Barbara is a 2012 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold. The film competed at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012, where Petzold won the Silver Bear for Best Director. The film was selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.
The Imposter is a 2012 documentary film about the 1997 case of the French confidence man Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated Nicholas Barclay, a Texas boy who had disappeared at the age of 13 in 1994.
Kon-Tiki is a 2012 Norwegian historical drama film about the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition. It is directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. The role of Thor Heyerdahl is played by Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen. The film has been selected as the Norwegian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, making the January shortlist. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards.
Holy Motors is a 2012 French fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax, starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays a man who travels between multiple parallel lives. It is Carax's first feature film since 1999. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (in Chinese 艾未未：道歉你妹; official title in Taiwan 艾未未：草泥馬) is a 2012 documentary film about Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, directed by American filmmaker Alison Klayman. Director Klayman received a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for the film, which also opened the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto on 26 April 2012.
Looper is a 2012 American science fiction action film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt. In Looper, time travel is invented by the year 2074 and, though immediately outlawed, is used by criminal organizations to send those they want killed into the past where they are killed by "loopers", assassins paid with silver bars strapped to their targets. Joe, a looper, encounters himself when his older self is sent back in time to be killed.
Unfortunately the bulk of my recent viewings were technically released in 2011, so that excludes several more titles that I'd have loved to add. Also haven't yet seen Amour, Life of Pi or Argo.
