Simon Dillon chooses his absolute favourites

2014 has proved an exceptionally difficult year to select my best films from and I must make honourable mention of a few that haven't made it onto the list - The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ida, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Belle, The Wind Rises, The Lego Movie, The Imitation Game, Night Will Fall, Two Days, One Night and Captain America: The Winter Soldier - that narrowly missed out.

Also - and I don't know if this says something about my current state of mind or the kind of year I've had - this list contains more dark entries than usual. Don't worry too much though, as there are also one or two family friendly choices.

Here then, is the countdown:

9. Inside Llewyn Davis - The latest from the Coen Brothers was cruelly overlooked during awards season. A real shame, as Oscar Isaac delivers a superb, darkly comic performance as a down-on-his-luck folk singer with the fortunes of Sisyphus.

Best Bit - The "Please Mr Kennedy" music recording session. Hilarious.

8. 12 Years a Slave - Gruelling, brutal and unrelenting, Steven McQueen's Oscar winning slave drama proved an essential, hugely powerful experience. Tremendous performances all round but especially from Lupita Nyong'o.

Best bit - "Best" is an unfortunate term to use here, but for sheer unflinching nerve in depicting what slaves actually had to endure in the Deep South, I've got to go with the excruciating near lynching, where Chiwetel Ejiofor dangles whilst other slaves continue their work in the background desensitised and powerless.

7. Boyhood - Richard Linklater's bold experimental drama might be entitled Boyhood, but it's just as much about motherhood, fatherhood, siblings, friendships and early romantic relationships. Ellar Coltrane is a revelation as the young Mason in a leading performance filmed over several summers.

Best Bit - Patricia Arquette's powerhouse "I just thought there would be more" speech, directly followed by the montage of Mason leaving for college to the strains of Hero by Family of the Year. A highly emotional one-two punch.

6. Calvary - Michael McDonaugh follows The Guard with a superb, thought-provoking drama shot through with a similar dark humour. Brendan Gleeson is absolutely superb in the lead as a Catholic priest threatened with death by a sexually abused parishioner.

Best Bit - That opening confession. I don't think I've ever heard quite such a shocked intake of breath from an audience at an opening line.

5. Paddington - The best all-round family film of the year adapts Michael Bond's beloved books with wit, whimsy, slapstick, thrills and tears with a just dash of social satire (a swipe at anti-immigration nastiness). Ben Whishaw gives a brilliant vocal performance alongside a superb supporting cast.

Best Bit - The chase with the pickpocket; a fantastic, laugh-out-loud slapstick set piece.

4. Interstellar - Christopher Nolan's flawed, mind-bending but beautiful and brilliant science fiction epic, chronicling the search for a new planet for the human race to settle following an ecological disaster.