As per tradition, I will give out imaginary awards to the films that I love most or hold in high regard from the preceding year.

Golden Snoopy – Todd Field for TAR

My favourite film of the year. A hallucinatory deep dive into the physical and psychological realities of a world-famous (if fictional) composer-conductor as well as a fascinating character study of a queer woman harbouring a desire for power and control yet trapped in her own insecurities. The ‘Mulholland Drive’ for this generation, I daresay.

Silver Snoopy – Charlotte Wells for AFTERSUN

Was for a time my favourite film of 2022 until Tar. Modern dramas about fathers and daughters have come and gone over the years, but few have come as close to perfection as this modest but enormously affecting memory piece. An extraordinary feature debut that must be savoured, finding that rare tone of joy and melancholy with effortless ease.

Bronze Snoopy – Tarik Saleh for BOY FROM HEAVEN

A boy becomes a pawn in this exceptional dramatisation of the nasty power plays that could conceivably happen at the very top ranks of political and religious institutions. Shot in a procedural-thriller style where life-and-death uncertainty is the name of the game, the film puts the Islamic faith through the wringer as secularism comes under serious threat. A compelling piece that asks the hard and right questions.

Bronze Snoopy (Special Mention) – Ali Abbasi for HOLY SPIDER

One of the year’s most morally provocative pictures. this disquieting based-on-a-true-story work about an unorthodox serial killer who ‘takes care’ of prostitutes in the name of religion is as dark as they come, set in the most unexpected of locations — the holy Iranian city of Mashhad. This really got under my skin.

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• Best Director – Park Chan-wook (DECISION TO LEAVE) for an enigmatic and layered film about the perverse relationship between a suspect and an investigator as he finds an alluringly new approach to crime-mystery filmmaking that continues his career-long obsession with pushing human relationships to their very extremes.

• Best Lead Actor – Felix Kammerer (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT) for a male lead performance that surprised me the most. The 27-year-old Austrian actor’s feature acting debut came in the form of a gruelling WWI epic no less, yet it was his expression of emotional devastation and trauma that impressed me the most. His face and eyes were a mood altogether.

• Best Lead Actress – Cate Blanchett (TAR) for executing the most powerful and exquisite female lead performance of the year with such layered complexity. The film invites us to scrutinise and empathise with her portrayal of Lydia Tar as the character finds herself fighting against cancel culture and the hauntings of past transgressions. 

• Best Supporting Actor – Brendan Gleeson (THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN) for a wonderful performance as a jaded guy who wants a fresh beginning to make the most out of his silver years. He doesn’t say much in the film, but whatever he says holds plenty of weight and implications. His vexed face also says it all. This award is as much his as it is Colin Farrell’s and Kerry Condon’s.

• Best Supporting Actress – Stephanie Hsu (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE) for what I thought was the best performance in the film. She impressed me the most even though most of the accolades had gone to her co-stars. She epitomised her character’s youthful angst as well as the emotional and psychological vulnerability and pain of being misunderstood.

• Best Ensemble Cast – TRIANGLE OF SADNESS for its game cast in portraying eclectic characters that are full of eccentricities in a film where ensemble acting takes a fascinating left-field path.

• Best Original Screenplay – Emin Alper (BURNING DAYS) for reaching new heights as a writer-director in this slow-burn psychological thriller set in a rural Turkish town as a newly appointed public prosecutor arrives only to find himself trying to navigate its rotten politics. Features my favourite denouement of the year.

• Best Adapted Screenplay – Samuel D. Hunter (THE WHALE) for adapting his own play and setting up a unique screen challenge for Darren Aronofsky and Brendan Fraser to tackle. A superb chamber piece about a severely obese man hoping to reconnect with his estranged daughter, which succeeds as much as its near-mythic portrayal of personal fortitude.   

• Best Cinematography – Claudio Miranda (TOP GUN: MAVERICK) for some of the most exhilarating shots ever captured aerially from fighter jets, p.o.v. or otherwise. A film where, like hand in glove, cinematography becomes conceptually and strategically integral to its experience. A technical masterclass whose Oscar nomination snub was incredibly glaring.

• Best Film Editing – THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS for the natural pacing that doesn’t call attention to itself and is so crucial in allowing the story to unfold in its own time. The film is so unrushed yet never feels slow – you can almost breathe in the air of the Italian Alps.

• Best Production Design – THE BATMAN for a grimy, neo-noir Gotham that reminds of David Fincher’s Se7en. Effective, sometimes chilling, and feels both authentically real and comic book-esque at the same time.

• Best Costume Design – BABYLON for such a diverse, eye-numbing spread of period costumes worn by an entire town of performers. Dazzling.

• Best Makeup & Hairstyling – THE WHALE for, well, putting Brendan Fraser in the grinder with his fat suit. Some have called it offensive to folks on the weightier side, but nah, this is cathartic art.

• Best Original Score – Michael Giacchino (THE BATMAN) for one of the most underrated scores of the year that feels so different from Danny Elfman’s and Hans Zimmer’s iconic works.

• Best Original Song – FIRE for the depressingly intimate ballad ‘Both Sides of the Blade’ by Tindersticks.

• Best Use of Source Music – THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS for using Swedish singer-songwriter Daniel Norgren’s deeply-emotional songs taken largely from his 2015 album, ‘Alabursy’. The perfect accompaniment to a very beautiful movie about the longevity of male friendships. (Special Mention to DECISION TO LEAVE and TAR for using my favourite Mahler piece.)

• Best Sound – BABYLON for everything loud, chaotic and brash about the film. It sounds so good and intoxicating, and best of all, it gave me such unbridled energy that no other film from 2022 managed to do.

• Best Visual Effects – NOPE for treating the UFO movie in visually interesting ways, with its effects work integral to how the film is experienced on the big screen, particularly in IMAX. (Note: AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER would win this category hands-down, but there is little value in ascribing the award to it.)

• Discovery Award (Filmmaking) – WHILE WE WATCHED for its powerful indictment of the sorry state of media and hate politics in India as a brave broadcast journalist warns of widespread nationalistic propaganda on television news. One of the most provocative documentaries of the year.

• Discovery Award (Acting) – Frankie Corio (AFTERSUN) & Catherine Clinch (THE QUIET GIRL) for their wonderful and indelible performances. Even though they are in different films, they seem like soulmates to me and I wish their characters could meet.

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Top 10 Films of 2022:

1. Tar – Todd Field (USA)
2. Aftersun – Charlotte Wells (UK)
3. Boy from Heaven – Tarik Saleh (Sweden, France)
4. Holy Spider – Ali Abbasi (Denmark, Germany)
5. Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
6. The Eight Mountains – Felix Van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch (Italy, Belgium)
7. Burning Days – Emin Alper (Turkey)
8. Babylon – Damien Chazelle (USA)
9. The Whale – Darren Aronofsky (USA)
10. While We Watched – Vinay Shukla (India)

Special Mention:

• All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger (Germany)
• The Batman– Matt Reeves (USA)
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica – Verena Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor (France)
• Delikado – Karl Malakunas (Philippines, USA)
• Everything Everywhere All At Once – Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (USA)
• Pinocchio – Guillermo Del Toro & Mark Gustafson (Mexico, USA)
• The Quiet Girl – Colm Bairead (Ireland)
• Tori & Lokita – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (Belgium)