IT HAS been an extraordinary year for film, with women at the vanguard, both in front of and behind the camera, in works tackling sexism, ageism, female oppression and the sex trade.  

It has been a wealth of riches and so has proved very difficult to choose between them but here are my top films of the year.

Bread & Roses — Afghan film-maker Sahra Mani’s powerful and harrowing documentary shows in real time women in Afghanistan fighting back against the misogynistic Taliban regime’s attempts to erase them from society by removing all their civil rights. From being able to work and get an education, to walk outdoors on their own and be free to talk who they please to outside their homes.  

In The Substance writer-director Coralie Fargeat takes an audacious swing at the toxic beauty culture and the “cancel culture” of older women in this brutal yet visually stunning takedown body horror driven by a stunning performance from Demi Moore.

Poor Things is one of Yorgos Lanthimos most visually arresting and boldest films with an audaciously brave and Oscar-winning turn by Emma Stone as a Frankenstein-esque creation Bella Baxter.

Black Box Diaries is a gut-wrenching documentary in which Japanese film-maker and journalist Shiori Ito used her skills to investigate a sexual assault on herself to bring her well-connected, high-profile attacker to justice. At the same time Japan’s outdated judicial and patriarchal systems are laid bare. It is truly inspirational.

Sean Baker’s Anora is a bold and thrilling modern-day Cinderella story with a comedic twist about a US sex worker who is swept off her feet by the spoiltson of a Russian oligarch and then takes on his armed goons. Mikey Madison is mesmerising as Anora aka Ani in this gritty version of Pretty Woman.

In The Outrun Saoirse Ronan shows what an unbelievable actor she is by delivering a powerful performance as a young woman battling alcoholism who returns to her home in the Orkney Islands to confront her demons. Written and directed by Nora Fingscheidt, the film paints a moving and realistic picture of addiction.

Radical is the Mexican working-class version of Dead Poets Society and is based on real-life school teacher Sergio Juarez Correa and how he inspired his students to achieve greatness by unlocking their potential. It is a truly moving drama which shows the power of education and the difference a teacher can make.

Comrade Tombe’s London Recruits is an eye-opening documentary which recounts the remarkable and little-known story of the London students recruited to be freedom fighters during the South African apartheid in the 1960s.

Robot Dreams is Spanish director Pablo Berger’s magical and emotionally captivating but bittersweet animation about friendship between Dog and his Robot companion. Without a word being uttered you know exactly what these characters are thinking and feeling in this touching, and enchanting tale.

Honorable mentions go out to Thelma, The Holdovers, All of Us Strangers, American Fiction and Conclave.

While the biggest turkey of the year goes to Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis — an overbloated, pretentious and incomprehensible visual mess. It was 40 years in the making and  two hours and 18 minutes I will never get back.

It is hotly followed by Eli Roth’s dull and lacklustre Borderlands, which is based on one of the best-selling videogame franchises. Not even its illustrious A-list cast (which includes Cate Blanchett, Jamie Leigh Curtis and Kevin Hart) could save its sorry ass.