Every best picture Oscar winner of 21st century ranked – from Crash to Moonlight

Heading into this Sunday's Academy Awards in Los Angeles, the best picture race seems to have solidified largely around two films: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler's Sinners.

Both films have their passionate champions, and either would be pretty great winners of a prize which has thrown up a fascinating array of victors at recent ceremonies – a far cry from the years not so long ago where the category was mainly the domain of safe, rather middlebrow pictures.

As we wait to see which of those likely winners prevails, we've gone back in time to the turn of the century to rank each of the last 25 winners in order from worst to best, and have published the list below, alongside our official Radio Times review for each winner.

Of course, it's always worth pointing out that such an exercise is inherently subjective – and it's very possible that your own list could differ substantially from the one printed below – it's certainly a varied group of films, some of which will naturally appeal to some viewers more than others.

Scroll down for the ranked list and details of where you can watch the films in question.

25. Crash

RT Review: Los Angeles provides the setting for writer/director Paul Haggis's finely tuned ensemble drama about interconnected lives, which was the surprise winner of the 2005 best picture Oscar. Like Short Cuts and Magnolia, Haggis's film ambitiously weaves several narrative strands into a short time frame – in this case, just 36 hours. Here, as the title suggests, the characters are brought together by a series of violent collisions and close encounters.

Among them are a racist cop (Matt Dillon), a TV director's highly strung wife (Thandie Newton), a detective dogged by serious family problems (Don Cheadle) and two car-jacking victims (Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser).

Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco - who picked up an Academy Award for their screenplay - have created a raft of fully developed characters, linked by chance, criminal acts and simmering racial tensions. As events (both kind and cruel) unfold, even the most seasoned movie-goer will find something here to surprise - and shock. – Karen Krizanovich

Where to watch: Prime Video

24. A Beautiful Mind

RT Review: Ron Howard makes pictures of quality if not always distinction. So after years of being ignored by the American Academy as a director, it seems that with this biographical drama he decided 2002 would be his Oscar year. The true story of maths genius John Forbes Nash Jr, who battled paranoid schizophrenia at the height of his academic success and eventually won the economics Nobel Prize, is tailor-made Oscar fare.

It has the triumph-over-tragedy, against-all-odds theme going for it, plus a powerhouse performance from Russell Crowe as Nash. Any film that traces nearly 50 years of an influential man's life is making a claim to some celluloid glory, but underneath all the impressive ageing make-up, what exactly do we have here? A difficult man with a complex psychological condition - reduced to a series of delusional episodes to furnish a thriller subplot - who has devoted his life to an almost insurmountably dry subject, namely advanced mathematics theory.

This is in no way a badly made picture, and there's reliable support from Ed Harris, Adam Goldberg and Paul Bettany. However, the film's overweening desire to be taken seriously gets in the way of the story. That said, the film won the best picture Oscar, Howard walked away with best director and Jennifer Connelly won a best supporting actress statuette for her well-judged performance as Nash's wife, though Crowe lost out as best actor to Denzel Washington in Training Day. – Andrew Collins

Where to watch: Prime Video/Paramount Plus

23. Everything Everywhere All at Once

RT Review: After the quirky Swiss Army Man, the directing pair known as Daniels head even further into oddball terrain with this wacky and ambitious sci-fi comedy drama. It centres on Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese immigrant in America, whose mundane life running a launderette with her husband (Ke Huy Quan) and daughter (Stephanie Hsu) is upended when she discovers she has the power to cross into other dimensions.

With the fate of all worlds at stake, Evelyn must kung fu kick her way across the "multiverse", and even has to fend off Jamie Lee Curtis's possessed auditor. The film is filled with zany invention, but also a pile-up of puerile jokes and laboured attempts to be profound. As a result, some viewers may struggle to stay the course. However, Yeoh has gravitas in spades and is a much-needed focal point in the head-spinning visions of time and space. – Max Copeman

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

22. Green Book

RT Review: He's better known for gross-out fare such as Dumb and Dumber, but Green Book finds Peter Farrelly trying his hand at more awards-friendly material, channelling the touring troubles of African-American musician Don Shirley into an odd-couple dramedy. Viggo Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, an Italian-American bouncer hired in 1962 to chauffeur pianist Shirley (Mahershala Ali) on a tour of the Deep South in the run-up to Christmas.

