Snow Leopard review – enigmatic tale of man v beast is late Tibetan film-maker’s final word

Pema Tseden’s swan song about the fate of a snow leopard imprisoned by a vengeful farmer gains new layers of political meaning following the director’s death

Layla review – heartbreak looms in coming-of-age yarn of a secret affair and queer identity

A drag artist from a strict Muslim family embarks on a relationship with a strait-laced executive in Amrou Al-Kadhi’s strong feature debut

‘Nothing left except quivering protoplasm’: the man who pedalled a plane across the Channel

In 1979 a group of neurodivergent men embarked on an epic crossing, now immortalised on screen in The Flight of Bryan

Could this be a historic year for trans representation at the Oscars?

Films like Emilia Pérez and Will & Harper make for vastly different yet similarly unprecedented awards contenders

Raoul Peck on his Ernest Cole film: ‘I wanted to give him the total podium’

The director of I Am Not Your Negro focuses on the South African photographer who covered an apartheid in his homeland before working in the US

Blink review – family’s poignant bucket list trip turns into glossy travelogue

A couple who discover that three of their four children have a degenerative eye disease go on a round-the-world family holiday in this beautifully shot but saccharine documentary

Liverpool Story: Portrait of a City review – city symphony goes down the identity route

Daniel Draper’s ultra-fluid style, trailing his finger across the surface of the city’s life, loses its narrative path

‘I couldn’t look away!’ The rapid, runaway rise of ridiculous Christmas romcoms

It’s that season again, when the streamers bring us hot snowmen and heroes who still believe in Santa. Why are they competing to make the most ludicrous movie possible – and why do we keep watching them?

I Want to Talk review – Abhishek Bachchan is Mad Men-style ad man who declares war on cancer

A greater degree of setup would have given this story of a Don Draper type’s determination to beat a terminal diagnosis more dramatic heft

‘What can we do to make this better?’ Alec Baldwin film Rust finally premieres in Poland

First screening for troubled western whose cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on set takes place at niche film festival, boycotted by high-profile figures over a separate sexism row

‘You have to be prepared for the worst’: making a film on the fight for democracy in Cuba

Documentary film-maker Nanfu Wang found difficulties while following an activist in Cuba for her revealing, and timely, new film Night is Not Eternal

The Man With a Thousand Faces review – triumphant takedown of international dating scammer

There are some jaw-dropping moments in this story of a man who conned numerous women, but this quietly lo-thrills documentary lets the victims tell their stories

The Flight of Bryan review – magnificent nerds and their remarkable flying machines

This documentary about a 1977 prize for human-powered flight uses archive footage, interviews and reconstructions to cobble together a fun celebration of human endeavour

BAM! review – smart gig-economy comedy is a rollicking modern-day farce

Director Jordan Tragash marks himself out as one to watch with these interlocking stories of a vibrant group of 20-somethings all hustling for money

The Merry Gentlemen review – more forgettable festive filler from Netflix

Britt Robertson and Chad Michael Murray go through the motions in the streamer’s latest cheapo Christmas comedy