THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (CINEMA IN 2012)

It's been a pretty decent year for cinema.

2012 began with high hopes for Michel Hazanavicius' silent movie, 'The Artist' which became a runaway success at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards.

The film very much lived up to its hype, thanks to delightful star making performances from Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo and a dog called Uggie.

But 2012 also got off to a riproaring start with Steven Spielberg's beautifully shot but harrowing First World War drama 'War Horse' and Steve McQueen's challenging addiction drama, 'Shame' which featured performances from Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan that were criminally overlooked during the Oscar nominations.

Despite an Oscar winning, uncanny impersonation of Margaret Thatcher by Meryl Streep, 'The Iron Lady' was a crashing disappointment, as was David Fincher's rather wooden adaptation of Steig Larsson's 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'.

But for every mess like Madonna's 'W.E.', there was a delightful drama like Alexander Payne's Hawaiian comedy 'The Descendants' starring George Clooney.

By the time the blockbuster season arrived, we were overwhelmed by sophisticated digital, broadcast and print marketing campaigns around Ridley Scott's 'Alien' prequel, 'Prometheus' and Christopher Nolan's final film of his Batman trilogy, 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

'Prometheus' raised the bar in marketing terms for Hollywood cinema - even if the movie itself fell well below expectations. Even Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day Lewis succumbed to the new age of movie marketing, using social media channels to promote their biopic 'Lincoln'.

Christian Bale hung up his Batsuit amid some stiff superhero competition from Joss Whedon's overrated but phenomenally successful, 'Marvel Avengers Assemble'.

'The Dark Knight Rises' was a thrilling climax to the Batman trilogy and gave us one of the most surprising performances of the year with Anne Hathaway impressing as a morally ambivalent Catwoman.

Meanwhile in the world of espionage, Jeremy Renner fumbled 'The Bourne Legacy' while Daniel Craig made a triumphant return as James Bond in Sam Mendes' 'Skyfall' with the help of Javier Bardem's ice cool villain and Dame Judi Dench's M.

Dench also turned up in one of the most delightful ensemble movies of the year - John Madden's Anglo-Indian culture clash comedy, 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' alongside Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Dev Patel which showed the box office potential of movies aimed at a more mature audience.

On the other end of the age spectrum, Seth MacFarlane's politically incorrect comedy 'Ted', about a Boston man's unhealthy friendship with his childhood teddy bear, took multiplexes by storm with its brash, lewd humour.

As the 'Twilight' series stuttered to a climax, 'The Hunger Games' starring Jennifer Lawrence emerged as a far superior replacement among teenage audiences.

Disney-Pixar's animated movie, 'Brave' may have given even younger cinemagoers a feisty Highland heroine but it was upstaged by the enjoyable 'A Monster In Paris' and, rather unexpectedly, by 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted'.

Irish cinema also had much to celebrate - particularly north of the border with Terry and Oorlagh George's delightful 'The Shore' picking up the Academy Award for Best Short Film. 

George returned to the Belfast Film Festival with an enjoyable comedy heist movie, 'Whole Lotta Sole', while Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn's Terri Hooley biopic 'Good Vibrations' picked up rave reviews on the film festival circuit and also two enthusiastic champions along the way in the shape of director, Ron Howard and movie critic, Mark Kermode.

James Marsh turned up with a gripping Troubles thriller 'Shadow Dancer' which boasted top notch performances from Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot and Brid Brennan in an adaptation of the Tom Bradby novel.

Lenny Abrahamson also made waves with his third feature, 'What Richard Did' which was inspired by the horrific Club Annabel murder of Brian Murphy in Dublin.

As the year drew to a close, film buffs' minds started to switch to next year's Oscar battle.

Wes Anderson's charming 'Moonrise Kingdom' was first out of the blocks, followed by Joe Wright's sumptuous adaptation of 'Anna Karenina' and David O Russell's 'Silver Linings Playbook' which featured Robert de Niro's first decent performance in years and a surprisingly good turn from Bradley Cooper.

Paul Thomas Anderson's religious cult epic 'The Master' impressed many critics but failed to draw audiences.

On the other hand, Ben Affleck's Iran hostage crisis drama, 'Argo' drew audiences and knocked critics off their seats with its tense plot. The film cemented Affleck's mounting reputation as heir apparent to Clint Eastwood's title of accomplished actor-director.

Ang Lee delivered the best 3D movie since Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' with 'The Life of Pi' and it could well scoop a lot of technical awards next year.

Unusually at this stage, however, the Oscars appear to be anyone's to grab with Kathryn Bigelow's hunt for Osama Bin Laden drama 'Zero Dark Thirty', Spielberg's 'Lincoln', Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' and Tom Hooper's 'Les Miserables' all in the hunt while we wait for them to hit our screens on this side of the Atlantic.

McG may have come up with the most smug movie of the year, 'This Means War' but there was worse to come in the form of the animated 'Hotel Transylvania' and the appallingly lame British Festive movie, 'Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger'.

But let's not dwell on the dross and rather focus on the cream of this year's cinema.

Two films, in particular, stand out in 2012. 

Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winning 'Amour' was a stunning meditation on what love really means in a marriage jolted by illness. 

It featured the two most impressive performances of the year from actors in their eighties, Jean Louis Trintignant and especially Emmanuelle Riva.

It may sound grim but 'Amour' contained more moments of truth and beauty than any other drama on the big screen this year and while a movie about an elderly Parisienne couple struggling to cope with illness may not appeal to most audiences,

Haneke demonstrated why we need realism as much as escapism if cinema is to continue to flourish.

The other film that left an indelible mark is banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmsab's autobiographical documentary, 'This Is Not A Film' which was smuggled out of Tehran in a USB stick hidden in a birthday cake.

Their documentary gave Western audiences a glimpse of what it has been like for directors like Panahi to be kept under house arrest and have their creativity stifled by the Iranian authorities.

'This Is Not A Film' was the most daring film of 2012 - daring politically and daring creatively. 

As Panahi desperately tried to recreate in his living room scenes from the movie he wished he could make, he dared the rest of the world to stand up for artistic expression wherever it is suppressed, knowing the likely consequences of this defiant documentary being smuggled out to the rest of the world. 

Panahi and Mirtahmsab reminded audiences why cinema matters, even in the most oppressive of circumstances, and that is why, in my view, it was the film of 2012.

(This article originally appeared on the EamonnMallie.com website in December 2012)