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With awards season just about to kick into gear, the start of a new year means those film that have done the rounds at various festivals for the past number of months are released in rather quick succession. Pieces of a Woman is a film Netflix hope will bring them home some awards, particularly in the acting categories, and it's certainly a film that doesn't stray away from telling a difficult story.

When a young mother's (Vanessa Kirby) home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

There's no real way to discuss Kornél Mundruczó's Pieces of a Woman without first discussing the film's opening sequence. It's such a tragic and traumatic start to the film that, by the time the title card appears on screen after half-an-hour, I felt like I needed to pause the film to have a breather and compose myself. Mundruczó brings it to life with such realism and Benjamin Loeb's cinematography is to be lauded here because the long take only builds the suspense to unbearable levels at times while the close-ups of Vanessa Kirby's Martha throughout the sequence really make you feel her panic building.

What follows may struggle to live up to the standard of the film's opening but it does manage to tell a story about a woman learning to live alongside her loss in a respectful and touching manner. Kata Wéber's sreenplay features some rather powerful moments that include fractured families and poignant moments of refelction.

At the forefront of Pieces of a Woman is a fantastic lead performance from Vanesa Kirby. It's one that has rightly put her in the race for all the Best Actress awards out there and I'm sure a lot of it will be down to her performance in the film's opening however, there's more to her performance than that. It's a cold portrayal of a woman going through an unimaginable loss that impacts the lives of others surrounding her and Kirby is just brilliant, particularly during a monologue towards the film's closing moments.

This is undoubtedly Kirby's film but there is also some stellar support from the likes of Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Burstyn, the latter certainly adding a touch of melodrama to proceedings. Expect to see her name a lot this awards season as a result.

Pieces of a Woman is most definitely a film that doesn't look to hide away from a difficult subject matter and it's something that the film has to be applauded for. Vanessa Kirby's performance is the real star here though and one that will spoken about for years to come.

You'd have to go back to 2011 for the last time I saw a film directed by George Clooney. It was The Ides of March and I remember being pretty impressed with what he brought to the table. That being said, I've naturally associated him more with acting and he's given some really good performances over the years. Clooney returns to directing himself in a film, after taking a break in Suburbicon, with The Midnight Sky, a new science-fiction film from Netflix.

Following a mysterious global catastrophe, Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, races across treacherous terrain to warn a crew of astronauts from returning home to a uninhabitable planet Earth.

If you're looking to settle down and watch an uplifting film over Christmas then The Midnight Sky is most definitely not the film for you. It's a slow-burner and, while that doesn't necessarily make it a bad film, it doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere, particularly ending with quite a whimper after quite a promsing set-up. For a year where a lot of us have spent it not seeing many people outisde our own home, The Midnight Sky probably comes at the worst time for Netflix as it does really meander along in a depressive state.

That being said, while I found the narrative a little too inaccessible, The Midnight Sky is a film that does feature some fine aspects in other areas. The score from Alexandre Desplat is a delight, quiet and dreamlike in the background, while Martin Ruhe's cinematography does a great job in emphasisng the isolation of Augustine in the Arctic.

Coming to the performances, Clooney and his supporting cast deliver a decent standard but are let down by not much of a script to work with. It's an ambitious sci-fi film for sure but I felt it didn't quite know what it wanted to be, and it comes across that way with the performances. For a film that boasts such an impressive cast, you can't help but expect more.

All in all, The Midnight Sky is a bit of a mess from George Clooney, starting quite promisingly before falling apart as a result of tonal confusion and a final act that might reach for the stars but ends up failing to launch.

Pixar are back to salvage some sort of hope and joy in what has been one of the worst years ever. A new Pixar film is always something to look forward to with the range of themes and imagination shown throughout their filmography, and with their latest, Soul, director Pete Docter returns but is he able to capture the magic of his previous Pixar films; Monsters, Inc., Up and Inside Out?

Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a middle school music teacher who has always dreamed of making it as a jazz musician. An accident while on his way to the Half Note Club for his shot at making it causes Joe's soul to leave his body and make its way to the Great Beyond. Managing to escape to the Great Before, Joe finds himself having to mentor a soul in training before he can return to his own body, the only problem being that he has to train 22 (Tina Fey), a soul with a dim view on the concept of life.

The first thing that sprung to my mind when watching Soul was just how stunning the animation is. Pixar really have been making major leaps with the animation in each of their films, making me think back to the days when people were in awe of the detail on Sulley's hair in Monsters, Inc. however, Soul proves they have taken it to the next level with an insane amount of detail in just about every single frame of the film. New York City is brought to life with such realism it felt like I was back walking the streets of such a great city with Joe and then there's the smaller scale details such as his regular barber shop or his mum's tailors. It really adds to the whole experience in such a positive and awe-inspiring manner.

Music has a huge part to play in Soul and it's not just in the moments we see Joe trying out for a jazz quartet, which are amazing by the way. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross team up once again to deliver such a beautiful score for this film that I would honestly say is their best work since The Social Network.

Pixar always have a knack for touching every emotional chord in the body and the case is no different with Soul, albeit managing the feat in a different manner compared to films such as Up or, more recently, Onward. Docter, along with co-writers Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, has crafted such a beautiful and imaginative piece of work that I thought would be very similar to Inside Out but ends up being totally different, going in a direction I definitely didn't see coming. The film carries with it such a poignant and touching message that will reduce even the toughest of souls to a tear or two.

The vocal cast really does bring such a range of emotions to Soul, Jamie Foxx's performance as Joe Gardner being one that will rank amongst my favourite Pixar performances, the softness of his voice mirroring the softness of his soul so brilliantly. Then there is Tina Fey as 22, who we all know as a very funny actress, having to dampen spirits at first before having her eyes opened to a wondrous reality. There's plenty of humour amongst the screenplay for the cast to mess around with but it's when the film reaches its more emotional moments where they really get to impress.

I absolutely loved Soul and I implore everyone to watch it when it drops on Disney+ this Christmas Day, because we could all do with something joyous this festive season. Call me a Pixar fanboy if you must but Soul will go down for me as their twelfth masterpiece.