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The 14th Annual JWFan Awards - The Best Scores and Films of 2021!


Jay

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Without further ado, let's begin discussing the best of 2021!

 

Here is a wikipedia lists of 2021 films to jog your memory

As always, use these categories and/or create your own!

 

BEST SCORES OF 2021:

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2021:

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2021:

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

 

BEST FILMS OF 2021

 

BEST TV SEASONS OF 2021

 

SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2021:

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2021:

 

 

Prior threads:

 

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Film Scores of the year

 

1. Zack Snyder's Justice League - Junkie XL

2. Annette - The Sparks Brothers

3. Jungle Cruise - James Newton Howard

4. Raya and the last Dragon - James Newton Howard

5. The French Dispatch - Alexandre Desplat

6. France - Christophe

7. Parallel Mothers - Alberto Iglesias

8. Eternals - Ramin Djwadi

 

Best Tracks of the year

 

1. At the speed of force - Zack Snyder's Justice League

 

2. Baby Aria - Annette

 

3. Eternals Theme - Eternals

 

4. Photoshoot - Parallel Mothers

 

5. Obituary - The French Dispatch

 

Best Composer

1. James Newton Howard

 

Best Film About Music

1. The Disciple

2. Annette

 

Biggest Disappointments

1. West Side Story

2. Nightmare Alley

3. The Tragedy of Macbeth

4. Annette

 

Best Films

1. Drive My Car

2. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

3. Memoria

4. Benedetta

5. Titane

6. The Worst Person in The World

7. France

8. Bad Luck Banging

9. Parallel Mothers

10. The Disciple

 

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Going to be honest, this was a busy and tough year for me, so I did not watch / listen to nearly as much as I wished to. So really, here's just a list of things that I saw and liked. Lol.

 

FILMS OF 2021

Zack Snyder's Justice League

The Mitchell's Vs The Machines

In the Heights

Fear Street Parts 1-3

Tick, Tick... Boom!

Encanto

Spider-Man: No Way Home

 

TV SEASONS OF 2021

Arcane

Hawkeye

WandaVision

The Lost Symbol

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

Zack Snyder's Justice League and Spider-Man No Way Home had some fun discussion and experience surrounding them. I enjoyed that.

 

Please note. The very large list of things that I was interested in, but never got a chance to see in the entire year of 2021...therefore they were excluded from consideration:

  • Judas and the Black Messiah
  • Minari
  • Raya and the Last Dragon
  • A Quiet Place Part II
  • Luca
  • Black Widow
  • Old
  • Jungle Cruise
  • The Green Knight
  • The Suicide Squad
  • Free Guy
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Venom: Let There Be Carnage
  • No Time to Die
  • Dune
  • The French Dispatch
  • Squid Game
  • Eternals
  • Red Notice
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife
  • West Side Story

  • Don't Look Up

  • The Matrix Resurrections

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Meh, I don't think I watched enough movies or TV shows of this year to build a comprehensive list, even though The Power of the Dog was amazing.

 

As for the scores, I don't think any stuff released this year was THAT good, including the two JNH Disney scores (which were fine but nowhere near as great as Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Maleficent, etc).

 

I guess I spent most of this year with old movies, old scores, not-so-old videogames and Green Lantern comics.

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31 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

I guess I spent most of this year with old movies, old scores

 

This is what I did as well. Rewatched some things I hadn't seen in awhile and revisited some special scores to me.

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I've watched quite a few 2021 films, but there are so many promising ones that I've yet to see (including the three that I've been anticipating most - The Souvenir: Part IIRed Rocket and Licorice Pizza) that I won't try to make a seriously considered list of my favourites right now.

 

As things stand at the moment, the top ten (listed alphabetically) would be something like: Drive My CarThe Green KnightThe Killing of Two LoversThe Lost DaughterThe Power of the DogQuo Vadis, Aida?Rose Plays JulieShiva BabyTitane and Violation. But I expect at least a few of those to be bumped out in due course.

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No movies I loved more than Get Back. But I haven't dug that deep. 

 

The Green Knight, West Side Story, The Last Duel, The Tragedy of Macbeth would be top four, Lic Pizza/Power of the Dog tied for fifth. ETA Drive My Car, Parallel Mothers, Nightmare Alley, Worst Person in the World :up:

 

Last Night in Soho, C'mon C'mon, Annette, my disappointments....well, Annette has stuff in it. I didn't hate them. 

