In our December series, members of the department reflect on the books, films, TV, music, art, exhibitions and experiences that shaped their year. Today, we ask colleagues that their favourite film or TV show was this year.

Jeremy Burchardt

Yasujiro Ozu – Late Spring (1949). Exceptional depth of humanity while questioning both Japanese cultural traditions and the postwar coca-cola imperialism replacing them.

Matt Worley

Zone of Interest I thought was the best – staring into the abyss (and all that). The faux-ideal with the horror happening just off screen. I liked All of us Strangers too … And went to a Werner Herzog season, which meant Aguirre, Nosferatu and Kasper Hauser: three brilliant films (Oh and I liked The Joker 2, even if no-one else did).

I tend to hate TV shows more than like them, though. The Menendez drama and documentary on Netflix was grimly absorbing. I tend to watch repeats of The Sweeney to be honest…

Abbie Tibbott

The First Omen – anything paranormal that intersects with religion always reels me in, and I felt it was a great prequel to the original series. A very close runner up would be Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a silly sequel that just made me laugh to be honest, and sometimes that’s all you need!

The show of the year for me was Fallout on Amazon Prime. As a gamer, it was cool to see how the franchise was brought to life for a new audience.

Ben Bland

I’d probably have to say the incredible new documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat by the Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez. It blends the story of jazz and the Black internationalist struggle with the tale of American imperialism and the dark side of decolonialisation – notably the assassination of Patrice Lumbumba – during the Cold War. It’s formally innovative, historically informative, and a gripping thriller all at the same time. Honourable mentions to Mati Diop’s Dahomey (another incredible documentary concerned with history and the colonial past), George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (just as visually spectacular and, well, mad as the Fury Road), Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap (incredible fun), and Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun (featuring a typically stunning Saoirse Ronan performance).

All I’ve really done in terms of TV is rewatch old episodes of The Wire, Parks & Recreation, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

David Stack

I am going to swerve slightly in answering this one and mention not a film I have seen this year but ideas for films in 1919 that I read about in the records of the Eugenics Society, held at the Wellcome Collection. The file (SA/EUG/D.68) contains plot outlines for propaganda films on eugenics with titles such as ‘Vasectomy’, ‘Crippled’, and ‘The Twins’. There is even a seasonal tale, entitled ‘A Peep into the Future: A Christmas Story’, in which: ‘A beautiful and healthy young girl, but of poor parentage, has offers of marriage. A good Fairy gives her an opportunity of seeing what would occur in each case.’

As for TV, Ludwig was very watchable.

Rachel Foxley

I loved All of Us Strangers – a very personal take on memory, change, and history in one person’s life. Andrew Scott plays an isolated queer man trying to write a screenplay based on his childhood. Going back to his childhood home for inspiration (the director Andrew Haigh shot these scenes in his own actual childhood home in Croydon), Adam finds his long-dead parents apparently still living there, and – as an adult – has the conversations with them – still the age they were in his childhood – that he couldn’t have as a gay child in the 1980s. I found these scenes impossibly moving, as Adam tries to reassure his mother (Claire Foy) that the world has moved on and his life is not as grim as she thinks it must be, even as he wrestles with his lonely life and we see him connecting – but again, reality and imagination blend – with his troubled neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). This is not a film to watch if you’re feeling down as it is desperately sad – in fact my partner burst into tears in Tesco’s when we popped in for a few things on the way home after seeing it! But if you’re feeling strong it’s very beautiful – the dreamlike plot shouldn’t work, but it really does.

Jacqui Turner

I am not a big film fan either so I didn’t see a single one at the cinema!

TV is more me.  I love nothing more than a box set or a series: Julia with Sarah Lancashire as Julia Childs, loved the period setting. Somebody Somewhere, I am so invested in the characters that I can’t wait to get back to it. I am currently part way though Mr Loverman, based on Bernadine Evaristo’s novel and I have Baby Reindeer still waiting to go!

Liz Barnes

I saw Levan Akin’s Crossing at the Biscuit Factory (a cracking local cinema) in the summer and loved it. It’s a beautiful film that explores an elderly Georgian woman’s search for her niece, a trans woman who moved to Istanbul after her family rejected her. It’s a moving story about grief, connection, and acceptance that was such a tonic to some of the other frankly terrible things I’ve watched this year (not naming names…). I also rewatched Shrek which is of course a timeless classic.

I don’t watch a huge amount of telly, but I loved The Traitors and I’m geared up for the next series in January. Rivals was a ton of fun and precisely what was needed towards the end of the year – just silly nonsense with fabulous power shoulders.

Rebecca Rist

Conclave (2024). Excellent acting, beautiful cinematography, and fun (if highly unlikely) plot. Fiennes on fine form. The process of ballot voting in papal conclaves entertainingly explained!

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Join us next week for our music picks and the best of the rest!