--- title: Oscars Race 2015: Selma, Birdman Top AFI Top Ten List description: The year's top eleven films provide a cross-section of Oscar hopefuls canonical: https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T15:15:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:40:31.954Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Oscars Race 2015: Selma, Birdman Top AFI Top Ten List og:description: The year's top eleven films provide a cross-section of Oscar hopefuls og:url: https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb368d2d4e93f7514/69876d80cd6848c8580987cd/ap339316005794.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ava Duvernay, David Oyelowo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oscars Race 2015: Selma, Birdman Top AFI Top Ten List twitter:description: The year's top eleven films provide a cross-section of Oscar hopefuls twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb368d2d4e93f7514/69876d80cd6848c8580987cd/ap339316005794.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # American Film Institute Names _Selma_, _Birdman_ and Nine More the Year's Best > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Dec 9, 2014 3:15 PM UTC  Ava DuVernay, right, director of the film "Selma," and cast member David Oyelowo pose together at the Four Seasons Hotel on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Ava DuVernay, right, director of the film "Selma," and cast member David Oyelowo pose together at the Four Seasons Hotel on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Chris Pizzello—Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Dec 9, 2014 3:15 PM UTC The American Film Institute has named its top ten films of the year — and this year, there are eleven of them. Due to a tie in the voting, eleven films were cited by the film-preservation body as the year’s best. The films include nearly every movie that’s come up as a contender for best picture at the upcoming Academy Awards, including critics’-award favorite _Boyhood_ and several films, including Clint Eastwood’s _American_ _Sniper_, Ava DuVernay’s _Selma_, Rob Marshall’s _Into the Woods_, and Angelina Jolie’s _Unbroken_, that have yet to open in theaters. Other honorees include, in alphabetical order: * the behind-the-scenes Broadway satire _Birdman_ * the wrestling psychodrama _Foxcatcher_ * the Alan Turing biopic _The Imitation Game_ * Christopher Nolan’s space epic _Interstellar_ * the dark L.A. noir _Nightcrawler_ * the jazz-drumming epic _Whiplash_ Insofar as the citations provide boosts to any films, it’s to _Nightcrawler_ and _Whiplash_, both of which have been far more robustly praised for individual performances (Jake Gyllenhaal’s as a squirrelly crime reporter in the former, J.K. Simmons’s as a brutal music teacher in the latter) than for the whole; _Into the Woods_, too, had yet to receive praise this lofty. An AFI citation can be proof more of a film’s buzz in the moment than its staying power among Hollywood insiders (last year saw citations for _Inside Llewyn Davis, Saving Mr. Banks_, and _Fruitvale Station_, all generally ignored at the Oscars; the year before saw an honor for _The Dark Knight Rises_, another Nolan blockbuster that the Oscars spurned). But in itself, the AFI Top Ten, a non-competitive honor that rewards films as a whole rather than its component parts, is a relative breath of fresh air without must awards-season tsuris, and not just because, this year, it’s hard to think of a film that got left out. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/"},"headline":"American Film Institute Names Selma, Birdman and Nine More the Year's Best","datePublished":"2014-12-09T15:15:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:40:31.954Z","description":"The year's top eleven films provide a cross-section of Oscar hopefuls","url":"https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/","keywords":["movies","Interstellar","birdman","the imitation game","Unbroken"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb368d2d4e93f7514/69876d80cd6848c8580987cd/ap339316005794.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb368d2d4e93f7514/69876d80cd6848c8580987cd/ap339316005794.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ava Duvernay, David Oyelowo","caption":"Ava Duvernay, David Oyelowo","creditText":"Chris Pizzello—Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3624626/afi-american-film-institute-selma-birdman-imitation-game-whiplash/","name":"American Film Institute Names Selma, Birdman and Nine More the Year's Best"}}]}] ```