After barely surviving a mandatory shutdown in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the executive class running some of the largest film studios in the world decided that they weren’t quite ridiculously rich enough yet and furthermore they hadn’t taken enough liberties – financial, creative and moral – with those employed by them.

And so the actors and writers collectively said no and downed tools for five months in a dispute over pay (including residual payments in the age of streaming), working conditions, and especially the increasing threat of artificial intelligence being used to not only write screenplays based on algorithms but to steal the likenesses of actors (living and dead) and store them in perpetuity without just compensation.

With Hollywood productions quiet for half the year and none of the “talent” allowed to promote those movies that were completed prior to the strikes, we ended up with a more limited and less enthusiastically received slate of major releases. Not even superhero movies or franchise sequels fronted by Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise were guaranteed hits anymore.

Despite all this, 2023 ended up being a pretty good year for cinema, with plenty of examples of not only memorable blockbusters but of distinct filmmakers leaving their mark and under-represented communities providing vibrancy and freshness to a myriad of new stories. Based upon UK release dates, these are my 10 Best Films of 2023.

Follow me @SSPThinksFilm on X (Twitter).

10. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah Review

2023 has been a great year for films about how Gen-Z processes their major life experiences, and this delightful, hilarious little film starring most of the Sandler clan (including Adam as an adorably schlubby dad) is up there with the very best.

As she approaches her her 13th birthday and the Jewish coming-of-age ritual, Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) is determined to make her Bat Mitzvah the most perfect and memorable of her peer group, including that of BFF Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). But things get a lot more complicated as hormones, teenage crushes and petty but damaging psychological manipulation via social media enter the mix.

Five years ago, Bo Burnham made his memorable feature debut with Eighth Grade and told one of the most connective, visceral stories about becoming a teenager in years. Sammi Cohen’s film has the same aim but demonstrates how seismically culture has changed in just half a decade, all through a Jewish cultural lens. There may have never been a more challenging time to be growing up in an always-online age, and Alison Peck’s insightful script in addition to the across-the-board wonderfully naturalistic performances help to make this an unexpectedly profound crowd-pleaser.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Review

#JusticeforJamesGunn incarnate, the final chapter of the unlikeliest a-hole superhero team’s story shatters expectations and satisfyingly delivers on almost every level.

After years of defending the countless worlds together, the Guardians team has reached a precarious place. Their leader Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) has slumped into a depressed, alcoholic stupor after losing the love of his life Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), and Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) past as a bio-engineered test subject comes back to haunt him in a very real way. Can the team come together one last time and save the galaxy, and themselves?

Marvel is seen as a pretty risk-averse studio and certainly much of their recent output has been received with a shrug from many viewers, but Guardians Vol 3 shows what happens when one of the best directors they partnered with is left to finish the story he wanted to tell. The action has never been more polished and visually dazzling, the performances from people and animated raccoons alike so honest and full of pain, Gunn’s love of animals so prominent as the team go up against a truly detestable figure who causes pain for the hell of it.

Recommended for you: MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ranked

The winners of the 2023 European Film Awards were announced live from Berlin, Germany on Saturday 9th December, with Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall receiving a number of major accolades, including Best European Film.

The European Film Academy announced 11 different films from as many as 10 different countries as winners across a wide range of categories, whilst also honouring a number of individuals for their contributions to the form. English actress Vanessa Redgrave was honoured with the European Lifetime Achievement award, with Spanish film director Isabel Coixet being rewarded for European Achievement in World Cinema.

Anatomy of a Fall was the most celebrated of the stacked line-up of films, winning the award for Best European Film over fellow nominees Fallen Leaves, Green Border, Me Captain and The Zone of Interest, as well as picking up awards for European Director, European Screenwriter, European Editing, and European Actress, the latter of which was won by Sandra Hüller who was nominated twice in the category for Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.

The awards ceremony was streamed live and in full via the European Film Awards website, with replays still available.

