Timing is everything. The release of Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider at a time when the world’s attention is turned to the treatment of women in Iran should win it more ticket sales than his previous (and far better) film Border managed in 2019.
I’ve got more women than men in this year’s list. That isn’t anything new in some years, the men dominate the lead roles, and in others like this one, the women do. (What’s not fair is that men routinely have the better supporting roles, year in and year out.) There are some new faces here, too, and that’s always