Mortensen turns in a charming, comedically gifted performance as the racist-turned-rough diamond. Ali is even finer, and the discreet way he conveys Shirley's heartache is terrifically moving. Their unlikely friendship recalls Driving Miss Daisy, with the film establishing itself in that same virtuous but simplified and commercially friendly tradition.

Mortensen and Ali make an irresistible duo in a well-meaning and touching (albeit slightly misjudged) film that boasts plenty of polish but lacks the requisite grit. Right down to its crowd-pleasing conclusion, it gives 1960s race relations an unnecessarily accessible overhaul. – Emma Simmonds

Where to watch: Prime Video/BBC iPlayer

21. CODA

RT Review: A remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier, writer/director Siân Heder's smartly judged crowd-pleaser distinguishes coming-of-age conventions with rich reserves of salty wit and choppy feeling. Emilia Jones stars as "child of deaf adults" (CODA) Ruby Rossi, the 17-year-old hearing deckhand for her family's Massachusetts fishing operation.

But when Ruby's choirmaster, Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), recognises and begins to nurture her vocal talents, tensions build between the teenager's passions and her family commitments. Even if you can see where this is going, Heder and her cast summon the character nuances needed to make the film sing.

Deaf actors Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin make warm, ribald work of Ruby's loving parents, complemented by Derbez's wry, tangy take on inspirational-teacher clichés. Meanwhile, Jones leads with appealingly awkward, expressive conviction all the way to the genuinely affecting climax: when the inevitable montage and its accompanying tears arrive, they feel earned. – Kevin Harley

Where to watch: Apple TV+

20. The King's Speech

RT Review: In this marvellously moving tale, Colin Firth is impressive as King George VI, the British monarch who suffered from a debilitating nervous stammer. From the outset, when he freezes on national radio, the tension of striving to uphold his image is palpable. And it's George's wife Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother, played by a sprightly Helena Bonham Carter) who drives him on, unlike his distant father (Michael Gambon), who continually puts him down.

Elizabeth engages the services of speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who is a breath of fresh air in a world of stifling formality, although his intimate approach initially maddens George. Director Tom Hooper (The Damned United) deftly captures a man in limbo amid the scandal of his brother Edward's abdication of the throne and the run-up to the Second World War, while Firth manages to express George's crippling fear without losing any dignity.

Inevitably, his friendship with Lionel becomes pivotal, but what comes across just as powerfully is how lonely life can be at the top. This is the type of thing the British film industry does so well - a bit of history, a bit of social comedy, a few liberties with the truth and a flag-waving finale. – Stella Papamichael

Where to watch: NOW

19. The Artist

RT Review: Just like they did in their French OSS 117 spy spoofs, director Michel Hazanavicius and star Jean Dujardin perfectly evoke an authentic period and style in this remarkable re-creation of Hollywood's silent movie era. Filmed in black and white, in the squarer Academy ratio, with only the briefest and cleverest dips into sound (the intertitles are in English), this evocation of Tinseltown on the eve of The Jazz Singer is a film buff feel-good joy.

Dujardin's charm (he was named best actor at Cannes 2011 and at the Oscars) is successfully harnessed as matinée idol George Valentin, whose career nosedives with the arrival of the talkies. Meanwhile vivacious Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), who joins one of his movies as an extra, finds her star rising as the studios look for fresh talent with attractive voices. Embracing the techniques and look of the times, and paying homage to numerous silent classics and Citizen Kane, this loving, warm pastiche is a sheer delight. – Alan Jones

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

18. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

RT Review: The late-midlife crisis of a fading Hollywood star is the basis of this surprisingly profound and extraordinarily kinetic satire about life and success in the age of social media. Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, an actor who found fame in the 1990s with a trilogy of superhero films based around the title character. When the film starts, Thomson is about to debut his first play as writer, producer, director and star, a piece adapted from Raymond Carver's short stories.

