In an era of ever-increasing shake-ups in the animation world, it’s no wonder the best animated feature film of the past year was made by a small team of Latvian filmmakers in Blender.

For all of the hysteria that has surrounded this adaptation, when I watched this in a preview screening surrounded by cheering girls in Snow White costumes, it was hard to remember why people were convinced of the insidiousness of this film in the first place. 

Bird is a visceral coming-of-age tale that soars thanks to its naturalistic approach to both performances and on-screen craft. 

It's passionate, isolating, creepy, and more than a little sexy.

Rise, musical theatre kids!

The best part of the screening was the little black cupcakes that were handed out outside the cinema afterwards, almost like a little treat for slugging through the disappointment that was this movie. 

Timestalker tells the story of a woman named Agnes who keeps falling in love with the wrong man in several different time periods, after being continuously reincarnated.

There are whispers of a great movie in The Watchers, with Ishana’s directorial eye occasionally shining through the film’s middling aspects, however at present her directing style feels imitatively beholden to superficial notions of M. Night’s storytelling sensibilities, and I’d love for her to find her footing amidst the depths of the forest.

If decapitated heads, Tumblr-edit-worthy quotations about the human condition, traditional Slavic folklore, and harrowing cinematography are your thing, then look no further than Le Vourdoulak.

In Divinity, writer-director Eddie Alcazar seems to have crafted a readymade cult object. A film completely furnished with textual references, grotesque violence, hyper-stylised visuals, and mixed media experimentation, seemingly destined to attract a small coterie of like-minded fans and repeat viewers. The only issue is that I can’t imagine anyone sitting through this twice.

Mami Wata truly has the ability to spellbind, yet keeps its feet rooted in a deeply nuanced point of interest: an ever-changing reckoning with modernity.

A patchwork quilt of genres, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera is a grimy and charismatic fairytale, and Josh O’Connor is its beating heart. 

This is a fun movie. Longtime fans will probably love Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire the most, but at the end of the day, it won’t grab the imagination of any new audiences.

Watch out Cullens, there's a new vampire family in town! Fans of Twilight (2008), Dark Shadows (2012), Submarine (2010), and Moonrise Kingdom (2012), get your fangs out and sink your teeth into this quirky vampire coming-of-age film.

Insightful, fiendishly hysterical, and (albeit slightly overwhelmingly) emblematic, Dream Scenario is a surrealist delirium that moulds one of 2023’s most inventive premises into a deeply moving, melancholic parable on the perks and perils of sudden celebrity.

Poignant and beautiful, The Boy and the Heron is both an interesting shift in theme and an excellent addition to Miyazaki’s extensive canon.

Offering up serviceable (if more than a tad messy) family fun, Haunted Mansion comes close to recapturing Disney's straight to home video glory, complete with a dance party finale.

Elemental shines is in its ability to gently guide you to realise the film’s crux yourself, and in the meantime, present you with vivid characters, fun antics and gorgeous animation along the way.

Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid truly feels like the culmination of Disney live-action remakes from the last few years. But this remake once again reminds us how unnecessary they are.

Beau Is Afraid is far from a perfect cinema-going experience, but it's nevertheless a fascinating and original one.