Another Year
Another Year is a 2010 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, following four seasons in the life of a contented, near-retirement London couple, Tom and Gerri, as their lonelier friends and relatives pass through their home. It premiered in Competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay1 • 2.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Mike Leigh, produced by Georgina Lowe for Thin Man Films with Film41 • 3 |
| Release | Premiered in Competition at Cannes 2010; UK release 5 November 2010; US limited release 29 December 20101 • 4 • 5 |
| Runtime and rating | 129 minutes, PG-131 • 6 |
| Principal cast | Jim Broadbent (Tom), Ruth Sheen (Gerri), Lesley Manville (Mary), Oliver Maltman (Joe), Peter Wight (Ken), David Bradley (Ronnie)7 |
| Awards | Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay; New York Film Critics Circle win for Best Supporting Actress (Lesley Manville)2 |
| Critical scores | Rotten Tomatoes 93% from 170 reviews; Metacritic 81, "Universal Acclaim"8 • 7 |
| Streaming (2026) | US: Howdy Amazon Channel, free with ads on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free and Tubi TV; UK: Channel 4 Plus6 • 9 |
Spoilers
Premise and structure
The film is organized across the four seasons of one calendar year, each chapter titled for the season it depicts. Tom (Jim Broadbent), a geologist, and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), a medical counselor and National Health Service therapist, are a married couple in their sixties who tend an allotment garden and open their home, over meals and drinks, to a circle of people whose lives are less settled1 • 10.
Visitors come and go at different depths. Gerri's depressed patient Janet (Imelda Staunton) appears briefly at the start; the old friend Ken (Peter Wight) visits from the north of England in the summer, masking an unhappy personal life with smoking, drinking and eating; and a winter funeral in Derby introduces Ronnie (David Bradley), Tom's older brother, a quiet, bereaved man10.
Mary is the center of the film's drama. Gerri's recently divorced work colleague Mary (Lesley Manville) receives the film's greatest focus; its central subject is her slow, painful realization of how she fits into the warmth of Tom and Gerri's household.2 A single woman whose husband left her, she hides her loneliness behind wishful thinking, delusions about her age and alcohol, and her interest in the couple's adult son Joe (Oliver Maltman), a lawyer considerably younger than she is, destabilizes the household10 • 8.
At its core, the movie explores the divide between people who are at peace with their lives and those who are not, between individuals whose lives sustain them and individuals whose lives do not, while raising the awkward question of what makes the difference11. Its comedy is the comedy of social embarrassment and self-delusion rather than of situation, and its realism is observational and character-first rather than issue-driven11.
Production
Mike Leigh, the British filmmaker who had won the Palme d'Or for Secrets & Lies in 1996 and the Best Director prize at Cannes for Naked in 1993, returned to Cannes in Competition for the fourth time with this film12. Leigh's working method involves no initial script, only themes and character outlines; actors rehearse for months and develop their characters while giving shape to the storyline12. According to a Sight & Sound interview, on this film Leigh and Lesley Manville spent a large amount of time maturing Mary's condition and accumulating her layers of mostly bad experience13.
The film was greenlit at the beginning of 2009 and completed a year later, which Leigh described as very quick for one of his films14. It received £102,625 for development and £780,000 for production from the UK Film Council15. The production companies included Thin Man Films, Film4, Focus Features and the UK Film Council, and the film is dedicated to the memory of Simon Channing Williams, Leigh's producer since High Hopes in 1988, who died in April 200912 • 7.
The crew carried over Leigh regulars: Dick Pope as cinematographer, Gary Yershon composing the meditative score, Simon Beresford on production design, and Jon Gregory editing1. Jim Broadbent worked with Leigh for the seventh time on the film, and Lesley Manville was Leigh's most frequent actor collaborator16.
Release and reception
Sony Pictures Classics acquired all North American rights in a deal negotiated at Cannes on May 20, 2010, where the film debuted; the company planned a release by the end of the year17. It was released in the UK on 5 November 2010, in France and Belgium on 22 December 2010, in Germany on 27 January 2011, and in Spain on 14 October 2011, where the 133-minute version drew 90,456 admissions and €575,566.444 • 18. The US limited release was Wednesday, December 29, 2010, and DVD and Blu-ray followed on June 7, 20115 • 19.
Critical reception was strongly positive. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 93% from 170 reviews, with a critics' consensus citing strong performances and Leigh's feel for the nuances of everyday life; Metacritic gave it a Metascore of 81 from 36 critic reviews, labeled "Universal Acclaim"8 • 7. Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, called the film "like a long, purifying soak in empathy"20. Individual reviewers were not uniform: the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips wrote that for all its warmth, he did not know if Leigh had ever made a crueler picture, while one Village Voice review was sharply negative7. Manville's closing performance, silent at a dinner table surrounded by a family that is not hers, drew particular attention as one of the most exact non-verbal performances in Leigh's films2.
Awards recognition included the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, a New York Film Critics Circle win for Best Supporting Actress for Manville, an Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film, and European Film Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Composer2 • 7.
Streaming availability
As of late October 2026, in the United States the film streams on Howdy Amazon Channel and free with ads on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free and Tubi TV, and can be rented on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home6. In the United Kingdom it streams on Channel 4 Plus and can be rented on BFI Player9 • 3. It is not currently on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ or Max in any region9. On JustWatch's daily streaming chart it sits near rank 9,000, reflecting the modest audience footprint of a 16-year-old arthouse title6.
References
- ANOTHER YEAR, Festival de Cannes
- Another Year, European Screen
- Another Year (2010), British Film Institute
- Another Year, Cineuropa
- Everything You Need to Know About Another Year Movie (2010), MovieInsider
- Another Year streaming, JustWatch
- Another Year Reviews, Metacritic
- Another Year (2010), Rotten Tomatoes
- Where to watch Another Year (2010), FlickFinder
- Another Year 2010 review, Time Out
- Another Year (2010), Sightlines
- Another Film by Mike Leigh, Festival de Cannes (15 May 2010)
- Another Year, BFI Southbank Programme Notes
- Mike Leigh on "Another Year", Vanity Fair
- Another Year another Cannes for Mike Leigh, Cineuropa
- ANOTHER YEAR final international production notes, Festival de Cannes
- Sony Pictures Classics Acquires All North American Rights to Mike Leigh's Another Year (20 May 2010)
- ANOTHER YEAR, ICAA film catalog
- Another Year Movie Tickets & Showtimes, Fandango
- Another Year critic reviews, Metacritic
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Psychological and social drama films
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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