2020's

Few science-fiction novels have been considered as “unfilmable” as Dune. Yet in 2021, director Denis Villeneuve delivered a bold, visually stunning adaptation with Dune — a film that embraces the scale, complexity and philosophical depth of the source material.

More than three decades after Top Gun became a cultural phenomenon, Top Gun: Maverick arrived with enormous expectations — and surprisingly exceeded them. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and led once again by Tom Cruise, the film delivers a rare achievement in modern cinema: a sequel that not only honours its predecessor but arguably surpasses it.

Few films in recent years have carried the weight, ambition and cultural impact of Oppenheimer. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film is a sweeping historical drama that explores the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer — the man often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb.”

Few stage musicals in modern history have enjoyed the cultural longevity of Wicked. Since its Broadway debut in 2003, the story of the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West has enchanted millions. Translating such a beloved theatrical phenomenon to the screen was always going to be a daunting challenge.

Dracula (2025), also known as “Dracula: A Love Tale,” is a gothic romantic fantasy directed by Luc Besson, loosely based on the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. The film stars Caleb Landry Jones as the legendary vampire, alongside Christoph Waltz and Zoë Bleu, and was released in France in July 2025 before reaching wider international audiences in early 2026.

Mercy is a dystopian techno-thriller directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. Set in a near-future Los Angeles where artificial intelligence has taken control of the criminal justice system, the film explores the dangers of handing life-and-death decisions to algorithms rather than people.

Mr Burton (2025), directed by Marc Evans, is a thoughtful British biographical drama that explores the formative years of the great Welsh actor Richard Burton. Rather than charting Burton’s entire Hollywood career, the film focuses on the defining relationship between the young Richard Jenkins — later known to the world as Richard Burton — and the teacher who transformed his life, Philip Burton.

One Life (2023), directed by James Hawes, is a deeply moving British biographical drama that tells the remarkable true story of Sir Nicholas Winton — the London stockbroker who helped rescue 664 mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in the months before the outbreak of the Second World War.