World Poll 2022 – Part 3 the editors January 2023 World Poll Issue 104 ENTRIES IN PART 3: William Edwards John K. Emelianoff Javier H. Estrada Adalberto Fonkén Gwendolyn Audrey Foster Simon Foster Flora Georgiou Sean GilmanAntony I. Ginnane Leo Goldsmith Andrew Goode Michael Granados Sam Gray Francesco Grieco Victor Guimarães WILLIAM EDWARDS Long time film fanatic, Sydney, Australia A plein temps (Full Time, Eric Gravel, 2021) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, 2022) Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021) L’événement (Happening, Audrey Diwan, 2021) Beurokeo (Broker, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2022) Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Der Passfälsacher (The Forger, Maggie Peren, 2022) Die Wannseekonferenz (The Conference, Matti Geschonneck, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Madres paralelas (Parallel Mothers, Pedro Almodóvar, 2021) JOHN K. EMELIANOFF Editor, United States One time at Fort Bragg my Army unit conducted an FTX (field training exercise), in which I operated as a 13Foxtrot – that’s the MOS (military occupational specialty) of Fire Support Specialist aka Forward Observer aka FISTER – attached to an 11Bravo (infantry) platoon. My main job at the early stages of the operation was to plot my team’s route and some surrounding potential artillery targets along that route, which is a pretty easy task. Simply adhere to the info from the device strapped to my left forearm, the DAGR [Defense Advanced GPS (Global Positioning System) Receiver], which was only slightly more complex than a wristwatch, and my map (a big folded rectangle of paper laminated and stored in my right leg cargo pocket, adorned with flecks of multi-colored ink from all the basic navigational plotting) to find about three points around our position that triangulate our location but at greater radii distances than danger close range for friendlies. The idea was to make it so, in the event of an ambush or a FUBAR scenario, I could use my radio and my predetermined target coordinates to quickly call for fire from the heavy guns – mortars or howitzer battery or helicopters – to blast potential enemy forces into oblivion before they came close enough to my teammates to kill us. The more difficult task was to convey to a butterbar (2nd Lieutenant) platoon leader that part of our unit’s route on foot happened to cross the grounds of a facility that was a propane plant. To traverse on foot a stretch of soil below which is a bunch of containers and pipes filled with highly flammable propane is an endeavor that I do not recommend, especially if you are walking that land while heavily armed with 7.62 & 5.56mm ammo rounds and frag grenades, and while fearing a heavy enemy engagement. We [myself and my RTO (radiotelephone operator)] could not mark any targets for mortars or other incoming explosive munitions within like 500 meters of Hank Hill’s favorite substance, and furthermore we needed to doubletriplequadruplecheck with the aviation assets that they knew the locations of this propane facility so the OH-58 or Apache pilots didn’t light it up and turn us into the accidentally suicidal male models frolicking with Zoolander and their orange mocha frappucinos. I thought of this FTX while watching the climax of Glass Onion (Rian Johnson, 2022). Among American streaming cinema projects released in late 2022 with plots based on a dispute among wealthy people over a napkin contract, Glass Onion is the better one, but Welcome to Chippendales (Robert Siegel, 2022) is a worthy coincidental contender for this specific crown. Among depictions of a horrible, overrated billionaire ostentatiously self-immolating his hollow, gaseous public persona in a short period of time, Glass Onion is perhaps less entertaining, though far less destructive, than whatever the hell El*n M*sk is doing. Both seem to draw inspiration from Graham Greene’s “The Destructors,” which I choose to believe was the mid-20th century equivalent term for today’s popular yet odious label favored by hollow, gaseous Silicon Valley types – “disruptors.” Costumes in Glass Onion “are giving,” as the kidz say, Rich Shithead, so, tis a success in that department, as well as other elements of 2020-ish-specific sleek, grotesque lifestyle porn. The sets and decor are as tacky as the annoyingly sporadically hashtagified dialogue – “… with your Memoji dabbing…” – while the visual nods to various pieces of High Art are copious and admirable. Mona Lisa Frown would be a suitable alt title. ************** Other films and film-adjacent things that I loved in 