What a year for cinema — returning from the brink and reclaiming its unique power to move and astonish. The world still felt precarious, but from April 2021 (in the UK at least) the unparalleled magic of watching films on the big screen returned.
That first time back in the dark, eyes fixed on the screen, was deeply emotional. Cinema offered a rich, varied banquet of films: boldly personal auteur work, revealing documentaries, and joyous, life-affirming musicals that gave audiences the soundtracks for a world trying to find normality again.
2021 delivered across the board. Distinctive filmmakers released provocative, moving pieces; documentarians uncovered unexpected stories; and the blockbuster machine continued to churn out big-budget spectacles despite the uncertainty of the moment. Daniel Craig closed his Bond chapter in No Time to Die; Marvel balanced its cinematic slate with ambitious streaming series; DC offered bold and divisive entries; and giant monsters squared off in stadium-sized battles, sometimes on IMAX screens that made the experience unforgettable.
Below are my picks for the 10 best films released in the UK in 2021 — the films that reached me most deeply at the time and have lingered in my mind since.
Follow the author of this article, Sam Sewell-Peterson, on Twitter @SSPThinksFilm.
10. Godzilla vs Kong
Godzilla vs Kong Review
Were there deeper films in 2021? Yes. Were there more polished blockbusters? Certainly. Yet few films recaptured the pure thrill of returning to a giant-screen spectacle like Godzilla vs Kong. After months without such cinema, the sheer joy of sitting in an IMAX with excited audiences — kids and adults who still love colossal dinosaurs and apes — was powerful. Seeing two 300-foot titans duke it out on an aircraft carrier delivered the exact visceral payoff kaiju fans crave.
This MonsterVerse instalment embraces its primal pleasures: Godzilla’s dominance, Kong’s heart and the human quest into Hollow Earth. Narrative human threads are intentionally thin, but the film gives viewers the spectacle, scale and destruction they came for, with memorable Kong moments that are thrilling and absurd in the best way.
9. West Side Story
West Side Story Review
Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of the classic Bernstein/Sondheim musical proves to be both faithful and refreshingly modern. Set in the 1950s but resonant today, this version sharpens the social commentary, modernises character portrayals and stages the musical numbers with inventive craft. Its emotional clarity left me wiping away tears as the credits rolled.
Ansel Elgort’s Tony and Rachel Zegler’s Maria anchor the romance, while Ariana DeBose as Anita and Mike Faist as Riff deliver standout turns that bring raw emotional honesty to the proceedings. Visually and sonically, the film is one of the year’s finest examples of classical filmmaking given contemporary life and urgency.
8. Sound of Metal
Sound of Metal Review
Darius Marder’s sensitive drama about hearing loss transcends its premise to become a story about identity, addiction and presence. Riz Ahmed’s Ruben faces a sudden collapse of the life he knew when his hearing deteriorates. At a rehabilitation centre, Ruben confronts painful truths about himself and learns what it means to live fully in the present.
The film uses sound design and performance to immerse you in Ruben’s world while exploring recovery and the challenge of sitting with one’s own thoughts. Paul Raci’s character offers a moral benchmark: to survive, Ruben must learn to listen inwards, not merely chase restoration of his former life.
7. The Sparks Brothers
The Sparks Brothers Review
Edgar Wright’s affectionate documentary is a lively portrait of Ron and Russell Mael, artists who have inspired a devoted cult following across decades. Tracing forty years and dozens of albums, the film combines archival material, interviews and whimsical touches to capture Sparks’ singular blend of wit, eccentricity and resilience.
Rather than a conventional rock doc about decline, Wright’s film feels contemporary and celebratory. Fans will adore the detail and tone, while newcomers may find themselves converted by the brothers’ uncompromising creativity.
6. Promising Young Woman
Promising Young Woman Review
Emerald Fennell’s audacious debut blends thriller elements, dark comedy and righteous anger to interrogate gendered power imbalances. Carey Mulligan’s Cassie, a former medical student scarred by her friend’s assault, stages elaborate confrontations with men who enable or commit abuse. The film is sharp, visually striking and unafraid to provoke uncomfortable questions.
Mulligan delivers a career-best performance; the screenplay skillfully balances tension, humor and moral clarity, culminating in a final act that lands with brutal emotional force. It’s no surprise the film earned recognition for its original screenplay.
5. First Cow
Kelly Reichardt’s quietly humane period drama is an intimate study of friendship, survival and small, fragile joys in a harsh frontier. Cookie (John Magaro), a cook and forager, forms an alliance with immigrant King-Lu (Orion Lee) and they attempt to build a modest bakery business using milk stolen from the colony’s prized cow.
Reichardt’s patient pacing, painterly compositions and subtle emotional beats make mundane acts — baking, sharing a meal — feel profound. The bond between the two men is tender and ambiguous in ways that reward close viewing, and the film’s quiet tension culminates in a moving, inevitable climax.
4. Life in a Day 2020
Kevin Macdonald’s crowd-sourced time capsule captures 2020’s global extremes: grief, resilience, joy and protest. Compiled from thousands of submitted clips, the film assembles a mosaic that moves chronologically through a single day across time zones, showing family moments, frontline medical work, protest and the small private gestures that kept people going.
The result is an emotional, sometimes painful reminder of a year many would prefer to forget, yet seen here as evidence of human endurance and shared experience.
3. Petite Maman
Petite Maman Review
Céline Sciamma’s tender, small-scale fable — filmed during lockdown — follows eight-year-old Nelly as she copes with her grandmother’s death and encounters a mysterious girl in the woods who is, in time, revealed to be a younger version of her mother. The film is delicate, quietly moving and beautifully acted by sisters Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz.
Petite Maman meditates on grief, memory and intergenerational connection through simple, truthful moments. It honours playfulness and the unforced chemistry of children, allowing the emotional themes to emerge organically rather than through heavy-handed exposition.
2. The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Sony Animation’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a joyous, heartfelt celebration of imperfect family love. A road-trip comedy collides with a robot uprising and becomes a vibrant, inventive animation full of humor, visual invention and emotional sincerity.
The film’s bold visual style — blending 2D and 3D textures, rapid-fire background gags and painterly effects — supports a story that flips between anarchic comedy and earnest family drama with masterful timing. It contains one of the most affecting montages of the year and some of the funniest, most creative robot-slaying moments on screen.
1. Titane
Titane Review
Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane is a daring, often shocking work that resists tidy description. Following an exotic dancer on the run and a grieving firefighter searching for meaning, the film blends horror, melodrama and surrealism into an unsettling but strangely emotional experience.
Titane lingers long after viewing: its extreme images provoke immediate reactions and then continue to resonate. Ducournau juggles tonal shifts — from lurid spectacle to intimate tenderness — with fierce confidence, crafting a film that challenges expectations and rewards those willing to be provoked and moved.
I hope the months ahead continue to deliver films that feed our passion for cinema and keep the lights of our second homes — the cinemas — on. Which films would you include in your year-end top ten? Share your picks and keep supporting the films and filmmakers that keep the big screen alive.