Cinema of 1990
Cinema of 1990 opened the decade with a bang, marked by Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. A dizzying, kinetic reimagining of the gangster genre, it stood as both a high point of American cinema and an early signal of the bold, uncompromising filmmaking that would define the 1990s. Hollywood that year also delivered box-office powerhouses like Home Alone and Pretty Woman, shaping pop culture for years to come.
On the festival and awards circuit, 1990 reflected a fascinating cross-section of global cinema. Dances With Wolves swept the Oscars, while Cannes honored David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, cementing his surreal, darkly comic vision on the world stage. Meanwhile, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami gained wider recognition with Close-Up, a hybrid of documentary and fiction that redefined cinematic language.
Beyond the United States and Western Europe, 1990 offered a glimpse into shifting landscapes. In Japan, Takeshi Kitano’s Boiling Point announced a new kind of anarchic, offbeat cinema. Eastern Europe, emerging from the Cold War, began to process social and political upheaval through film. Together, these works made 1990 not just the start of a new decade, but a turning point in global cinema.