As always, any ratings and listings like these are dubious at best. It's not a race where you can see who reached the finish first, and judging art is mostly subjective anyway. I mean, nobody has seen all films this year, and some of us saw several titles in earlier years, while others of us are still waiting to see them arrive in their corner of the world, sometime in 2025.
Therefore, don't get upset or annoyed if your favorite film is rated too low, or is even missing... or if the one film you hated most actually made it into the list. No matter: lists are fun, lists are nice, and every title on here had several backers behind it (so they must have had something going for them). So take this list with a grain of salt, read this, enjoy it, and may it entice you to check some titles out which could be deserving your attention...
Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or on the thumbnails to skip straight to a page. The first tab shows the "Runners Up" and I put Flow's picture on top of it so that everyone on the main page will go "Awwwww... they chose a beautiful film for all the family as their number one...". Well... did we?
Runners Up:
11 Hundreds of Beavers
12 Nickel Boys
13 Universal Language
14 Atikamekw Suns
15 Flow (See picture above)
16 Civil War
17 Grand Tour
18 Vermiglio
19 The Seed of the Sacred Fig
20 Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
10: Longlegs
With his review of Osgood Perkins' serial killer thriller Longlegs, J. Hurtado scored the most-read article we published in 2024. In it he says the following:
Longlegs is a masterpiece; an unholy, horrifying confluence of high art and anxiety, a film in which every frame is a nightmare, and it’s beautiful.
Strong words! It's actually quite a divisive film - some loved it, some hated it - but there is no denying that Osgood Perkins has a unique style, and all the peculiarities in this film have been done on purpose. Breaking rules isn't bad when you do it knowingly. Those who loved it loved it with a vengeance. Our Kurt Halfyard adds:
Not since Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has there been a film that exudes more pure unadulterated dread. This is atmospheric filmmaking of the highest order, from a director with a real knack for this sort of thing.
9: Cuckoo
Director Tilman Singer turned heads six years ago with his no-budget demonic possession horror Luz and it's been a while since we got to see a new film from him. It was definitely worth the wait though and I left the cinema with a huge smile on my face. In his review, Kurt Halfyard says this:
The second feature from aestheticist and analog enthusiast Tilman Singer is a commitment into sensory overload, even in its quiet moments. Tactile and gorgeous, it is also completely daft.
He also wanted to elaborate a bit for this article:
Production Design. Production Design. Production Design. Nobody quite gets the most out of so little like director Tilman Singer. There is a gun stand-off par excellence that is both gorgeous, intense, and silly in equal measure, that is exactly the kind of cocktail I expect from this director. Also, Dan Stevens is an absolute deranged campy delight here. I wish more movies had the sense to be as playful and bonkers as Cuckoo managed.
Dave Canfield adds:
The most fun I had at the movies this year? Absolutely. Cuckoo is the best kind of batshit cinema. The screenplay is full of inventive twists and turns. The dialogue rides the line between horror and hilarity, and the films central monster is absolutely unnerving. Remember that moment in John Carpenter's The Thing (1983) when Palmer looks back at the head/spider skittering across the floor and says, “You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”? Cuckoo will have you doing that all the way through. Star Hunter Schafer plays a terrorized but determined teen on the verge of breaking out with palpable intensity. You feel what she feels. But Dan Stevens almost walks away with the film. He utilizes a hilarious German/Austrian accent and over the top creepy demeanor without going over the top until the script calls for it. And wow does the script call for it by the ending.
8: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller's superb fifth film in his Mad Max universe topped this list at the 2024 halfway point. I'll repeat the quote from Mel Valentin's review I used then, as, well, there is no better one:
"To say the wait, however patient or its opposite, was — and is — worth it is an understatement that no superlative can adequately convey. Switching from the all-action, all-the-time mode of Mad Max: Fury Road, the prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, charts an altogether different course toward the high standards set by its predecessors, focusing on Furiosa’s backstory across two decades, five-chapter titles, and two performers, relative newcomer Alyla Browne as a ferocious preteen Furiosa for the first hour and Anya Taylor-Joy as her equally ferocious twenty-something counterpart. "
And Kurt Halfyard says this:
If Mad Max was a rapid cut, centre-of-the-frame adrenaline rush, with monster energy, then Furiosa is a more lore-building stately camera long-take action masterpiece. I am happy that George Miller got the budget to make this one, the cast and the characters never fail to entertain on this kind of large-canvas filmmaking. I hope, even though Furiousa failed at the box-office, that Miller has one more film in the Mad Max universe, in him.
7: Challengers
Luca Guadagnino's romantic drama with sports pleasantly surprised a lot of people, and it actually surpassed three titles which were in front of it at this year's halfway point. Paz O'Farrell says in his review:
What should I tell you about Challengers? Perhaps that it's not as much about tennis as you may think, and that it is also not as gay as you think. Or that the performances were great, and the music by Trent Reznor really worked as a juxtaposition to dramatic scenes.
6: Nosferatu
It's fun to see so many films appear in these lists which were not universally loved. Robert Eggers is a bit of an acquired taste, granted, but few films got as harshly reviewed on our site as this one. Just check out what our J. Hurtado wrote about it, and as he dared me to quote him, I will:
Nosferatu may be framed impeccably, but this gray and cool blue toned version of the story does little to elicit an emotional or visceral response from me. It feels like a tragic sign of the times that as technology advances and we have access to a broader range of colors and lighting schemes than ever before in history, some filmmakers seem intent upon rejecting the opportunities that provides. It’s made even more disappointing that the film teases us with flashes of warmth – once in a tavern in Transylvania, and again as von Franz’s final plan comes to fiery fruition – meaning that everyone involved was capable of making the film visually interesting but chose not to.
I fear that I’ve let my frustration with the film overwhelm my analysis of its merits, but after seeing it twice now, I can’t help but feel disappointed in the final result. If Eggers wanted to tell this story, why wouldn’t he bring something new to the telling? We all know the tale of Nosferatu, it’s so deeply ingrained in the hearts of the horror faithful that without a genuinely new and fresh angle, it’s barely worth revisiting. Unfortunately, it feels as though this version of the beloved story is satisfied playing the hits, and even then, it misses more than it should.
You just know this quote will turn up on a poster somewhere, shortened to: "...framed impeccably...".
Thing is, even though not everyone of our staff had the chance to see this film yet, it got the highest amount of number one positions in the lists that were sent in. And for every review complaining about "drab Dracula" there is one written by an ecstatic historian, euphoric about someone who finally got the period details right. Our final judgment? If you are curious, you should probably see the film and decide for yourself in which camp you belong.
5: I Saw the TV Glow
And here is yet another film which hotly divided viewers. I have seen it labeled as "riveting", "boring", "underrated" and "overrated". It hits people in different ways, that's for sure! This was the number two in our Top 10 halfway through the year, and it did manage to beat Furiosa in the end. Mel Valentin said the following about it in his review:
In writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s (We're All Going to the World's Fair) second feature-length film, I Saw the TV Glow, cult fandoms, the positives and perils inherent in nostalgia (tonic or toxin), and the boundless search for personal identity, specifically trans identity refracted through media consumption and social norms, come together in Voltron-like fashion into a disquieting, discomfiting blend of fantasy, horror, and drama.
Riddled with existential discomfort, surreal digressions, and fractured, irreparable identities, I Saw the TV Glow confirms Schoenbrun’s status as a singularly talented, risk-embracing filmmaker more than worthy of the accolades and acclaim that have come their way.
Interestingly, when I asked "does anyone want to add something here?" two of our non-cis writers nearly bumped into each other while jumping forward. Theodoor Steen had the following to say:
Cinema has the power to change the world, but the films that actively make an impact on the global or personal level are rare. I Saw the TV Glow is that rare film, in that it will resonate with a certain audience member in ways that may change their lives. In trans circles we talk about 'egg cracks': the realization that someone is trans must come from themselves, like a duckling has to crack the shell of their egg from the inside out, or otherwise they will perish. I Saw the TV Glow is a plea for trans audiences to crack their own egg, and that it is never too late to do so. It is about the horror of the road not taken. This film will mean a lot to all the queer youngsters who might find the courage to live their lives freely after watching this film.
And Kyle Logan adds:
While many have latched onto the “obvious” reading of Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, it’s the fact that film is not another awards bait film about transness that makes it so special. Rather than cloyingly attempting to push viewers to sympathize with a desperate trans character, Schoenbrun’s film manages through multiple feats of cinematic magic to convey, if not instill, a palpable and deeply painful sense of hollowness to all viewers. It’s not a movie that has a message, it’s a movie that has a feeling.
4: Anora
In its first half hour, Sean Baker’s Palme D’Or winner introduces an exotic dancer who parties hard with a customer and ends up marrying him. All good unclean fun with a monetary slant on it. But then it suddenly becomes a violent chase thriller, and a damn good one too. In his review, Kurt Halfyard states:
The experience of watching Anora is akin to a spontaneous and unexpected invite to an epic house-wrecking party. It starts off with surprise and wonder, plunges into drunken euphoria, loses all your friends, projectile vomits on you in a car ride around town, lands you in court after dawn, and eventually, a stranger dumps you, broken, at your doorstep.
In that article he also says why that is actually great:
The reason for its wild, entertaining, success is more in watching the personal growth of Ani to the more fulsome Anora. Her petulance and loud pursuit of creature comforts, and personal entitlement gradually evolve into self awareness and confidence. She accumulates battle scars, draws new red-lines, fails, regroups from her failures, and well, grows.
