Reminiscent of the social realism found in her celebrated features, Andrea Arnold’s bracing, Oscar®-winning short was shot on location in her hometown of Dartford. Packing a hefty emotional punch, the film confronts the brutality of working-class motherhood with astonishing frankness and empathy.

Fish Tank kickstarted Michael Fassbender’s acting career, but it was newcomer Katie Jarvis who stole the show with her raw and volatile portrayal of a teenager’s search for transcendence amid poverty. This beautiful, explosive portrait of innocence lost won Andrea Arnold the Cannes Jury Prize.

Though self-consciously structured as if a fairy tale or fable, Clio Barnard’s follow-up to the docudrama The Arbor continues the tradition of Britain’s kitchen sink socio-realism. Both devastating and compassionate, The Selfish Giant is a profound film on friendship and the class system.