Guy Lodge: How to Train Your Dragon 2 flies into pole position after The Lego Movie – incredibly – wasn’t even nominated. But the sumptuous Song of the Sea, awash with Celtic myth and magic, is the best of the bunch

Our readers’ choice top 10 film list for 2014

Shot over 12 years, Richard Linklater’s film about growing up is a devastatingly plausible biography of a real person – and a terrifying reminder that life is short, writes Peter Bradshaw

Joaquin Phoenix’s pothead private eye lurches between a wild bunch of star cameos in Paul Thomas Anderson’s hugely enjoyable Pynchon crime caper

A drumroll please for the latest in our best of the year countdown: Damian Chazelle’s bruising music thriller, Whiplash

Our countdown heats up with this booze-fuelled Russian epic, which warmed the hearts of critics at Cannes – and had officials at the Kremlin steaming

This drama of a woman who must persuade her co-workers to let her keep her job may be the Dardennes’ best, writes Xan Brooks

Jake Gyllenhaal is great in Dan Gilroy’s spot-on satire of US media, writes Henry Barnes

Andrew Pulver: Paweł Pawlikowski’s story about a young nun discovering the troubled past of her Jewish family is as remarkable for its subtlety as for its power

Wes Anderson’s delightful trifle conceals a depth of feeling, which means it stands out among the director’s back catalogue and this year’s crop of movies

This $60m advert that deconstructs Hollywood leaves you feeling exhilarated and utterly conflicted