World Poll 2022 – Part 2 the editors January 2023 World Poll Issue 104 ENTRIES IN PART 2: José Cabrera Betancort Thomas Caldwell Nicolas Carrasco Michael J. Casey Kevin Cassidy Guilherme Cavalcanti Jane Cheadle Daryl Chin Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn Janina Ciezadlo Jesús Cortés Jordan CronkBrian Darr Dustin Dasig Máquina De Aplausos Henri de Corinth Nicholas De Villiers Ben Dehoedt Mónica Delgado Kriti Dhanania Emanuele Di Nicola Wheeler Winston Dixon Joseph Dwyer José Cabrera Betancort Programmer Films released for the first time in 2022: Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Amok (Balázs Turai, 2022) Falcon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon, 2022) Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022) Hardly Working (Total Refusal, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Ice Merchants (Joao Gonzalez, 2022) Jaime (Francisco Javier Rodríguez, 2022) Khers Nist (No Bears, Jafar Panahi, 2022) The Plains (David Easteal, 2022) Older films encountered for the first time in 2022: Askhar (World, Christine Haroutounian, 2020) El camino (Ana Mariscal, 1964) Reconstituirea (Reconstruction, Lucian Pintilie, 1968) Shared Resources (Jordan Lord, 2021) Where Are We Headed? (Ruslan Fedotov, 2021) Thomas Caldwell Writer, broadcaster, film critic, public speaker and film programmer based in Melbourne, Australia. My list reflects the films I’ve most enjoyed, been moved by and remembered. To give my selection context and relevance, I’ve limited myself to films that received a full theatrical, online or home entertainment release in Australia in 2022. Films that only screened at festivals or other limited events (especially films with confirmed 2023 Australian release dates) are not included. Top ten films My favourite films released in Australia in 2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad, 2022) Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard, 2021) De uskyldige (The Innocents, Eskil Vogt, 2021) C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills, 2021) Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen, 2022) Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Sophie Hyde, 2022) Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic, 2020) The Stranger (Thomas M Wright, 2022) Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) Honourable mentions 20 more films I loved this year, listed alphabetically: Ambulance (Michael Bay, 2022) Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022) Doraibu mai kâ (Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2021) Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) Flugt (Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021) Hytti nro 6 (Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen, 2021) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021) RRR (SS Rajamouli, 2022) Sissy (Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes, 2022) Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022) Sundown (Michel Franco, 2021) The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) The Souvenir: Part II (Joanna Hogg, 2021) Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Un autre monde (Another World, Stéphane Brizé, 2021) X (Ti West, 2022) Special mentions I also enjoyed a number of films this year that only played at festivals, to the best of my knowledge don’t currently have a 2023 release date and in most cases don’t currently have Australian distribution. These ten final films would all be serious contenders in the above lists if they were more widely released. Listed alphabetically: Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, 2022) Les Olympiades, Paris 13e (Paris, 13th District, Jacques Audiard, 2021) Lynch/Oz (Alexandre O Philippe, 2022) Nö (Dietrich Brüggemann, 2021) Okul tirasi (Brother’s Keeper, Ferit Karahan, 2021) R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, 2022) Rien à foutre (Zero Fucks Given, Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre, 2021) Tori et Lokita (Tori and Lokita, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 2022) Un monde (Playground, Laura Wandel, 2021) Vortex (Gaspar Noé, 2021) Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Nicolas Carrasco Producer, film critic and programmer, Peru Films released 2020-2022, seen for the first time in 2022. In no particular order: Doraibu mai kâ (Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2021) El Gran Movimiento (Kiro Russo, 2021) Mato seco em chamas (Dry Groung Burning, Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós, 2022) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Vanskabte land (Godland, Hlynur Pálmason, 2022) Sobre las nubes (About the Clouds, María Aparicio, 2022) Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt? (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, Alexandre Koberidze, 2021) A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia, 2021) A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano, 2021) Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky, 2021) Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) El océano análogo (The Analog Ocean, Luis Macías, 2022) Babi Yar. Context (Sergei Loznitsa, 2021) Alcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022) Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022) Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022) Nest (Hlynur Pálmason, 2022) Cerro Saturno (Miguel Hilari, 2022) #006 (Yonay Boix, 2021) Majas (Homes, Laila Pakalnina, 2021) Atlantide (Yuri Ancarani, 2021) Espíritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit, Chema García Ibarra, 2021) Diários de Otsoga (The Tsugua Diaries, Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes, 2021) Sycorax (Matías Piñeiro, Lois Patiño, 2021) La edad media (The Middle Ages, Luciana Acuña, Alejo Moguillansky, 2022) El sembrador de estrellas (The Sower of Stars, Lois Patiño, 2022) Hidden (Jafar Panahi, 2020) Skazka (Fairytale, Aleksandr Sokurov, 2022) A Woman Escapes (Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik, Blake Williams, 2022) Chronique d’une liaison passagère (Diary of a Fleeting Affair, Emmanuel Mouret, 2022) The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose, 2021) Wood and Water (Jonas Bak, 2021) Akyn (Poet, Darezhan Omirbayev, 2021) Verdens verste menneske (The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier, 2021) Mars Exalté (Exalted Mars, Jean-Sébastien Chauvin, 2022) Manhã de Domingo (Sunday Morning, Bruno Ribeiro, 2022) Vênus de Nyke (Venus in Nykes, André Antônio, 2021) Quebrantahuesos (Martín Baus, 2021) Digital Ashes (Bruno Christofoletti Barrenha, 2022) Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022) The Black Phone (Scott Derrickson, 2021) Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Murmuring (Jennifer Kent, 2022) Love Is a Dog from Hell (Khavn de la Cruz, 2021) Glimpses from a Visit to Orkney in Summer (Ute Aurand, 2020) Querida Chantal (Dear Chantal, Nicolás Pereda, 2021) Eles transportan a morte (They carry death, Helena Girón, Samuel M. Delgado, 2021) Un varón (A Male, Fabián Hernández, 2022) Older films encountered for the first time in 2022: Chibusa yo eien nare (The Eternal Breasts, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955) Wir Wunderkinder (Aren’t We Wonderful?, Kurt Hoffmann, 1958) O Movimiento dais Cosas (The Movement of Things, Manuela Serra, 1985) Top of the Heap (Christopher St. John, 1972) Omicron (Ugo Gregoretti, 1963) Chan sam ying hung (A Hero Never Dies, Johnnie To, 1998) Dung fong sam hap (The Heroic Trio, Johnnie To, 1993) La donna del lago (The Possessed, Luigi Bazzoni, Franco Rossellini, 1965) Le orme (Footprints on the Moon, Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke, 1978) Play for Today: Penda’s Fen (Alan Clarke, 1974) Dak ging to lung (Tiger Cage, Yuen Woo-ping, 1988) Dr. Caligari (Stephen Sayadian, 1989) Alice, Sweet Alice (Alfred Sole, 1976) Shock (Mario Bava, 1977) Celia (Ann Turner, 1989) Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971) Dark Waters (Mariano Baino, 1993) Storia di una monaca di clausura (Story of a Cloistered Nun, Domenico Paolella, 1973) The Pyx (Harvey Hart, 1973) W no higeki (W’s Tragedy, Shin’ichiro Sawai, 1984) Fukkatsu no hi (Virus, Kinji Fukasaku, 1980) Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958) Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal (Don’t Deliver Us From Evil, Joël Séria, 1971) Ban wo chuang tian ya (Wild Search, Ringo Lam, 1989) Wong ga jin si (Royal Warriors, David Chung, 1986) Michael J. Casey Critic For Boulder Weekly, Kgnu’s “After Image,” And Michaeljcinema.Com. Top Ten Movies of 2022: Tár (Todd Field, 2022) Khers Nist (No Bears, Jafar Panahi, 2022) The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) Bones and All (Luca Gudagino, 2022) Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) రౌద్రం రణం రుధిరం (RRR, S. S. Rajamouli, 2022) Everything Everywhere All at Once (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2021) Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022) Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022) No movie in ’22 felt as emblematic of the moment we’re passing through as Tár. Would we feel the same way about the main character’s behaviour were she not female and queer? Would she be easier to dismiss if the art she produced was not heartfelt, powerful, and meaningful for so many people? And what of the movie’s coda, where Lydia, unmoored in Southeast Asia, might be undergoing a rehabilitation? And would Tár be easier to dismiss if not for the stellar performance from Cate Blanchett? She is to Lydia Tár what Robert de Niro is to Travis Bickle: A crack in the door, a peek through the window, a chance to understand the monsters haunting our world. Ten More I’m Thankful For: Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022) Is That Black Enough for You?!? (Elvis Mitchell, 2022) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) Pearl (Ti West, 2022) Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgan, 2022) Riotsville, USA (Sierra Pettengill, 2022) Song of Salt (Emma Baiada and Nicolas Snyder, 2022) Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022) Kevin Cassidy Cinephile, Melbourne Top 10 New Films Seen in 2022: In preference Mai Sumoru Rando (My Small Land, Emma Kawawada 2022) Sharp Stick (Lena Dunham, 2022) Beurokeo (Broker, Hirokazu Kore-Eda 2022) Un Monde (Playground, Laura Wandel, 2021) Wild Indian (Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr, 2021) Walad Min Al Janna (Boy From Heaven, Tarik Saleh, 2022) Razzhimaya Kulaki (Unclenching the Fists, Kira Kovelenko, 2021) War Pony (Riley Keough and Gina Gammell 2022) After Yang (Kogonada, 2021) Baradaran-e Leila (Leila’s Brothers, Saeed Roustayi, 2022) (Half of these films directed or co-directed by women) Top 10 Old films seen in 2022: In preference Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk 1959) In glorious 35mm at the Melbourne Cinematheque. Songs My Brothers Taught Me (Chloe Zaho, 2015) Subida Al Cielo (Mexican Bus Ride, Luis Bunuel 1952) Plema (The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, 2014) On The Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956) Remember The Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940) Hadaka No Shima (The Naked Island, Kaneto Shindo, 1960) Kaibyo Nazo No Shamisen, (The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen, Kiyohiko Ushihara, 1938) Na Srebrynm, (On The Silver Globe, Andrezj Zulawski, 1988) Akarui Mirai (Bright Future Kiyoshi Kurosowa , 2002) Best of television: Yellowjackets Decision to Leave Guilherme Cavalcanti Culture Injection (blog); Federal District, Brazil 2020-2022 (in order of preference) 1 Ryû to sobakasu no hime (Belle, Mamoru Hosoda, 2021) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Limbo (Soi Cheang, 2021) Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021) Jaddeh Khaki (Hit the Road, Panah Panahi, 2021) Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) Benediction (Terence Davies, 2021) France (Bruno Dumont, 2021) Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022) Gûzen to sôzô (Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021) Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021) Capitu e o Capítulo (Capitu and the Chapter, Júlio Bressane, 2021) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Marte Um (Mars One, Gabriel Martins, 2022) Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022) Something in the Dirt (Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, 2022) The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (Werner Herzog, 2022) Beurokeo (Broker, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2022) Watcher (Chloe Okuno, 2022) Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill, 2022) Medusa (Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2021) Das Mädchen und die Spinne (The Girl and the Spider, Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher, 2021) Todos os Mortos (All the Dead Ones, Marco Dutra, Caetano Gotardo, 2020) Rizi (Days, Tsai Ming-liang, 2020) The Souvenir: Part II (Joanna Hogg, 2021) Occhiali neri (Dark Glasses, Dario Argento, 2022) earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto, 2021) World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (Don Hertzfeldt, 2020) 2 Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) The Bad Guys (Pierre Perifel, 2022) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, 2022) A Supercut of Supercuts: Aesthetics, Histories, Databases (Max Tohline, 2021) (Video essay) Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022) Watashi wo kuitomete (Hold Me Back, Akiko Ohku, 2020) Smiley Face Killers (Tim Hunter, 2020) Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola, 2022) X (Ti West, 2022) The Nest (Sean Durkin, 2020) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) RRR (S. S. Rajamouli, 2022) Chak daan juen ga 2 (Shock Wave 2, Herman Yau, 2020) The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022) Bob Cuspe: Nós Não Gostamos de Gente (Bob Spit – We Do Not Like People, Cesar Cabral, 2021) Filme Particular (Private Footage, Janaína Nagata, 2022) Um Animal Amarelo (A Yellow Animal, Felipe Bragança, 2020) Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021) Down with the King (Diego Ongaro, 2021) Friends and Strangers (James Vaughan, 2021) Viens je t’emmène (Nobody’s Hero, Alain Guiraudie, 2022) Tromperie (Deception, Arnaud Desplechin, 2021) Diários de Otsoga (The Tsugua Diaries, Miguel Gomes, Maureen Fazendeiro, 2021) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, 2022) A Nuvem Rosa (The Pink Cloud, Iuli Gerbase, 2021) Maputo Nakuzandza (Ariadine Zampaulo, 2022) Un pays qui se tient sage (The Monopoly of Violence, David Dufresne, 2020) Marinheiro das montanhas (Mariner of the Mountains, Karim Aïnouz, 2021) Denver Tourism Tapes (Mike Schwanke, 2022) Al amparo del cielo, (Under the Sky Shelter, Diego Acosta, 2021) 3 Dune (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020) The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, 2021) Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, 2021) Nou fo (Raging Fire, Benny Chan, 2021) Ennio (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2021) Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot, 2021) Ron’s Gone Wrong (Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, 2021) I mysi patrí do nebe (Even Mice Belong in Heaven, Denisa Grimmová Abrhámová, Jan Bubeníček, 2021) The House (Paloma Baeza, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels, 2022) Os Dragões (Gustavo Spolidoro, 2021) The Timekeepers of Eternity (Aristotelis Maragkos, 2021) The Sea Beast (Chris Williams, 2022) Eiga daisuki Pompo-san (Pompo the Cinephile, Takayuki Hirao, 2021) The Pedal Movie (Michael Lux, Daniel Orkin, 2021) Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Moby Doc (Rob Gordon Bralver, 2021) Cafi (Natara Ney, Lírio Ferreira, 2021) Cantochão (Vinícius Romero, 2022) Vinyl Nation (Christopher Boone, Kevin Smokler, 2020) Flugt (Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021) Os Primeiros Soldados (The First Fallen, Rodrigo de Oliveira, 2021) Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer, 2020) Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) Men (Alex Garland, 2022) The Green Knight (David Lowery, 2021) Lavra (Ironland, Lucas Bambozzi, 2021) Bem-Vindos de Novo (Marcos Yoshi, 2021) As Faces do Mao (Rotten Boy, Dellani Lima, Lucas Barbi, 2021) A Colônia (Mozart Freire, Virginia Pinho, 2021) Uma História de uma Nação (A Story of a Nation, Júlio F. R. Costa, 2022) Boiling Point (Philip Barantini, 2021) Le Mystère Méliès (The Méliès