album of the year
- Grimes — Art Angels
- Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
- Kelela — Hallucinogen
- Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
- FKA Twigs — M3LL155X
- Carly Rae Jepsen — Emotion
- Laura Marling — Short Movie
- WAFIA — XXIX
- Dr Dre — Compton
- The Weeknd — Beauty Behind The Madness
song of the year
- Kendrick Lamar — King Kunta
- Kelela — All The Way Down
- Missy Elliott — WTF (Where They From)
- Tkay Maidza — Ghost
- Justin Bieber — Sorry
artist of the year
- Courtney Barnett
- Kendrick Lamar
- Sampa The Great
- Banoffee
- Drake
international artist performance
- Sufjan Stevens
- Drake
- Laura Marling
- FKA Twigs
- Jungle
australian artist performance
- Banoffee
- Tkay Maidza
- Andy Bull
top tv show
- Humans
- The 100
- Mr Robot
- Fresh Off The Boat
- Maximum Choppage
top movie
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Look Of Silence
- Spotlight
- Phoenix
- Cemetery Of Splendour
top website
- The Music
- Letterboxd
- Netflix
- Junkee
- Daily Life
2015 highlight of the year
Being a panellist at LISTEN's inaugural conference. Performing for the first time as part of a dance showcase (shout out to Bey Dance!). Seeing Roxane Gay and Dr Cornel West speak. MTC's North By Northwest and a strong NEON Festival. Malthouse Theatre's Love And Information. Saltwater at Theatre Works. All Ears at Arts House. Melbourne Festival's stunning theatre line-up (special mention to YOUARENOWHERE and Bronx Gothic). A fun Fringe Festival (special mention to The Intelligent Design Of Jenny Chow). The euphoric experience that was seeing Sufjan Stevens at the Sydney Opera House. Tricia Miranda's fucked up cool chorey for Missy's WTF. Kiwi Parris Goebel's continuing dance domination and her Sorry vid for Biebs (I feel like the dance video contributed hugely to the song's likeability because Biebs remains a whiny manchild with a handful of catchy songs). Self-serve udon restaurant Udon Yasan opening up in the city. Pre-emptively: my coming trip to the US; all the food I will eat there; going to Disneyland; a white Xmas (fingers crossed).
prediction for 2016
Malaysian food will be the new 'trendy' cuisine (it already is, but it'll boom); this will be a blessing and a curse. The line between what's considered commercial/mainstream and alternative/'indie' music will become even more blurred, which will annoy rockists and purists, much to my delight. SBS's Food Network will undergo major overhauls. The Family Law will be bloody excellent and hopefully pave the way for more diverse Australian TV shows.
