Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

This will not be nominated this year, but I watched it and really found a lot to like about it. The main character, Greg, is a talented and funny amateur filmmaker who has almost nothing in common with Earlexceptthat they develop story and staging ideas for short movies and then execute them. His life takes a dramatic turn for the better when his mother insists that he spend time with Rachel, a woman he played with when they were both children, but who he hasn’t much seen since grammar school. She has been diagnosed with a not very good kind of cancer, and Greg’s mother correctly predicts that her friends are likely to shun her as a result.  She is quite alone, and struggling with what her illness means, and Greg and Earl do manage to be a bright light in an otherwise dim landscape.  It is funny and sad at the same time, and well worth watching.