Mystery, Eric Lange, 2021) 1931-2019 (in order of preference) 1 Chikamatsu monogatari (The Crucified Lovers, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) Judex (Georges Franju, 1963) The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) Life on Earth (1979) (TV) L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More, Sergio Leone, 1965) Ching se (Green Snake, Tsui Hark, 1993) Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989) Ôrí (Raquel Gerber, 1989) Fellini Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1969) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood, 1980) I Want to Go Home (Alain Resnais, 1989) Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933) Histoire immortelle (The Immortal Story, Orson Welles, 1968) The Howling (Joe Dante, 1981) Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000) Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974) Space Adventure Cobra (Osamu Dezaki, 1982) Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 1983) Yim ji kau (Rouge, Stanley Kwan, 1987) The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964) Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980) The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976) Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980) The Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen, 1982) Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981) Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988) The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (Adam Curtis, 2007) (TV) When the Wind Blows (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1986) Bakha satang (Peppermint Candy, Lee Chang-dong, 1999) Hong gao liang (Red Sorghum, Zhang Yimou, 1987) O Auto da Compadecida (Guel Arraes, 1999) (TV) 2 Mon oncle d’Amérique (My American Uncle, Alain Resnais, 1980) Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke, 1985) Prova d’orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal, Federico Fellini, 1978) The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980) Le Prix du danger (The Prize of Peril, Yves Boisset, 1983) King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) Mati Manas (Mind of Clay, Mani Kaul, 1985) Bakemono no ko (The Boy and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda, 2015) Le Roi et l’oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird, Paul Grimault, 1980) Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980) Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962) The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931) Top wo Nerae! (Gunbuster, Hideaki Anno, Shoichi Masuo, Kazuya Tsurumaki, 1988) (TV) Stranger on the Third Floor (Boris Ingster, 1940) Songs for Drella (Edward Lachman, 1990) Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019) Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989) Good Morning, Babilonia (Good Morning, Babylon, Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, 1987) Bat leung gam (Eight Taels of Gold, Mabel Cheung, 1989) Arion (Mamoru Hamatsu, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, 1986) Max Richter’s Sleep (Natalie Johns, 2019) State Funeral (Sergei Loznitsa, 2019) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) O Quadrado de Joana (Tiago Mata Machado, 2007) The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Art Stevens, Richard Rich, 1981) Une Affaire de femmes (Story of Women, Claude Chabrol, 1988) Cat People (Paul Schrader, 1982) Alisa v strane chudes (Alice in Wonderland, Efrem Pruzhanskiy, 1981) 3 House of Strangers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) Ten Seconds to Hell (Robert Aldrich, 1959) Threads (Mick Jackson, 1984) The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947) Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg, 2019) Tie qi men (The Flag of Iron, Chang Cheh, 1980) Antonio Gaudí (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1984) The Projectionist (Abel Ferrara, 2019) Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (Shinji Aramaki, 1987) Yôjû toshi (Wicked City, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1987) American Pop (Ralph Bakshi, 1981) House of Wax 3D (André de Toth, 1953) Seung joi nei jor yau (Always Be with You, Herman Yau, 2017) Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro, 2015) Estrada para Ythaca (Road to Ythaca, Ricardo Pretti, Luiz Pretti, Guto Parente, Pedro Diógenes, 2010) Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (Alex Proyas, 1987) The Book of Life 3D (Jorge R. Gutierrez, 2014) Sofá (Bruno Safadi, 2019) Sábado À Noite (Ivo Lopes Araújo, 2007) Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin’ (Bob Smeaton, 2013) De weg naar Bresson (The Road to Bresson, Jurriën Rood, Leo de Boer, 1984) Fora de Campo (Adirley Queirós, 2010) Bianca (Nanni Moretti, 1983) Elvis (John Carpenter, 1979) 1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019) Corpo Presente (Marcelo Toledo, Paolo Gregori, 2011) School Daze (Spike Lee, 1988) Kôkaku Kidôtai Shin Gekijôban (Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, Kazuchika Kise, Kazuya Nomura, 2015) Short films (29 minutes or less): 1 Plumb Line (Carolee Schneemann, 1971) 2 (in chronological order) Nuit noire, Calcutta (Dark Night, Calcutta, Marin Karmitz, 1964) La question ordinaire (Claude Miller, 1969) Chant (Robert Fulton, 1973) Persian #2 (Stan Brakhage, 1999) Persian #3 (Stan Brakhage, 1999) Kanojo to kanojo no neko (She and Her Cat, Makoto Shinkai, 1999) Géminga (Hugo Verlinde, 2003) Made of Air (Paul Clipson, 2014) Cruel Optimism (Paul Clipson, 2017) Aliquid (Sabrina Ratté, 2019) Look Then Below (Ben Rivers, 2019) Empty Places (Geoffroy De Crécy, 2020) The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022) Film Festivals (online) 25th Media City Film Festival (Canada) 6th Ecrã (Brazil) An Odd Pair Jane Cheadle Filmmaker & Animator, University Lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts, UK At festivals this year I found an increasing prevalence of films combining animation and live-action to worry the binaries of live/matter and colonial present/past. Bring on the human/non-human working groups in the face of the climate apocalypse! I An Odd Pair (Melissa Friedling, 2021) shot on 16mm; (odd)kinships spawned in assisted reproductive technologies. Looking for Horses (Stefan Pavlovic, 2021) feature documentary – language, friendship and trauma amongst catfish, horses, and thunderstorms. Our Mine (Shayna Strype, 2021) DIY ecofeminist short that blurs the lines between fable and reality. A Bunch of Amateurs (Kim Hopkins, 2022) Tragicomic documentary about one of England’s last remaining amateur filmmaking clubs as they remake scenes from Oklahoma! Rewind and Play (Alain Gomis, 2022) A radical repurposing of archival footage of Thelonious Monk from 1969. Birdsaver Report Volume (Heehyun Choi, 2021) Do human vision and bird vision lie in the same world? Stay Tuna Fish by (Allie Trigoso 2022) Animation at its best – short wild weird. Precious Hair & Beauty (John Ogunmuyiwa, 2021) Through the window of an African hair salon in London. Shari (Nao Yashigai, 2021) Northernmost Japan, wild animals and humans wait for the drift ice that hasn’t appeared yet. Irani Bag (Maryam Tafakory, 2020) powerful textual and political analysis of censorship and intimacy in post-revolution Iran. II Ha Terra (There is Land!, Ana Vaz, 2016) 16mm cine-poem, ‘absorption of the sacred enemy’; conjuring hunt as distant memory of colonialism in Brazil. Turin Horse (Bela Tarr & Agnes Hranitzky, 2011) at our world’s end: horse, father, daughter. Englandbashi (Shayok Misha Chowdhury, 2020) Queer post-colonial ghost story, chilling and funny. Last Address (Ira Sachs 2010) Homage to a generation – the final homes of artists who died of HIV/AIDS related illness. Fuck the Cancer (Thomas Renolder, 2016) diagnosis and the only possible response Trauma Cameleon (Gina Kamentsky, 2019) drawn, paint and collage on 70mm film She Gone Rogue (Rhys Ernst, 2012) mystical kaleidoscope journey of self-negation and trans-becoming. Invocation of my Daemon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969) assembled from scraps of Anger’s Lucifer Rising. No No Nooky TV (Barbara Hammer, 1987) prescient collision of queer, technology and intimacy Meli-Melo (Mix-Up, Francoise Romand 1985) possibly the best documentary ever