1

Beautiful, sundrenched romance directed by A Bigger Splash’s Luca Guadagnino, chronicling the affair a teenager (Timothée Chalamet) and a visiting American grad student (Armie Hammer) in 1980s Italy. Read the full review

2

Follow-up to Tangerine by director Sean Baker, here offering a kids’-eye-view of unconventional family life in a motel on the outskirts Walt Disney World. Read the full review

3

Politically inflected horror film featuring Daniel Kaluuya as the African American boyfriend whose trip to meet his Caucasian girlfriend’s family becomes a gruesome nightmare. Read the full review.

4

Magisterial (and possibly final) turn from Daniel Day Lewis as a postwar British fashion designer, directed with customary grandeur by Paul Thomas Anderson. Read the full review.

5



Much-admired directorial debut by Frances Ha’s Greta Gerwig, starring Saoirse Ronan as a high-schooler looking to escape dreary California for the Big Apple. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. Photograph: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock

6

Spielberg’s heavyweight discussion of media ethics and whistleblowing, with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep as Washington Post bigwigs agonising over the publication of the celebrated Pentagon papers. Read the full review

7

Surreal fantasy from Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro, in which lowly lab worker Sally Hawkins befriends and falls for a strange amphibious being kept captive at a military installation. Read the full review

8

Hugely ambitious, wildly atmospheric sequel to Ridley Scott’s influential 1982 sci-fi noir, with Ryan Gosling the cop charged with hunting down rogue replicants. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blade Runner 2049. Photograph: Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

9

Bizarrely and brilliantly conceived “post-horror” film in which car accident victim Casey Affleck haunts his old house (occupied by wife Rooney Mara) wearing a crude white sheet with eyeholes. Read the full review

10



Superbly realised reimagining of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, with Florence Pugh outstanding as the 19th-century wife who falls for a lowly, mixed-race estate worker. Read the full review



11

Extraordinary fever dream of horror and dismay, starring Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Darren Aronofsky, that practically defines the term “critically divisive”. Read the full review

12

Christopher Nolan’s massive-scale take on the Dunkirk evacuation of the “little boats”, filmed with panache and heartfelt national pride. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard and Fionn Whitehead in Dunkirk. Photograph: AP

13

Raw, unsentimental gay romance set in the Yorkshire dales, in which an unhappy farmer’s son begins a relationship with a Romanian seasonal worker. Read the full review

14

Enjoyable pseudo-literary comedy drama from Noah Baumbach, with Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler attempting to shore up their ageing artist dad’s fragile ego. Read the full review

15

Gruesome arthouse horror from French first-timer Julia Ducournau, in which a vet student is subjected to hazing rituals which repel then fascinate her with flesh. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Garance Marillier in Raw Photograph: Allstar/UIP

16

Robert Pattinson shows off his indie chops as a New York street hustler in this thrillride of a 70s-referencing crime yarn from the Safdie brothers. Read the full review

17

Mysterious, beautifully-shot film from French director Katell Quillévéré, about a mosaic of lives connected and affected by an organ transplant operation. Read the full review

18

Kristen Stewart is outstanding in her second collaboration with French director Olivier Assayas, playing a fashion industry gofer who thinks she is being haunted. Read the full review

19

Eye-opening, Oscar-nominated documentary from director Raoul Peck, focusing on writer James Baldwin’s role in the 1960s civil rights struggle. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Baldwin, centre, from I Am Not Your Negro

20

Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman star in the latest bizarre fable from Yorgos (The Lobster) Lanthimos, about a heart surgeon who becomes obsessed with a teenage boy. Read the full review

21



Keenly observed, brilliantly performed account of back-scratching and petty corruption in Romania by 4 Months director Cristian Mungiu. Read the full review

22

Interestingly paced account of real-life explorer Percy Fawcett’s obsession with the Amazon jungle, and his quest for the fabled city during the imperial shenanigans of the period. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Lost City of Z Photograph: Allstar/Studiocanal

23

Angry and euphoric account of French activist group ACT UP, campaigning to increase awareness of Aids in a complacent and homophobic 1980s. Read the full review

24

Bleak, heartfelt account by director Dee Rees of racial division and segregation in the immediate postwar years, snapped up by Netflix. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heartfelt … Rob Morgan and Jason Mitchell in Mudbound. Photograph: Allstar/Netflix

25

Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning fable of the benefits labyrinth afflicting the UK’s poorest people, with a superbly authentic performance from Dave Johns at its centre. Read the full review

