The Best Films of 2024
A 'best of' 2024 list that'll keep evolving up until Oscar night (March 2, 2025)
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Another year goes by like a lightning strike, and I am left with that familiar, inescapable void that is all the 2024 releases I’ve yet to see. There are too many, always too many. So, with that obstruction in mind, I’m doing things a little differently this year.
In many ways, the 2024 season isn’t truly over until the final curtain drops at the Academy Awards after some washed up Hollywood icon proclaims the winner of the Best Picture for 2024. It’s an easy argument to make, so I’m making it to give myself more time to catch up.1 I’ll be using the prolonged awards season to my advantage (and as an excuse) to tinker with my list right up until March 2, 2025, the night of the Oscars.
I’m also simplifying the qualification rules. Without overthinking the whole theatrical release vs. festival run, any movie that first saw the light of day in that year, whether in a festival, a theatre or a streaming platform, is eligible. Sadly, that means films that were released theatrically to the public in 2024 but had their festival runs in 2023 - e.g. The Bikeriders, About Dry Grasses, The Beast and Close Your Eyes (to name but a few that would’ve most likely found their way to my list) - won’t be here.
With that said, onwards and upwards to the best films of 2024…
The Top 20 Films of 2024 (as of March 2, 2025)
20. The Brutalist
Brady Corbet's three-hour epic is another entry on the overstuffed shelf of post-WW2 Jewish experiences. It wants very much to be a masterpiece, but it remains shackled by familiar tropes and lazy archetypes and ends up being just admirable, impressive and very good. Some of the imagery and sequences (like the opening) are transcendent and pure cinema.
19. Nickel Boys
Similar to The Brutalist, RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys treads familiar waters - black people’s experience in 1960s America - that have been done and seen to death by now and feel out of place in today’s multicultural and diverse America. That said, the unique “first-person-shooter” technique deserves a tonne of respect and praise - not to mention that it’s one of the most beautifully shot films of the year, with traces of Terrence Malick.
18. Nosferatu
Horrific in all the right ways, Robert Eggers’ passion project is a technical marvel and a stroke of visual mastery - with certain shots and montages rivaling the brilliance of the previous Herzog and Murnau versions. An emotively stunted, visually transcendent slice of gothic.
17. The Substance
Stylistically intoxicating tale of toxic femininity featuring a star re-making turn by Demi Moore. Elevates the grotesque to new levels. Full review.
16. The Wild Robot
Pulls at the heart strings and jerks the tears by design, but so technically impressive it’s impossible to forget. A beautiful story, beautifully told. Capsule review from LFF.
15. Vermiglio
All senses are activated by this most gorgeously shot film of the year. A quietly captivating off-Italian behemoth that gives birth to a new kind of war film. Capsule review from LFF.
14. Caught by the Tides
A personal Jia Zhangke experiment made from love and restlessness, whose existence is only possible on film. A total wonder. Capsule review from LFF.
13. I’m Still Here
A riveting true story of resilience and perseverance carried by an Oscar-worthy Fernanda Torres. Features one of the most haunting endings of the year. Capsule review from LFF.
12. No Other Land
No other film puts the outside world into clearer, more devastating perspective. An Israeli-Palestinian documentary about the forced evacuation of West Bank villagers that grounds you, and then grinds you into dust.
11. Longlegs
A near-perfectly constructed crime horror story, with the most unsettling Nicholas Cage performance (and make up) in the iconic actor’s career. I still have nightmares.
10. A Different Man
Tackles the core existential question of internal v. external self-perception in a profoundly thought-provoking way. More theatrical than cinematic, but no less powerful for it.
9. Babygirl
Erotic thrillers with this much psychological heft and directorial nuance, standing on the shoulders of world class performances (especially Nicole Kidman’s) are just not that common. The film’s fearlessness of tackling a taboo subject gives it that extra kick that so few films these days have.
8. Challengers
Soap opera is rarely disguised so well in this sexy dance (or is it rave?) of passion and ambition. We finally have a worthy tennis film.
7. All We Imagine As Light
A story about Mumbai and three women that’s all the more brilliant for its universal proportions. Mature, measured, serious and sophisticated. Capsule review from LFF.
6. Flow
Hits all the right notes without needing a single word. A celebratory tour de force of community, teamwork and Mother Nature. Gorgeous in every way. Capsule review from LFF.
5. A Complete Unknown
Never thought I would love a biopic about Bob Dylan, a legendary singer I never particularly warmed up to, as much as I did but James Mangold really delivers a beauty here. Timothee Chalamet has convinced me he's destined to be one of the greats of his generation with a pitch perfect performance. Total transportation.
4. Hard Truths
Mike Leigh’s triumphant return to the kitchen sink chamber drama features the best performance of the year from Marianne Jean-Baptiste. A haunting psychological excavation of debilitating loneliness. Capsule review from LFF.
3. Grand Tour
Portugal’s filmmaker-poet Miguel Gomes is back at his near best with another love letter to the magic of cinema and all its alluring inventions. A slice of cinephile heaven. Capsule review from LFF.
2. Dune Part II
The second part to one of the most spectacular sci fi adventures of all time. The LOTR of space operas, a monumental adaptation of a monumental epic. Event cinema at its finest and most breathtaking. Full review.
1. Anora
One of those rare miracles - a deserving Palme d’Or winner. Sean Baker’s masterpiece pulsates with youthful exuberance and unstacks with the nuanced complexity of a Russian doll. Extraordinary, hilarious and life-affirming.
Major films that I need to catch up on: September 5, Black Dog, Memoir of a Snail, The Bibi Files, I Saw the TV Glow, Love Lies Bleeding, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, April, Between the Temples, Good One, Daughters, Didi.
