Best culture 2016
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How better to make sense of this turbulent year than through the art and literature it has produced? Our critics choose the works that sum up the last 12 months
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From pop stars to puppeteers, sportspeople to Syrian refugees, a selection of the best portraits taken by Guardian photographers this yearGallery
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The Guardian music team pick their most rewarding encounters with musicians from the last year
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From Beyoncé to Ed Balls and grizzly bears, the year’s pop-cultural champions and chumps are recognised in the Guide’s bumper awards ceremony
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Hollywood has work to do with #Oscarssowhite and its woman problem, but there were promising signs on both counts. Meanwhile, we may have reached peak franchise
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From the San Francisco SO taking Debussy to new heights to the BBC Philharmonic revitalising Aaron Copland, there were some towering performances laid down for posterity this year
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From Chance the Rapper to Future to Noname it’s been a vital year for hip-hop, and the lines between mixtape and album have blurred
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From amateur Chinese aeronauts to geriatric Finnish athletes, the best of this year’s photobooks blended intimacy with universal themes
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With amazing camera work and David Attenborough’s guiding words, 2016’s most outstanding television series made its rapt audience – and, most impressively, teenagers – re-engage emotionally with the animal kingdom
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It was off-kilter, lacking a big chorus and even weaved in a dubious 80s ballad. Work also clicked perfectly, capturing two of the era’s defining artists and a song all the more infectious for its rule-defying restraint
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Beyoncé’s Lemonade tops the Guardian’s list – now we want to hear what your choice would have been, and why
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Our countdown of 2016’s top films concludes as Benjamin Lee salutes a poetic and poignant movie that depicted the life of a gay black man with heart-swelling humanity
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Our countdown of 2016’s top films concludes as Peter Bradshaw pays tribute to a puppet movie that was among the most realistic and affectingly human movies of recent times
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Beyoncé’s vivid discourse on infidelity and race – with equally brilliant film accompaniment – was lacerating, astute and emphatically disruptive, turning her from mere pop superstar into an avenging angel
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