By Simon Morris This year was a bumper year for non-American films, for sequels and prequels, for horror films, and for some reason films about 1970s television. It was also a pretty good year for New Zealand films, low budget films and the best films from Pixar and Marvel in years. All this plus the hotly-contested Cate Blanchett They're In Everything award.
No, Cate didn't make it this year. The so-called "Barbenheimer" phenomenon involved two massive hit movies - Barbie and Oppenheimer - that made no commercial sense at all. They weren't sequels, they weren't established titles, they seemed to be aimed at limited, specific audiences rather than Hollywood's famous "Four Quadrant" demographic.
Meanwhile, the films that did stick to the rules often died on the vine - superhero movies, animated family movies, popular franchises, star-driven projects - for a while at any rate. But they mostly all came back, one way or another. While many of the American studios' projects struggled to catch up, there was plenty of room for everyone else.
And that meant a dazzling parade of good movies from around the world - led by the German/British Oscar winner Zone of Interest . Other international successes included Denmark's The Promised Land , Italian/Senegalese film Io Capitano , Goodbye Julia from Sudan and a self-explanatory tearjerker from Thailand called How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies . But the country that made the most hay while Hollywood slept was France.
This year's Fren.