made! Dynamic, deft and closely observed. Daryl Chin Critic & blogger at Documents on Art & Cinema; Brooklyn, New York Marx Puo Aspettare (Marx Can Wait, Marco Bellocchio, 2021) Benediction (Terence Davies, 2021) Jiao Ma Tang Hui (A New Old Play, Qiu Jiongjiong, 2021) Mi Pais Imaginario (My Imaginary Country, Patricio Guzman, 2022) Khers Nist (No Bears, Jafar Panahi, 2022) L’evenement (Happening, Audrey Diwan, 2021) Till (Chinonye Chukwu, 2022) All The Beauty and The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022) Io (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Plus two “extracinematic” works: Expedition Content (Ernst Karel and Veronica Kusumaryati, 2021) and Terra Femme (Courtney Stephens, 2021); two works which were not strictly “films”, the first which presented sound recorded during the filming of Robert Gardner’s Dead Birds, and the second a performance lecture about “home movie” footage shot by American women during the 1920s and 1930s while on foreign vacations/expeditions. An extraordinary year for movies, my list could go on and on, though missed would be many of the big commercial releases, which were not seen. This was a year in which many “old masters” presented personal works of incredible emotional resonance. And there was an enormous amount of revelatory films by women, as well as startling films by filmmakers of colour. Another Ten Best list could include: Aftersun (Charlotte Wells), Women Talking (Sarah Polley), Descendant (Margaret Brown), Nope (Jordan Peele), Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman), The Woman King (Gina Prince-Bythewood), Return To Seoul (Davy Chou), Heojil kyolshim (Decision To Leave, Park Chan-wook), The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg), Petite Maman (Celine Sciamma). But so much of the discussions were about the viability of the theatrical experience for cinema, as exemplified in Top Gun: Maverick. And that is an important discussion, but just not mine. raiwoot Chulphongsathorn Film scholar, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Top 10 Come Here (Anocha Suwichakornpong, 2021) De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022) Godland (Hlynur Pálmason, 2022) Huang Rak Haew Luek (Somkuan Krachangsart, 1955) Il Buco (The Hole, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021) Manto de gemas (Robe of Gems, Natalia López Gallardo, 2022) Notalgia (Weerapat Sakolvaree, 2022) Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Wela (Anatomy of Time, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, 2021) Best series Midnight Mass (Mike Flanagan, 2021) Best Film Installation Forum Expanded: Closer to the Ground at Silent Green, Berlinale 2022 Janina Ciezadlo Writer on art and film, Chicago. Film journals from Telluride and Traverse City appear on www.merelycirculating.com. Films released for the first time in 2022 (festivals, cinemas, streaming services): From the Telluride Festival that might disappear and be overlooked: Mark Cousins’ Mussolini: The March on Rome (2022). The film opens with a choker of Trump defending his use of a quote from the Italian Fascist, Mussolini. Cousins, with a filmmaker’s vision and an historians’ insight, used archival film of black shirt rallies intended to precipitate a Fascist uprising in Naples. He centres his film on the analysis of Umberto Paradisi’s propaganda film A Noi (1923) which carefully manipulated film to make the Black Shirts rally and popular support look more important than it actually was. However, as we know, they did gain power in Italy. Cousins shows how the Masons and the collusion of other powerful groups assured their ascendance. In his comment on receiving a special medallion by the Telluride Festival, Cousins noted, eloquent as usual: “the sublime quality of this anarchic rectangle.” Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Tori and Lokita (2022) (premiered at Cannes and Telluride) reveals the degradations and inhumanity of human trafficking in a tight, tense film, while James Grey considers race and class in America in a gentle, thoughtful, autobiographical story: Armageddon Time (2022). Nina Menkes has made Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2022) available on Kanopy, a streaming service offered by public libraries in the US, so anyone with a library card can see it. Menkes, like John Berger before her, wants people outside of the gender studies cognoscenti to begin to think about how they ‘see’ and subsequently treat women. Viewers are led through some very cogent and rational arguments, supported by clips and bolstered by diagrams, analysing the no longer innocent elements of film that construct a predominately male point of view. She leaves no great director untouched. Scorsese, Godard, Tarantino and Kubrick among others, all get a clip. She elucidates the impact of shot design, camera position and movement and lighting as well as narrative in producing object and subject positions in film. Her narration is accompanied by comments from Laura Mulvey, who coined the term “male gaze” in her famous essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) and Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust, 1991) and a horror film score. Chicago premiere: Facets Cinematheque. Adding to a spate of films by women including another fluid and subtle Mia Hansen-Løve offering: Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, 2022) and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking (2022) based on the book by Miriam Toews (2018) premiered at Telluride in September. These films decentre the patriarchal gaze not just by shifting camera positions, but by valuing the way that women see the world and the kinds of problems they confront and solve. One the other hand, there is a universality to the decisions Polley’s abused Mennonite women, who have been systematically drugged and raped, face. Even though a situation may be nowhere near as extreme, many people will have had to discuss, and attempt to come to consensus, what these Mennonite women debate: staying and just going along with abuse; staying and trying to change the situation; or leaving. Older films encountered for the first time in 2022: The Traverse City (Michigan) Film Festival, in late July, brought back a set of films about abortion in honour of the US Supreme Court ruling rolling back a women’s right to choose. Michael Moore, who started the festival, feels that “cinema can change the world.” I’m not sure about that, but I like the unequivocal point of view that determines what will be shown in this festival. L’evenment (Happening, Audrey Diwan 2021), based on the novel by French Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, was a confrontational and rather grisly story of a determined working-class young woman seeking an abortion before it was legal in France. Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always (Eliza Hittman 2020) immerses us in the life of a teenager living in a small town in Pennsylvania. Autumn’s boyfriend is unsuitable, possibly violent: she would be trapped without access to abortion. She and her cousin travel to New York City. The film makes it possible to imagine being a 17-year-old girl who has never been out of her small town suddenly in NYC with almost no money, trying to find Planned Parenthood. The girls have tremendous courage and love – the cousin supports her in her journey. A DVD side trip into the films of blacklisted director Joseph Losey, many of which are strange and even perverse, yielded The Prowler (1951) with a screenplay by blacklisted screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo (he used other people’s names at the time). After some standard, but complicated, film noir business in town where a cynical disaffected cop, Webb Garwood (played by Van Heflin), begins an affair with a married woman, Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes), and then stages the murder of her husband by a prowler, the couple take off into a Nevada Ghost Town. Losey’s settings and mise en scène brilliantly determine his narrative direction. Garwood was able to avoid being charged with murder by claiming he had never met the women, but it turns out she is pregnant, and the date of birth will reveal the truth. