You can’t summarize a year of movies in a single list of fewer than a dozen titles. That’s why so many critics cheat, adding their also-rans to their obligatory Top Ten lists. Here are my thoughts, following up on my Top Ten list in Friday’s Washington Examiner, of what else there was to celebrate in the past year of film. Perhaps that’s the biggest surprise — that there was so much to commend. After all, Box Office Mojo announced last January, in previewing 2011, that the year would include more sequels than any before: 27. In 2010, there were only (only!) 19 sequels. That suggests a dearth of creativity in Hollywood. In fact, the films this past year seemed more original than any group released in the last half-decade, at least.

Perhaps Hollywood has gotten stale — but filmmakers are finding inspiration elsewhere. It used to be that a movement came out of a time and place. But 2011 proved — to those who had forgotten — that European and American artists have been influencing each other for years.