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Screen great and country music icon Kris Kristofferson illuminate’s Sam Peckinpah’s western classic.

A pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, Kristofferson left an indelible mark on music and film, with heartfelt songwriting and iconic performances that captured the spirit of a generation. Cast here as infamous outlaw Billy the Kid, he’s up against Pat Garrett (James Coburn), who takes on the role of Sheriff and is tasked with bringing him in. It’s a task made all the more muddied by the pairs shared past. Once good friends, their now paired on opposite sides of the law and forced into a deadly rivalry that will push them both to their limits.

The film remains a western stalwart, featuring a brilliant and a memorable Bob Dylan score, blending counter-culture themes with traditional western motifs. Kristofferson’s portrayal as Billy the Kid is filled with the charisma and confidence of a prime Steve McQueen. But then it has that something else. He’s youthful and playful while simultaneously being cunning, callous and deadly. It’s the type of antihero that audiences technically shouldn’t root for, but can’t help but be drawn to.

Peckinpah's best western is still probably The Wild Bunch, but this is arguably his most personal and personable

Nicholas Hoult is faced with life-changing responsibility in Clint Eastwood’s courtroom mystery thriller.

Clint Eastwood, to put it frankly, is a marvel. At 94, the 4-time Academy Award winner is still releasing films and seemingly intends to do so until he physically can't anymore. And who's to stop him? He's directed two Best Picture winners in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, has directed 41 films, worked with multiple generations of Hollywood's top talent, and is still arguably the most iconic film cowboy to ever grace the silver screen.

Rumoured to be the final film of his legendary career, Juror No. 2 follows family man Justin Kemp who is still reeling after a presumed nighttime road collision with a deer the previous year. Called up to a high-profile murder trial jury, he is suddenly faced with a serious moral dilemma as he questions what really happened that night. Under the watchful eyes of the judge, the courtroom and the district attorney (Toni Collette), he grapples with the choice to use his knowledge to sway the verdict, ultimately deciding whether to convict or free the accused killer.

If it is to be his last, Eastwood bows out with a career-honouring tribute to justice and morality.

A delicious performance as a catty gay theatre critic in 1930s London elevates this Patrick Marber-scripted drama.

Jimmy Erskine (Ian McKellen) is the most feared and famous theatre critic, saving his most savage takedowns for Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), an already unsure leading lady.

As a gay man forever at the mercy of laws that prohibit his very existence, Jimmy is living life on the edge, indulging in sex with strangers while showboating his flamboyance in writing. But when his newspaper’s proprietor dies and his son (Mark Strong) takes over, Jimmy is told to be careful, to avoid falling foul of his new boss by cutting down on the cattiness, and when his job security becomes precarious, he’s forced to turn to Nina for help.

It’s a darkly comic premise, making use of the old cinematic conceit of the critic as some kind of egotist puppet master, with little regard for mere mortal laws and moralities. Despite all this nastiness, the film has a teatime glow of cosy-crime sentimentality which reduces the effect;  McKellen’s glorious star quality and dash make him the only possible casting.

This gorgeously thoughtful animated spectacle from DreamWorks explores life, friendship, the meaning of family and its survival in an unforgiving environment.

Adapted from a bestselling novel, the story follows Robot ROZZUM unit 7134, known as "Roz," who finds herself shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Stranded, she must learn to adapt to her surroundings while gradually forming bonds with the island's animal inhabitants. Along the way, Roz becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling, undergoing a journey of connection and resilience in the face of adversity.

Writer-director Chris Sanders says he took inspiration from Disney animated classics and the works of Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki Miazaki (The Boy and the Heron). There’s no doubting this offers up the best of both those worlds, deep allegorical storytelling alongside terrific world-building, characters you care about and rich visuals that reach out and surround you. And by the time this reaches its emotional and thematic crescendo, only the hardest of hearts won’t be looking for something to help them with their sudden eye leakage. A stunning-looking, heart-warming, crowd-pleasing cross between E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Wall-E and How to Train Your Dragon, this might just be the best animated movie of this, and many a year

Cillian Murphy proves less is more in this expertly crafted drama.

Set during Christmas in 1985, the film follows Bill Furlong, a dedicated father and coal merchant, as he uncovers shocking secrets hidden by the local convents. Faced with the dark realities of Ireland's Magdalene laundries - brutal institutions run by the Roman Catholic Church from the 1820s until 1996 which claimed to rehabilitate "fallen women”, he must also confront some unsettling truths about himself.

Adapted from the prize-winning 2021 book by Claire Keegan, this is a film where so much is left unsaid. Unsettled by his own childhood connections to the laundries, Bill’s pain is evoked in small, telling ways such as shots of him scrubbing his hands of coal dust, as if washing away his perceived sins. Murphy’s is one of several outstanding performances; notably, Emily Watson is on imperious form as the convent’s Mother superior, who has clearly terrified the residents for years.

A restrained, dark and soul-searching story that centres on the cold, biting reality of how difficult and even miraculous it can be to escape poverty

Shuchi Talati's sensitive debut feature focuses on a teenage girl in North India who experiences first love amid clashing with her mother.

Told in English and Hindi, the story is set in the Himalayan foothills of the 1990s where Mira is a star student and head prefect at a strict boarding school. She faces the pressure of enforcing outdated rules that alienate her from classmates, including her close friend Priya. But amidst this tension, Mira finds solace in a tender, secret romance with Sri, whose carefree lifestyle starkly contrasts Mira’s challenges, particularly her relationship with her unconventional mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti).

