Not entirely sure how but I managed to catch 169 films this year. That is 6 less than 2011 but, on the other hand, it seem to say that I was watching a film every other day of the year. Not quite, as I do have a full time job. But weekends were indeed busy as I saw 116 films during the 52 weekends of the year. And I 
watched over 120 of those films in theaters – not on DVD or online.
My selection of favorite films is presented in the order that I saw them and thus do not intend to provide rankings. Furthermore, some films on my list might have been released last year but I did not get to see them at the time.
In this regard, I have noticed that many top ten lists include films that have not been released in the US. As I am not a professional film critic, I do not get access to such films beforehand; but I do go to a few NY-based film festivals and see films that have not been released by the end of the year,
That being said, here is the list:
- The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius (2011, France)
- Las Acacias – Pablo Giorgelli (2011, Argentina)
- The Kid with a Bike – Jean Pierre/Luc Dardenne (2011, Belgium)
- Elena – Andrei Zvyagintsev (2011, Russia)
- I Wish – Kiseki Hirokazu Koreeda (2011, Japan)
- Oslo, August 31th – Joachim Trier (2011, Norway)
- 5 Broken Cameras – Emad Burnat/Guy David (2012, Palestine/Israel)
- Delicacy – La délicatesse – David Foenkinos/Stéphane Foenkinos (2011, France)
- Neighboring Sounds – O som ao redor – Kleber Mendonça Filho (2012, Brazil)
- The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson (2012, US)
- No – Pablo Larraín (2012, Chile)
- Barbara – Christian Petzold (2012, Germany)
- Amour – Michael Haneke (2012, Austria)
- Miss Bala – Gerardo Naranjo (2011, Mexico)
- Once Upon a Time in Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2011, Turkey)
- Almayer’s Follie – La Folie Almayer – Chantal Akerman (2012, Belgium)
- The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies (2011, UK)
- Stopped on Track – Andreas Dresen (2011, Germany)
- Violeta – Violeta se fue a los cielos – Andres Wood (2011, Chile)
- Searching for Sugar Man – Malik Bendjelloul (2012, UK)
- In Another Country – Sang-soo Hong (2012, South Korea)
- Rust and Bone – De rouille et d’os – Jacques Audiard (2012, France)
- Lincoln – Steven Spielberg (2012, US)ronenberg (Canada)
Catching up (seeing the ones I missed in the past):
- En la Puta Vida – Beatriz Flores Silva (2001, Uruguay)
- Werckmeister Harmonies – Werckmeister harmóniák – Bela Tarr (2000, Hungary)
- The Son – Le Fils – Jean Pierre/Luc Dardenne (2002, Belgium)
- The Child – L’enfant – Jean Pierre/Luc Dardenne (2005, Belgium)
- Niki and Flo – Lucian Pintilie (2003, Romania)
- The Dancer and the Thief – El baile de la Victoria – Fernando Trueba (2009, Spain)
- Sheherazade, tell me a story – Yousry Nasrallah (2009, Egypt)
- The case of the grinning Cat – Chris Marker (2004, France)
- Fireworks Wednesday – Asghar Farhadi (2006, Iran)
- About Elly – Asghar Farhadi (2009, Iran)
- La Cienaga – The Swamp – Lucrecia Martel (2001, Argentina)
Classics revisited:
- L’argent – Robert Bresson (1983, France)
- Al Capone – Richard Wilson (1959, US)
- A Man Escaped – Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veu – Robert Bresson (1957, France)
- Rosetta – Jean Pierre/Luc Dardenne (1999, Belgium)
- The Prefab People – Bela Tarr (1982, Hungary)
- Satantango – Bela Tarr (1994, Hungary)
- Damnation – Bela Tarr (1998, Hungary)
- One flew over the cuckoos nest – Milos Forman (1975, US)
- The Lovers – Les amants – Louis Malle (1958, France)
- An unforgattable summer – Lucian Pintillie (1994, Romania)
- La bella de Alhambra – Enrique Pineda Barnet (1989, Cuba)
- Celine and Juli go boating – Phantom Ladies Over Paris – Jacques Rivette (1974, France)
- A Brighter Summer Day – Edward Yang (1991, Taiwan)
- Alice doesn’t live here anymore – Martin Scorsese (1974, US)
- Il Grido – Michelangelo Antonioni (1957, Italy)
- Red Desert – Michelangelo Antonioni (1964, Italy)
- The Circus – Charles Chaplin (1928, US)
- Wake in Fright – Ted Kotcheff (1971, Australia)
- Diabolique | Les Diaboliques – Henri-Georges Clouzot (1955, France)