The winners of the 2023 European Film Awards (EFAs) are as follows:

European Film – Anatomy of a Fall
Fallen Leaves
Green Border
Me Captain
The Zone of Interest

European Young Audience Award – Scrapper
Longing for the World
One in a Million

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci – How to Have Sex
20,000 Species of Bees
La Palisiada
Safe Place
The Quiet Migration
Vincent Must Die

European Documentary – Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Apolonia, Apolonia
Four Daughters
Motherland
On the Adamant

European Animated Feature Film – Robot Dreams
A Greyhound of a Girl
Chicken for Linda!
The Amazing Maurice
White Plastic Sky

European Short Film – Hardly Working
27
Aqueronte
Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays
Flores Del Otro Patio

European Director – Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
Aki Kaurismäki (Fallen Leaves)
Agnieszka Holland (Green Border)
Matteo Garrone (Me Captain)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)

European Actress – Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Eka Chavleishvili (Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry)
Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Leonie Benesch (The Teachers’ Lounge)
Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest)

European Actor – Mads Mikkelsen (The Promised Land)
Thomas Schubert (Afire)
Jussi Vatanen (Fallen Leaves)
Josh O’Connor (La Chimera)
Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest)

European Screenwriter – Justine Triet, Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall)
Aki Kaurismäki (Fallen Leaves)
Gabriela Lazarkiewicz-Sieczko, Maciej Pisuk Agnieszka Holland (Green Border)
Johannes Duncker, Ilker Çatak (The Teachers’ Lounge)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)

European Cinematography – Rasmus Videbæk (The Promised Land)

European Editing – Laurent Sénéchal (Anatomy of a Fall)

European Production Design – Emita Frigato (La Chimera)

European Costume Design – Kicki Ilander (The Promised Land)

European Make-Up & Hair – Society of the Snow

European Original Score – Markus Binder (Club Zero)

European Sound – Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers (The Zone of Interest)

European Visual Effects – Society of the Snow

European Lifetimes Achievement – Vanessa Redgrave

European Achievement in World Cinema – Isabel Coixet

Eurimages Co-Production Award – Uljana Kim

Honorary Award of the EFA President and Board – Béla Tarr

European Sustainability Award (Prix Film4Climate) – Güler Sabancı

The European Film Academy has revealed its nominees for the 36th European Film Awards (EFAs), with Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall being celebrated across most categories.

Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning thriller, Anatomy of a Fall, is nominated across four categories: European Film, Directing, Lead Actress (Sandra Hüller), Screenwriting. Glazer’s The Zone of Interest has been nominated across the five leading categories: European Film, Directing, Lead Actress (Sandra Hüller), Lead Actor (Christian Friedel), Screenwriting.

British actors Josh O’Connor and Mia McKenna-Bruce were nominated in the acting categories, with the former playing the lead role in Alice Rohrwacher’s drama La Chimera and the latter being the focus of Molly Manning Walker’s acclaimed debut How to Have Sex (itself nominated for 13 British Independent Film Awards).

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finnish drama Fallen Leaves was also nominated across all five eligible categories announced.

The 2023 European Film Awards will take place live from Berlin, Germany on 9th December 2023.

Here is the full list of 2023 European Film Awards nominees:

European Film
Anatomy of a Fall
Fallen Leaves
Green Border
Me Captain
The Zone of Interest

European Young Audience Award
Longing for the World
One in a Million
Scrapper

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci
20,000 Species of Bees
How to Have Sex
La Palisiada
Safe Place
The Quiet Migration
Vincent Must Die

European Documentary
Apolonia, Apolonia
Four Daughters
Motherland
On the Adamant
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

European Animated Feature Film
A Greyhound of a Girl
Chicken for Linda!
Robot Dreams
The Amazing Maurice
White Plastic Sky

European Short Film
27
Aqueronte
Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays
Flores Del Otro Patio
Hardly Working

European Director
Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
Aki Kaurismäki (Fallen Leaves)
Agnieszka Holland (Green Border)
Matteo Garrone (Me Captain)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)

European Actress
Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Eka Chavleishvili (Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry)
Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Leonie Benesch (The Teachers’ Lounge)
Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest)

European Actor
Thomas Schubert (Afire)
Jussi Vatanen (Fallen Leaves)
Josh O’Connor (La Chimera)
Mads Mikkelsen (The Promised Land)
Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest)

European Screenwriter
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall)
Aki Kaurismäki (Fallen Leaves)
Gabriela Lazarkiewicz-Sieczko, Maciej Pisuk Agnieszka Holland (Green Border)
Johannes Duncker, Ilker Çatak (The Teachers’ Lounge)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)

The British Independent Film Awards announced on 2nd November 2023 the nominees for their latest annual awards show, with debut features Rye Lane and Scrapper leading the list of nominated films.

