With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

With our collective Top 20 already in the books, we break down the individual ballots and highlight the great films that just missed the cut, the “orphans” that appeared on only one list, and our favorite scenes of the year. 

2014’s most astonishing, potentially most revolutionary image can be found in Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language.

A strong first half of the year, capped by the release of Richard Linklater’s stunning “12-year project,” wound up dominating late-year Oscar hopefuls on The Dissolve’s collective Top 20 list for 2014. 

The year’s best film performances from men include a series of familiar faces venturing into startlingly unfamiliar territory, and a few unfamiliar faces that should become familiar after this year.

The year’s best film performances from women span a range from quiet desperation to icy alienation, but they all have an urgency and an intensity in common.

Some undeserving movies make hundreds of millions of dollars. Some great movies make several zeroes less. Here, we do our part to correct that injustice by celebrating the year’s most elusive gems. 

2014 produced an abundance of cinematic riches. It also produced an abundance of fetid garbage. We plug our nose and revisit the worst of the worst.