Alejandro Iñárritu’s studies celebrity and ego in his one-take wonder, Wes Anderson throws back to mid-century Budapest with his immaculate pastel artistry, and Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age epic breaks new ground in realist cinema.
Paweł Pawlikowski delivers a haunting meditation on the long-lasting trauma of the Holocaust, Richard Linklater ties off his decades-spanning Before trilogy, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s neon-tinted violence heavily polarises audiences.
Paul Thomas Anderson creates an ambitiously enigmatic work studying symbiotic opposites, Christopher Nolan ends his Dark Knight trilogy with kinetic style, and Sam Mendes delivers the most inspired James Bond film to date.
Terrence Malick delivers a landmark of transcendental cinema, while Béla Tarr and Lars von Trier both impress with heavy, philosophical films contemplating two different apocalypses.
Aaron Sorkin pens the greatest screenplay of his career with David Fincher, Christopher Nolan blows minds with his most visually inventive film to date, and Darren Aronofsky crafts a horrifying character study of ambition and obsession.
