10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

They say people cope with grief in different ways, and this certainly seems to be true of Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) who takes her local police (led by Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell) to task after the rape and murder of her teenage daughter. The expletive-spewing Hayes plasters accusatory messages on billboards challenging the town’s law enforcers to reopen her daughter’s unresolved case. She is a reckless firecracker of an anti-heroine. Whether she’s kicking a schoolchild in the crotch or flinging a petrol bomb at a police station, Mildred has an infectiously sincere desire to put these killers behind bars. Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy triumphed at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Best Picture-predicting People’s Choice prize, and has continued to gain momentum as the awards circuit nears the finishing line.