Hale County This Morning, This Evening director RaMell Ross vividly brings Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winner to life with this masterclass in adaptation.

1960s, Tallahassee. Elwood Curtis is sent to the reformatory Nickel Academy for a crime he didn’t commit. Present day, New York. A revelation about the abuses suffered by the Academy’s students leads Curtis to remember his life-changing friendship with Jack Turner. Ross’s film is a dazzling achievement – a bold and beguiling exploration of trauma and buried American history.

The film has received 2 Oscar nominations and 1 BAFTA nomination

Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with this enthralling drama, featuring a star-making performance from Mikey Madison.

Baker (Florida Project, Red Rocket) presents a modern-day Cinderella story about Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, meeting Vanya, a spoiled son of a Russian oligarch, who offers her a glamorous new life of possibility and incredible wealth. Ani’s wild ride and fairytale is soon threatened when news of their whirlwind marriage gets back to Russia, resulting in Vanya’s parents flying to New York to manage the situation. Both wildly entertaining and heartbreaking, Anora takes audiences on a freewheeling, rambunctious adventure that escalates to dizzying levels. Drawing comparisons to Pretty Woman, it constantly plays with genre and audience expectations. But what shines through most, as it does in all of his films, is Baker’s love for and unwillingness to judge his characters.

Anora has received six Oscar nominations and seven BAFTA nominations

Rita is a smart, undervalued lawyer dreaming of the day she’ll stop working for a firm more interested in profiting from criminals than bringing them to justice. One day, she is unceremoniously hired by a cartel boss, who enlists her help in undergoing gender affirming surgery in order to live as their true self. Years later, a deep friendship blossoms between them when Rita helps Emilia reunite with her family. Audiard brings his fearless directorial flair to this musical fantasy, which is operatic in both scope and emotion. Terrific central performances by Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez help make it a touching story of redemption and love.