In any case, I'm glad to be with you all and grateful for any opportunity to pore over this medium that we love and will continue to love, stubbornly, to its final breath. As will, I'm sure, Steven Soderbergh, who, for all his oft-expressed pessimism about the industry, continues to churn out work that feels like a paragon of wit, elegance, and the kind of all-around savoir faire that we used to associate with Hollywood on a more regular basis.
Great cinema has never died, but there's something particularly heartening about the fact that it survived 2025. Looking back at this turbulent year, rife with the usual industry concerns over the viability of the theatrical experience, young people's slipping attention spans, and Hollywood's overreliance on franchises, unearths a diverse crop of gems. Many of my favorite films were major studio releases-blockbusters, even-that challenged audiences in innovative, surprising ways.