When the time comes to select our films of the year, we always enjoy having a tweak at the categories. This year, for the first time since the inception of The Ticket Awards, we made the decision to increase our selection of Irish films from five to 10.
We still had to leave out half-a-dozen worthwhile films. So the race for best domestic release was particularly interesting. The team behind Darren Thornton's A Date for Mad Mary, a hugely moving, endlessly funny Louth odyssey, should, therefore, slap themselves furiously on the back for triumphing so comfortably.
Mad Mary was more than 200 votes ahead of smash hit The Young Offenders. That raucous Cork hit beat a multiple Oscar nominee (Lenny Abrahamson's Room) and a recent Golden Globe nominee (John Carney's Sing Street) into second place. Can Irish cinema keep up the pace?
Also, congratulations to those behind a furious ballot-stuffing exercise for a write-in candidate that, with no commercial release in 2016, would not have been eligible even it had got to number one.
The race was much closer in best performance, but then Seána Kerslake, star of Mad Mary, was up against an Oscar-winning turn. Kerslake just edged passed Brie Larson, the beating heart of Room, to take the title. Amy Adams, star of Arrival, was barely visible in their rear-view mirror. It was not so long ago that one had to evangelise to get Irish audiences into domestic films. But our readers genuinely adored the films in this year's list (and a few just outside).
There was a close race in best film between two very different entertainments. Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, a glossy, psychologically dense science-fiction film, scored just 14 votes more than Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake.
Over the past year, few films have generated such positive chatter from Ticket readers. Even those who disliked Arrival admitted to being engaged by it. The only other Loach film that has, over the past few decades, played so well to domestic viewers is (well, duh!) The Wind that Shakes the Barley.
Nothing much has changed in Loach's approach since Cathy Come Home, but he still speaks eloquently to audiences of all stripes.
Also doing respectably in the performance race were Kate Beckinsale for Love & Friendship and Adam Driver for Paterson.
This year's Oscar winner was not forgotten. Spotlight took best screenplay and – appropriately for a film with no single star – the best ensemble prize. Tom McCarthy will surely value those gongs as highly as his nude gold man for best picture.
The worst of times
What we snarks really care about, of course, is worst picture. This is where we often see the most write-in candidates. The folks in the DC Universe will be disturbed to hear that, among those films not listed by us, Suicide Squad and Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice were the most mentioned candidates. Is this a bubble waiting to be burst? I was pleased to see a few votes for the horrible Deadpool. Other suggestions included By the Sea (not too bad, I thought), Grimsby (yeuch!) and Dirty Grandpa (a "no brainer" in so many senses).
But nothing came close to the year's most-reviled blockbuster. Take a bow, Roland Emmerich. Independence Day: Resurgence scored nearly double the votes clocked up by Duncan Jones's inexplicable Warcraft. Both ended in an open fashion that seemed to point towards sequels. Neither seems, thank heavens, likely to follow through on that promise (or do I mean "threat"?)
In our franchise section, we might have expected a decent battle between Dr Strange, the best Marvel film in years, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In the event, the JK Rowling entertainment pulled down Benedict Cumberbatch's psychedelic pants and gave his rear end a good pummelling. Eddie Redmayne and the chums in his suitcase look to be in it for the long haul.
What else is worth noting? There was more domestic interest in the best cinematography race where Seamus McGarvey's work on Nocturnal Animals beat Robbie Ryan's energetic images for American Honey.
The documentary competition was, perhaps, most surprising of the lot. Many pundits would have put money on Oscar-contender Weiner to romp away, but – in a year of election upsets – Laurie Anderson's lovely Heart of a Dog took home the prize. Psephologists will be puzzling over the result for years to come.
John Carney can console himself for losing best Irish film with the knowledge that Sing Street obliterated the competition in best music. Carney ground both Ennio Morricone and Scott Walker into the dust.
One last melancholy thought from a more obscure corner of the list. There was, in our best reissue list, a selection of classics that included Barry Lyndon and Johnny Guitar. But, from beyond the grave, David Bowie triumphed with The Man Who Fell to Earth. We hear he's also doing pretty well in the album stakes...
The Full List of Winners
BEST FILM
1 Arrival
2 I, Daniel Blake
3 Green Room
4 Pete's Dragon
5 The Edge Of Seventeen
BEST DIRECTOR
1 Fede Alvarez - Don't Breathe
2 Lucile Hadzihalilovic
3 Alex Ross Perry
4 Felix Thompson
5 Apichatpong Weerasethakul
BEST IRISH FILM
1 A Date for Mad Mary
2 The Young Offenders
3 Room
4 Sing Street
5 Bobby Sands: 66 Days
BEST PERFORMANCE
1 Seána Kerslake - A Date for Mad Mary
2 Brie Larson - Room
3 Amy Adams - Arrival
4 Kate Beckinsale - Love and Friendship
5 Adam Driver - Paterson
BEST ANIMATION
1 The Jungle Book
2 Zootroplis
3 Anomalisa
4 When Marnie Was There
5 Kubo and the Two Strings
BEST DOCUMENTARY
1 Heart of a Dog
2 Hitchcock/Truffaut
3 Weiner
4 Fire at Sea
5 Author
BEST SCREENPLAY
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer - Spotlight
BEST FRANCHISE
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Seamus McGarvey - Nocturnal Animals
BEST REISSUE
The Man Who Fell to Earth
BEST ENSEMBLE
Spotlight
BEST MUSIC
Sing Street
WORST FILM
Independence Day: Resurgence
