So here are the first five films of my annual list.

1. Close Your Eyes
   Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes”, which is incidentally his comeback work after “Dream of the Light” (1992), takes quite a time as slowly revealing what and how it is about. Looking back at its long journey as well as the final destination, you will appreciate how subtly it handles its story and characters to make a point on the power of cinema in the end, and you may also agree that the movie is one of the notable highlights of this year. Yes, maybe the end of cinema is near as many people have said these days, but the movie movingly reminds us that it is still a powerful tool for human emotions, and we surely need to remember that more, no matter what will happen to cinema in the future.

2. Sing Sing
   It is always fascinating for me to observe different people and lives via good movies, and “Sing Sing” is one of such terrific films. Although most of its main characters are quite different from me in many aspects, I observed their collective artistic efforts with considerable interest and fascination, and I was touched a lot by how they try to endure and prevail under their imprisoned status. Believe me, it will move you a lot while also making you reflect more on that transformative power of art – especially when it shows a series of archival footage clips of the various stage performances from Whitfield, Maclin, and their fellow RTA members. To be frank with you, I have no idea on how much the movie itself is close to their real-life stories, but it sublimates their real-life stories into something quite memorable mainly thanks to their active joint participation in its production, and it is surely something you should check it out as soon as possible.

3. Anora
   Sean Baker’s latest film “Anora”, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, is an absurd but ultimately bitter comedy about one female sex worker who turns out to be a lot more naïve and desperate than she seems at first. As foolishly attempting to go all the way for more economic stability in her life, she thinks she can prevail over one increasingly messy circumstance, but there soon comes a harsh dose of reality to strike her, and we are reminded more of how fragile and unstable her social status really is. Since he drew my attention with “Tangerine” (2015), Baker has steadily advanced as making “The Florida Project” (2017) and “Red Rocket” (2021), and, considering all the attention and buzz surrounding it during this ongoing award season, “Anora” will surely establish him more as one of the most interesting American filmmakers during last several years.

4. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
   Iranian film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”, which was recently selected as the German submission to Best International Film Oscar, is a masterful work which will hold your attention from the beginning to the end. Deftly balancing itself between political and family drama throughout its rather long running time (167 minutes), the movie often unnerves us as closely observing the toxic effect of patriarchy and theocracy on one plain family, and the result is one of the most interesting movies of this year. Considering not only how that fierce public demand for social change in Iran was eventually ended in 2023 without much difference but also how fascism and totalitarianism have been raging all over the world during last several years, this defiant piece of work feels all the more bitter to say the least, but the allegorical aspects of its powerful human drama made me reflect a bit on how every totalitarian regime is bound for eventual collapse when it begins to regard its own people as the enemies of the state. The problem is, when will that ever happen to Iran and its people?

5. Ghostlight
   “Ghostlight” is a modest but extraordinary human drama about the surprising healing power of art. Mainly revolving around one plain man’s struggle to understand and process his anger and grief via one unlikely artistic opportunity, the movie comes to show a lot of compassion and understanding to not only him but also several other characters in the story, and we are eventually touched a lot as observing how much he gets better around the end of the movie. In my inconsequential opinion, this little precious gem is really too good to be overlooked, and I assure you that you will agree that it is also one of the best films of this year.