For one British director to have made a movie named the world over as the year’s best may be regarded as good fortune. For two to do so looks like carefulness. Three, however, suggests a trend. And that only takes us to February. The vicissitudes of awards season mean that some of 2024’s finest films – including the Holocaust psycho-horror The Zone of Interest, the metaphysical love story All of Us Strangers and the wartime Amsterdam documentary Occupied City – were out in the US before the end of 2023, in order to qualify for the Oscars. UK distributors, however,...