 

Pretty much sat out on film scores this year. I liked about half of Annette. Some of Green Knight. Tragedy of Macbeth and Power of the Dog had some standout moments. (Now that I've seen Parallel Mothers, that too, Iglesias/Almodovar always reliable). PTA obviously knows what he's doing with a needle-drop. I liked Zimmer at the end of No Time to Die. Honestly The Beatles and Bernstein just kinda ruined it for everybody, those hog all my top music-in-film moments.

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Best original scores:

  1. Cruella by Nicholas Britell
  2. WandaVision by Christopher Beck
  3. Shang-Chi by Joel P. West
  4. Kaamelott by Alexandre Astier
  5. Loki by Natalie Holt
  6. Peter Rabbit: The Runaway by Dominic Lewis
  7. Hawkeye by Christophe Beck and Michael Paraskevas
  8. Eternals by Ramin Djawadi
  9. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard by Atli Örvarsson
  10. Encanto by Germaine Franco

Best tracks:

  1. The Baroque Ball from Cruella
  2. Eternals Theme from Eternals
  3. Xu Shang-Chi from Shang-Chi
  4. Hexpansion from WandaVision
  5. Shield of Pain from Spider-Man: No Way Home

Composer of the year: Christophe Beck

 

Best albums:

  1. The Eiger Sanction by Intrada
  2. Always by LLL
  3. Basic Instinct (Reissue) by Quartet Records
  4. Images by Quartet
  5. The Orville: Season II by LLL
  6. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan by LLL
  7. Fiddler on the Roof by LLL
  8. Looney Tunes by Varèse Sarabande
  9. West Side Story by Hollywood Records
  10. Dante's Peak by Varèse Sarabande

Best musical jokes:

  1. "I'll be right back" by Hans Zimmer from Batman  No Time to Die
  2. The Time Tunnel vol. 2 featuring John Williams music
  3. The monthly Jerry Goldsmith's releases

 

Best pictures:

  1. West Side Story
  2. Promising Young Woman
  3. Spider-Man: No Way Home
  4. Eternals
  5. Shang-Chi
  6. Cruella
  7. Kaamelott
  8. Dune
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I don't have sufficient material this year for a comprehensive best of, but I can mention a few contenders for:

 

Best scores:

 

Eternals

Raya and the Last Dragon

Secrets of the Whales

Earth Moods

Jungle Chase

The Last Duel

 

Best tracks:

 

Across the Oceans of Time (Eternals)

Return (Raya)

 

Best catalog titles:

 

Sleepy Hollow (Intrada)

Ghostbusters 2

Dante's Peak (Varese)

 

My highlights were the release of the three catalog titles - they absolutely made my year, especially Dante's Peak. I'm currently working on a review/analysis of Varese's album.

 

My numero uno highlight of the year was this, which annoyingly the uploader has edited - there's a bit missing at 2:13 for some bizarre reason. This is the cue that was missing from the leak forever, and is really hard to hear in the film's barrage of sfx.

 

 

No specific disappointments, mainly because nothing long-anticipated was a particular disappointment. Jungle Chase didn't quite live up to the overall hype but is still good, and I warmed quickly to The Last Duel.

 

 

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My personal choices

 

BEST SCORES OF 2021:

Movies

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. No Time To Die

3. Jungle Cruise

4. Encanto

5. Black Widow

6. The King's Man

7. Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

8. Eternals

9. Raya And The Last Dragon

10. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

 

Series

1. Masters Of The Universe: Revelation

2. Hawkeye

3. What If...?

4. Loki

5. WandaVision

6. Only Murders In The Building

7. Lupin

8. Godzilla Singular Point

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2021:

1. Jungle Cruise Suite - James Newton Howard

2. He Who Remains - Natalie Holt

3. Across The Oceans Of Time - Ramin Djawadi

4. Arachnoverture - Michael Giacchino

5. Evil-Lyn Opens Heaven's Gate - Bear McCreary

6. Final Ascent - Hans Zimmer

7. Xu Shang-Chi - Joel P West

8. Give 'Em Hell - Christophe Beck & Michael Paraskevas

9. Genenis - Christophe Beck

10. Return - James Newton Howard

 

BEST FILMS OF 2021

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

3. Dune

4. Raya And The Last Dragon

5. Encanto

6. No Time To Die

7. Don't Look Up

8. Free Guy

9. In The Heights

10. West Side Story

 

BEST TV SEASONS OF 2021

1. Loki

2. Arcane: League Of Legends

2. WandaVision

3. Lupin

4. Hawkeye

5. The Witcher

6. Ted Lasso

7. Only Murders In The Building

8. The Wheel Of Time

9. Shadow And Bone

10. Schmigadoon

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are my personal shortlists for the year...