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it sets up the strange drama of the Ghost Town sequence. He spirits Susan, who is vulnerable and sexual, but no femme fatal, off to have the baby where no one will know about it. She goes into labour in the barren, rock-strewn landscape with a storm threatening amid an equal amount of turbulent psychodrama. Bertrand Tavernier waxes eloquent in the extras and Leonard Maltin praised its camerawork and production design and described the film as “unusually nasty and utterly unpredictable.” Jesús Cortés Spanish film writer Recent Films. Best Features: Les passagers de la nuit (The passengers of the night, Mikhaël Hers, 2022), Let him go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020), Ouistreham (Between two worlds, Emmanuel Carrère, 2021), Light from light (Paul Harrill, 2019), Pour vivre ici (A place to live, Bernard Émond, 2018), Histoire d’un regard (Looking for Gilles Caron, Mariana Otero, 2019), Rachel Hendrix (Victor Nunez, 2022). And Very Good Ones: Viens je t’emmène (Nobody’s hero, Alain Guiraudie, 2022), Degas et moi (Arnaud des Pallières, 2019), Pacifiction / Tourment sur les iles (Albert Serra, 2022), La nuit aux amants (The night belongs to lovers, Julien Hilmoine, 2021), Petite Solange (Axelle Ropert, 2021), Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022), Close (Lukas Dhont, 2022), Apollo 10 ½ : A space age childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022), West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021), Le mur des morts (The Wall of the Dead, Eugène Green, 2022), Marx può aspettare (Marx can wait, Marco Bellocchio, 2021), Un couple (A couple, Frederick Wiseman, 2022), Lingui: les liens sacrés (Lingui: The sacred bonds, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2021), Viagem ao sol (Journey to the sun, Ansgar Schäefer & Susana de Sousa Dias, 2022), Avec amour et acharnement (Both Sides of the Blade, Claire Denis, 2022), So-seol-ga-ui Yeong-hwa (The Novelist Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022), Don Juan (Serge Bozon, 2022), The lie / Between Earth and sky (Veena Sud, 2020), Beauty lives in freedom (Bing Wang, 2019), Watcher (Chloe Okuno, 2022), Albatros (Xavier Beauvois, 2021), Modern love Tokyo: For 13 days, I believed him (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2022), The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose, 2021), Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022), Les intranquilles (The Restless, Joaquim Lafosse, 2021), The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022). Not So New. Great films: Awdat mowatin (Return of a Citizen, Mohamed Khan, 1986), Yawaraka na hou (A Tender Place, Nagasaki Shunichi, 2001), Tin aai hoi gok (Lost and Found, Lee Chi-ngai, 1996), Return of the Texan (Delmer Daves, 1952), Yûwakusha (The Enchantment, Nagasaki Shunichi, 1989), Zawgat ragoul mohem (The Wife of An Important Man, Mohamed Khan, 1987), Maowid ala ashaa (A Dinner Date, Mohammed Khan, 1981), The Stone Boy (Christopher Cain, 1984), Pêcheur d’Islande (Island Fishermen, Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1959), Kashin (A Flower Aflame, Andô Hiroshi, 2016), L’impure (The Marked Woman, Paul Vecchiali, 1991), Voice in the Mirror (Harry Keller, 1958), Something, Anything (Paul Harril, 2014), Kyoraku no mai (Dance of Kyoto, Nomura Hiromasa, 1942), Store fortventninger (Great Expectations, A W. Sandberg, 1922), Lian ai yu yi wu (Love and Duty, Bu Wancang, 1931), Boyevoy kinosbornik 10: Bestsennaya golova (Boris Barnet, 1942), Sinong lumikha ng yoyo? Sinong lumikha ng moon buggy? (Who invented the yoyo?, who invented the Moon buggy?, Kidlat Tahimik, 1982), What happened was… (Tom Noonan, 1993), Mr Fix It (Allan Dwan, 1918), Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927). And Very Good Films: Umi no koto (Koto: the Lake Of Tears, Tasaka Tomotaka, 1966), Pered sudom istorii (Facing the Judgment of History, Fridrikh Ermler, 1965), Bed of Roses (Michael Goldenberg, 1996), Dogs (Nagasaki Shunichi, 2007), Nishi no majo ga shinda (The Witch of the West is Dead, Nagasaki Shunichi, 2008), Coastlines (Victor Nunez, 2002), Trigger (Bruce McDonald, 2010), Veillées d’armes (The Troubles We’ve Seen, Marcel Ophuls, 1994), The Eclipse (Connor McPherson, 2009), The Whistle at Eaton Falls (Robert Siodmak, 1951), Maeve (Pat Murphy, 1981), Pagdating sa dulo (At the top, Ishmael Bernal, 1971), Paradise is not yet lost / Oona’s third year (Jonas Mekas, 1979), Anantaram (Monologue, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, 1987), La caza de brujas (Antonio Drove Shaw, 1966/7), Freundschaft siegt (Friendship Triumphs, Joris Ivens & Ivan Pyriev, 1951), Boyevoy kinosbornik 3: Muzhestvo (Boris Barnet, 1941), Blue (Andô Hiroshi, 2002), Strangers In Good Company (Cynthia Scott, 1990), The Family Secret (Henry Levin, 1951), The Very Thought Of You (Delmer Daves, 1944), Istoriya grazhdanskoy voyny (The History of the Civil War, Dziga Vertov, 1922), Godziny nadziei (The Hours Of Hope, Jan Rybkowski, 1955), Jeux d’enfants (Child’s play, Henri Fescourt, 1913), Shinsetsu (Gosho Heinosuke, 1942), Il fascino dell’insolito / Vampirismus (Giulio Questi, 1982), Saaransh (The gist, Mahesh Bhatt, 1984), Yami utsu shinzô (Heart beating in the dark, Nagasaki Shunichi, 1982), Cap canaille (Jean-Henri Roger & Juliet Berto, 1983), Albert Savarus (Alexandre Astruc, 1993), Maboroshi no uma (The Phantom Horse, Shima Kôji, 1955), Hana-kago no uta (Song Of The Flower Basket, Gosho Heinosuke, 1937), Ombre sul Canal Grande (Glauco Pellegrini, 1951), Hunt the man down (George Archimbaud, 1950), El harrif (The street player, Mohamed Khan, 1983), Tigersteifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan (Tigerstripe baby is waiting for Tarzan, Rudolf Thome, 1998), Sambizanga (Sara Maldoror, 1972), Off the map (Campbell Scott, 2003), Profanazione (Profanation, Eugenio Perego, 1924/6), Hell’s hinges (Charles Swickard, William S. Hart & Clifford Smith, 1916), Swayamvaram (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, 1972), Romanzo d’amore (All for love, Duilio Coletti, 1950), Il padrone delle ferriere (The master of the ironworks, Eugenio Perego, 1919), Prostoy sluchay (Life Is Beautiful, Vsevolod Pudovkin & Mikhail Doller, 1930/2), The Sentimental Bloke (Raymond Longford, 1918), Une aventure (Only the night, Xavier Giannoli, 2005), Série noir: Coeur de hareng (Paul Vecchiali, 1984), Quick feet, soft hands (Paul Harrill, 2008), The Arc (Rob Tregenza, 1991), Sa tête (His Head, Jean Epstein, 1929), L’adolescente / Sucre d’amour / The razors’s edge / Une vie suspendue / A suspended life (Jocelyne Saab, 1985), East End hustle (Frank Vitale, 1976), Passione d’amore (Passion of love, Ettore Scola, 1981), Im großen Augenblick (The Great Moment, Urban Gad, 1911), Chieko-sho (Portrait of Chieko, Nakamura Noboru, 1967), Tombolo, paradiso nero (Giorgio Ferroni, 1947). Greatest Re-evaluations: Double messieurs (Double Gentlemen, Jean-François Stévenin, 1986), The Devil’s Circus (Benjamin Christensen, 1926), Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986), Mia madre (My mother, Nanni Moretti, 2015), The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992), Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021), Yamiutsu shinzo (Heart, Beating In The Dark, Nagasaki Shunichi, 2005), The Devil Makes Three (Andrew Marton, 1952), The Treasure Of The Golden Condor (Delmer Daves, 1953), Among The Living (Stuart Heisler, 1941), Le livre de Marie (The Book of Mary, Anne-Marie Miéville, 1984), Vita coi figli (Life With Children, Dino Risi, 1990), Blue Black Permanent (Margaret Tait, 1992), Pearl Jam Twenty (Cameron Crowe, 2011). Jordan Cronk Founder: Acropolis Cinema; Contributor: Artforum, Cinema Scope, Film Comment, Sight and Sound Per personal tradition, my 50 favourite new films seen in 2022: À vendredi, Robinson (See You Friday, Robinson, Mitra Farahani, 2022) Afterwater (Dane Komljen, 2022) Akyn (Poet, Darezhan Omirbayev, 2021) Ambulance (Michael Bay, 2022) Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Avec amour et acharnement (Both Sides of the Blade, Claire Denis, 2022) Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb (Jon Bois, 2022) Chronique d’une liaison passagére (Diary of a Fleeting Affair, Emmanuel Mouret, 2022) Coma (Bertrand Bonello, 2022) Un couple (A Couple, Frederick Wiseman, 