26

Unexpectedly impressive third instalment in the Apes reboot series, with Andy Serkis’s Caesar facing off against human warmonger Woody Harrelson. Read the full review

27

Frances McDormand gives a towering performance as a mother frustrated by local cops’ inaction over her daughter’s murder. Read the full review

28

Much anticipated Kathryn Bigelow account of the 1967 riots and the gruesome Algiers motel incident that very much chimed with #BlackLivesMatter. Read the full review

29

Long-awaited Danny Boyle-directed sequel to the hit British film, with Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and co mired in male middle age and disillusion. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mired in middle age … Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller in T2 Trainspotting. Photograph: Graeme Hunter Pictures

30

Veteran documentarist Agnès Varda goes on the road with artist/prankster JR, and produces a humane, endearing portrait of French small-town life. Read the full review

31

Sofia Coppola-directed remake of civil war-set yarn, in which injured soldier Colin Farrell finds himself holed up in a girls’ school. Read the full review

32

Swedish director Ruben Ostlund won the Palme d’Or for this coruscating satire on the art world, complete with an already-notorious set piece in which a performance artist pretends to be an ape. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Square. Photograph: MIFF

33

Furrowed-brow finale to the X-Men spinoff series, with Hugh Jackman Wolverine-ing it up for what we assume is the final time. Read the full review

34

Crowd-pleasing surprise hit comedy following a group of African-American women on a raucously fun weekend trip to New Orleans. Read the full review

35

Steven Soderbergh’s return to the big screen, a starry heist comedy in which Adam Driver and Channing Tatum bust Daniel Craig out of jail to help them rob a race track. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adam Driver, Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum in Logan Lucky. Photograph: Allstar/Trans-Radial Pictures

36

Much-liked Edgar Wright pedal-to-the-metal crime caper, in which music-addicted getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) falls for waitress Lily James. Read the full review.

37

Moving, angry documentary from trans film-maker Yance Ford, about the injustice surrounding the death of his brother who was shot in 1992. Read the full review

38

A genuinely cult item that definitely divided the critics. Anne Hathaway plays a messed-up alcoholic who conjures up visions of monsters attacking South Korea. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jason Sudeikis and Anne Hathaway in Colossal. Photograph: Allstar/Voltage Pictures

39

Popular, fun romcom about a cross-ethnic romance that turns to more serious matters when the woman succumbs to a serious illness. Read the full review

40

Entertaining film-about-the-worst-film-ever-made, with brothers James and Dave Franco playing the notorious duo who made the appalling 2006 cult clunker The Room. Read the full review

41

Smart, Trump-anticipating satire with Salma Hayek as a Mexican-born healer who confronts real-estate mogul John Lithgow at a dinner party. Read the full review

42

Extraordinary, gut-wrenching documentary about a group of outsiders who choose to take part in traumatic group therapy sessions with hardened convicts in Folsom prison. Read the full review



43

Terence Davies’s exquisitely designed biopic of American poet Emily Dickinson, whose sedate home life belied her enormous literary talent. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Behind the lines … Cynthia Nixon, left, as Emily Dickinson and Jennifer Ehle as her sister Vinnie in A Quiet Passion. Photograph: Johan Voets/AP

44

Commanding Daphne du Maurier adaptation with Rachel Weisz on top form as a mysterious and manipulative widow with designs on a country estate. Read the full review

45

Humane, sympathetic study set in Brooklyn’s orthodox Jewish community, following a father’s attempts to regain custody of his son after his wife’s death. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A father’s moving quest … Menashe Lustig and Yoel Falkowitz in Menashe. Photograph: Photograp/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

46

A potent drama of marital discord from Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, echoing Arthur Miller’s American classic Death of a Salesman. Read the full review

47

Aubrey Plaza plays the social media stalker of Instagram celeb Elizabeth Olsen in a subtle and surprisingly humane investigation of dysfunctional online adulation. Read the full review

48

Thought-provoking, melancholy sci-fi based on Jordan Harrison’s play, in which Lois Smith’s Marjorie acquires a hologram of her late husband at a much younger age. Read the full review

49

Jake Gyllenhaal pulls out all the stops for a moving drama directed by David Gordon Green, based around the aftermath of the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. Read the full review

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Poker princess … Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in Molly’s Game. Photograph: TIFF

50

The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin turns director for this character study of “poker princess” Molly Bloom, played by Jessica Chastain, with Idris Elba alongside as her lawyer. Read the full review

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