Poignant, yet free of overwrought melancholy, this film follows three high-schoolers faced with the fact that one of them is terminally ill. Greg’s mother insists that be befriend Rachel, who has been diagnosed with leukaemia. Earl, Greg’s filmmaker best friend, sometimes joins in on their get-togethers. Greg’s initial reluctance eventually gives way to a pleasant surprise when he discovers that Rachel shares his twisted, absurd sense of humour. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a heart-rending, masterfully shot and acted teenage comedy portraying both the human fragility that springs from intimacy and the bitterness of fate. The director runs the gamut of genre clichés – young love, disease, rebellious youth in the gritty American Midwest – but nevertheless manages to create a film that is anything but conventional compared to its sentimental genre peers. The film won the Grand Prize and Audience Award at last year’s Sundance.