2022) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright – Prelude & Oraison (Gaëlle Rouard, 2022) Deep Water (Adrian Lyne, 2022) Devil’s Peak (Simon Liu, 2022) Io (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Un été comme ça (That Kind of Summer, Denis Côté, 2022) EVENTIDE (Sharon Lockhart, 2022) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Fogo-Fátuo (Will-o’-the-Wisp, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022) Gigi la legge (The Adventures of the Gigi the Law, Alessandro Comodin, 2022) Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, 2022) De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022) Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 2022) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) Leto (Summer, Vadim Kostrov, 2021) A Little Love Package (Gastón Solnicki, 2022) The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022) Mato seco em chamas (Dry Ground Burning, Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, 2022) Mr. Landsbergis (Sergei Loznitsa, 2021) Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022) Old (M. Night Shyamalan, 2021) Onde Fica Esta Rua? ou Sem Antes Nem Depois (Where Is This Street? or With No Before or After, João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata, 2022) Pacifiction – Tourment sur les îles (Pacifiction, Albert Serra, 2022) The Plains (David Easteal, 2022) Le rêve et la radio (The Dream and the Radio, Renaud Després-Larose & Ana Tapia Rousiouk, 2022) Rimini + Sparta (Ulrich Seidl, 2022) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Schlachthäuser der Moderne (Slaughterhouses of Modernity, Heinz Emigholz, 2022) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022) Skazka (Fairytale, Aleksandr Sokurov, 2022) So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sangsoo, 2022) Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022) Tab (Walk Up, Hong Sangsoo, 2022) Tales of the Purple House (Abbas Fahdel, 2022) Tenéis que venir a verla (You Have to Come and See It, Jonàs Trueba, 2022) Le Tombeau de Kafka (The Tomb of Kafka, Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2022) Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022) The United States of America (James Benning, 2022) Unrueh (Unrest, Cyril Schäublin, 2022) Viens je t’emmène (Nobody’s Hero, Alain Guiraudie, 2022) Brian Darr San Francisco Cinephile This is my first time contributing to the World Poll since 2019. 2020 and 2021 felt in no way like normal years, with my visits to cinemas, festivals, museums and microcinemas greatly curtailed by pandemic conditions and other factors, and my level of interest in watching new moving image work from the comfort of home relatively small. This year felt a little more like the “old days” even though the number of my excursions still pales in comparison to my pre-pandemic habits. Still, I feel I saw enough to provide a list of highlights without feeling like I’m compromising or just publishing a viewing log. Order is alphabetical this time. Top ten commercially released (in the U.S.) films: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Descendant (Margaret Brown, 2022) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2022) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Free Chol Soo Lee (Julie Ha & Eugene Li, 2022) Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (Daniel Geller & Danya Goldfine, 2021) Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sangsoo, 2022) Five not (yet?) traditionally distributed feature-length films: The Afterlight (Charlie Shackleton, 2021) É Noite na América (It Is Night In America, Ana Vaz, 2022) I Didn’t See You There (Reid Davenport, 2022) Lost Landscapes 02022 Bay and Gateway: Past Glimpses and Possible Futures (Rick Prelinger, 2022) 32 Sounds (Sam Green, 2022) Ten Shorts: After Bed (TT Takemoto, 2022) Bigger On the Inside (Angelo Madsen Minax, 2022) The Family Statement (Grace Harper & Kate Stonehill, 2022) Fog (Michael Rudnick, 2022) Image To Text To Image (Bryan Boyce, 2022) Night Out of Song (Scott Stark, 2022) El sembrador de estrellas (The Sower of Stars, Lois Patiño, 2022) Some Mistakes That I Have Made (Janis Crystal Lipzin, 2021) Tierra en Trance (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, 2022) Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet To Come, Niskapisuwin & Sipsis Peciptaq Elamoqessik, 2022) I’ve never submitted lists of my favourite older films seen in a year to the World Poll before, in part because I used to collect a round-up of San Francisco Bay Area cinephiles’ favourite revivals to publish on my own blog. Since this is another practice that fell away (at least temporarily) due to COVID-19, I’m glad to step into the waters here. Two events most memorably marked my 2022 in repertory discoveries. My first-ever visit to the Nitrate Picture Show in Rochester, New York was all I could have dreamed of; films I thought I knew well looked even better when projected from 35mm nitrate prints that have survived more than 70 or 80 years. The films in the program I feel most especially blessed to be able to view this way as my very first experience with them include Meshi (Repast, Mikio Naruse, 1951) and Western Approaches (Pat Jackson, 1944). But before that the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, after two years of postponements, hosted its 25th edition at the glorious Castro Theatre, which celebrated its 100th year as a movie palace in 2022. New-to-me highlights included: The Fire Brigade (William Nigh, 1926) via a gorgeously-coloured 35mm print and a musical accompaniment from Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923) via a terrific new digital scan from what must be the best-surviving 16mm print, accompanied by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and most of all: Sylvester (Lupu Pick, 1924) via Deutsche Kinemathek’s recent restoration of both image and Klaus Pringsheim’s original score, performed by the San Francisco Silent Movie Orchestra, conducted by Timothy Brock. These screenings were particularly meaningful in the context of the drama revolving around the Castro venue which emotionally dominated 2022 for many of us who fear that the modifications planned by the theatre’s new management (but not yet approved by city officials) will crowd cinema out in favour of rock concerts, stand-up comedy, fancy weddings and private fundraising events for local politicians. Might 2022’s events put on by the Silent Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival (both of which I should say I used to volunteer for, well over a decade ago) be my last times seeing movies at the theatre that means more to me than any other? I hope not! As mentioned in my first paragraph, I only occasionally feel compelled to spend my time at home by watching new films. But I did make an exception this year for the Camden International Film Festival, a hybrid (in-persona and online) event based out of coastal Maine that very thoughtfully curates non-fiction works from around the world, both in the traditional documentary form and in much more experimental modes. The international documentary community is well aware of this event, which occurs in mid-September, just in time to catch films fresh from world premieres in Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Toronto, but cinephiles interested in form-challenging non-fiction short and feature-length work alike should consider adding it to their calendars as well. It’s how I saw nearly half the shorts named on my top ten this year, as well as a few of the mentioned features in either the distributed or undistributed category. Descendant Dustin Dasig Film critic/Communication & Media Studies Professor/Security Training Director/Phd. Student, The George Washington University, Philippines/U.S.A. Best Films of 2022: Close (Lukas Dhont, 2022) (Basically the story of my childhood however emotionally written, sensitively told, and strongly portrayed especially by the lead child actor) Io (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) (Robert Bresson must be speechless in this heartbreaking yet optimistic allegory of human life today from the worldview of a donkey) Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger, 2022) Tár (Todd Field, 2022) (Truthfully exemplifies that “cancel culture” is ludicrous, and “consequences