But as woes pile on in the lead-up to opening night (money is tight, publicity is non-existent, a key player gets KO'd) Thomson begins to hear the persuasive voice of his one-time alter ego. The Birdman conceit is a good excuse for some great effects, but where Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu really excels is in delivering an excellent drama about a man on the edge. Perhaps his best decision was to cast Keaton (Hollywood's pre-Christian Bale Batman), who is outstanding as the lead, and Edward Norton, superb as his nemesis, the Method actor from hell. – Damon Wise

Where to watch: Disney+/Netflix

17. Argo

RT Review: A true story that involves the CIA, Hollywood and the anti-American regime of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini shouldn't be as seamless as this gripping, beautifully performed and often very funny but dramatic thriller. The year is 1979 and the US embassy in Tehran has been stormed, with many of its workers taken hostage. However, six have fled, and are being secretly sheltered by the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber), but time is running out.

The CIA has exhausted every avenue, including a feeble plan to whisk them out on bicycles, so when "exfiltration" expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) suggests disguising them as a film crew and scouting locations for a Star Wars rip-off, it seems as good an idea as any. Alan Arkin and John Goodman are superb as the operation's jaded Tinseltown connections in a terrific story that deftly offsets tension with comedy. The excellent screenplay also examines the nature of storytelling and resolves the conflict, for once, with coolness and clarity. – Damon Wise

Where to watch: Prime Video

16. Nomadland

RT Review: A transformative journey across the American west unfolds with utter majesty in writer/director Chloé Zhao's Oscar-winning adaptation of Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book. Reeling from the twin tragedies of losing her home and her husband, the free-spirited Fern (Frances McDormand, who also won an Academy Award for her performance) is plunged into a transient existence as she hits the road in a lovingly converted van.

It's an unforgiving lifestyle, dependent on seasonal gigs and "stealth parking". But along the way, Fern meets many beautiful souls (including real-life nomads Linda May and Bob Wells), and finds a sense of community with other older Americans, who have been similarly cast adrift. Nomadland transcends narrative conventions, allowing us to simply luxuriate in its protagonist's exploits.

With a stunning score from Ludovico Einaudi that's by turns melancholy and soothing, and sublime cinematography by Joshua James Richards, the film boasts a remarkable ability to capture the cathartic power of connecting with nature, and is an almost spiritual experience. As she salutes the resilience of humankind, Zhao has given us something genuinely unforgettable. – Emma Simmons

Where to watch: Disney+

15. Chicago

RT Review: It took more than a quarter of a century to bring the 1975 musical Chicago to the screen, but it was worth the wait to get it right. In this spirited film adaptation, Renée Zellweger stars as Roxie Hart, the ambitious newcomer who dreams of singing and dancing in one of the city's jazz clubs, and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma, the established performer.

After the shootings of a lover and an unfaithful husband, they end up in prison and discover that the publicity surrounding a capital murder case can be a boon to a career in showbusiness. Director Rob Marshall licks the problem of how to film a musical that was presented as vaudeville on stage – it's closer to that style of short scenes and "turns" than to conventional musical comedy – by re-creating the musical numbers as fantasies in Roxie's head.

He loses none of the energy of the stage version nor its dark subtext on the corrupting nature of stardom. Oscar-nominated Zellweger is perfect casting despite - or perhaps even because of - her inexperience in the genre, while the Oscar-winning Zeta-Jones sings and high-kicks as if born on Broadway. – Brian Pendreigh

Where to watch: ITVX

14. Slumdog Millionaire

RT Review: Shot almost entirely on the streets of Mumbai, British director Danny Boyle's hyper-energetic rags-to-riches tale (and winner of eight Oscars) aims to dazzle and delight from the start, and for the most part it succeeds. Dev Patel plays the titular "slumdog" Jamal, a poverty-stricken orphan who's enjoying a triumphant run on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

He's now just one correct answer away from the jackpot of 20 million rupees, but the show's host becomes suspicious and the police are brought in. During Jamal's interrogation, episodes from his extraordinary life unfold, revealing that each quiz question relates to a different experience - ranging from the tragic to the rumbustiously comical.

