Cheltenham International Film Festival — A–Z of films

There’s a lack of depth in general.

This is a film built in the edit, a story which can but understood in linear form only in retrospect.

Stern takes her time letting us discover what really concerns her characters, their hard shells and vulnerable cores.

It is highly satisfying that this feature film about the history and cultural impact of photography - and, by extension, film and television - should be such a lovely example of the Reithian principles to “inform, educate and entertain”.

In many ways Fremont is advocating the importance of accepting that a life can be both average and fulfilling.

In less adept hands this could have become a clash of content but Václav keeps all his elements in balance, managing to celebrate the beauty of opera on the one hand while showing us uglier mini dramas playing out at the front and back of house.

Gorbach presents war as an insidious and dangerous beast, prowling about the edges of people's lives, swiping at those who aren't directly involved just as easily as those who are.

For exuberance, inventiveness and gut-spilling humour, Guy Ritchie's debut takes some beating.

For all that time has changed the way it fits into the world, Lord Of The Flies remains as important today as it was in 1963.

Mamma Mia! is a roller coaster of emotion, careering colourfully from the blue waters of the Adriatic.

Nvotová is well versed in the language of the horror film, and some scenes echo the early work of Neil Jordan, but go much further in their hallucinatory concatenation of the forest wild and the monstrous feminine.

Will anyone see this who wouldn't anyway?

Whereas most prison films focus on strife, it’s the gradually developing friendship which forms the bedrock of the film.

Urbaite shows stylistic ambition.

An accomplished piece of work.

Although an undoubted classic of the period - and featuring one of cinema's best child performances in Torrent - the allusive and elusive style of the film is difficult to engage with.

Much more of a natural crowd-pleaser than her previous works, this might be Morley’s most successful film to date.