AFT Awards: Best Ending

This is the twenty-second category of the 9th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Click here to see previous years of this category. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Beware spoilers for the films pictured above.

The winner:
Spotlight built to such an incredible level of drama that the phones ringing off the hook was the ultimate payoff, capped by the unbelievably long list of similar revelations all across the globe.

Other nominees:
Wild Tales took its characters to such a point that they had been through and put each other through so much that a moment of twisted happiness on the dance floor was perfectly fitting. Star Wars: The Force Awakens did exactly what franchise films should: built to a big reveal and ended on an epic note that sets it up for many follow-ups to come. Clouds of Sils Maria chose to close its saga with a wordless shot of that marvelous weather phenomenon, which was more than moving in itself. The Hateful Eight rebounded from some bloody second-act ridiculousness with a triumphant and resounding reading of a letter from one very well-known U.S. President.