2022: Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). James Cameron finds a way to re-create his brilliant, timeless Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) ending; the victimized hero destroys all the tech, in this case the whale creature smashing a boat and all the futuristic weaponry onboard that boat. Sequels and more sequels, please. Athena (Romain Gavras, 2022) Enola Holmes 2 (Harry Bradbeer, 2022) Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022) The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021) Benjamin Franklin (Ken Burns, 2022) Turning Red (Domee Shi, 2022) Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Eric Appel, 2022) Lightyear (Angus MacLane, 2022), my choice for most freakishly underappreciated film of the year RRR (S.S. Rajamouli, 2022) Avatar: The Way Of Water And a couple of streaming titles that don’t belong here but hey I am a simple man who enjoys some good punchkicker storytelling action regardless of format: Reacher (Nick Santora, 2022) The Terminal List (David DiGilio, 2022) JAVIER H. ESTRADA Head of Programming for the Seville Film Festival and FILMADRID. Programmer for Oberhausen. Most of this year’s outstanding films embraced the uncanny and the uncertain in an extreme way. Narrative was erased in the unique experience delivered by Helena Wittmann in Human Flowers of Flesh, the material and the legend were equally real and relevant in Adnane Baraka’s Fragments from Heaven, the impossible encounter of a mythic suicidal poet and a contemporary TV celebrity convincingly materialized in María Antón Cabot’s Sóc vertical però m’agradaria ser horitzontal. There were also lost highways, as found the protagonists of Albert Serra’s Pacifiction and Youssef Chebbi’s Ashkal, which showed film genre still has huge grounds to be reformulated and enlighten about complex realities of our times. My revelation from the past was Mistletoes by Judit Ember, an amazing and underrated director which was key in Hungary’s social realism of the ’70s. But of course, we only remember about Béla Tarr… The vindication of Ember is urgent, but we must also be aware of the obscurantism we live in: a clear symptom is the sad fate which awaited Alexander Zolotukhin’s Brother in Every Inch after its premiere at the Berlinale, where it received a deservedly enthusiastic reception. Just when Putin started the inhuman and absurd war against Ukraine the film was cancelled by all festivals. As programmers we felt it was a huge risk to show a film about Russian aviation, financed with public money, despite it clearly being a pacifist work. Brother In Every Inch Best films of 2022 Brat vo vsyom (Brother in Every Inch, Alexander Zolotukhin, 2022) Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, 2022) Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (Pacifiction, Albert Serra, 2022) Fragments from Heaven (Adnane Baraka, 2022) Ashkal (Youssef Chebbi, 2022) Yamabuki (Juichiro Yamasaki, 2022) Skazka (Fairytale, Alexander Sokurov, 2022) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Sóc vertical però m’agradaria ser horitzontal (María Antón Cabot, 2022) IO (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Sóc vertical però m’agradaria ser horitzonal 10 essentials from 2022 Atados los años engullen la tierra (Clemente Castor, 2022) A Woman Escapes (Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik and Blake Williams, 2022) H (Carlos Pardo Ros, 2022) Kapag Wala Nang mga Alon (When the Waves are Gone, Lav Diaz, 2022) Kukaan ei katso sinua silmiin (Nobody Meets Your Eyes, Jesse Jalonen, 2022) Max et les Étranges (Max and the Freaks, Nathan Clement, 2021) Pour être aimé par qui (To Be Loved by Whom, Emily Barbelin, 2022) The Dam (Ali Cherri, 2022) The Last Ride of the Wolves (Alberto De Michele, 2022) Viagem ao Sol (Ansgar Schaefer and Susana de Sousa Dias, 2022) 10 revelations from the past Asaki yumemishi (It Was a Faint Dream, Akio Jissoji, 1974) Bao giờ cho đến tháng mười (When the Tenth Month Comes, Đặng Nhật Minh, 1984) El-Fallâh el-fasîh (The Eloquent Peasant, Shadi Abdel Salam, 1970) Fagyöngyök (Mistletoes, Judit Ember, 1978) Ioannis o Viaios (John the Violent, Tonia Marketaki, 1973) Noir et blanc (Claire Devers, 1986) Raspad (Decay, Mikhail Belikov, 1990) Rodnik dlya zhazhdushchikh (A Spring for the Thristy, Yuri Ilyenko, 1965) Sovist (Conscience, Vladimir Denisenko, 1968) Tambaku Chaakila Oob Ali (Tobacco Embers, Yugantar Film Collective, 1982) ADALBERTO FONKÉN Lima-based social communicator and film writer for the Séptima Ilusión blog. Best Films Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) Alcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022) Vanskabte