This has been a cinematic year dominated by Star Wars Episode VII – as anticipation reached fever pitch and was finally given an outlet with the arrival – finally! – of The Force Awakens. Director J J Abrams delivered a one-two punch – a film adored by fans and critics alike, while smashing box office records to smithereens in its wake (it’s almost at $1.1 billion worldwide – and climbing – at time of writing).

In other movie-related news during the year, Fifty Shades of Grey titillated and amused in equal measure. Marvel studios continued their dominance of the super-hero genre with Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant Man both performing very well and Pixar effortlessly hang on to the animation crown with Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur. The Hunger Games’ franchise bowed with less fanfare than expected. And James Bond’s latest venture Spectre is still raking it in, while rumours swirl it may be Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007.

It’s not all blockbusters, however, with many independent movies making headlines of their own – to name but two, there was much excitement about the latest big screen version of Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, while the quirky Tangerine, filmed on iPhones, proved to be more than just a gimmick.

2015 was a solid year in film

Over the past few weeks, the main film critics’ associations in the US and worldwide have named their favourite films of the year while top awards are being dished out. In fact, the Golden Globes Awards ceremony takes place in a week’s time as the countdown to the Academy Awards begins.

A glimpse at the exciting titles in contention underscores the fact that 2015 was a solid year in film – some of those films up for awards consideration have yet to be released here, meaning we are in for a treat.

As for those films released in Malta in 2015, here are my Top 10 titles, compiled after much soul-searching and last-minute additions, changes and deletions (and as usual, to admittedly make the job a little easier, in alphabetical order).

Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks came together to elegantly and excitingly revive the Cold War espionage movie with this based-on-a-true story account of the covert exchange of a pilot shot down over the Soviet Union and a KGB spy held in an American prison.

Clouds of Sils Maria – An acclaimed actress (Juliette Binoche) is forced to face the onset of middle age head-on as she is cast as the older woman in the play that made her famous twenty years earlier. Superb performances by Binoche (unsurprisingly) and Kristen Stewart (a revelation) as her assistant added much class and gravitas to this first-rate drama.

Inside Out – Pixar continued their incomparable run with this funny and poignant coming-of-age tale which excelled in capturing the trials and tribulation of growing up via the anthropomorphisation of the different emotions that swirl through a young girl’s brain; with a voice cast led by the incomparable Amy Poehler.

Macbeth – an ambitious, violent and visceral take on Shakespeare’s masterful ‘Scottish play’ with brilliant performances from Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as the decorated general and his scheming wife, whose bloody political ambitions take them on a journey to psychological hell.

Mad Max: Fury Road – veteran director George Miller brought his iconic anti-hero roaring into the 21st century with Tom Hardy effortlessly taking on the mantle of the character; with co-starring duties carried out by a revelatory Charlize Theron firing on all cylinders as the aptly-named Furiosa.

The Martian – Superb science-fiction, nail-biting drama, and dollops of humour pepper this tale, based on the novel by Andy Weir, of an astronaut, brilliantly and winningly played by Matt Damon, stranded on Mars and doing his utmost to survive while his colleagues on earth and in space race against time to find a way to bring him back.

Sicario – Emily Blunt stars as an FBI agent on a covert investigation of drug traffickers on the Mexican border; Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro her shady superiors in this grimy, gritty, morally murky and always brilliant crime drama.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens – the new characters and cast members effortlessly take up the baton from the original cast to give the illustrious space saga the continuation it deserves; igniting the excitement for Episode VIII in the process.

Still Alice – Julianne Moore deservedly (finally) won an Oscar for her astute, sensitive and heartbreakingly movie portrayal of a 50-year-old woman dealing with a devastating diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s

Trainwreck – Writer / producer / star Amy Schumer broke onto the big screen following on from her successful TV show to bring her infectiously funny and unapologetically raw humour to a welcoming international audience in this hilarious romantic comedy.

And my other favourites…

Marvel’s tiny super-hero Ant Man; the Oscar-winning Birdman; Kenneth’s Branagh’s delightful take on Cinderella, classy gothic horror flick Crimson Peak; the challenging Ex-Machina; engaging literary adaptation Far from the Madding Crowd; the dark and funny musical Into the Woods; the James Bond homage/spoof Kingsman: The Secret Service; the noble Suffragette; the hilarious, raucous yet real Tangerine; and Hungarian drama White God.