Patel is an appealing lead and he is ably supported by Freida Pinto as his lifelong love interest Latika and Madhur Mittal as his cynical, morally compromised brother Salim. But the movie's real star is the city itself, which is brought to hectic, exuberant life by Boyle and ace cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. – Adam Smith

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

13. The Hurt Locker

RT Review: Director Kathryn Bigelow's 2004-set account of the lives of a US Army bomb-disposal squad in Iraq focuses on the men who voluntarily put themselves next to deadly IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The contrasting attitudes and philosophies of a trio of soldiers (played by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) come under scrutiny, with each man keenly aware that every job may potentially be their last.

Bigelow, one of the very few women working in the traditionally male-dominated action and war genres, avoids both red wire/yellow wire cliché and political preaching to deliver a film that is as psychologically fascinating as it is taut and exciting. Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce are among the well-known faces in smaller roles. – Adam Smith

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

12. The Shape of Water

RT Review: There are monster movies and there are Guillermo del Toro's monster movies, but this Oscar-winning fantasy should not be confused with the more teen-friendly likes of Hellboy and Pacific Rim. Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute office cleaner who works at a high-security government lab, where aviation technology is being developed.

One day, her curiosity is piqued when a strange container is wheeled in. The tank contains a beautuful webbed fish-man (a prettified nod to the occupant of the Black Lagoon), and Elisa is smitten. The real monster of the piece, however, is Michael Shannon's ice-cold Colonel Strickland, who sees the creature as an abomination. Elisa gets wind of Strickland's plans to vivisect her new friend, to further the fledgling Nasa programme, and her race to save him adds a genuinely tense climax to a surprising and striking adult fairy tale. – Damon Wise

Where to watch: Disney+

11. The Departed

RT Review: After a run of solid, adventurous but ultimately underwhelming efforts (Gangs of New York, The Aviator), director Martin Scorsese returned to more familiar form with a superior, Boston-set cops-and-gangsters story based on the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs, and won the long-awaited best director Oscar for his trouble.

Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to go deep undercover to help catch local Mafia godfather Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Costello has groomed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since puberty to be his spy on the force. The complex script (fluently adapted by William Monahan) rotates around these two moles, who orbit each other like twin suns for most of the movie, but only meet in the third act.

It all makes for extremely watchable entertainment. The leads are luminous (especially Nicholson, doing his best work in years here), but supporting players Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all steal scenes with glee. – Leslie Felperin

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

10. Million Dollar Baby

RT Review: For those who thought Unforgiven was the masterpiece of Clint Eastwood's autumn years, this sharp, moving and brutally bleak drama proves that he can bring the same grizzled genius to the sports arena. Adapted from Rope Burns, a book of short stories by FX Toole, it stars Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a washed-up boxing coach whose fighters abandon him as soon as they hit the big time.

Dumped by his latest slugger, Dunn reluctantly turns his attentions to Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a 31-year-old waitress who turns up at his gym begging for lessons. Dunn tutors Maggie to success, but then this otherwise standard underdog story takes a shocking turn in its final third that gives the movie an unexpected depth and immense power. Morgan Freeman is impressive as Dunn's crumpled sidekick, and Oscar winner Swank is terrific, too, but this is Clint's film, both as its tortured hero and as a great American director. – Damon Wise

Where to watch: ITVX

9. Spotlight

RT Review: In 2001, The Boston Globe ran a story about a priest accused of child abuse. After digging deeper, the members of the paper's Spotlight team unearthed a number of similar stories, revealing evidence that led to countless other priests who had molested young boys. Their investigation also proved all of these scandals had been covered up by senior members of the Catholic Church.

This extraordinary story from writer/director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) is brought vividly to life in a riveting drama that sticks mindfully to the facts. Portraying real events and real people, it discloses how a small, four-person team (played by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James) exposed a shocking, widespread cover-up. For most of the film's running time, we follow these characters as they gather information, which isn't nearly as dull as it might sound.

