A review of the 2018 film year

In January 2018, Fatih Akin won the Golden Globe for the best foreign language film with "In the Fade." He is shown here picking up the award with his leading actress, Diane Kruger. The German director's latest production, "The Golden Glove," will be competing at the Berlinale in February 2019.

It was a surprise win for Romanian director Adina Pintilie. The 2018 Berlin film festival's jury, led by German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, selected her work "Touch Me Not" for the top award, the Golden Bear. A controversial decision, as her experimental film combines not only documentary and fiction, but also explicit sex scenes with people with disabilities.

Not as controversial was the decision to pick Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" for the best director award at the Golden Globes and the best film at the Oscars. The Mexican director's nostalgia-driven fantasy had previously won the 2017 Golden Lion in Venice as well.

In the spring, it was German actress Marie Bäumer's turn to celebrate. Thanks to her haunting depiction of cinema legend Romy Schneider in "3 Days in Quiberon," the film was the top winner at the German Film Awards, picking up seven nods, including best film and best leading actress.

The Palme d'Or awarded in Cannes every year in May is seen as the world's top accolade for cinematic works. In 2018, it went to Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda for his film "Shoplifters," a minutely directed family drama exploring the social margins of modern Japanese society.

And finally, after the Bears and the Palmes, the film "Roma" earned the year's third major film award this year. The Golden Lion went to Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron for his black-and-white drama about the difficult life of a nanny in Mexico in the 1970s. The fact that the work was produced by streaming giant Netflix and that its theatrical distribution was rather limited fueled debate.

Directors in many countries cannot work freely. The drama directed by Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been under house arrest since August 2017, served as an important reminder of this fact. While the film was selected to compete at the Cannes film festival, the director was not allowed to accompany it. Beyond politics, "Leto" is one of the major works of the year.

The most successful film at the worldwide box office was once again a product of the Marvel Universe. The superhero blockbuster "Avengers: Infinity War" grossed more than $2 billion worldwide, while "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," the fifth installment in the dinosaur adventure series, came in second. In the US, however, another Marvel movie was even more successful: "Black Panther."

In Germany, children's movies adapted from literary classics remain extremely popular, a trend observed over the past few years. Among them, "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver," directed by Dennis Gansel, was the only domestic production to make it into Germany's top 10 commercially most successful films in 2018, with 1.8 million tickets sold at the box office.

While the Academy Awards are celebrated at the beginning of each year, the European version of the Oscars comes in December. The top winner at the European Film Awards was "Cold War," a love story between a singer and a pianist. The Polish work won in the categories best film, best screenplay, best editing, best direction for Pawel Pawlikowski and best leading actress for Joanna Kulig (photo).

Gender equality and sexual harassment remained major topics in the film industry over the past 12 months, as the debate surrounding #MeToo continues. Many women demand equal opportunities when it comes to film funding. A reputed female German director is Caroline Link ("Nowhere in Africa"), whose new film, "Der Junge muss an die frische Luft" (The Boy Needs Fresh Air), hits cinemas this Christmas.

TV series remain a strong competitor to cinema. International entertainment providers, such as Netflix, Amazon or Sky, as well as public broadcasters, are increasingly producing ambitious series. Public-private co-productions can also be successful, such as the German series "Babylon Berlin," which first aired on Sky and then moved on to public TV channel ARD.