This week on The Culture Show Mark Kermode looks back over the best of the year in film. Just some of the highlights from our coverage of 2012's cinema releases include an interview with one of the great auteurs of modern cinema, David Cronenberg, and his lead actor Robert Pattinson.

Mark talks to Academy award winner Ben Affleck, whose latest movie Argo is a political thriller based on a remarkable true story.

Investigative journalist John Sweeney has made two acclaimed documentaries about The Church of Scientology. He joins Mark to review The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson, which chronicles the life of the charismatic leader of a religious cult.

In the summer William Friedkin, director of The French Connection and The Exorcist (described by Mark as the greatest film ever made), released Killer Joe, an uncompromising and provocative jet-black comedy. Mark met the filmmaker for a frank and fiery discussion about sexual politics.

And in a year of big franchise movie releases including Spiderman, Bourne and Bond, we hear from British director Christopher Nolan, one of the most exciting and innovative filmmakers working today, about The Dark Knight Rises, the final instalment of his Batman trilogy. Show less