Talati is brilliant in showcasing the struggles of adolescence, friendship, and familial bonds. She captures the delicate balance between tradition and individuality, highlighting the transformative journey of a young woman striving to find her voice in a restrictive environment. First-time actor Preeti Panigrahi is magnificent as Mira while Kusruti is a force of her own as Anila. The complexities of their mother-daughter relationship and their resistance to the directions that society has pulled them gives this story both heart and soul.

A quiet, composed and moving document of generational girlhood that’s a welcome addition to the coming-of-age genre.

This ran for a year when we first opened, and introduced us to the most feared of audiences. Charles Dance was one of our first year’s guests. Uunforgettably, he would escort and introduce Judi Dench to our stage before the end of 2005.

The interminable waiting on-set, filming somewhere on location, in a library allowed time to browse the shelves, hence he came across this delicious short story.  

After the inevitable, chasing of ‘the money’ and a hundred set-backs, it stubbornly emerged as this small, beautifully finished, independent film. It cleverly transcends the sentimental through its warm sketches of genuine people. In exquisitely judged performances, Dame Judy tries to suppress carnal desires and Dame Maggie tuts in glorious disdain. Their world is simple. Their words are measured, manners perfect and repression absolute. The sun shines and waves pound. It is about a time long lost, where smokey pubs were the domain of ruddy faced men and policemen tapped their helmets and clipped cheeky twerps around the ear.

Once more we look forward (with now minor trepidation) to the patter of sensible shoes.

It is perfect still, for a Rex July in 2018.  Come, see how many faces you recognise. Lose yourself in the faces and watch out for the, then hardly-knowns: Toby Jones and Daniel Bruhl.

Mark Cousins’ tender rumination on artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

A unique and captivating look at the life of the Scottish artist, this personal documentary delves into her work, journals, and photos to both carve her spot as among the era’s foremost artists and to get inside her mind.

Cousins takes us from cradle to grave, retracing Barns-Graham’s origins in St. Andrews, Scotland, to her life-changing visit to the Grindelwald Glaciers which informed her bending, abstract landscapes. He attributes her unique point of view to her synesthesia, and he often returns to her journal entries. The visual presentation of Barns-Graham’s works has a dynamic energy, presented through simple slide shows, time-lapse, and animated movement alongside and ethereal score. Through sound, vision and Swinton’s calm voicing of Barns-Graham, Cousins articulates the stacked levels of this artist’s mind. Ultimately this is Cousins' tale of his relationship with and investigation into the life of this painter but he never takes away from his subject. It’s a beautiful and important story that rights the wrongs of (art) history to give this extraordinarily talented artist her proper time to shine.

Van Gogh is not only one of the most beloved artists of all time, but perhaps the most misunderstood. This film is a chance to reexamine and better understand this iconic artist.

200 years after its opening and a century after acquiring its first Van Gogh works, the National Gallery is hosting the UK’s biggest ever Van Gogh exhibition.

Focusing on his unique creative process, the film explores the artist’s years in the south of France, where he revolutionised his style. Van Gogh became consumed with a passion for storytelling in his art, turning the world around him into vibrant, idealised spaces and symbolic characters.

Poets and lovers filled his imagination; everything he did in the south of France served this new obsession. In part, this is what caused his notorious breakdown, but it didn’t hold back his creativity as he created masterpiece after masterpiece.

Van Gogh’s capacity to provoke intense emotion in the viewer is almost unique in the Western canon, so come and explore one of art history’s most pivotal periods in this once-in-a-century show.

Oscar-winning writer-director Steve McQueen’s emotionally-fraught Second World War drama.

Among the most versatile filmmakers working today, McQueen doesn’t repeat himself. A distinctive filmography that spans across everything mainstream and indie—from American slavery and Dutch Nazi occupation to the rhythms of London’s West Indian communities and a women-led crime extravaganza—stands tall as proof. With the elegant historical fiction Blitz, his largest-scaled film to date, McQueen, this time, turns his lens onto London’s blitzkrieg that started in September 1940.

9-year-old George (brilliant newcomer Elliott Heffernan) is sent to the English countryside for safety by his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan). Defiant and determined to reunite with her and his grandfather, Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, George embarks embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril. Meanwhile, a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

Everything about Blitz is meticulously crafted, from the precise, historically-accurate production elements to the tension-inducing sound design. Hans Zimmer’s score is fraught with feeling, augmenting the already-intense sequences to something almost harrowing. Performances, led by Heffernan, are vulnerable and honest, as if McQueen pushed everyone to do their very best with the role they were given, no matter how small.

Empathetic, brutal, brilliant filmmaking.

Sean Baker’s outstanding Palme D’Or winner is a masterwork of tension, humour and humanity.

Baker has always been a filmmaker who marches to the beat of his own drum. From his early work like 2004’s Take Out to Tangerine, The Florida Project and 2021’s magnificent Red Rocket, there’s no denying that Baker’s thematic focus on the underrepresented and marginalised has made for some of the best American cinema of the past two decades. But he has now gone a step beyond. Both stressful and electrifying, he has delivered his best film to date, an emotional and exhilarating achievement that showcases his ability as a storyteller and his dedication to championing the unseen.

Anora follows Ani, a strip club dancer whose life changes when she meets Vanya, leading to a whirlwind Las Vegas wedding. However, when Vanya’s parents learn of the marriage, they send his godfather Toros and henchmen Garnick and Igor to intervene. As Vanya disappears, a chaotic search ensues.

As with previous works, Baker delves into an authentic and distinctive character study. What starts as an over-the-top romp eventually morphs into one of the most thoughtful and emotional contenders for film of the year.