Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
- 1/3/2024
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2023. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions––some of those personal selections will be shared in coming weeks––and from tallied votes has this top 50 been assembled.
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2023 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to watch many of the below picks, both on streaming and in theaters), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2024.
50. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
Kristoffer Borgli’s first Norwegian feature is a work of disgusting, hilarious, horrifying genius. Signe (played brilliantly by Kristine Kujath Thorp) is an early-20s narcissist who, galled by the success of her equally self-centered boyfriend, spirals into full-on Munchausen syndrome. As timely as it is hard to watch, Sick of Myself doesn’t...
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2023 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to watch many of the below picks, both on streaming and in theaters), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2024.
50. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
Kristoffer Borgli’s first Norwegian feature is a work of disgusting, hilarious, horrifying genius. Signe (played brilliantly by Kristine Kujath Thorp) is an early-20s narcissist who, galled by the success of her equally self-centered boyfriend, spirals into full-on Munchausen syndrome. As timely as it is hard to watch, Sick of Myself doesn’t...
- 12/14/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Going deep inside the human body, rethinking a Thelonious Monk interview, solitary island life, capturing one of the finest restaurants in the world, exploring the trans experience, and examining how we listen to movies—just a few of the subjects and stories this year’s documentaries brought us. With 2023 wrapping up, we’ve selected the non-fiction features that left us most impressed. If you’re looking for where to stream them, check out our handy guide here.
32 Sounds (Sam Green)
Filmmaker Sam Green captures something so specific here: he makes audio the star of a motion picture. It’s a lovely inclination and a worthwhile escapade. There are funny moments, clever moments, plenty that are heartfelt. Sound can do so many different things! This is an exceedingly well-produced work, its perfect length and the audible narrative it designs building succinctly to a lovely finale. Toss on those headphones and get...
32 Sounds (Sam Green)
Filmmaker Sam Green captures something so specific here: he makes audio the star of a motion picture. It’s a lovely inclination and a worthwhile escapade. There are funny moments, clever moments, plenty that are heartfelt. Sound can do so many different things! This is an exceedingly well-produced work, its perfect length and the audible narrative it designs building succinctly to a lovely finale. Toss on those headphones and get...
- 12/4/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson has done it all: India by train, Rhode Island by foot, the Mediterranean by sub, France by bike, faux-Germany by hotel, apple-orchard America by fox, animated Japan by dog, motel Texas by friends, New York City by family. But––despite the feeling that this couldn’t possibly be true––he’s never told a story in western America. In setting he hasn’t gone further west than Houston. Until Asteroid City: Arizona desert by quarantine. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
Beatrix (Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky)
One of the best films in recent years––still without U.S. distribution––is streaming for free the next two weeks on Le Cinéma Club. It...
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson has done it all: India by train, Rhode Island by foot, the Mediterranean by sub, France by bike, faux-Germany by hotel, apple-orchard America by fox, animated Japan by dog, motel Texas by friends, New York City by family. But––despite the feeling that this couldn’t possibly be true––he’s never told a story in western America. In setting he hasn’t gone further west than Houston. Until Asteroid City: Arizona desert by quarantine. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
Beatrix (Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky)
One of the best films in recent years––still without U.S. distribution––is streaming for free the next two weeks on Le Cinéma Club. It...
- 8/11/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2022, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2023. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 30 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year that either have confirmed 2023 release dates or await a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, as can be seen here.
As an additional note, a number of 2022 films that had one-week qualifying runs will also get expanded releases in 2023, including Saint Omer (Jan. 13), Close (Jan. 20), One Fine Morning (Jan. 27), and Return to Seoul (Feb. 17).
Alcarràs (Carla Simón; Jan. 6)
Big agriculture and a renewable energy company (of all people) threaten the livelihood of a Catalonian peach farming family in Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s latest sunny...
As an additional note, a number of 2022 films that had one-week qualifying runs will also get expanded releases in 2023, including Saint Omer (Jan. 13), Close (Jan. 20), One Fine Morning (Jan. 27), and Return to Seoul (Feb. 17).
Alcarràs (Carla Simón; Jan. 6)
Big agriculture and a renewable energy company (of all people) threaten the livelihood of a Catalonian peach farming family in Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s latest sunny...
- 1/4/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Cinema Guild has picked up U.S. rights to the Jacquelyn Mills-directed Berlin prize winner Geographies of Solitude with plans to open the documentary in theaters next year, beginning with a run at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives from January 25- 31.
An immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic, the film follows Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived there for over 40 years, collecting, cleaning and documenting marine litter that persistently washes up on the island’s shores.
The feature shot on 16mm and created using eco-friendly filmmaking techniques claimed the Caligari Film Award, as well as the C.I.C.A.E. Award and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury upon its world premiere in the Forum section of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival. It then went on to win Best Canadian Documentary and...
An immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic, the film follows Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived there for over 40 years, collecting, cleaning and documenting marine litter that persistently washes up on the island’s shores.
