With scenes of harrowing violence, the film often feels totally unsafe: no adult’s motives are beyond reproach. In true Andrea Arnold style, though, it’s also a life-enhancing tale that soars with unexpected grace, optimism and faith in humanity.

It might be brutally upsetting at times, but Haigh’s film disarms you with its tenderness – leaving you with something much more profound to say about the connections we make and break along the way.

Crafting a thriller that is tense and taut, Álvarez truly understands what makes an Alien movie breathe, while also expanding on the mythology of the series.

Bruce Robinson’s tale of two struggling thesps who go on holiday by mistake is one of the greatest films ever made.

Parasite is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Uncut Gems is an anxiety-inducing heart-attack of a movie that grabs its audience by the throat and shakes until there’s no breath left.

If it sounds like Boyle and Garland have been smoking some super-strength Cali weed in the writers’ room, you’ve heard nothing yet.

Opus is yet another priceless gift from a once-in-a-lifetime talent – and a reminder of what we’ve lost. Goodbye maestro – and thank you.

Packed with heart, smarts, jaw-dropping effects and an exquisite ensemble cast (shout out to Harry Hadden-Paton’s nerdy British journalist as comic relief), Twisters will have you singing the praises of the multiplex until the cows come home.

You won’t catch a more satisfying horror film this year. Seek it out.

Inside the Manosphere is a meta masterpiece that tackles the algorithmic poison being served to young men, but also says so much about the battle between new and old media, as well as the toxic battleground of social platforms, contemporary conspiracy theories and the parasocial relationships that make some influencers rich.

Not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb, Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking. For years, Nolan has been perfecting the art of the serious blockbuster – crafting smart, finely-tuned multiplex epics that demand attention; that can’t be watched anywhere other than in a cinema, uninterrupted, without distractions. But this, somehow, feels bigger.

Whether they return again or not remains to be seen. But even if they don’t, this was one hell of a final fling.

It’s a heartbreaking story and all the more brutal for its surface-level simplicity.

Heart-wrenching, humane and humble, this is something very, very special indeed.

A three hour and thirty minute biopic about art, history, money, sex, trauma and concrete, it’s heavyweight in every sense: a monument to its own greatness that stands a good distance from anything else you’re likely to see at the cinema this year.

Just like their insane live shows and debut album ‘Fine Art’, it’s one hell of a laugh. However it’s also full of heart; telling a real working class story as a call for unity without punching down or patronising.

Like many of Leigh’s best films, it prioritises authenticity and recognisable glimpses of emotion over a splashy narrative arc. That may make it frustrating for some viewers, but there’s no doubt that Leigh and his cast have created a sad, captivating, fascinating slice of everyday life.

Different by name and different by nature, A Different Man is one of the most original films of the year. Not since the days of Charlie Kaufman, with his brilliant scripts for meta-movies Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Synecdoche, New York, has there been anything this bonkers.

Hamaguchi’s literary and densely layered drama moves slowly through its runtime, but stick with it and Drive My Car rewards patience like almost nothing else.

It’s horrifying in the moment and gnawingly haunting when you process it fully: a sickening satire of society’s obsession with youth and beauty.

A deeply sad movie about thwarted love, The History of Sound is essential viewing.

It’s a tribute to the joy, hope and love that pop culture and a shared devotion to it can bring. It’s proof that stanning a boyband can be a life-changing force for good, rather than the frivolous waste of time some would make it out to be.

Less a horror than an occasionally bloodthirsty character portrait, West dances us through the mind of a serial killer with a visual flair that soars on the big screen.

It’s not all wide-eyed insight and romantic misery though. Past Lives is also very, very funny.

Right People, Wrong Place might be a document of an album, allowing RM to show the contrast between this experience and the more polished, slick workings of BTS. But it also feels like a subtle chronicle of friendship forged through music.

Lydia Tár isn’t a real person, but this riveting film about the corrupting effects of power and privilege will make you think she is. That’s partly because writer-director Todd Field has created a terrifyingly believable character and world that she presides over.

Brilliant and unmissable.