I find I have many favourites of everything: bands, songs, foods, designers, countries… A neat answer to the question of movies, though, is to say that three of my favourites have Sunshine in the title.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stars Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey and is one of those films that tampers with our conception of time and reality, in a similar way to Being John Malkovich and Stranger than Fiction. Kate Winslet is great in pretty much everything but if you find Jim Carrey a bit annoying in some films, he isn’t in this. Plus it’s directed by Michel Gondry, which should be enough of a recommendation in itself. I can’t wait to see his new film, Mood Indigo.

Sunshine Cleaning stars two of my many favourite actresses: Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. For different reasons, their characters aren’t fulfilling their 5-year plans and are far from having the requisite husband and 2.3 kids in a beige house in a gated community. Adams’ character is fighting to change this, while Blunts’ is just coasting. Then they land the dream job of cleaning houses after dead people have died in them.

Little Miss Sunshine features a collective of great actors and actresses and tells the tale of a family’s cross-country expedition to get their little girl to a beauty pageant. As you can see from the pic, she is not a prime candidate and her grandfather doesn’t prove to be the ideal coach either. I’d put this movie in a class with indie greats directed by Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom) or flicks that star either of the Wilson brothers, or Jason Schwartzman – criteria that often overlaps.