32nd Shadows Awards: Best of 2012

Here are my top 10 films of 2012, as well as my favourites in the main categories. Full top-10 lists in each category, and rather an awful lot more, are on the site...

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2012:

1. Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
2. Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
3. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
4. Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow)
5. Amour (Michael Haneke)
6. Chronicle (Josh Trank)
7. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
8. The House I Live In (Eugene Jarecki)
9. Sightseers (Ben Wheatley)
10. Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore)

DIRECTOR:
Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

SCREENPLAY:
Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain (Rust and Bone)

ACTRESS:
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games)

ACTOR:
Denis Lavant (Holy Motors)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises, Les Miserables)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables)

ENSEMBLE: Pitch Perfect

BREAKOUT FILMMAKER: Bart Layton (The Imposter)

BREAKOUT ACTOR: Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, Lawless)

MUSIC: The Master (Jonny Greenwood)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Life of Pi (Cloudio Miranda)

EDITING: Argo (William Goldenberg)

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Berberian Sound Studio (Jennifer Kernke)

EFFECTS: Life of Pi

STUNTS: Haywire

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GETTING BACK TO NORMAL:
OK, so arriving back home with eight hours of jet lag on New Year's Eve is great if you want to stay up late, but it's not going to help me get back in the correct time zone very quickly. Especially since I have hours (if not days) of work ahead to get caught up after a few weeks away. On the flight home, I was able to revisit Pitch Perfect, cementing its place in my top 10 of the year (it's just as funny and clever the second time round). And ahead of me this coming week is a teetering stack of DVD screeners to catch up with. My first actual press screening will be the indie horror film Midnight Son on Friday, with Ryan Gosling's Gangster Squad, Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand and the film doc Side by Side following soon behind.

LFF 10: Big finale

The 56th BFI London Film Festival came to a close tonight with the European premiere of Mike Newell's new version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which brought Helena Bonham Carter back out to the red carpet just a night after she and her partner Tim Burton (himself an LFF red carpet veteran from opening night) attended the glamorous festival awards presentation, where they were each awarded the BFI Fellowship. Here are all of the winners:

• Film: RUST AND BONE
• Documentary (Grierson Award): MEA MAXIMA CULPA
• First Feature (Sutherland Award): BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
• British Newcomer: Sally El Hosaini (MY BROTHER THE DEVIL)
• BFI Fellowship: Tim Burton (FRANKENWEENIE) and Helena Bonham Carter (GREAT EXPECTATIONS)

Here are my own 10 favourites from the festival:

1. RUST AND BONE
2. SIGHTSEERS
3. AMOUR
4. NO
5. OUR CHILDREN
6. KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
7. ERNEST & CELESTINE
8. ARGO
9. MY BROTHER THE DEVIL
10. BEYOND THE HILLS

Saturday also included Silver Linings Playbook as the surprise film (I'm seeing it on Tuesday) - pictured (right) at the surprise screening are David O Russell, LFF director Clare Stewart and Bradley Cooper.

And here are a few final highlights...

Great Expectations
dir Mike Newell; with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter 12/UK ***.
Charles Dickens' oft-adapted novel is faithfully transferred to the screen barely six months after another BBC television version. And while this film is very nicely made and played, it's impossible not to wonder why they've done it again so soon... REVIEW >

Celeste & Jesse Forever
dir Lee Toland Krieger; with Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg 12/US ***.
With a snappy script and observant filmmaking, this enjoyable rom-com refuses to fit into the standard movie formula. It also offers both Jones and Samberg the chance to give much more layered performances than usual... REVIEW >

Our Children
dir Joachim Lafosse; with Emilie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim 12/Be, ****.
Based on a true story, this film paints a picture of happy but complicated domestic bliss before quietly shifting into something very unsettling. The understatement is likely to annoy some filmgoers, but it allows the cast to deliver devastating performances... REVIEW >

Ernest & Celestine
dir Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner; voices Lambert Wilson, Pauline Brunner 12/Fr ****.
Charming and adorable, but not remotely childish, this animated French adventure has a terrific sense of anarchy that will appeal to adults as much as kids. It's also a superb fable about standing up for yourself even when you challenge society's traditions... REVIEW >

LFF 3: Take a swim

Another sunny day (with spots of rain) at the 56th BFI London Film Festival as huge crowds gather around the city to watch movies from off the beaten path. Here are a few Sunday highlights, including Rust and Bone (above), my favourite film of the year so far...

