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We’re kicking off February with Kenneth Branagh’s account of growing up during the troubles in the beautiful and deeply personal Belfast (3 February). Like Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, it doesn’t spend time analysing a complex political backdrop, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car (10 February), based on Haruki Murakami’s short story, is this year’s surprise contender for the award season, collecting awards from Cannes to topping most films critics best of the year lists. It’s profound, contemplative and poetic. See below how you can win passes to see it in the cinema.

Mike Mills continues his well-paced search for the great modern American story with C’mon, C’mon (17 February). A black & white drama set in New York? Very Frances Ha, very Manhattan, but 100 per cent charming.

We end this month with the last musical of the award season—Joe Wright’s surprisingly solid Cyrano (24 February), based on Edmond Rostand’s novel. Here, Peter Dinklage plays the titular character, thus replacing the original character’s muzzling imperfection with the actor’s dwarfism. After a couple of duds, Wright seems to have found a new artistic breath, and Dinklage is overdue a defining role on the big screen.