The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006 with the release of its 7th film, Cars.
Evaluation of the year
Philip French of The Guardian described 2006 as "an outstanding year for British cinema". He went on to emphasize, "Six of our well-established directors have made highly individual films of real distinction: Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, Stephen Frears's The Queen, Paul Greengrass's United 93 and Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys. Two young directors made confident debuts, both offering a jaundiced view of contemporary Britain: Andrea Arnold's Red Road and Paul Andrew Williams's London to Brighton. In addition the gifted Mexican Alfonso Cuaron came here to make the dystopian thriller Children of Men." He also stated, "In the (United) States, M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense fame fell flat on his over-confident face with Lady in the Water, but Martin Scorsese's The Departed was his best for years, and he was with Jack Nicholson at last. Apart from that, the best American films were political (Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, The New World) or very personal (Little Miss Sunshine, Little Children, The Squid and the Whale). Sadly, Oliver Stone's 9/11 picture World Trade Center was neither. Asian cinema produced a string of elegant thrillers and horror flicks. The best Eastern European movie was The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a devastating look at the Romania Ceausescu left behind him. Most of the best Western European films came from France, with Michael Haneke's Caché, proving the most widely discussed art-house puzzle picture since Last Year at Marienbad. The award of 18 certificates by the BBFC to Shortbus and Destricted has brought close the abolition of censorship, but not of classification, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain was a real step forward for the representation of homosexuals in mainstream cinema, though Gore Vidal claims that there's a gay subtext to every western. However, the year's most extraordinary event, or conjunction, was the almost simultaneous release of Tommy Lee Jones's directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Who would have predicted in the Sixties, when they were roommates at Harvard and used by Erich Segal as joint models for Oliver Barrett IV in Love Story, that both Jones and Gore would end up as movie stars - if, in Gore's case, accidentally and temporarily?"
Highest-grossing films
The top 10 films released in 2006 by worldwide gross are as follows:
Box office records
Sony Pictures grossed more than $3 billion in annual worldwide box office revenue for the first time in its history.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest became the third film in cinema history to gross over $1 billion and is the 35th highest-grossing film of all time.
Events
Awards
2006 films
By country/region
List of American films of 2006
List of Argentine films of 2006
List of Australian films of 2006
List of Bangladeshi films of 2006
List of Bengali films of 2006
List of Bollywood films of 2006
List of Brazilian films of 2006
List of British films of 2006
List of French films of 2006
List of Hong Kong films of 2006
List of Italian films of 2006
List of Japanese films of 2006
List of Kannada films of 2006
List of Malayalam films of 2006
List of Mexican films of 2006
List of Pakistani films of 2006
List of Russian films of 2006
List of South Korean films of 2006
List of Spanish films of 2006
List of Tamil films of 2006
List of Telugu films of 2006
By genre/medium
List of action films of 2006
List of animated feature films of 2006
List of avant-garde films of 2006
List of crime films of 2006
List of comedy films of 2006
List of drama films of 2006
List of horror films of 2006
List of science fiction films of 2006
List of thriller films of 2006
Births
March 1 - Julian Grey, American actor
April 20 - Kailia Posey, American actress and reality television show contestant (died 2022)
April 22 - Nathanael Saleh, English actor
April 28 - Kiawentiio, Canadian-American actress
April 29 - Xochitl Gomez, American actress
May 6 - Aryan Simhadri, American actor
May 22 - Mattea Conforti, American actress
June 25 – Mckenna Grace, American actress
June 29 - Sam Lavagnino, American voice actor and YouTuber