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. But it’s looking like the praise has reached a plateau now that the Oscar spotlight is beginning to point in other directions. On one hand, it’s a great thing since 2015 has given us such a variety of great filmmaking that slapping labels on films before voting begins is becoming harder and harder. On the other, it makes this race anyone’s best guess.

Lists can be extremely useful, especially when you need to get organized, go grocery shopping or break down all the ways Jon Snow will return on Game of Thrones (very important). I like those kinds of lists, as the many Post-Its littered across my desk (and Macbook and iPhone) will show you. But making a Top 10 for the best movies of the year is a whole other monster, a film writer’s Sophie’s Choice. For someone as ridiculously indecisive as myself, it took days to finalize the final spots on this list.

There are just too many good movies. That’s my takeaway from this year’s annual exercise in critical masochism selecting the ten best films. My shortlist of 2015’s best movies is anything but short; running well over 30 outstanding entries. It feels like something I say every year, but it’s true; there are more great movies left off my list (like Clouds of Sils Maria and Experimenter and Brooklyn and Heaven Knows What and While We’re Young and about 20 others) than are actually on it. I actively agonized over the last couple slots for hours. (Yes, actual hours. I’m sorry, It Follows.)