Announced via an event hosted by Susan Wokoma and Morfydd Clark at One Hundred Shoreditch, London, the nominees for what BIFA consider to be the most outstanding British independent films of 2023 were revealed.

Overall, 26 British feature films were included, with Raine Allen Miller’s Rye Lane earning 16 nominations and Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper earning 14. Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, starring Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, also earned 14 nominations, with Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex earning 13 in total. Other success stories were Femme (11 nominations) and The End We Start From (9 nominations).

Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall was nominated for Best International Feature Film, as was festival favourite Past Lives, while heavyweights Tilda Swinton, Andrew Scott and Jodie Comer are among those nominated in the Best Lead Performance category.

The nominees for the 2023 British Independent Film Awards are as follows:

Best British Independent Film
All of Us Strangers
Femme
How to Have Sex
Rye Lane
Scrapper

Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger
Anatomy of a Fall
Fallen Leaves
Fremont
Monster
Past Lives

Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema
Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films
Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Lead Performance
Jodie Comer (The End We Start From)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Tia Nomore (Earth Mama)
Nabhaan Rizwan (In Camera)
Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers)
Tilda Swinton (The Eternal Daughter)

Best Supporting Performance
Ritu Arya (Polite Society)
Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers)
Samuel Bottomley (How to Have Sex)
Alexandra Burke (Pretty Red Dress)
Amir El-Masry (In Camera)
Clair Foy (All of Us Strangers)
Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers)
Alia Shawkat (Drift)
Shaun Thomas (How to Have Sex)
Katherine Waterston (The End We Start From)

Best Joint Lead Performance
Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson (Scrapper)
David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane)
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay (Femme)

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film
Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Savanah Leaf (Earth Mama)
Holly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios
Theo Barrowclough (Scrapper)
Georgia Goggin (Pretty Red Dress)
Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo (Rye Lane)
Gannesh Rajah (If the Streets Were on Fire)
Chi Thai (Raging Grace)

Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix
Le’Shantey Bonsu (Girl)
Lola Campbell (Scrapper)
Priya Kansara (Polite Society)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane)

Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4
Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Nida Manzoor (Polite Society)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
Chloe Abrahams (The Taste of Mango)
Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn (Another Baby)
Ella Glendining (Is There Anybody Out There?)
Alice Russell (If the Streets Were on Fire)
Christopher Sharp (Bobi Wine: The People’s President)

The Raindance Maverick Award
If the Streets Were on Fire
Is There Anybody Out There?
Name Me Lawand
Raging Grace
Red Herring

Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission Film
Another Body
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
If the Streets Were on Fire
Lyra
Occupied City

Best British Short Film
Christopher At Sea
Festival of Slaps
Lions
Muna
The Talent

Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight 
Shaheen Baig (Scrapper)
Kharmel Cochrane (Rye Lane)
Kahleen Crawford (All of Us Strangers)
Isabella Odoffin (How to Have Sex)
Salome Oggenfuss, Geraldine Barón, Abby Harri (Earth Mama)

Best Cinematography sponsored by Harbor & Kodak
Olan Collardy (Rye Lane)
Suzie Lavelle (The End We Start From)
Molly Manning Walker (Scrapper)
Jamie D. Ramsay (All of Us Strangers)
James Rhodes (Femme)

Best Costume Design
George Buxton (How to Have Sex)
Oliver Cronk (Scrapper)
Buki Ebiesuwa (Femme)
Cynthia Lawrence-John (Rye Lane)
PC Williams (The End We Start From)

Best Editing 
Jonathan Alberts (All of Us Strangers)
Victoria Boydell (Rye Lane)
Paul Carlin (Bobi Wine: The People’s President)
Avdhesh Mohla (High & Low – John Galliano)
Arttu Salmi (The End We Start From)

Best Effects
Paddy Eason (Polite Society)
Theodor Flo-Groeneboom (The End We Start From)
Jonathan Gales, Richard Baker (The Kitchen)

Best Music Supervision
Ciara Elwis (Femme)
Connie Farr (All of Us Strangers)
David Fish (Rye Lane)

Best Make-Up & Hair Design sponsored by The Wall Group
Zoe Clare Brown (All of Us Strangers)
Claire Carter (Polite Society)
Marie Deehan (Femme)
Natasha Lawes (How to Have Sex)
Bianca Simone Scott (Rye Lane)

Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group
Adam Janota Bzowski (Femme)
Patrick Jonsson (Scrapper)
Kwes (Rye Lane)
Anna Meredith (The End We Start From)
Ré Olunuga (Girl)

Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword
Laura Ellis Cricks (The End We Start From)
Sarah Finlay (All of Us Strangers)
Elena Muntoni (Scrapper)
Nathan Parker (The Kitchen)
Anna Rhodes (Rye Lane)

Best Sound supported by Halo
Scrapper
How to Have Sex
All of Us Strangers
Enys Men
The End We Start From

Scrapper (2023)
Director: Charlotte Regan
Screenwriter: Charlotte Regan
Starring: Lola Campbell, Harris Dickson, Alin Uzun, Laura Alkman, Ambreen Razia

In the middle of a Venn diagram that has circles for “debut feature”, “written and directed by a woman named Charlotte” and “explores parental trauma through the perspective of a young daughter”, there are two films that have both been released fairly recently: Aftersun and Scrapper. It’s difficult to avoid comparing the two when they have so much in common, especially when they’re both (very) British. But actually, the two films really don’t have much in common beyond those surface-level connections. Where Charlotte Wells gave us an ambiguous masterpiece that saw its parental trauma through both pre and post-facto lenses in Aftersun, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper presents something far more accessible, linear and, in its own way, hopeful.

Georgie (Lola Campbell) is the daughter at the centre of Scrapper’s story. She has had a rough time of it recently with her mother dying, leaving her to live alone under the rouse that a fictional uncle has moved in to take care of her. As a 12-year-old she has now inherited the burdens of being a renter in a single-person household, a pre-teen outcast at school, and, as if she didn’t have enough going wrong in her life, a West Ham fan. When Jason (Harris Dickson) turns up by climbing over her garden fence, things change dramatically. He’s the father who abandoned her, and now he’s here to challenge the new identities that she has had to make for herself. She is no longer solely responsible for paying rent, she has someone in her corner when she needs it, and she now knows who bought her the West Ham shirt that she wears every day.

The problem for Georgie is that none of the things that Jason has turned up promising to be is her mum. To make it worse, this is the person who walked out on the two of them before Georgie even had a chance to remember who he was, so of course she’s sceptical of letting him in. Both literally and figuratively, as she only accepts that he’s here to stay once he foils her plan to lock him out of the house by breaking back in; something that she likely respects deep down, seeing as she has been getting by for the last however long by stealing and selling bikes in the local area. But it does give her cause for concern – who is Jason, what does he do, and why is he here now?

What ensues is a game of cat and mouse that subverts our expectations again and again. Regan is such a skilful writer that she has crafted entirely real personalities for both Georgie and Jason in a swift 84-minute runtime, and as such it’s so easy to slip into Georgie’s cynicism towards him. Perhaps the nicest example is when Georgie is driven to search through Jason’s belongings to find out more about him, and we’re given multiple Chekhov’s Guns to look out for. Whether they all go off or not is really up to us to decide, but it creates a feeling that we’re coming to Georgie’s conclusions about Jason at the same time as she is.

Outside of the two central characters, there are some stranger approaches to storytelling. A theme that runs all the way through Scrapper is the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. Of course, Georgie initially rejects that in favour of raising herself, but we’re given multiple snippets of ‘The Office’-style pseudo-documentary inserts where characters speak directly to a camera about what they think of Georgie. The woman she sells her stolen bikes to, a popular girl from school, and the social services officers who’ve bought her story about a fake uncle, are all featured. They’re largely played for quick laughs though, in a film that is otherwise thought-provoking and heartbreaking. Instead of providing much-needed humour amongst a narrative that would be otherwise difficult to take emotionally (which seems to be at least part of the idea behind them), these inserts simply become distracting.

There’s enough substance in Scrapper that its flaws aren’t enough to supersede its qualities. Charlotte Regan’s debut feature knows the rules of its genres well enough that Scrapper is able to break them in consistently thoughtful ways, even if some might work better than others. That’s what elevates this to being such a worthwhile take on a story that isn’t often told.

Score: 17/24

Recommended for you: 100 Unmissable BBC Films

Written by Rob Jones

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