The feature shot on 16mm and created using eco-friendly filmmaking techniques claimed the Caligari Film Award, as well as the C.I.C.A.E. Award and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury upon its world premiere in the Forum section of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival. It then went on to win Best Canadian Documentary and...
- 11/30/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The new section aims to programme films “addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight.”
Mark Jenkin’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men and Jacquelyn Mills’ Berlinale Forum documentary Geographies Of Solitude are among eight features programmed in Red Sea: New Vision, a new programme strand in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).
The section has no geographical boundaries, and is aiming to “celebrate films that stand out, addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight” according to the festival.
Scroll down for the New Vision titles
The selection includes...
Mark Jenkin’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men and Jacquelyn Mills’ Berlinale Forum documentary Geographies Of Solitude are among eight features programmed in Red Sea: New Vision, a new programme strand in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).
The section has no geographical boundaries, and is aiming to “celebrate films that stand out, addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight” according to the festival.
Scroll down for the New Vision titles
The selection includes...
- 11/16/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Add some new titles to the field of documentary award contenders with the announcement of the IDA Documentary Awards shortlist of 25 features and 24 shorts. Among the usual suspects also included on the Cinema Eye Honors Audience Long List are “All That Breathes,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love,” “Mija,” “Moonage Daydream,” “Navalny,” and “The Territory.”
One dramatic IDA and Cinema Eye snub: Margaret Brown’s exploration of the legacy of Africatown, Alabama, “Descendant” (Netflix), which was included in both the Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations and the Doc NYC shortlist.
Rick Pérez, IDA’s Executive Director, stated: “This year’s Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary shortlists reflect a growing awareness that multiple perspectives are necessary to better reflect the worldwide popularity of the form and to recognize the global community of artists working in the field.”
The IDA will reveal its nominations on November 11, 2022. The...
One dramatic IDA and Cinema Eye snub: Margaret Brown’s exploration of the legacy of Africatown, Alabama, “Descendant” (Netflix), which was included in both the Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations and the Doc NYC shortlist.
Rick Pérez, IDA’s Executive Director, stated: “This year’s Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary shortlists reflect a growing awareness that multiple perspectives are necessary to better reflect the worldwide popularity of the form and to recognize the global community of artists working in the field.”
The IDA will reveal its nominations on November 11, 2022. The...
- 10/26/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Nominations to be announced on November 11.
Laura Poitras’s Venice Golden Lion winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Alex Pritz’s The Territory and Young Plato from Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath are named on the documentary feature shortlist for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards.
The International Documentary Association (IDA) published a list of 25 features and 24 shorts in the run-up to the awards ceremony on December 10 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
Up to 10 nominees in each of the feature and short documentary categories will be selected from the shortlist and announced on November 11. IDA members will get...
Laura Poitras’s Venice Golden Lion winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Alex Pritz’s The Territory and Young Plato from Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath are named on the documentary feature shortlist for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards.
The International Documentary Association (IDA) published a list of 25 features and 24 shorts in the run-up to the awards ceremony on December 10 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
Up to 10 nominees in each of the feature and short documentary categories will be selected from the shortlist and announced on November 11. IDA members will get...
- 10/26/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe 2022 poster for Cannes' Directors' Fortnight.Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight has announced the seven programmers and four consultants who will be supporting incoming artistic director Julien Rejl in his selection processes. Amongst the team is ex-Sheffield DocFest director Cintia Gil, Another Gaze founder Daniella Shreir, and Ming-Jung Kuo, former Program Director of the Taipei Film Festival.Dutch documentary festival IDFA has released the lineups for the first few strands of their 2022 edition, including the short and youth documentary competitions, plus a tribute to the late Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius.David Cronenberg’s Scanners is being remade as a TV series. Yann Demange (executive producer of Lovecraft Country and Top Boy) will direct, with Cronenberg also on board as an executive producer.Recommended VIEWINGAfter premiering in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, A Couple, Frederick Wiseman’s new fiction feature,...
- 9/27/2022
- MUBI
The Santa Fe International Film Festival (SFiFF) has announced its first 15 feature titles. These films are part of the Special Presentation section and will be followed by a full schedule of competition films, short films, panels and events. SFiFF starts October 19 and will run through October 23.
Broker directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
One rainy night, a baby is left at the baby box facility. Sang-hyun and Dong-soo secretly take it home to find suitable parents to adopt him. However, the next day, So-young unexpectedly returns, and calls the police when she discovers her baby is missing. Meanwhile, police detectives have been investigating the case for the past 6 months, waiting for the decisive moment when they can catch the duo in the act.
Holy Spider directed by Ali Abbasi
A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers...
Broker directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
One rainy night, a baby is left at the baby box facility. Sang-hyun and Dong-soo secretly take it home to find suitable parents to adopt him. However, the next day, So-young unexpectedly returns, and calls the police when she discovers her baby is missing. Meanwhile, police detectives have been investigating the case for the past 6 months, waiting for the decisive moment when they can catch the duo in the act.
Holy Spider directed by Ali Abbasi
A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers...