Rust and Bone
dir Jacques Audiard; with Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts 12/Fr *****
With an almost unblinkingly honest approach to relationships, this French drama crushes every cliched romance in its wake. The story and characters are messy, tetchy and fiercely passionate, forcing us to experience the pain and joy in equal measure... REVIEW >

End of Watch
dir David Ayer; with Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena 12/US ****
Off-handed performances and an earthy, gritty style elevate this police thriller above the fray. And it's made all the more watchable since Ayer has abandoned his usual corrupt-cop theme, instead focussing on two realistically complex good guys... REVIEW >

West of Memphis
dir Amy Berg; with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin 12/US ****
This lucid, harrowing documentary recounts a 20-year miscarriage of justice so thoroughly that it leaves us slack-jawed at the corruption, self-interest and intractability of the Arkansas legal system. It's also sharply well shot and edited to leave us with no doubts about the truth... REVIEW >

Beyond the Hills
dir Cristian Mungiu; with Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur 12/Rom ****
Dark and unsettling, this drama juggles its provocative subject matter and unusual setting in ways that constantly surprise us. Not because we can identify with the situations, but because filmmaker Mungiu is so skilled at finding larger truths in his characters. It's about two young women who grew up in an orphanage but took very different journeys: Alina (Flutur) moved to Germany to find work, Voichita (Stratan) joined a rural monastery. And now Alina has come back to collect her friend, but instead she ends up upsetting the delicate balance of religion and superstition that infuses life in this oddly timeless place where there's no electricity or running water. There are all kinds of social issues at play here, from underfunded hospitals to child abuse. Not to mention the bigger theme of a group of deeply religious people struggling to deal with someone they see as a dangerous interloper. Rather long and repetitive, it's also scary and emotional film that leaves us with a lot to chew on.

Zaytoun
dir Eran Riklis; with Abdallah El Akal, Stephen Dorff 12/Isr **.
Lively characters and a series of offbeat events make this movie watchable, except that we never believe anything that happens. The script feels contrived to tell a heartwarming story using a series of corny touches. So there isn't much tension. And no insight into the thorny political situation... REVIEW >

Critical Week: Setting sail

London critics continue to catch up with acclaimed films from this year's festivals as their UK release dates get closer. One of the main titles from Sundance and Cannes was Beasts of the Southern Wild, an evocative, ambitious drama from Louisiana that features a breathtaking central performance by Quvenzhane Wallis, who was only 6 when the film was made. We also saw Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard's stunning followup to his award-winning A Prophet, which features another heart-stopping central performance from Marion Cotillard. And then there was the sublime Chinese relationship drama A Simple Life, starring Andy Lau.

Outside the festival circuit, we had the Farrelly brothers' corny take on The Three Stooges; Christian Bale in the Chinese wartime epic The Flowers of War, an astonishing true story that drifts into melodrama; Private Peaceful, a warmly involving but slightly simplistic WW1 drama based on the book by Michael Morpugo (War Horse); the slightly over-egged but thoroughly involving true British ghost horror When the Lights Went Out; the found-footage lost-valley thriller The Dinosaur Project; the serene and understated elite restaurant doc El Bulli: Cooking in Progress; and a chance to catch up with the terrific 1956 Burt Lancaster/Tony Curtis circus drama Trapeze, one of the best ever movie bromances.

This coming week we have two more Cannes premieres: Ben Wheatley's Sightseers and Leos Carax's Holy Motors, plus the dance sequel Step Up 4: Miami Heat (aka Step Up Revolution), Sound of My Voice, the Asian epic Samsara, and restored versions of Orson Welles' F for Fake and Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger.

Note that over the coming two weeks I will be blogging regularly from the London Olympics, commenting on how the city is coping with hosting its third Summer Games and the feeling on the streets and in the venues (I have tickets to four events). Watch this space...