The best films of 2023 proved to be an eclectic and exciting mix of thought provoking cinema. Narratives ranged from genocide, lost loves and rebirth, immigrant experiences, stories pulled from headlines and a small boarding school in New England. The year was rich with directorial vision and personal styles: the unblemished truth by documentarian Frederick Wiseman, lonely science fiction from Andrew Haigh, the exploding imagery of Martin Scorsese, Justine Triet’s moments of tensity, the Bressonian minimalism of Aki Kaurismäki and Jonathan Glazer’s dialectical montage of image and sound.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" was Robbie Robertson's final soundtrack for director Martin Scorsese. The former leader, main composer and lead guitarist of the rock group, The Band, scored the film shortly before his death, and Scorsese dedicated the film to him. "Killers of the Flower Moon" closed with the Osage song, Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People), composed by Osage Nation Tribal Members, Scott George, Kenny Bighorse, and Vann Bighorse. Roberston felt that 'the music of the Osage is the best display of their extraordinary survival. Robertson who is a member of the Cayuga and Mohawk Tribal Nations and part Canadian of Jewish ancestry, was the music producer on over ten earlier Martin Scorsese films. Rest in peace, Robbie. We had wished for more of your music to come.

German actor Franz Rogowski delivered the best performance of 2023 as an egotistical film director who loses control of his own life in Ira Sachs’ Passages. There were many other great performances, which I noted in Traveling Boy Selects Top Films From 2023 and Beyond the Films of 2023.