1. Best thriller: “The Night of 12”, by Dominik Moll
In this existential film noir, Dominik Moll stages a gang of police officers from Grenoble confronted with a case that may be impossible to solve: the murder of a young woman in sordid circumstances. In the sublime and oppressive natural settings of the Alps, a territory he films like an open-air prison, Dominik Moll punishes conventions and leads the viewer into the meanders of a dizzying investigation where the identity of the murderer matters. less than the questions that afflict his cops at their wit’s end. French genre cinema at its best. 490,000 entries.
2. Best comedy: “Without filter”, by Ruben Östlund
He did not steal his palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival, his second after that obtained for The Square in 2017. In Without filter, the Swedish iconoclast Ruben Östlund films a handful of horrifying new rich who, during a luxury cruise, will suffer the worst and funniest insults. With his devastating humor and laid-back Marxism, the director signs a Bunuelian comedy in the best taste. ” I like films that squeak, shock and make viewers want to talk, or even argue at the end of the screening. », told us Ruben Östlund last June. Mission accomplished. 550,000 entries.
3. Best social film: “Another world”, by Stéphane Brizé
After two masterful fictions on unfortunately exemplary representatives of “France from below” (The law of the market and In war), Stéphane Brizé sets the stage again with this powerful film in which he tracks an executive forced by his superiors to carry out a redundancy plan while his globalized company is reaping substantial profits. The most important socio-political film of the year. 480,000 entries.
4. Best revelation: “Murina”, by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic
Unknown to the battalion of filmmakers until then, the Croatian Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic hits hard with this first film where she subtly stages the desires for emancipation of a young girl fighting against her father and against the formidable machismo raging in her country. The immense Martin Scorsese was not mistaken in contributing to the financing of this feverish film which reveals a leading director. 50,000 entries.
5. Best love story: “Chronicle of a temporary affair”, by Emmanuel Mouret
A tireless observer of the intermittences of the heart, Emmanuel Mouret (Mademoiselle de Joncquières, The Things We Say, the things we do) enchants us once again with this truant film where he tracks two lovers in a few episodes of their clandestine adventure. Royally embodied by the couple Sandrine Kiberlain/Vincent Macaigne, a small spiritual and epicurean marvel. 317,000 entries.
6. American best friend: “Armageddon time”, by James Gray
Two teenagers become friends in New York in the 80s, when Ronald Reagan is about to be elected president… In this film where he evokes his memories of youth, James Gray paints an acid portrait of his country plagued by communitarianism , racism and neoliberal ideology. ” I don’t feel any nostalgia for that time., told us James Gray in October. My memories of New York at this time are those of a dirty and dangerous city. With Armageddon time my intention is to use my youthful experiences to express much more general ideas about America then and now. I’m always passionate about storytelling and the different levels of reading that a film can offer. This requirement is lacking in many fictions today and, modestly, I wish that Armageddon Time invites the viewer to reflect. “. An invitation that cannot be refused. 370,000 entries.
7. Best film on Europe: “RMN”, by Cristian Mungiu
Racism and the fear of the “great replacement”, social misery and obsession with identity… By filming a village in Transylvania sadly representative of certain evils of our time, the Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2007 with 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 dayssigns a masterful fiction on the realities of his country and, more generally, on those of Europe. He explained it in Marianne in September : “ The temptation to designate“the other” and the foreigner as those responsible for all our ills is a constant in history and it is revived today everywhere in the world with bellicose nationalisms. I wanted to draw a collective portrait through this village and show a sneaky mechanism: how certain fears can lead to the worst. “. 70,000 entries.
8. Best anxiety: “As Bestas”, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen
A French couple settled in an underprivileged village in Galicia suffers from the hostility of the natives. Until the worst… In this anxiety-provoking film, Spaniard Rodrigo Sorogoyen films the fear that gradually contaminates the existence of a couple in a foreign land and shows two communities that, in all respects, do not speak the same language. This feverish film tells a world, ours, where some damned of the earth think they have no other choice but to destroy what does not look like them. 327,000 entries.
9. Best intimate fiction: “The children of others”, by Rebecca Zlotowski
Rachel, in her forties and childless, takes a liking to her new companion’s kid. Perhaps too much… With a rigor and an art of suggestion reminiscent of the fictions of the late Claude Sautet, Rebecca Zlotowski, well helped in her task by her two main actors (Virginie Efira and Roschdy Zem), signs a film which reduces to mush the imposed figures of the psychological drama that so often paralyzes French fiction. 380,000 entries.
10. Best family film: “Leila and her brothers”, by Saeed Roustaee
Iranian filmmakers facing the desolate realities of their country. In this film obviously censored on his lands, Saeed Roustaee portrays the electrical relationships within a Tehran family obsessed with money. After triumphing at home with his two previous films – Life in a Day (2 million admissions) and Tehran law (3 million) – the filmmaker, during our meeting in July, told us of his desire to see his film released in Iranian cinemas. ” I first shot Leila and her brothers for the public of my countryhe said. I don’t intend to bow to censorship. I am criticized for giving a desacralized image of the father in the film and for not respecting morality. Iranian filmmakers are familiar with this kind of argument, especially those whose influence on viewers is feared. I am neither a sociologist nor a journalist and it is important to me above all to make films, but I cannot abstract myself from the society in which I live and from the realities that I observe every day. “. Realities which, since last summer, are obviously even more dramatic. 116,000 entries.
“The night of 12”, “Without filter”, “As Bestas”… Our top 10 cinema of the year 2022