AFI Awards 2015: 'Star Wars', 'Straight Outta Compton', 'Mad Max', 'The Martian' & More Among Top 10

The American Film Institute (AFI) released their list of the top 10 movies and TV shows of 2015, with several populist picks in the mix.

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The prestigious film institute selected big movies like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and Straight Outta Compton for their list of the best movies of the year.

As for television, old favorites like HBO's Game of Thrones and Showtime's Homeland were among many new shows, like AMC's Better Call Saul, Netflix's Master of None, USA's Mr. Robot and Lifetime's UnREAL.

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Here is AFI's top 10 movies of 2015:

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton

And here's AFI's list of top 10 television programs of 2015:

The Americans
Better Call Saul
black-ish
Empire
Fargo
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Master of None
Mr. Robot
UnREAL

As for what this means for bigger award shows, the AFI Awards tend to have more influence on the Oscars than the Emmys. However, this does bode well for shows like Game of Thrones and Mr. Robot, which have received nominations at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice and now AFI.

Meanwhile, the Oscar race continues to heat up. The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Carol, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Room and Spotlight have been showing up in several award lineups, so their inclusion here isn't a surprise. However, this does bode well for Inside Out and Straight Outta Compton, both of which have been on the outside looking in for the Oscar Best Picture lineup. And then there's Star Wars. It remains to be seen if the Academy Awards will embrace what is sure to be the biggest movie of the year, but this could be a telling predictor of industry support.