- 9/18/2022
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
Rushes: Bruno Dumont's "The Empire," John Carpenter Interviewed, Hito Steyerl x Film Comment Podcast
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHaunted Hotel.The British Film Institute has begun unveiling the program for the London Film Festival, which runs from October 5-16. So far, they have announced the official competition, featuring films from Alice Diop, Mark Jenkin, and Hlynur Pálmason, and the VR- and Ar-oriented "Extended Realities" strand, including a new work from Guy Maddin, Haunted Hotel.Production has begun on Bruno Dumont's The Empire. Cineuropa reports that the science-fiction film depicts the "epic parallel life of knights from interplanetary kingdoms"; the cast includes Lyna Khoudri (César-winner for Papicha) and the gendarmerie duo from Li'l Quinquin, Bernard Pruvost and Philippe Jore.The international film critics association Fipresci have chosen the winner of their 2022 Grand Prix for Film of the Year: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car.Recommended VIEWINGAndrew Mau and Alan Mak's seminal...
- 8/30/2022
- MUBI
Acclaimed Canadian nature documentary “Geographies of Solitude” was Wednesday named the best film in the international competition section at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival. The parallel Korean competition was won by “Jeong-Sun,” directed by Jeong Ji-hye.
The two previous editions of Jeonju were disrupted by Covid. But this year the festival, with 217 films from 52 countries, was held predominantly as an in-person event. Some 112 titles are additionally available for online viewing. In 2020, the 21st edition took place entirely online and with a delay of a month. The 2021 affair was an online-offline hybrid.
“Geographies,” which had its world premiere in Berlin in February, delves into the decades-long chronicling of flora and fauna on Sable Island by naturalist Zoe Lucas. She is joined by experimental filmmaker Jacquelyn Mills to observe the sand dunes, freshwater ponds, wild horses and washed-up plastic waste. It won three prizes in Berlin including the Cicae prize...
The two previous editions of Jeonju were disrupted by Covid. But this year the festival, with 217 films from 52 countries, was held predominantly as an in-person event. Some 112 titles are additionally available for online viewing. In 2020, the 21st edition took place entirely online and with a delay of a month. The 2021 affair was an online-offline hybrid.
“Geographies,” which had its world premiere in Berlin in February, delves into the decades-long chronicling of flora and fauna on Sable Island by naturalist Zoe Lucas. She is joined by experimental filmmaker Jacquelyn Mills to observe the sand dunes, freshwater ponds, wild horses and washed-up plastic waste. It won three prizes in Berlin including the Cicae prize...
- 5/4/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Titane (2021).Actor Vincent Lindon has been announced as the president of this year's Cannes competition jury, leading a group that includes Rebecca Hall, Deepika Padukone, Jeff Nichols, and Joachim Trier. The festival has also added several pleasant surprises to the lineup: films by Serge Bozon, Albert Serra, Louis Garrel, Patricio Guzmán, and more.Subscribe to our limited-edition, print-only Notebook magazine by April 30 to secure your copy of Issue 1, featuring a conversation between Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Yoshitomo Nara, a carte blanche contribution by Christopher Doyle, and much more.Recommended VIEWINGAbove: I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) .Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation has launched a virtual screening room for restored films, called the Restoration Screening Room. The fun begins with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1945 film I Know Where I'm Going!, which will be available for...
- 4/27/2022
- MUBI
Forum adds 10 more titles; Classics includes Godard, Pasolini, Russell.
New films from Jonathan Perel and Max Linz are among 17 new titles added to the Forum section at the 2022 Berlinale; while the Classics section has programmed seven digitally restored titles ahead of next month’s festival.
Argentinian filmmaker Jonathan Perel will participate with the world premiere of documentary Camouflage, about a writer who embodies a man with an obsession with Argentina’s biggest military unit.
Perel’s previous films include Berlinale 2020 title Corporate Responsibility.
German director Linz is in the festival with the world premiere of his new film L’Etat Et Moi,...
New films from Jonathan Perel and Max Linz are among 17 new titles added to the Forum section at the 2022 Berlinale; while the Classics section has programmed seven digitally restored titles ahead of next month’s festival.
Argentinian filmmaker Jonathan Perel will participate with the world premiere of documentary Camouflage, about a writer who embodies a man with an obsession with Argentina’s biggest military unit.
Perel’s previous films include Berlinale 2020 title Corporate Responsibility.
German director Linz is in the festival with the world premiere of his new film L’Etat Et Moi,...
- 1/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Legend of the Psychotic Forest Ranger is here! A poster and teaser trailer has been released for a new slasher film due out this year. The film is classified as a horror/comedy and looks like a lot of fun. Tom Hodge who also dreamed up the poster for Hobo With A Shotgun created the poster. Brad Mills and Jacquelyn Mills direct the Legend of the Psychotic Forest Ranger. Film synopsis: Full of plot holes & cheesy dialogue, The Legend of the Psychotic Forest Ranger is a B horror movie straight out of the 80s. After (cont)...
- 7/5/2011
- Best-Horror-Movies.com
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