Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven. With Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan. When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

Source: Mustang (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson. With Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson. A young boy is raised within the confines of a small shed.

Source: Room (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Tom Hooper. With Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw. A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Source: The Danish Girl (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Quentin Tarantino. With Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins. In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.

Source: The Hateful Eight (2015) – IMDb

Directed by John Crowley. With Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent. An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.

Source: Brooklyn (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Nanni Moretti. With Margherita Buy, John Turturro, Giulia Lazzarini, Nanni Moretti. Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.

Source: Mia Madre (2015) – IMDb

Directed by David O. Russell. With Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramírez. Joy is the story of the title character, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.

Source: Joy (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Ron Howard. With Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw. A recounting of a New England whaling ship’s sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.

Source: In the Heart of the Sea (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Todd Haynes. With Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler. An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.

Source: Carol (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson. A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

Source: The Revenant (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Sam Mendes. With Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes. A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

Source: Spectre (2015) – IMDb

Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. With Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Roman Madyanov, Vladimir Vdovichenkov. In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man’s arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.

Source: Leviathan (2014) – IMDb