culture” exists) Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022) L’Événement (Happening, Audrey Diwan, 2021) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Leonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar, 2022) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, 2022) Illusions perdues (Lost Illusions, Xavier Giannoli, 2021) (engagingly depicts the socio-cultural and historical dimensions of “fake news” as told by Honoré de Balzac in his three novels. Classic Cinema (Ten great films that were released in the past decades and that I saw for the first time; arranged in alphabetical order): Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1998) Come Drink with Me (King Hu, 1966) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) House of Games (David Mamet, 1987) Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1973) Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped, Robert Bresson, 1956) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Une affaire de femmes (Story of Women, Charles Chabrol, 1988) Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970) The Next In The Best: The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, 2022) An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad, 2022) Große Freiheit (Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise, 2021) Zgjoi (Hive, Blerta Bashioli, 2021) Missed Opportunity to leave a lasting impression: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022) House of Gucci (Ridley Scott, 2021) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre, 2022) My Policeman (Michael Gandrage, 2022) Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022) Apollo 10&1/2: A Space Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Beurokeo (Broker, Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2022) Nocebo (Lorcan Finnegan, 2022) Grandiose Entertainment that illustrates the power of movies and filmmaking as a profession and as an art form: Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) and RRR (SS Rajamouli, 2022) Irredeemable By All Accounts (The Worst Of The Year): CODA (Sian Heder, 2021) and White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022) Máquina de aplausos Independent researcher Souvenir (Michael H. Shamberg, 1996) Le pupille (The Pupils, Alice Rohrwacher, 2022) This Ain’t No Mouse Music (Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon, 2013) The films of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson Fragments of Paradise (K.D. Davison, 2022) Lavandería Nancy Sport (Agustín Gregori, 2022) El crítico (The Critic, Javier Morales Perez and Juan Zavala, 2022) Wintopia (Mira Burt-Wintonick, 2019) Funny Pages (Owen Kline, 2022) The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996) Songs for Drella (Edward Lachman, 1990) Ulrike Ottinger. Die Nomadin vom See (Ulrike Ottinger. Nomad from the Lake, Brigitte Kramer, 2012) La mémoire des anges (The Memories of Angels, Luc Bourdon, 2008) Three Minutes. A Lenghtening (Bianca Stigter, 2021) White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022) The House (2022) Henri de Corinth Film writer at Kinoscope, MUBI Notebook, Lo Specchio Scuro Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) Earwig (Lucile Hadżihalilović, 2021) Riotsville, USA (Sierra Pettengill, 2022) De humani corporis fabrica (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022) The Silent Twins (Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2022) After Blue (Bertrand Mandico, 2021) Mi pais imaginario (My Imaginary Country, Patricio Guzmán, 2022) The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022) Zabij to i wyjedź z tego miasta (Kill It and Leave This Town, Mariusz Wilczyński, 2021) Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022) Film balkonowy (The Balcony Movie, Pawel Łoziński, 2021) Fou de Bassan/Hideous (Yann Gonzalez, 2021/2022) Potemkinistii (The Potemkinists, Radu Jude, 2022) The Art Teacher from Drohobycz (Stephen and Timothy Quay, 2022) The Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, 2022) Honourable Mention: Ucieczka na srebrny glob (Escape to the Silver Globe, Kuba Mikurda, 2021) Nicholas de Villiers Professor of English and Film at the University of North Florida and author of Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) A year of interesting body horror genre hybrids: After Blue (Paradis sale) (After Blue: Dirty Paradise, Bertrand Mandico, 2021) You Won’t Be Alone (Goran Stolevski, 2022) Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022) Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino, 2022) De uskyldige (The Innocents, Eskil Vogt, 2021) Everything Everywhere All at Once (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) After Yang (Kogonada, 2022) Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Some disappointments: The Northman (Robert Eggers, 2022) Men (Alex Garland, 2022) Some highlights of the year: Returning to in-person international conferences, including the Blade Runner @ 40: Origins and Legacies conference at Bangor University in Wales Tsai Ming-liang retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive (along with MoMA and Centre Pompidou) Sleeping Giant Festival at Sun-Ray Cinema in Jacksonville, Florida Aftersun Ben deHoedt Social worker, documentary filmmaker, musician Films released (and viewable in Australia) for the first time in 2022: The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021)* Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, 2021) Private Desert (Aly Muritiba, 2021) Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Tár (Todd Field, 2022) The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) The Quiet Girl (Colm Bairéad, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Compartment No. 6 (Juho Kuosmanen, 2021) *released to streaming services in Australia on Dec 31, 2021. I think it’s fair enough to consider this an early 2022 release. Films encountered for the first time in 2022: Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte, 1989) Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980) Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (Claude Sautet, 1995) Rosetta (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 1999) Read My Lips (Jacques Audiard. 2001) The Emigrants (Jan Troell, 1971) The Swimming Pool (Jacques Deray, 1969) Murmur of the Heart (Louis Malle, 1971) Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) Little Darlings (Ronald F. Maxwell,1980) What constitutes best practice in terms of filmmaking and film going in 2022? A difficult question to answer, given it can be interpreted in so many different ways. On film-going, obviously we should all be as supportive of the cinema screen as possible but this is now fraught with risks for the vulnerable since 2020. On filmmaking, there is an ever-yawning divide between big Hollywood studio films and basically everything else. The former puts most of its money into IP / franchises and relies upon the Toxic Fandom argument to negate legitimate criticism. The latter must battle endlessly to reach its audience. Perhaps best practice would be for big US studios to start investing in original ideas again, taking note of the international gems which are a precious reprieve for film-lovers. Can audiences be reminded that it’s not just computer games and explosions which look impactful on the big screen? That faces, streets, hands, skies too can be rendered magnificent and moving? Mónica Delgado Peruvian film critic, director of Desistfilm.com Films released for the first time in 2022: Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022) Tierra en trance (Los Ingrávidos, 2022) Skazka (Fairytale, Aleksandr Sokurov, 2022) The newest olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022) L’Envol (Scarlet, Pietro Marcello, 2022) É noite na América (It Is Night in America, Ana Vaz, 2022) Nth Cinematic Nail Factory (Dalibor Martinis, 2021) Sea Series 23 (John Price, 2022) Showing up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022) Alegrías riojanas (Velasco Broca, 2022) My favourite older film encountered for the first time in 2022: Archie Shepp à Alger/ (Archie Shepp in Alger, Théo Robichet, 1971) (Oberhausen film festival) Any online or hybrid festivals: Exhibition ‘Harun Farocki, desconfiar de las imágenes‘, 5° Festival de Cine de No Ficción Frontera