Sophia Kirkwood Smith

As it’s intended to for Sid Bookman, the 14-year-old New Zealander at the heart of Paloma Schneideman’s hauntingly relatable debut feature, a bellybutton piercing acts as handy shorthand in Big Girls Don’t Cry. Armed with a needle and a teenager’s fortitude for self-inflicted stress to impress, the film’s protagonist punctures her own flesh. Even when the wound swiftly becomes infected, causing the popular crowd that she’s so desperately trying to befriend to snicker — while forcing Sid to wear a midriff-revealing top; this is 2006, when the titular Fergie song released — her new navel jewellery is an evident source of pride. Kudos to Ani Palmer, also working on her first feature, for conveying how the in-between stage that is adolescence is a whirlwind of yearning, trying, searching, striving and flailing, as well as salvaging, and not just when her character is taking the homemade route on body art.