 

SCORE

The Underground Railroad (Nicholas Britell)

Spencer (Jonny Greenwood)

The French Dispatch (Alexandre Desplat)

Annette (Sparks)

Dune (Hans Zimmer)

The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)

Raya and the Last Dragon (James Newton Howard)

 

Special mention to the new recording of West Side Story  arranged by David Newman and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. 

 

FILM

West Side Story (dir. Steven Spielberg)

Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

Annette (dir. Leos Carax)

Titane (dir. Julie Ducournau)

Pig (dir. Michael Sarnoski)

The French Dispatch (dir. Wes Anderson)

The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery)

The Last Duel (dir. Ridley Scott)

The Worst Person in the World (dir. Joachim Trier)

The Power of the Dog (dir. Jane Campion)

The Killing of Two Lovers (dir. Robert Machoian)

Shiva Baby (dir. Emma Seligman)

 

Special mention to some others I enjoyed, including two animated family films: Luca (dir. Enrico Casarosa) and Raya and the Last Dragon (dir. Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada), and a pair of excellent music documentaries: Summer of Soul (dir. Ahmir-Khalib Thompson) and The Sparks Brothers (dir. Edgar Wright).

 

Unfortunately, I have not yet had the opportunity to catch a lot of films that I'm sure will eventually make my list, including but not limited to Licorice Pizza (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson), The Souvenir Part II (dir. Joanna Hogg), and Drive My Car (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi).

 

TELEVISION

As far as I can recall, the only new show I saw this year was Only Murders in the Building, which I enjoyed immensely. This brand of clever comedy is right up my alley. There's a truly classic sensibility to the writing, and the two Martins are sooo good with this material. Looking forward to the next season!

 

SPECIALTY LABELS

I was very lucky to have the opportunity to purchase the expanded editions of Superman and A.I. Artificial Intelligence this year, both of which came directly from LLL. I'm excited to catch up on some more of these releases in the next year!

 

Anyway, there was a lot of new stuff to like in the past few months but most of all I'm thankful for another great year at JWFan! :john::heart:

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry for the lateness of my response here, but the top film list was only published today (delayed, as usual). But now I can share.

 

FAVOURITE FILM SCORES OF 2021:

 

I set a new record last year, having listened to somewhere between 1500-2000 new soundtracks. My top 10 was covered in this webcast episode (in English), and I recommend having a listen to it as it contains many under-the-radar gems not found on most other 2021 lists: 

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-71-the-10-best-scores-of-2021-23rd-international-edition/

 

Should you not be interested in listening, however, here's the list:

  1. Pleasure – Karl Frid
  2. Dune – Hans Zimmer
  3. Claret – Oscar M. Leanizbarrutia
  4. Les Olympiades - Rone
  5. Buckley’s Chance – Christopher Gordon
  6. The Last Duel – Harry Gregson-Williams
  7. Underplayed – Kate Simko
  8. Masquerade Night – Naoki Sato
  9. Welcome to Earth – Daniel Pemberton
  10. Flinch – Miami Nights 1984

If I had heard Benedetta in time, it would have been on there somewhere. Honourable mentions: 

 

200 Meters – Faraj Suleiman

Oxygen - Rob

There Is No Evil – Amir Molookpour

Woodgirls: A Duet for a Dream – Amir Molookpour

Army of Thieves – Hans Zimmer & Steve Mazarro

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time – Shiro Sagisu

Man of God – Zbigniew Preisner

Minari – Emile Mosseri

To Olivia – Debbie Wiseman

In the Wake – Takatsugu Muramatsu

Dara of Jasenovac – Aleksandra Kovac & Roman Gorsek

Raya and the Last Dragon – James Newton Howard

This Game’s Called Murder – Bear McCreary

Night teeth – Ian Hultquist & Drum’n’Lace

Anne+ - Tess van der Velde

The Book of Vision – Hanan Townshend, Federico Pascucci & Erichetta Undergroun

The Green Knight – Daniel Hart

Procession – Keegan Dewitt & Dabney Morris

The Unforgivable – Hans Zimmer & David Fleming

 

Favourite TV scores:

 

Tunna blå linjen  – Martin Hederos & Irina Gmeyner (actually my favourite score, all combined -- film, TV, videogame etc.)