In fact, the film is utterly engrossing from start to finish, playing out as a detailed, quietly intelligent procedural in the style of All the President's Men, and praise cannot be heaped higher than that. The film was rewarded with Oscars for best picture and best original screenplay. – Stephen Carty

Where to watch: Lionsgate+

8. Gladiator

RT Review: Ridley Scott and the boys from DreamWorks produced the first genuine Roman epic since 1964's The Fall of the Roman Empire with this virtual remake that deals with the transition of power from the sage-like Marcus Aurelius to his monstrous son, Commodus. The fictional hero, General Maximus, is Caesar's adopted heir, whom Commodus turns into an exile after killing his family.

Becoming a gladiator, Maximus fights to avenge his loved ones and save the soul of Rome. The film's strengths are a fine script, which doesn't stint on the politics, and excellent performances from Richard Harris as Aurelius and Oliver Reed, in his final film, as a gladiator trainer. Also superb is Joaquin Phoenix as the paranoid, teenage Commodus, while Russell Crowe is utterly convincing as the Conan/Spartacus-like hero.

As always with Scott, the visuals are fabulous: the computer-generated ancient Rome is simply staggering, allowing helicopter shots over the city and turning the Colosseum into a living building, a character in its own right and a blood-soaked stage on which the fate of the characters and the empire is enacted. For those old enough to remember the 70mm epics of yesteryear, this is a nostalgic synthesis of all of them. For those who haven't seen those earlier movies, Scott will open their eyes to a "brand-new" old world. – Adrian Turner

Where to watch: Prime Video

7. Anora

RT Review: The Florida Project writer/director Sean Baker heads to New York with this breathless and very grown-up twist on Cinderella. Ani (Mikey Madison) is a fiery and quick-witted Brooklyn sex worker who is introduced to high-rolling new client Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn).

The 18-year-old son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan is brash and bratty, but hits it off with Ani when he pays her to be his girlfriend. After weeks of hedonistic pursuit, the couple elope to Las Vegas. When they return, though, Ivan's parents dispatch his hapless minders to have the marriage annulled, and Ani must fight to keep her new-found life of luxury.

As director, Baker brilliantly navigates a fascinating world of high-heels, fishnet stockings and tacky Take That remixes, while his electric script effortlessly shifts between drama and screwball comedy. At the centre of it all, Madison is magnetic as the firecracker with sad eyes, anchoring a complex character study that boasts a sparkling comedic surface. – Max Copeman

Where to watch: NOW

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

RT Review: Peter Jackson deservedly won the best director Oscar for this powerful and enchanting concluding episode to his massively ambitious adaptation of JRR Tolkien's trilogy. It also became the first fantasy film to receive the best picture Oscar and won awards in all the categories it was nominated for, equalling the record haul of 11 set by Ben-Hur and Titanic.

One staggeringly beautiful sight follows another as the brilliant ensemble cast brings Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece to life, and Jackson mixes man, myth and magic together with astonishing scope and intoxicating invention. The action picks up from The Two Towers with Frodo crawling to Mount Doom to finally destroy the ring, while Aragorn enlists an army of the dead to help Gandalf defend the besieged city of Minas Tirith from the Witch-king and his armies.

Jackson's loyalty to Tolkien's over-stuffed text means certain characters get little screen time and the ending does drag on with its series of teary farewells. But these are minor gripes considering his towering achievement in creating a timeless, literate and passionate masterpiece that will live for ever. The Minas Tirith battle sequence in particular will surely go down as one of the greatest in cinema history. – Alan Jones

Where to watch: NOW

5. 12 Years a Slave

RT Review: Aside from the milestone 1970s mini-series Roots, Quentin Tarantino's revenge fantasy Django Unchained, and a handful of others, there have been precious few films about slavery in the US told from the point of view of the enslaved. At the very least, director Steve McQueen's adaptation of Solomon Northup's memoir (which was previously adapted for TV in 1984, starring Avery Brooks) represents essential viewing for correcting that imbalance.

The added bonus is that it's also a tremendously powerful piece of cinema, a tale of suffering, endurance, courage and abiding humanity about a freeborn man kidnapped and sold into slavery, which packs all the more wallop for the elegance with which it's made. Yes, the scenes where characters are brutalised and tortured are shocking in the extreme.

