=19. I Am Not Your Negro

Dir. Raoul Peck | Belgium-Switzerland-France-USA Raoul Peck’s fluid documentary uses the timeless anger of James Baldwin to animate his history of the black experience in America, from Hollywood stereotypes to police brutality. 9 votes

“An alarmingly pertinent commentary on modern America.” Anne Billson

Read our review I Am Not Your Negro: race, rage and the American Dream

=19. Lady Bird

Dir. Greta Gerwig | USA Saoirse Ronan gives as good as she gets as the rebel heroine of Greta Gerwig’s first film as solo writer-director: an honest, surprising and screwball-funny coming-of-age portrait that encompasses a snipey mother-daughter relationship and a faltering female friendship. 9 votes

“Lady Bird shows how precarious the life of a young woman without a financial safety net can be. It also makes you want to dye your hair pink.” Isabel Stevens

=19. Let the Sunshine In

Dir. Claire Denis | France In Claire Denis’ low-key rondo, archetypal romantic situations elicit subtle yet surprising transformations in the character of Juliette Binoche’s newly divorced painter as she returns to the romantic fray. 9 votes

“The romantic travails of a middle-aged woman back on the trail of true love after divorce are told fragmentally with an emphasis on love’s destabilising effects.” Nick James

Read our review Let the Sunshine In: Juliette Binoche rings love’s changes

=19. Moonlight

Dir. Barry Jenkins | USA Barry Jenkins’ three-ages portrait of a queer black youth comes bearing a weight of significance, but its nuanced ensemble performances and agile formalism give it a rare beauty and tenderness. 9 votes

“Moonlight’s power is in Barry Jenkins’ perfect judgement; not being afraid of less in its visual stylishness and in how he uses actors. Proof of its great heart: how you watch the young would-be lovers, and yearn for them to reach out for that first kiss.” Samira Ahmed

=19. Mother!

Dir. Darren Aronofsky | USA Brash and bombastic it may be, but the Black Swan director’s latest, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a poet’s wife beset by escalating horrors, has a berserk bravura it might be too easy to mock. 9 votes

“I squirmed under the oppressive weight of almost every minute of Mother! but must admit that it was the most conceptually pure and powerfully cinematic and audacious film experience I had this past year.” Tim Lucas

Read our review Mother!: Darren Aronofsky’s symphony of domestic disquiet

=19. Mudbound

Dir. Dee Rees | USA In Dee Rees’s mythic and superbly acted family saga set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s, two young men return from the front only to find bigotry and poverty tearing their community apart. 9 votes

“If Mudbound is historical prestige drama, it’s among the very finest of its kind. It’s so poignantly considered, willing to humanise even the most appalling attitudes, and not keen on easy answers.” Christina Newland