La Cocinera de Castamar – Ivan Palomares

Dickinson – season 2 and 3 – Ian Hultquist & Drum’n’Lace

Ginny & Georgia – Lili Haydn & Ben Bromfield

Young Royals – Matti Bye

 

Favourite videogame score:

 

Encodya – Yann Letour

 

FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2021:

 

I saw a total of 291 films last year, out of which 119 were new. This was also a record -- a record LOW! It's usually about 100 more. The top 20 (plus honourable mentions) have been published here (only Norwegian release dates count, so you'll find some international 2020 titles here as well):

 

https://montages.no/2022/02/thor-joachim-hagas-topp-20-2021

 

The total ranked list (all 119 new movies) can be seen here:

 

https://mubi.com/lists/2021-films-ranked

 

But again, for the "unclickables" among you, here's the top 20:

  1. Dune
  2. Zack Snyder's Justice League
  3. The Father
  4. Nobody
  5. Petite Maman
  6. The Green Knight
  7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
  8. Zero Fucks Given
  9. The Matrix Ressurections
  10. Bajocero
  11. De uskyldige
  12. Small Axe (I consider it a film anthology rather than a series)
  13. Verdens verste menneske
  14. Wrath of Man
  15. Oxygen
  16. Gritt
  17. Finch
  18. A Quiet Place, Part II
  19. Archive
  20. The Power of the Dog

 

Honourable mentions: «Stowaway», «Monster Hunter», «Army of the Dead», «Old», «Luca», «The Card Counter», «Quo Vadis, Aida?», «A-ha: The Movie», «Nomadland», «The Other Side», «Boss Level», «Godzilla vs. Kong», «The Night House», «Malignant», «News of the World», «Rocks», «Those Who Wish Me Dead».

 

Favourite new TV series: The Beatles: Get Back, Foundation

 

"Buzz films" that didn't do much for me: «Sound of Metal», «West Side Story», «Minari», «House of Gucci», «Ninjababy», «Titane», «The Last Duel», «In the Earth», «Generasjon Utøya», «The Mitchells vs. The Machines», «Pieces of a Woman», «The French Dispatch», «Promising Young Woman».

 

Worst movies: «Red Dot», «The Swarm», «A Classic Horror Story», «Kate», «Intrusion», «Reminiscence», «No Man’s Land», «Aftermath», «Spiral: From the Book of Saw», «The Witches», «Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight 2», «Coming 2 America».

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From the little i heard of 2021's output, these are the scores that at least registered, even if for very different reasons:

 

  • Power of the Dog
  • Buckley's Chance 
  • Dune
  • Venom
  • Cruella
  • Jungle Cruise
  • (i wish The Last Duel was more substantial, but as it is, there's just not much to hang on to)

 

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The Power of Dog? Is it that Netflix movie? It seems to be a favourite. I thought Netflix only makes the cheap low quality stuff so avoided this.

 

Plus it's neither Star Wars nor Marvel.

 

Karol

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2 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I thought Netflix only makes the cheap low quality stuff so avoided this.

Netflix movies are mostly shite, but Power of the Dog is pretty good. It's not for everyone, though, some people will love it and others will hate it.

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2 minutes ago, crocodile said:

The Power of Dog? Is it that Netflix movie? It seems to be a favourite. I thought Netflix only makes the cheap low quality stuff so avoided this.

 

It's Jane Campion (and it's a good but not great movie), so lump it into the 'Nextflix prestige' corner paid for by Agents of Shield and Gotham and whatever juvenile shit sells the tickets.

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Power of the Dog is a Jane Campion film.  In its entire history Netflix has funded prestige productions for auteurs as well as funded cheap dumb movies none of us care about.  They've never only spent their money on the latter.

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Thank god we’re still in Fanny season!

 

I recently lost my external hard drive of music (RIP) and am in the process of rebuilding my library via redownloading digital purchases from the cloud and reripping all my CDs.  I have no idea where to start on the music side.

 

FILMS OF 2021:

 

 

I am listing everything I’ve seen from 2021 from best to worrrrrrst.  If you look closely, you may be able to determine the approximate age of one member of my household.

 

1.  Silent Night

2. Raya and the Last Dragon

3.  The Mitchells Vs the Machines

4.  The World’s a Little Blurry

5.  Cruella

6.  Fear Street: 1978

7.  Fear Street: 1994

8.  Black Widow

9.  Fear Street: 1666

10. Encanto

11.  The Suicide Squid

12.  Don’t Look Up

13.  Bo Burnham: Inside

14.  Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Things

15.  Wish Dragon

16.  The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

17.  Eternals

18.  Werewolves Within

19. Luca

20. The Matrix Resurrections

21.  Wrong Turn

22. Candyman

23.  Ron’s Gone Wrong

24.  A Boy Called Christmas

25.  Cinderella

26.  V/H/S/94

27.  Christmas…Again!?

28.  Home Sweet Home Alone

29.  Boss Baby: Family Business

30.  Black Friday

31.  8-bit Christmas

32.  My Little Pony: A New Generation

33. Space Jam: A New Legacy

34.  Under Wraps

35.  Tom and Jerry

36. Addams Family 2

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On 02/01/2022 at 3:39 AM, Edmilson said:

Meh, I don't think I watched enough movies or TV shows of this year to build a comprehensive list, even though The Power of the Dog was amazing.

 

As for the scores, I don't think any stuff released this year was THAT good, including the two JNH Disney scores (which were fine but nowhere near as great as Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Maleficent, etc).

 

I guess I spent most of this year with old movies, old scores, not-so-old videogames and Green Lantern comics.

To the new cardinals fans : r/AZCardinals

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Of what I've seen, here are my lists:

 

Best Films of 2021:

1) A Night of Not Knowing

2) Licorice Pizza

3) Memoria

4) The Green Knight

5) The Souvenir: Part II

6) Titane

7) The Worst Person in the World

8) Drive My Car

9) Dune

10) The Power of the Dog

 

Films that I still have to see: Red Rocket, Flee, Petite Maman, West Side Story, Benedetta

 

2021 Scores I Enjoyed:

 

Spencer by Jonny Greenwood

The Power of the Dog by Jonny Greenwood

The Green Knight by Daniel Hart

The Underground Railroad by Nicholas Britell

Loki by Natalie Holt

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  • 1 month later...

EDIT: I'd probably take out Dune or The Power of the Dog in favour of adding Flee to the list.

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  • 1 year later...

With customary punctuality, I've made my list of the best films of the year - not being too fussy about which year. Last time I did this I decided, for some reason, to go to / stop at twenty-five, so for consistency I've gone with the same number this time.

 

I could have put the top three in any order. As it is, I've put them in the order in which I saw them (first to last), which coincides with the order of number of times I've watched them (most to fewest). Funnily, none of the three is a film which I would have expected to be at or near the top of this list on the first viewing, but I've rewatched them all many times and they've gradually become some of my favourite films ever.

 

Unfortunately the last two years have flown by in a jiffy and I still haven't got round to a first rewatch of several other notable 2021 films - including ten of those listed here,  as well as many which were on the shortlist but didn't make the cut.

 

  1. Shiva Baby  (Emma Seligman)
  2. The Green Knight  (David Lowery)
  3. Licorice Pizza  (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  4. Drive My Car  (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
  5. The Souvenir: Part II  (Joanna Hogg)
  6. Memoria  (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  7. The Power of the Dog  (Jane Campion)
  8. Rose Plays Julie  (Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor)
  9. Vortex  (Gaspar Noé)
  10. The Lost Daughter  (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
  11. Quo Vadis, Aida?  (Jasmila Žbanić)
  12. Benedetta  (Paul Verhoeven)
  13. Azor  (Andreas Fontana)
  14. Titane  (Julia Ducournau)
  15. The Innocents  (Eskil Vogt)
  16. Mothering Sunday  (Eva Husson)
  17. Hit the Road  (Panah Panahi)
  18. The Killing of Two Lovers  (Robert Machoian)
  19. The Tragedy of Macbeth  (A Coen Brother)
  20. Happening  (Audrey Diwan)
  21. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn  (Radu Jude)
  22. Violation  (Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli)
  23. Compartment No. 6  (Juho Kuosmanen)
  24. Playground  (Laura Wandel)
  25. Dune  (Denis Villeneuve)
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