We take a look at which movies made their mark at the international film festivals in 2019.
ADVERTISEMENT2019 was a thrilling year for film, with Hollywood hit The Joker being awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Todd Phillips, it became one of the most popular films of the year, taking over $1 billion at the box office.
The Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival was won by Nadav Lapid, for his Israeli-French drama Synonyms, a story about a young man escaping his life in Israel to Paris.
And at Cannes, the Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, who became the first Korean to win the award.
The year also saw the death of legendary French director Agnès Varda, who won an honorary Oscar last November at 89 for her documentary "Faces Places".
She won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival and a host of other awards for her 1985 film "Vagabond", which retraced the life of a homeless woman who was found frozen to death in a ditch.