land (Godland, Hlynur Pálmason, 2022) Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022) Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022), the intricate investigation of an insomniac cop is as complex as his obsession with an enigmatic and manipulative widow. The Plains (David Easteal, 2022) Il buco (The Hole, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021) Utama (Our Home, Alejandro Loayza, 2022), an elderly Bolivian couple surrounded by vast altiplano landscapes, time seems to have stopped in the midst of oblivion. Willaq pirqa. El cine de mi pueblo (The Talking Wall, César Galindo, 2022) Tiempos futuros (Future Times, Víctor M. Chueca, 2021) Una película de policías (A Cop Movie, Alonso Ruizpalacios, 2021) Eles transportan a morte (They Carry Death, Samuel M. Delgado, 2021) The Talking Wall Other unconfirmed films that could be included are Crimes of the future (David Cronemberg, 2022), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022), Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022), Tár (Todd Field, 2022) and X (Ti West, 2022). Stop-motion Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson, 2022) Mad God (Phil Tippet, 2021) Documentary Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022) Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Questlove, 2021) Re-discoveries Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) Themroc (Claude Faraldo, 1973) 3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977) GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER Artist / Filmmaker / Author. Willa Cather Professor Emerita at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. My Top Ten films of 2022 in no particular order: Beba (Rebecca Huntt, 2022) Nous (We, Alice Diop, 2022) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022) Piccolo corpo (Small Body, Laura Samani, 2022) Tytöt tytöt tytöt (Girl Picture (Alli Haapasalo, 2022) Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2022) IO (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Illusions perdues (Lost Illusions, Xavier Giannoli, 2022) Till (Chinonye Chukwu, 2022) Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022) 2022 was a great year for female directors, especially women directors of color. Let’s hope we continue to see this as a norm, rather than a trend. SIMON FOSTER Festival director, Sydnay Science Fiction Film Festival; Managing editor, Screen-Space; Reviewer, Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Host, The Screen Watching Podcast 2022 films in general release in Australia (theatrical / streaming) Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022) Blonde (Andrew Dominik, 2022) Pahanhautoja (Hatching, Hanna Bergholm, 2022) Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert, 2022) Lynch/Oz (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2022) La nuit du 12 (The Night of the 12th, Dominik Moll, 2022) Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff, 2022) She Said (Maria Schrader, 2022) Don’t Worry Darling (Olivia Wilde, 2022) 2022 films viewed at festivals (awaiting release in Australia) Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk, 2022) Tōi rai mei (Distant Thunder, Takayuki Ohashi, 2022) The Hamlet Syndrome (Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski, 2022) The Stairway to Stardom Mixtape (AGFA, 2022) Akoni (Genna Chanelle Hayes, 2022) Autobiography (Makbul Mubarak, 2022) La montagne (The Mountain, Thomas Salvador, 2022) Mad Heidi (Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein, 2022) Ribspreader (David Dale, 2022) Intet (Nothing, Seamus McNally and Trine Piil Christensen, 2022) Older films watched for the first time in 2022: Elvira Madigan (Bo Widerberg, 1967) Bunny Lake is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965) El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive, Victor Erice, 1973) The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) Old Enough (Marisa Silver, 1984) Cesta do pravěku (Journey to the Beginning of Time, Karel Zeman, 1955) Foes (John Coats, 1977) The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971) Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957) The Witch Who Came From the Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976) The best festivals of 2022: Adelaide Film Festival (Adelaide, Australia) – After a two year hiatus, AFF returned with the kind of sharper, edgier program mix that, in the eyes of serious festival goers, puts it above the more staid, “tourist destination” agendas of the Sydney and Melbourne events. Invaluable support of local sector talent, too. Fantastic Fest (Austin, Texas) – Beamed in remotely, which was a breeze thanks to a super-responsive PR unit determined to see the brand grow internationally. Diverse mix of mainstream, indie and underground genre titles. Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico Feratum (Mexico City, Mexico) – It’s 10th year saw such programming highlights as 100th Anniversary screening of Nosferatu with live music accompaniment and a refreshed print of del Toro’s Cronos. Consistently represents Latin American genre cinema like few other events. FLORA GEORGIOU Melbourne based writer and filmmaker Annette (Leos Carax,2021). A musical romantic drama stars Adam Driver as the quirkily ambitious and psychotic comedian Henry McHenry who falls in love and marries the famous petite soprano Ann Defrasnoux (Marion Coitilard). A twisted evil love story revelling in the traumas of fame versus the rise to stardom. They give birth to a wooden puppet who is pinnacle to the drama offers a Pinocchio-esque judgement at the end of the film. The cinematography is rich and sumptuous and a fabulous accommodating eclectic soundtrack by The Sparks. Nostalgia (Mario Martone, 2022). Felice (Pianfrancesco Favino) returns to his hometown of Naples after a forty-year absence, he rekindles his relationship with his dying mother, but seeks answers with the local priest while he looks for closure with the ruthless Camorra. A resplendent dive into the cobblestone back streets of the seedy urban culture of this majestic city. Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) Set in Los Angeles, Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is a struggling student, who is carrying a serious debt and marred by a minor criminal offence that prevents her from getting a job. She is wrangled into credit card scamming by a criminal gang and manages to weave her way out of the trouble, by learning the ropes. This edgy cutthroat thriller is an insightful examination into the tawdry criminal underworld. Gone to Earth (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger,1950) Powell and Pressburger ‘s film adaptation explores themes of lust, nature, religion, and wealth. An enchanting tale: Hazel Woodus (Jennifer Jones) is the beautiful roaming gypsy a “child of nature” who loves and understands the wild animals in the Shropshire countryside, England in 1897. She marries the Baptist minister Edward Marston (Cyril Cusack) but is charmed and “kidnapped’ by the squire Jack Reddin (David Farrar) who offers her luxury and riches. Powell and Pressburger capture Hazel’s free bewitching spirit, includes a haunting and evocative scene in the forest where the wild animals roam, offering splendid contrast with the narrow minded village people, the pastor and the squire. Based on a story written by Mary Webb (1881-1927). Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) An American comedy-drama set in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. A love story follows the daily life of a young woman, Alana Kane (Alana Haim), and a teenager boy, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman). Nostalgic cinematography capturing the seventies pop culture era with dream like innocence. There is a hilarious convoluted truck scene, provides unforeseeable action and comedy and along with a superb performance by Bradley Cooper as the celebrity “jerk”. Licorice Pizza has defiantly made the grade for 2022. Pamfir (Dmytro Sukholykyy-Sobchuk, 2022) A family crime drama set in Western Ukraine bordering Poland in the small town of Chernivtsu, on the eve of a traditional annual “grotesquery” carnival. Performances are dramatically raw and gritty, set against the harsh climate it is intrinsically a tale of family woe, misery, and desperation. Where on unrestricted border lines, the criminal underbelly transacts and commute. El gran movimiento (The Great Movement, Kiro Russo, 2022) An experimental narrative winning the Venice’s Orizzonti Special Jury Prize. It explores the heights and lows of La Paz, the Bolivian capital, centred around an ill young miner Elder (Julio César Ticona) who visits the local witchdoctor, colourful yet nightmarish and alongside Max, a tramp both offer unique and peculiar observations of the city. A strikingly real and vibrant film that could be mistaken for a docudrama. La tour (Lockdown Tower, Guillame Nicloux, 2022) A Monster Film Festival flick that caught my attention. A nihilistic horror, residents of an inner-city apartment block succumb to their primitive instincts sinking into horror and the bizarre