ScreenAnarchy's Best of 2012: Looking Forward to 2013

In 2012, the ScreenAnarchy family has grown even more global. With a line-up of contributors that stretches right around the planet, we've had the means to see a huge proportion of the new films that have emerged in the past 12 months from some of the world's most far-flung regions - and we want to tell you all about them! Whether they be the ones we love, the ones we hate, or all those that fall somewhere in between, we want to share. 

So enjoy ScreenAnarchy's Look Forward to 2013!

Todd Brown - Founder and editor

Based on the first block of images, Vietnamese action flick Cho Lon is WAY up on my list. As is Killers by the Mo Brothers and The Legend Of Beaver Dam director Jerome Sable's debut feature Stage Fright. A horror musical starring Meat Loaf! What's not to love!?!

Ryland Aldrich - Festivals Editor

Here are five great movies I've already seen that will be released in 2013: The Place Beyond the Pines, Filly Brown, It's A Disaster, Bring Me The Head of the Machine Gun Woman (my review), and Frances Ha (my review).

Joshua Chaplinsky - Contributing Writer

Inside Llewyn Davis

Where the hell is the Coen's film about a folksy troubadour in New York during the swingin' 60s? Initially IMDB reported it was being stillborn in the first-quarter doldrums of 2013, which made no sense to me. This thing screams Oscar bait. More recently, I read it has received an MPAA rating of "R" but still lacks a distributor, which makes even less sense to me. Regardless, I can't wait for new Co-Bros.

Brian Clark - European Editor

Release schedules are strange in France, so I suppose I'm looking forward to seeing all of the Christmas prestige movies that haven't opened here. These include: The Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, and Django: Unchained.

Otherwise, I'm mostly waiting for both parts of Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac. Probably, anyone with a passing knowledge of European film who hears the name Lars Von Trier associated with the title Nymphomaniac has a pretty good idea of whether or not they want to see the film. Personally, between Antichrist and Melancholia, I think old Lars is totally at the top of his game right now. Bring on the two-part, hardcore sexual odyssey!

Pierce Conran - Contributing Writer

Without a doubt, the movie I've been most excited about is Bong Joon-ho's Snow Piercer. Though it is Korean, this upcoming project was based on a French graphic novel, shot in the Barrandov studios in Prague, and features an international cast with the likes of Chris Evans, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, and Song Kang-ho. To boot, this big-budget epic sci-fi is produced by Park Chan-wook. Bong can do no wrong in my eyes and I'm fascinated to see what he can do on a large scale. Though footage has yet to emerge I have been lucky enough to see a few stills from the film and they have only added to my excitement. Given my close attachment to Korean Cinema I'm also eager to see if this film can break out and become an international hit. While many Korean films have met with some success in recent years it's still by and large a domestic industry. Perhaps Bong's latest will change its fortunes overseas.

Jason Gorber - Contributing Writer

I'm looking forward tremendously to the Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis, by which time I'll hopefully be able to type "Llewyn" without tripping on it. I'm also pretty intrigued by Spike Lee's take on Oldboy, as well as thinking that The Lone Ranger and Pacific Rim have at least a decent chance of being amazing.

Peter Gutiérrez - Contributing Writer

Movies that I'm most eagerly anticipating in 2013? Not to be a curmudgeon (although I am one, consistently), but why does this section strike me as one that, next year, I can simply cut-and-paste and perhaps tweak a bit if I need some copy about the most disappointing releases of 2013? Yeah, the dubious skill of expectations-management is one that, I've noticed, all cinephiles become more adept at over time. They have to.

The safe bet, then, would be to pick some titan of World Cinema, or maybe a filmmaker poised to assume that status (a Refn, a del Toro), and take my chances. But I'm going to go a lot more mainstream, a lot more risky in a way, and opt for Star Trek Into Darkness from J.J. Abrams. This, despite the fact that I had mixed feelings about the last film he directed, Super 8. Also, let's please forget the many times in recent years where I've unexpectedly admired an initial entry in a cycle only to groan and thrash about on the floor when its successor blindsided me with suckiness (think Iron Man 2 and Quantum of Solace). So, yeah, I'm setting myself up for fan-ish heartbreak, but I figure if I'm going to fail, I might as well fail spectacularly.