Sur, Concepción, Chile. This exhibition allowed me to watch in a panoramic way the reflexive work of Harun Farocki, in a careful curatorial selection by Cristian Saldia and Carolina Rivas. And amazing Pan-African Film program in 68th Oberhausen Film Festival, curated by Marie-Hélène Gutberlet and Annett Busch. The Eternal Daughter Kriti Dhanania Marketing professional & former film festival programme coordinator Films released for the first time in 2022: All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022) Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan, 2022) Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Beurokeo (Broker, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2022) Fire Island (Andrew Ahn, 2022) Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff, 2022) Fast & Feel Love (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2022) Qala (Anvita Dutt, 2022) Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Older films encountered for the first time in 2022: Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) Deathtrap (Sidney Lumet, 1982) Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945) The Mission (Johnnie To, 1999) Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) Nine to Five (Colin Higgins, 1980) To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress, Satyajit Ray, 1974) Emanuele Di Nicola Film Critic, Journalist, Contributor to Nocturno and Spietati New films (alphabetical order): Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022) Baby (Juanma Bajo Ulloa, 2021) Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) First Time (First Time: The Time for All but Sunset – Violet, Nicolaas Schmidt, 2021) Pearl (Ti West, 2022) Republic of Silence (Diana El Jeiroudi, 2021) Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022) The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (Werner Herzog, 2022) The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) Vortex (Gaspar Noé, 2022) Older Films (alphabetical order): Entrance (Dallas Richard Hallam, Patrick Horvath, 2012) Hissein Habré, une tragédie tchadienne (Hissein Habré, a chadian tragedy, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2016) Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (Cyril Frankel, 1960) One Way Street (Hugo Fregonese, 1950) Short Stay (Ted Fendt, 2016) Su Zhou eh (Suzhou River, Lou Ye, 2000) The Amusement Park (George A. Romero, 1975) The Great Buster: A Celebration (Peter Bogdanovich, 2018) Tony Arzenta (Duccio Tessari, 1973) Tri (Three, Aleksandar Petrović, 1965) Bonus Track: Tenebre (Tenebrae, Dario Argento, 1982), 40 years later Shorts: Easter Eggs (Nicolas Keppens, 2020) Hideous (Yann Gonzalez, 2022) Ja I Moja Gruba Dupa (My Fat Arse and I, Yelyzaveta Pysmak, 2021) Liang Ye Bu Nieng Liu (The Night, Tsai Ming-liang, 2021) A book: Tutto su di me! (All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, Mel Brooks, La Nave di Teseo edition, 2021) Festival and programs: Cinema Ritrovato for the screening of Nosferatu (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, F. W. Murnau, 1922) in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, 2 July 2022, 100 years later Biografilm Festival – Celebration of Life Awards 2022 for Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi Premio Sergio Amidei for the homage to Asghar Farhadi Sicilia Queer Filmfest for all the Competition Wheeler Winston Dixon Writer and filmmaker, the author of some 30 books, whose films are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. My favourite films of 2022, in no particular order: Loving Highsmith (Eva Vitija, 2022) The Woman King (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2022) An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad, 2022) Till (Chinonye Chukwu, 2022) Io (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Emily The Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Sophie Hyde, 2022) Sr. (Chris Smith, 2022) The Brainwashing of My Dad (Jennifer Senko, 2022) Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022) Стенд за Україну (Stand for Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 2022) Well, this is the year we lost Jean-Luc Godard, and cinema will never be the same. Though his later films were often deeply problematic (as if that’s anything new with Godard), his influence was worldwide, and his films continue to serve as a benchmark for adventurous and iconoclastic cinema. This is also the second year I pretty much stayed away from traditional cinemas, preferring to stream films on our Samsung 75” 8K television, one of the smarter investments I ever made. My few trips out to see films were disappointing; poor projection, noisy patrons, popcorn and soda-stained sticky floors, incorrect aspect ratios, and endless, endless commercials played at blast volume. For example, I saw Till in a gorgeous print that absolutely knocked me out – the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi for supposedly whistling at a white woman – at home on television, and it was much better than seeing it in an auditorium. It’s a brilliant film and was in no way diminished by being seen on a slightly smaller screen – and in fact, given the technical excellence of the presentation, it was clearly the superior experience. Women filmmakers were everywhere in 2022, and about time, as the old order crumbles into the dust, as evidenced in part by the 2022 Sight & Sound Critics Poll, which I was honoured to contribute to. Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and Donald Trump’s continued lies about his 2020 loss for the Presidency, coupled with the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol building by his followers, are reflected in films such as The Brainwashing of My Dad, demonstrating how a middle-of-the-road sometime Democrat became a fire-breathing Trump supporter simply by being exposed to right-wing hate speech radio and television. Stand for Ukraine is a sloppy but very necessary film, which hasn’t gotten much distribution, bringing home exactly what the Ukrainians are fighting for – the right to choose their government without fear or favour. Emma Thompson gives a fearless performance in Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, opposite Daryl McCormack, and Sr. is a touching portrait of the last days of director Robert Downey Sr., best remembered for his brutally satiric film Putney Swope (1969). Sr. is also interesting because the film contains two competing visions: the director’s version of events, and Downey Sr’s, as the production crew gives him an edit bay and an editor to put together his cut of the raw material, which we see sporadically throughout the film. The other thing is that the film/digital debate has simply got to stop. If you want to shoot on film, fine; if you want to shoot digital, fine; it all winds up as a DCP or a streaming video in the end anyway. The technology has definitively shifted. The cinema has gone through multiple platforms in its more than century long existence; from paper film to roll film, from silent to sound, from black and white to colour, and now from film to digital, which is just the latest technological stop on a never-ending journey. There’s also this: as usual, the Marvel, DC and Disney blockbusters ruled the multiplexes with franchise film after franchise film, and the more interesting films were shunted off the streaming oblivion, where you really had to look for them. But once you found them, what a difference – a breath of fresh air and creativity in an otherwise barren wasteland. These “smaller” films are so much more interesting than the current commercial fare that the effort is clearly worth it – I can’t imagine anything emptier than Sam Raimi’s tired and overstuffed CGI spectacle Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Joseph Dwyer Freelance film writer from Rhode Island, USA 10 Best New-ish films in 2022: X (Ti West, 2022) Crimes of The Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022) After Blue [Paradis sale] (After Blue [dirty paradise] Bertrand Mandico, 2021) Earwig (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2021) Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) The Viewing (Cabinet of Curiosities, episode 7) (Panos Cosmatos, 2022) Pearl (Ti West, 2022) Vortex (Gaspar Noe, 2021) Madame Claude (Sylvie Verheyde, 2021)
