Inland Empire (18) (2006)

Shot over two and a half years in Los Angeles and Poland, Inland Empire features a roster of suitably Lynchian cameos, including Harry Dean Stanton and Jeremy Irons. Laura Dern remains Inland Empire’s one constant, and her performance anchors the frequently hallucinogenic proceedings over the film’s 3 hour running time; she certainly deserved an Oscar-nomination (if not a medal). Lynch’s films usually look like paintings. Inland Empire, by contrast, looks like a Polaroid, but Lynch harnesses the versatility of digital film-making using extreme close ups, natural lighting, and a creative process that allowed him to script and shoot on the fly. It’s a bold departure, but Lynch never loses his ability to terrify, transfix and unnerve with the slightest camera movement, and his sound design remains the hypnotic stuff of nightmares.

This Is England (12) (2006)

Meadow's latest is his finest yet. Building on the films explored in his previous work, This is England is an intelligent and emotive look at a boys life in the early 80s. The film follows Shaun, superbly played by first-timer Thomas Turgoose, as he finds identity and solace with a group of older skinheads. All is well, until the nationalist Combo - played with both soul and menace by Stephen Graham - appears on the scene.

28 Weeks Later (18) (2007)

Sequel to the hit revisionist zombie film, 28 Days Later. This film picks up 6 months after the initial outbreak of the deadly Rage virus. Order has been restored, London is being repopulated, and the US military are in charge. What could possibly go wrong?

300 (15) (2007)

A visually stunning adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel that recounts the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC in which King Leonidas and 300 Spartan soldiers fought the combined armies of Xerxes' Persian Empire. Facing insurmountable odds, their valour and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy.

Tell No One (12) (2006)

Adapted from a novel by US mystery writer Harlan Coben, the film continues the cinematic tradition of adding a European twist to Anglophone crime novels (see also Truffaut’s Shoot the Pianist and Almodóvar's Live Flesh), and also cleverly borrows motifs from classic crime movies (The French Connection, Laura). A surprise commercial smash in France and the UK, it will almost inevitably become a watered-down Hollywood remake – all the more reason to catch the original now.

The Lives Of Others (15) (2006)

Von Donnersmarck's film illustrates superbly that the German Democratic Republic of the 1980's was a place where, more often than not, a person's life would be ruined with a one-page typed letter and a rubber stamp. The physical violence of other oppressive regimes is hardly present in this movie for as Von Donnersmarck persuasively suggests, the DDR exerted control by creating an atmosphere quiet menace and denuding its citizens of confidence. Capturing this atmosphere of psychological oppression is no easy business but Von Donnersmarck pulls it off with commendable aplomb.The Lives of Others proves thinking cinema is still alive.