supernatural abyss, exploring savagery and “survival of the fittest”, you could say it was a Covid inspired movie, but the idea had been fleshed out before the pandemic. Strange that! SEAN GILMAN Film Critic in Tacoma, United States The best new movies I saw in 2022: So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 (Mani Ratnam, 2022) Tab (Walk Up, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) Qi ren yuedui (Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, Johnnie To, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping, and Ringo Lam, 2020) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Shin Ultraman (Higuchi Shinji, 2022) Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb (Jon Bois, 2022) Shentan dazhan (Detective vs. Sleuths, Wai Ka-fai, 2022) Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022) Jiao ma tang huì (A New Old Play, Qiu Jiongjiong, 2021) The best older movies I saw for the first time in 2022: House (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1977) Duli shidai (A Confucian Confusion, Edward Yang, 1994) Yuan zhen xia yu weisili (The Seventh Curse, Lam Nai-choi, 1986) Miami Blues (George Armitage, 1990) Chìluo gaoyang (Naked Killer, Clarence Fok, 1992) The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1997) Xiyang tianshi (So Close, Corey Yuen, 2002) Hu bao long she ying (The 7 Grandmasters, Joseph Kuo, 1977) The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983) Long zhi zhengba (Burning Ambition, Frankie Chan, 1989) Antony I. Ginnane Melbourne born Antony I. Ginnane has produced or executive produced 72 feature films, MOW’s, miniseries and TV series over 50 years. Top 10 (Eligibility: 2022 films in theatrical, festival, premiere DVD or VOD or streaming first release in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand) listed alphabetically by title: Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021) Verhoeven takes contemporary gender polities and places it in a convent in 17th century Italy where the patriarchy is under threat. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Cronenberg further explores “the new flesh” in this sci-fi depiction of a not too distant future where bodily organs metamorphose. The Forgiven (John Michael McDonagh, 2021) Cynical riff on colonialism set in Morocco where rich British visitors run up against tradition. Fresh (Mimi Cave, 2022) A contemporary dating story laced with cannibalism. Droll, amusing and strangely optimistic. È stata la mano di Dio (Hand of God, Paolo Sorrentino, 2021) Bleak coming of age tale set in ‘80s Italy. Tragedy is the key to adulthood. Ghahreman (A Hero, Asghar Farhadi, 2021) Cynical exploration of fame set in present day Iran. Morality and ethics are reviewed. Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022), Shades of Vertigo envelops this romantic thriller – which deftly weaves melodrama and suspense. Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro, 2021) Neo noir thriller dealing with a fall into madness and degradation – without Del Toro’s usual supernatural prism. Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) Fantasy and magic combine in this talk of a young girl’s loss. Sissy (Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes, 2022) Darkly funny thriller about an influencer and her friends – death presented in a cynical and light hearted way. Other titles that have excited or inspired me during the year include: Annette (Leos Carax, 2021) The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg, 2021) The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) X (Ti West, 2022) 13 Lives (Ron Howard, 2022) Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022) Stars at Noon (Claire Dennis, 2022) Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger, 2022) Neugdaesanyang (Project Wolf Hunting, Kim Hong Sun, 2022) The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Cohen, 2021) LEO GOLDSMITH Teacher, writer, and curator based in Brooklyn, New York. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022) Mato Seco em Chamas (Dry Ground Burning, Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 2022) Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis, 2022) The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose, 2021) So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2022) Against Time (Ben Russell, 2022) Lago Gatún (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2021) The Time That Separates Us (Parastoo Anoushahpour, 2022) ANDREW GOODE Head of Theatrical and Marketing, Hi Gloss Entertainment My top 10 films of 2022 (alphabetical order of English titles) Re dai wang shi (Are You Lonesome Tonight?, Wen Shipei, 2021) With the lush visuals of a Wong Kar-wai film fit infused into a very finely made film noir made for riveting viewing of Wen Shipei’s debut feature. Following a man who accidentally runs over another man and then forms an odd relationship with his widower, this film is a treat for quite literally every sense, featuring the best sound mix I witnessed this year. Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley, 2022) Yet another film I screened during Venice Film Festival, this debut feature by Georgia Oakley is an affecting drama about a gay woman trying to navigate the effects of a Section 28 Maggie era UK. We don’t see netball enough in cinema and when you mix it with a charming queer coming of age drama that is oozing an 80s aesthetic, it makes for sumptuous viewing. Hytti nro 6 (Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen, 2021) Released in Australia about a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I fell in love with this film’s warmth, youthfulness and intelligence and found it to be a nice reminder that a lot of Russian’s don’t wear a Z on their sleeve. A worthy sharer of 2021’s Grand Prix with Ghahreman (A Hero, Asghar Farhadi, 2021). Coupez! (Final Cut, Michel Hazanavicius, 2022) I watched this in a very quiet ACMI on a cold final night of MIFF 2022 and was not disappointed. Well actually, my friend and I who have not heard of or seen the film’s reference material, a 2017 Japanese film called Kamera o Tomeru na! (One Cut of the Dead, Shin’ichirō Ueda), actually thought the film was so bad that we both wanted to leave after 30 minutes. Thank God we didn’t because the next hour provides hilarious and chaotic exposition that explains truly awful start of the film. My favourite comedy of 2022 and can’t wait to watch the original. Funny Pages (Owen Kline, 2022) The Safdie’s meet mumblecore meet Harmony Korine with this brilliant indie drama about a 17-year-old cartoonist who attempts to make a life for himself. Kline’s film reminded me a lot of in both tone and aesthetic of films made by Funny Pages’ producers, the Safdie’s 2009 family drama about a dropkick dad / projectionist Daddy Longlegs and Richard Bronstein’s aptly titled 2007 film Frownland and although this title has lot more optimism than its predecessors, it still features a world full of insecurity, weirdness, and desperation. Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine, 2022) This film is oddly emotional and almost felt like a meditation on time and the aging process. Some of the boys have died since the last films, others have been kicked out of the group but the now noticeably older group of idiots have swapped nearly killing themselves through physical tasks to less life threatening “pranks” involving their private areas. They’ve also recruited a new bunch of goons including a guy called Poopies, rapper / hype man Jasper Dolphin and his father Dark Shark and the equally crazy Rachel Wolfson amongst others. This film is dumb and pointless but, in a way, so is life, so who cares I guess. Khers Nist (No Bears, Jafar Panahi, 2022) A film about a director who is banned from making films or leaving Iran secretly directing a film via Skype whilst hiding in a small town on the Turkish border directed by a man who is banned from making films and leaving the country whilst now serving a 6 year sentence for a bogus propaganda charge. This meta masterpiece is up there with Panahi’s best and is essential viewing. Free Jafar! Syk pike (Sick of Myself, Kristoffer Borgli, 2022) The joke has already been made but this film is the real “Worst Person in the World” (Verdens verste menneske, Joachim Trier, 2021). A gross and wildly entertaining drama about a girl who wants fame but can’t be bothered working for it, if you chose to look past some heavy-handed overtones and some Carpenter / Cronenberg-esque visuals, this film is one to watch. Vera (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, 2022) We are at Venice once again and this time it is a docu-fiction drama about Italian socialite Vera Gemma, the daughter of spaghetti western star Giuliano Gemma. An almost unclassifiable film, Vera is essentially a slice of life drama about an aging glamourous socialite battling with the shadow of her surname. There is an excruciating casting scene where our starlet auditions for a wildly inappropriate part only to be ogled by the director once her family connection is made and many tender scenes where Vera explores her past. Throw in a riveting love story and you have one of my favourite Italians