1. Tár
Released in the UK in January
It’s been a banner year for fans of films about mercurial conductors/composers, with Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s mosaic portrait of Leonard Bernstein, a 2023 highlight. But Todd Field’s creation of the magnificent, monstrous fictional conductor Lydia Tár, inhabited down to the last shred of cruelty and ambition by the remarkable Cate Blanchett, is exceptional: a savage, slippery account of rampant narcissism brought down to earth.

2. How to Have Sex
November
A wealth of outstanding British first features has included Rye Lane (directed by Raine Allen-Miller), Scrapper (Charlotte Regan) and Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf) – and there are more to come in 2024. But Molly Manning Walker’s phenomenal How to Have Sex is the standout, for its visual flair, superb performances and for the crucial conversations about consent that it has prompted.

3. Tótem
December
Mexican director Lila Avilés’s second film balances celebration and sadness, joy and grief, in this delicate, child’s-eye view of a vibrant, chaotic party in honour of a terminally ill family member.

4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
June

Evidence that we are entering a golden era for animation continues to mount, with inventive, thematically daring studio pictures such as Nimona and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and independent productions such as Marcel the Shell and the forthcoming Robot Dreams. But the latest Spider-Man knocked my socks off, with its ambition, wit and dazzling spectacle.

5. Reality
June
It’s increasingly rare to encounter a film that feels unlike anything you have ever seen before, but Tina Satter’s compelling account of the arrest of 25-year-old Air Force linguist Reality Winner is one such picture. And star Sydney Sweeney is a revelation.

6. The Beasts
March
A muscular thriller set in rural Spain, this terrific tale of warring neighbours pits French actor Denis Ménochet against a chilling Luis Zahera to bloody, nerve-shredding effect.

7. A Thousand and One
April

Teyana Taylor is magnetic in the central role of this decade-spanning portrait of motherhood under duress. She plays the impetuous, complicated Inez, an ex-con who kidnaps her six-year-old son from the foster care system and attempts to make a life for them both in a rapidly gentrifying New York.

8. Return to Seoul
May
A French adoptee travels on a whim to Korea, the country of her birth, in this unconventional journey of self-discovery. In the central role, artist and non-professional actor Park Ji-min created one of the most fascinating and unexpected characters of the year.

9. The Royal Hotel
November

Kitty Green followed her gripping #MeToo drama The Assistant with another compelling film about young women in a toxic work environment. In this case, US backpackers take a bar job in a remote Australian pub in an agile thriller that smartly teases us with genre elements.

10. Anatomy of a Fall
November
Justine Triet’s elegant Cannes Palme d’Or winner features one of the performances of the year in Sandra Hüller’s knottily complex bereaved wife who may or may not have had a hand in her husband’s death. And in its serpentine and tricky writing, it also boasts one of 2023’s smartest screenplays.

• This article was amended on 24 December 2023 to correct the spelling of Jessica Henwick’s surname in an image caption.