The Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the Best of 2015 winners in ten categories. The society was founded in spring 2007 and consists of a group of seventeen film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major 
Each critic submitted their top five picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top five in each category have been placed on the final ballot. The final ballots were then given to each critic to rank in order. The results were once again tabulated and the winners were decided.
This year, there were seven nominated films due to a three-way tie in the nomination process. The top winner was Spotlight with five nominations and winning in four categories of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Ensemble, and Best Screenplay. Alicia Vikander took two awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl and Best Breakthrough for her performances in both The Danish Girl and Ex Machina.
The Best of 2015
as picked by the Detroit Film Critics Society
(nominees are listed in alphabetical order)
BEST FILM
Winner: Spotlight
Brooklyn
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Youth
BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
John Crowley, Brooklyn
Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Paolo Sorrentino, Youth
BEST ACTOR
Winner: Michael Caine, Youth
Christopher Abbott, James White
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Tom Hardy, Legend
BEST ACTRESS
Winner: Saroise Ronan, Brooklyn
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Liev Schreiber, Spotlight
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Oscar Issac, Ex Machina
Jacob Tremblay, Room
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Cynthia Nixon, James White
Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
BEST ENSEMBLE
Winner: Spotlight
The Big Short
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Joy
BREAKTHROUGH
Winner: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, The Danish Girl (actress)
Sean Baker, Tangerine (director)
Emory Cohen, Brooklyn (actor)
Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl (actress)
Jacob Tremblay, Room (actor)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Winner: Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, Inside Out
Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
Charles Randolph, Adam McKay, The Big Short
Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Winner: Amy
Best of Enemies
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Listen To Me Marlon
The Look of Silence
The Detroit Film Critics Society members for the 2015-2016 season in alphabetical order are: Paul Arlon – The New Monitor; Kirk Baird – The Toledo Blade; Patrick Dunn – Mlive.com; Adam Graham – The Detroit News; Terri Lee-Sylvester – WWJ Newsradio 950 & CBSDetroit.com; Tom Long – The Detroit News & Associated Press Marketplace; Jeff Meyers – Metro Times, Moviemaker, & WJBK Fox 2; Warren Pierce – WJR Radio; Greg Russell – My TV20 Detroit & Real Times Media; James Sanford – WMUK-FM; Tom Santilli – Examiner.com; Debbie Schlussel – Sirius Patriot Channel 144’s Mike Church Show; Perry Seibert – Allmovie.com & TVGuide.com; John Serba – The Grand Rapids Press; Lee Thomas – WJBK Fox 2; Mike Tyrkus – CinemaNerdz.com; and Chris Williams – Advisor & Source Newspapers.