So much for the optimist in me. The cynic in me says that Gavin Hood's Ender's Game and Spike Lee's Oldboy can't possibly be done right for numerous reasons... but maybe that just means the copy I'm now pre-writing for this time next year involves how pleasantly surprised I was by these films. Oh, and before I forget, of course I'm also looking forward to Terence Malick's latest - Man of Steel.

Kurt Halfyard - Contributing Writer

While this year gave us Prometheus, Cloud Atlas, and Looper, next year promises to be a total flood of sci-fi. All of the science fiction movies currently in the pipeline: Upstream Color, Ender's Game, After Earth, Elysium, Under the Skin, Gravity, Oblivion, Pacific Rim, The Purge and The Prototype.

J Hurtado - Contributing Writer

Pacific Rim. Kaiju vs. giant robots brings out the little kid in me and guarantees a great time at the movies with my son, who happens to love Kaiju (seriously, check out his review of Godzilla Vs Biollante) and giant robots. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to upcoming films, but this one has it.

James Marsh - Asian Editor

The Grandmaster (by the time you read this I may even have seen it!), Man of Steel (Snyder's Sucker Punch trailer wowed me, then the film came out and was ghastly. Let's hope he hasn't simply repeated that trick here), Elysium, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained (Hong Kong traditionally releases Awards' bait movies during January and February), The Wolf of Wall Street (the Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration is going great guns, and with the addition of McConaughey, I only see it getting better), Pacific Rim, Godzilla (no explanation required for these two), Iron Man 3 (if only to see how a true Hollywood-China co-production fares).

Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg - Contributor

Most of what I end up wanting to see, I find in festival guides when attending, so I don't often know much ahead of time. I'll see almost anything that's sci-fi, or anything from Spain. But the following choices should be for obvious reasons (great director/cast/pedigree, interesting premise, etc.)

Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo): Vigalondo is quickly establishing himself as a great disseminator of contemporary information culture, and this film looks to round out his eclectic trilogy.
Grand Piano (Eugenio Mira): With an almost real-time setting, and a fantastic story set around a music piece, Mira's third feature looks to be the best kind of thinking audience's taut thriller.
Star Trek: Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams): It's Star Trek.
I'm So Excited (Pedro Almodovar): After some disappointments in the early 2000s, Almodovar redeemed himself with The Skin I Live In, and looks to do so again with his new work.
Black Rock (Katie Aselton): Mark Duplass has been impressing me more and more, and I like to see more women directors tackle the horror genre.
Oldboy (Spike Lee): If any one American director can do a great remake of such an amazing Korean film, it's Lee.
The World's End (Edgar Wright): Wright, Pegg & Frost, together again.
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow): One of America's great auteurs is only finally getting the recognition she's deserved for decades, and her perspective on war in The Hurt Locker lends itself well to this story.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence): The books are fantastic, and I thought the first film was a great adaptation with a stellar cast.

Ben Umstead - East Coast Editor

While Before Midnight sounds like the title for a paperback thriller, was there any other route Richard Linklater could take for his third check-in with star-crossed lovers Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy)? Probably not, and who am I to complain since Before Sunrise and Before Sunset hold the number five spot in my all-time top ten favorite films (which is, of course, a top 11). And as if we didn't have enough intelligent sci-fi, in March there's Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, which has already turned my brain to jelly with its teasers. Then in August, Neil Blomkamp's Elysium, and somewhere in there is Kristina Buozyte's Vanishing Waves, which ScreenAnarchy has already been raving about, so... 

And then we have Nina Hoss and Lars Rudoplh starring in Thomas Arslan's western Gold. Oh, and I can't forget Nacho Vigalondo's Open Windows. Of course the best things to look forward to in a new year of film are all the left-field surprises that one will encounter. No doubt my 2013 top ten will be marked with films that I've yet to hear of.

Ard Vijn - Contributing Writer

Being a big fan of anime and Evangelion in particular, I'm looking forward very much to seeing Anno Hideaki's Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. Word of mouth will not stop me here: I fully expect the film to both delight and lose me at the same time (it wouldn't really be Evangelion otherwise).

But what I'm looking forward to even more: after his last two stellar films, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, I hope to catch Hosoda Mamoru's newest, Wolf Children.

Also, because I visited the set I can not wait to see Frankenstein's Army. That will happen in a few weeks and hopefully the film will deliver on the promise of the terrific designs I saw.

Among the big films it's Pacific Rim I'm dearly anticipating. For the rest I have yet to be swept up in the anticipation, although I am curious about new films by Stephen Chow, Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho.