Nearly a decade after announcing his retirement, celebrated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli released “The Boy and the Heron” in Japan in July 2023 and in the United States in Dec. 2023. The film was written and directed by Miyazaki, who earned his second Oscar after “The Boy and the Heron” won the 2023 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

2023 was an influential year for film when it came to blockbuster filmmaking and art cinema. At the Oscars, we saw the best lineup of nominations in years. Although the selected cultural canon of great cinematic work from the past year is diverse in terms of social inclusivity as well as cinematic mode, there are always films that don’t quite break through to the zeitgeist.