Ikiru

Critic and broadcaster Rhianna Dhillon selects her pick of the films that will help you make a change for 2026.

Terence Davies and Gillian Anderson take us to the epitome of heartbreak in a visually intoxicating adaptation of Edith Wharton’s era-defining novel.

When newly-wed housewife Hunter becomes pregnant, her cravings threaten to destroy her perfect life in Carlo Mirabella-Davis's psychological thriller.

One dress changes everything for a family in Dionne Edwards’ brilliant debut. Defiant, uplifting and with music at its core.

Todd Solondz’s casting of eight different actors of varying ages, genders and races to play the lead role of Aviva, makes for a truly original film.

Bruno Ganz is extraordinary as Adolf Hitler, living out his final days during the fall of Berlin in Oliver Hirschbiegel's acclaimed drama.

Blending documentary and fiction, Alfréd Radok's remarkable film chronicling the Terezin ghetto was one of the first films to address the Holocaust.

Adam Driver excels in this effortlessly charming tale of a bus driver poet in New Jersey, filmed with typically groovy elan by Jim Jarmusch.

The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.

Edward Lovelace explores the power of communication and community with this rapturous portrait of a young deaf Kurdish boy.

Six-year-old Cléo spends a final summer with her beloved nanny Gloria, in this profoundly moving story of chosen family, duty and innocence lost.

Life begins at 70 for Mahin, who decides to shake her life up in this charming, quietly subversive tale from Iran.

Critic and broadcaster Rhianna Dhillon selects her pick of the films that will help you make a change for 2026.

Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

Part gangster film, part melodrama and part social critique, Akira Kurosawa's first critical success follows the troubled friendship between a disillusioned doctor and a young yakuza.

Kurosawa’s assured debut film about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo.

Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai movie - a story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress - was famously a key inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars.

The first film made by Akira Kurosawa's own production company is a dark tale of greed, corporate corruption and revenge.

Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

Adapted from Noh and Kabuki theatre, Kurosawa’s classic tale of deception sees a lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks to bypass an enemy roadblock.

Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

In Akira Kurosawa's comedy, a ronin runs rings around nine young samurai while cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government.

Part gangster film, part melodrama and part social critique, Akira Kurosawa's first critical success follows the troubled friendship between a disillusioned doctor and a young yakuza.

Kurosawa’s assured debut film about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo.

Toshiro Mifune delivers an outstanding performance as a paranoid man striving to move his family to Brazil to escape the nuclear holocaust which he fears is imminent.

Terence Davies and Gillian Anderson take us to the epitome of heartbreak in a visually intoxicating adaptation of Edith Wharton’s era-defining novel.

Andrzej Wajda’s best-known, visually remarkable film starring Zbigniew Cybulski.

Andrzej Wajda’s feature directorial debut is a portrait of Polish underground fighters during the Second World War.

When newly-wed housewife Hunter becomes pregnant, her cravings threaten to destroy her perfect life in Carlo Mirabella-Davis's psychological thriller.

Gerard Johnson (Hyena, Muscle) delivers a frenzied London thriller about an estate agent under intense pressure and out of her depth.

Wajda’s harrowing portrait of resistance fighters forced to flee the German army via Warsaw’s sewage system is one of his finest achievements.