However, McQueen tempers that horror with a bravura display of directorial craft, so that the most emotionally devastating moments – for instance, a long-held close-up of Northup singing – arrive with maximum force. Chiwetel Ejiofor's restrained, finely modulated lead performance fully deserves all the praise that's been heaped upon it, but the supports, especially Lupita Nyong'o and Michael Fassbender, are no less impressive. – Leslie Felperin

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

4. Oppenheimer

RT Review: The physicist who oversaw America's race to develop the atom bomb before the Nazis is the beating heart of director Christopher Nolan's spectacular, Oscar-winning depiction of world-changing history. Cillian Murphy gives a stunning performance as J Robert Oppenheimer, dubbed "the father of the atomic bomb", and he's supported by an awesome array of talent, including Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh (as the women in his life), Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.

The three-hour running time and scientific jargon demand patience, but Nolan's marriage of visuals and sound design is often dazzling, not least during the tension-filled detonation of the prototype device. Oppenheimer's postwar battle with authorities over his politics also features, and the fusion of these intersecting narratives delivers a dramatically explosive climax. But it is Murphy's haunting turn, often conveyed in unsparing close-up, that anchors this beautifully cinematic epic. – Jeremy Aspinall

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

3. No Country for Old Men

RT Review: There's a lot of money being chased in this masterful, multi-faceted thriller from the Coen brothers, but it's not really what's at stake. Set in Texas in 1980, it begins with Vietnam War veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbling across a desert drug deal gone wrong and escaping with a suitcase containing $2 million.

A game of cat and mouse ensues, as Moss is pursued by a ruthless assassin armed with a cattle stun gun (Javier Bardem), various Mexican drug dealers and an ageing police sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones), whose despairing take on the state of America provides the movie's moral heart. Adapting Cormac McCarthy's terse noir novel for the screen, the Coens deliver a complex, utterly riveting thriller that's also a philosophical meditation on the inexorable nature of fate.

They also succeed in marrying the writer's apocalyptic sense of social breakdown with their own blackly comic sensibility. The result is a terrific crime movie that bears comparison with their other career high points, Blood Simple and Fargo. – Jamie Russell

Where to watch: Paramount+

2. Parasite

RT Review: The gulf between rich and poor is taken imaginatively to task in this flawless and consistently surprising satire from South Korea's Bong Joon-ho (Okja, Snowpiercer) that bagged four Oscars. An air of mischief pervades the film, with trickery the name of the game for the protagonists and director alike.

When we're first introduced to the Kim family (with Chang Hyae Jin as mum and Song Kang-ho as dad), they're living out an impoverished but amiable existence in a squalid semi-basement flat. Their luck changes when their son (Choi Woo-sik) is recommended for a tutor post he's not actually qualified for, with a family who have more money than nous - and sensing a golden opportunity, a breathtakingly audacious con is born.

Explosions of righteous anger and further ignominy await in an eventful, enjoyably farcical narrative that alternates between nail-biting suspense and wicked wit. Parasite delights in its devious set-up and savage social commentary, offering sleek stylings and devilish details. It's a wonderfully sneaky film that, before you know it, will have worked its way right under your skin. – Emma Simmonds

Where to watch: ITVX/BFI Player

1. Moonlight

RT Review: This Oscar-winning film from writer/director Barry Jenkins slowly teases out the true sexuality of a repressed young African-American named Chiron. Combining style and subtlety, Moonlight illustrates a liberating journey of self-acceptance that derives tension from the contrast between the tough Miami backdrop and the secret this shy boy keeps inside.

Each of the film's three parts is equivalently heart-rending in observing at close quarters Chiron as attention-starved child (Alex Hibbert), then persecuted teen (Ashton Sanders) and finally, a battle-scarred and mistrustful adult (Trevante Rhodes). Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris shine in supporting roles, the former playing a father figure and the latter, Chiron's dysfunctional parent.

Jenkins eschews judgement, allowing his superb cast the space to inhabit their characters quietly and truthfully, while the cinematography cultivates intimacy and emphasises alienation. Together they lay bare the experience of growing up poor, black and gay in a film of rare empathy and shimmering beauty. – Emma Simmonds

Where to watch: Available to rent/buy

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