films of the year. Jang-e jahāni-e sevvom (World War III, Houman Seyyedi, 2022) The second film that features a “film within a film” narrative that found itself on my 2022 best of list, is the riskily titled Iranian film World War III. Led by a brilliant performance by Moshen Tanabandeh, we follow Shakib, a homeless labourer who lost his daughter and wife in an earthquake years earlier. Hired to help build a set for a “war film”, whilst on the job Shakib is roped into playing an extra as concentration camp prisoner and then following an ill-fated heart attack on set, he is given top billing on the film’s call sheet taking over the role of Hitler. Despite how sketchy the premise sounds, this film is a surreal and abrasive take on power, exploitation, and class both throughout history but more importantly for director Seyyedi, in contemporary Iran. MICHAEL GRANADOS Film Critic based in Los Angeles, Film Fest Report New (10 feature + 10 medium/short length) Against Time (Ben Russell, 2022) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright – Prelude + Oraison (Gaëlle Rouard, 2022) De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2022) El sembrador de estrellas (The Sower of Stars, Lois Patiño, 2022) IO (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) EVENTIDE (Sharon Lockhart, 2022) Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittman, 2022) NE Corridor (Joshua Gen Solondz, 2022) Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (Pacifiction, Albert Serra, 2022) Paradiso, XXXI, 108 (Kamal Aljafari, 2022) Po sui tai yang zhi xin (A Short Story, Bi Gan, 2022) Manto de gemas (Robe of Gems, Natalia López Gallardo, 2022) Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022) Songy Seans (Last Screening, Darezhan Omirbayev, 2022) So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) The Plains (David Easteal, 2022) urban solutions (Arne Hector, Luciana Mazeto, Vinícius Lopes and Minze Tummescheit, 2022) Welcome (Jean Claude-Rosseau, 2022) Old (at the cinema) Christmas on Earth (Barbara Rubin, 1964, double 16mm) India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975, 35mm) Ingreen (Nathaniel Dorsky, 1963, 16mm) La maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache, 1973, DCP) Le joli Mai (The Lovely Month of May, Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme, 1973, DCP) My Hustler (Andy Warhol, 1965, 16mm) Szép lányok, ne sírjatok! (Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!, Márta Mészáros, 1970, DCP) Taxidi sta Kythira (Voyage to Cythera, Theo Angelopoulos, 1984, 35mm) Twice a Man (Gregory Markopoulos, 1963, 16mm) Water and Power (Pat O’Neill, 1989, 35mm) Online/Hybrid Film Festivals Readily accessible and full of surprises, these hybrid film festivals showcased an eclectic variety of short films playing with the medium using material, experimentation, narrative, and non-fiction story telling. Media City Film Festival (February 2022) – The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022) Ann Arbor Film Festival (March 2022) – Frozen Jumper (Tina Frank, 2021) Vienna Shorts (June 2022) – Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol (It’s Raining Frogs Outside, Maria Estela Paiso, 2022) Crossroads (August 2022) – Configurations (James Edmonds, 2021) SAM GRAY London-based cinephile, screenwriter, critic New films Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (Pacifiction, Albert Serra, 2022) Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr. Bachmann and His Class, Maria Speth, 2021) IO (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022) Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, 2022) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2022) RRR (S.S. Rajamouli, 2022) Coma (Bertrand Bonello, 2022) Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 2022) EO Discoveries Between the Lines (Joan Micklin Silver, 1977) Mahanagar (The Big City, Satyajit Ray, 1963) The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, 1945) The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928) Jim McBride’s cheap 90s comedy-thrillers Hatuna Meuheret (Late Marriage, Dover Koshashvili, 2001) The Raid (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) Saint Jack (Peter Bogdanovich, 1979) The Spider and the Fly (Robert Hamer, 1949) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945) And a rewatch of Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), which is still quite good. FRANCESCO GRIECO Staff Writer for Locarno Daily Magazine, Managing Editor for CineCriticaWeb Films released for the first time in 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022) Bowling