Works by Joshua Oppenheimer, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Gianfranco Rosi and Hayao Miyazaki made 2014 that rarest of things — a very good year for documentary and independent film-makers.

In Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence, a bold follow-up to the Act of Killing, the director tracks down the ageing members of the Indonesian civilian militia (pictured) who, with the tacit approval of the army and government, carried out the wholesale slaughter of a million suspected communists after the 1965 Suharto coup. An extraordinary, shocking and poetic film.

The uplifting The Wind Rises by Japanese animation genius Miyazaki offered plenty of mesmeric moments that we’ve come to expect from the 72-year-old maestro.

The tale derives from a short story written by Tatsuo Hori which fictionalises the life of the designer of the fighter aircraft Mitsubishi A5M and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, both of which flew during WWII.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his Winter Sleep. It’s perhaps not his best work but its thoughtfulness still makes it worthwhile. It’s the fraught story of retired actor Aydin who runs a small hotel in Anatolia and the emotional distance separating him from his young wife and his sister, who is still suffering from her recent divorce. A nuanced portrait of a society in crisis.

Rosi’s Italian documentary Sacro GRA, about life on the motorway that surrounds Rome, is another metaphor for a country chewed up by politicians for the last 50 years and a touching portrait of few people who are incredibly able to survive in a place that has no hope whatsoever.

Veteran director Mike Leigh gave us another first-rate feature Mr Turner.

A biopic of the 19th-century painter JMW Turner, it had a great script by Peter Morgan and a cracking performance from Timothy Spall.

Further triumphs for British debutant directors came from Yann Demange and Daniel Wolfe with ’71 and Catch Me Daddy respectively.

Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel was a brilliantly funny, eccentric creation which set the box office tills ringing.

The Postman’s White Nights by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky — sadly not released in Britain — tells the story of a remote lakeside community where the village postman is the sole connection to the outside world.

It’s a poignant commentary on the physical and spiritual foundations of Russia itself, sharing the social sufferings of the age in which we live.

Rita di Santo