for example, Talk To Me (2022) first premiered at the Adelaide film festival in October 2022 and therefore it’s considered a 2022 film, even though it didn’t get a wide release until 2023. It was one of my favorite movies of last year but you won’t see it on many “best of” lists for 2023 because it’s technically from 2022. but you won’t see it on any lists from 2022 either because practically nobody saw it that year except a few Australians

the same thing is now happening with Strange Darling (2023) which was just recently released in theaters, well into 2024

this happens with a lot of smaller “indie” type movies because it takes time to get distribution after hitting the festival circuit

IMO the official release year for a movie should be based on when normal people can see it and not just a couple hundred film bros and industry people who attended some festival