Saturne (Saturn Bowling, Patricia Mazuy, 2022) IO (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) Kapag Wala Nang mga Alon (When the Waves are Gone, Lav Diaz, 2022) Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022) Mantícora (Manticore, Carlos Vermut, 2022) Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022) Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022) Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità (The Last Days of Humanity, Alessandro Gagliardo and Enrico Ghezzi, 2022) Older films encountered for the first time in 2022 La Habanera (Douglas Sirk, 1937) Chibusa yo eien nare (Forever a Woman, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955) Ne okreći se, sine (My Son Don’t Turn Round, Branko Bauer, 1956) Lettre de Sibérie (Letter from Siberia, Chris Marker, 1958) Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H. Lewis, 1958) Obedience (Stanley Milgram, 1965) O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 1973) Sankofa (Haile Gerima, 1993) Et j’aime à la fureur (Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By, André Bonzel, 2021) Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) Any online or hybrid festivals I ‘attended’ and that I felt presented a really good program and experience Trieste Film Festival, for its interesting online program: movies by Hilal Baydarov, Tomasz Wolski, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, among the others. Victor Guimarães Film critic (Con los Ojos Abiertos) and programmer (FICValdivia, FENDA) 10 imaginary double bills in 2022: Akin (Poet, Darezhan Omirbayev, 2021) + Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022) What else could be the strongest defense of the power of words if not a film? Quebrantahuesos (Martín Baus, 2022) + Black Spring (Tracie Morris, 2022) What else could be the strongest defense of the power of images if not a poem? Solmatalua (Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade, 2022) + Copalli (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, 2022) Interrogate with the body, not with the mind. Edit with the ears of a virtuoso percussionist, not with the thought process of a bureaucrat. I would believe only in an essay film that knows how to dance. Delivery Boy Blues (Willy vvvv, 2022) + Smog en tu corazón (Smog in Your Heart, Lucía Seles, 2022) Once in a while, very rarely, we have the chance to witness a previously unknown idiom being discovered in front of us on a screen. All of Your Stars Are but Dust in My Shoes (Haig Aivazian, 2021) + Rewind and Play (Alain Gomis, 2022) Extracting cinema from all the other images that surround us might be the most important task for a filmmaker today. Espectro Restauración (Felippe Schultz Mussel, 2022) + Ficções Sônicas #02: Feitiço (Grace Passô, 2022) Instead of composing a clear image, building a dark, dark sound: this might be what political cinema has to offer us in the future. Mato Seco em Chamas (Dry Ground Burning, Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 2022) + Revolution+1 (Masao Adachi, 2022) “The duty of a revolutionary filmmaker is to make the Revolution in film” (Julio García Espinosa). Magnitika Pedia (Magnetic Fields, Yorgos Goussis, 2021) + So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) The future of romance comedy lies somewhere in a galaxy far, far away from Hollywood. Staging Death (Jan Soldat, 2022) + Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) Spectacle against spectacle. Technique and ideology, but with a sense of humor. Serrão (Marcelo Lin, 2022) + Sobre las nubes (About the Clouds, María Aparicio, 2022) The shape of popular cinema to come. 10 masterpieces seen for the first time in 2022 (not considering home watching): Mordets melodi (Melody of a Murder, Bodil Ipsen, 1944), digital, Cine Humberto Mauro, Belo Horizonte Sagrada Família (Sylvio Lanna, 1970) digital, Cinema do Minas, Belo Horizonte Fireworks (Archives) (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2014), on the exhibition Perifèria de la Nit, Fabra i Coats: Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Juliana (Grupo Chaski, 1989), DCP, Cinélatino, Toulouse La película onfinita (The Endless Film, Leandro Listorti, 2018), digital, FENDA Poema óptico (Alfredo Rubio, circa 1960), 16mm, Carte Blanche to Leandro Listorti, FENDA Dead Heat (Mark Goldblatt, 1988), VHS, Whammy Analog Media, Los Angeles La fe del volcán (Ana Poliak, 2001), 35mm, FICValdivia Odete (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2005), 35mm, FICValdivia Cosas de mujeres (Rosa Martha Fernández, 1975-1978), digital, FICValdivia
