While Borat ultimately stole the thunder from all, 2006 remained a sombre year on reflection, both in mainstream mediocrity and an ever darkening world view. Everthing from fast food to global warming to deteriorating human relations got a look in, while moral tales in two 9/11 exorcisms and our own mass murder reconstruction in Out of the Blue stood as either moving tributes or grotesque exhumations, depending on your point of view. Lumière’s list making for the year in review mirrored some of these trends, while retaining an undying enthusiasm for film of all other levels. What’s certain is that for every bad movie, there’s a good one waiting in the wings. Sometimes, they take an eternity to reach New Zealand (as indicated in some of our best-of lists). And yet when they’re of the calibre of A History of Violence, they’re more than worth the wait.

Compiling two alternate lists this year, TIM WONG sought the The Best Movie Posters of 2006, and pre-Oscars, picked Ten Actors and Filmmakers deserving of their own gilded awards. The editors and select contributors put forward their Top Ten lists for Lumière’s annual Year in Review: Best of Film, while slightly off the beaten track (as in on The Arts Etc. Reader), SIMON SWEETMAN and BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM collated each their Ten Best Albums of 2006.