Gong Li plays a concubine of a Chinese warlord in Raise the Red Lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou

US screenwriter Quentin Tarantino makes his debut as a director with Reservoir Dogs

Steven Spielberg directs Jurassic Park, in which dinosaurs are cloned (and animated) to terrifying effect

Steven Spielberg directs a film of Thomas Keneally's novel Schindler's Ark, giving it the title Schindler's List

Chen Kaige directs Farewell My Concubine, depicting the devastating effect of the Cultural Revolution on some performers of Peking opera

Tom Hanks stars in Forrest Gump, based on a novel by Winston Groom

The Italian film Il Postino brings poetry into the life of a postman who delivers mail to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda

Quentin Tarantino directs John Travolta and Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction

Mike Newell directs the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant

Bryan Singer directs the film The Usual Suspects, an intricate crime drama written by Christopher McQuarrie

American painter Julian Schnabel turns his hand to film-making with Basquiat, a tribute to graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Anthony Minghella directs The English Patient, a film based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje

James Cameron directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Wiinslet in the film Titanic, based on the 1912 disaster

The British film The Full Monty follows six unemployed steel workers in their transformation into male strippers

Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, a World War II drama about a US paratrooper

John Madden directs Shakespeare in Love, a romantic comedy set in Elizabethan London

Buena Vista Social Club, a nostalgic documentary by Wim Wenders, triggers a cult for Cuban music

Sam Mendes directs Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening in American Beauty

Russell Crowe stars in Ridley Scott's film Gladiator, a revenge drama set in second-century Rome

Billy Elliott, directed by Stephen Daldry, tells of a child's journey from a mining community into a new life in ballet

Ang Lee directs Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a martial arts film notable for its magical special effects

Shrek, by DreamWorks Animation, is the first winner of a new Oscar category - Best Animated Feature

Peter Jackson directs the first of his trilogy of films The Lord of the Rings, based on the cult novel by English academic J.R.R. Tolkien

Finding Nemo, following the adventures of a clownfish, wins an Oscar for Pixar Animation as the Best Animated Feature

Lost in Translation, a film directed by Sofia Coppola, depicts the culture shock of an American couple in modern Japan