3: All We Imagine As Light
Payal Kapadia's Grand Prix winner at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival is another film which did not appear on all that many lists, but where it appeared, it appeared HIGH. Not bad for what Dustin Chang, in his review, calls a docu-drama. He also states:
All We Imagined as Light is a major work of contemporary Indian cinema. Along with Chaitanya Tamhane (Court, The Disciple), Kapadia showcases the emergence of new voices that are not by the Bollywood system, depicting underrepresented working-class India from a woman's perspective, in a still heavily-patriarchal society.
Several writers wanted to chime in some more on the film. Our Daniel Eagan had this to say:
Director Payal Kapadia’s singular vision — crowds teeming through a monsoon Mumbai, tired workers struggling through shifts, the restless dreams of the lonely and dispossessed — drives All We Imagine As Light, but it’s the actors who make the movie so memorable. As a nurse worn down by loneliness and indecision, Kani Kusruti doesn’t need dialogue to convey heartbreak. Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam flesh out their roles so confidently that they pull viewers along as Kapadia’s script swerves from Mumbai to Ratnagiri. Along with Girls Will Be Girls, this is one of two superb performances Kusruti’s delivered this year.
And Kurt Halfyard added his two cents:
It might not be possible to find a movie in 2024 with a more perfect ending. Payal Kapadia and her cinematographer Ranabir Das capture the promise and the failure of modern Mumbai in a neo-documentary style of storytelling. The rhythm and energy of this film is sublime. Kapadia's Night of Knowing Nothing was a surprise, All We Imagine As Light is a sizable leap forward. Magnificent filmmaking. More please!
2: The Brutalist
Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce star in this tug-of-war between an architect and his maybe-not-so-beneficial benefactor, raising all sorts of questions about power and freedom. In his review, Kurt Halfyard says this:
The film itself, about art and architecture and family and money, passion and addiction, is an act of wieldy design, worthy of its expansive subject matter. And yet, the story remains both familiar and unpredictable, simultaneously.
This might be the real genius here. There is enough movie here that the big canvas makes loads of time for real intimacy and human grace.
He adds something for this article:
Grand cinema of the highest order: The cinematography, the stately camera work, the 70mm roadshow presentation, Brady Corbet's ticket to the bigtime is a savage critique of Art Patronage and the pitfalls of 'new money.' It is also a rather scathing alternate look at America during its most mythica and prosperous decades: the 1950s and 1960s.
And James Marsh had this to say about it:
A colossal work of old-fashioned epic filmmaking, Brady Corbet’s monumental tale of artistic endeavour resonates with a self-important sense of grandeur as only an uninhibited young filmmaker would dare to attempt. Beyond the surface parallels of an artist tackling an almost intangible physical expression, The Brutalist is also a touching, achingly authentic portrait of an immigrant’s journey, escaping the horrors of the Holocaust in pursuit of his own American Dream. Adrien Brody once again proves that, given the right material, he is capable of incredible fragility and sensitivity, while Guy Pearce proves every bit his equal as the wealthy landowner committed to containing and exploiting this desperate labourer at every turn. Add to this incredible story eye-popping 70mm photography and a soaring score, and the result is an undertaking of beauty and scale so rarely experienced in the modern era.
1: The Substance
One film ruled us all this year, judging from the 24 lists we gathered. The margins between our numbers two, three and four may have been small but our number one wasn't: Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance got more than twice as many points as The Brutalist got. One of the angriest films I've seen in ages, it hit our sweet spots while it poured bile over them. Back in May, in Cannes, Eric Ortiz Garcia already called it "One of the year's best genre movies" in his review. He could have left the word genre out.
Several writers wanted to chime in some more on the film. Our Michele "Izzy" Galgana had this to say:
It’s an incredible time to be alive for many reasons, both good and downright terrible. One of the best things to happen in cinema is Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. This film is more than a film, it is a battlecry. The Substance is not concerned with being polite, only one of the subtly insidious forms hoisted on those who identify as women. This is a world that tells us to be quiet, sit down, be happy with what you get, don’t take up space, do what we tell you, and smile while doing it. Then when we have no more use for you, go away, get out of our sight.
The Substance is a massive middle finger to all of this. We are tired of it. The film holds up a mirror to this world and how women are treated in it, and we can thank the director’s union in France (Fargeat has gone on record about this) for their support of female filmmakers with actual funding and not performative DEI checklists that never pan out but for the richest and most connected.
When Fargeat refused to alter the ending of the film, Universal sold it to Mubi, and the rest is history. Not only has the film made a deep impact in culture with its ferocious, give-no-fucks storytelling, it’s gone on to make its budget several times over and nabbed five Golden Globe nominations. And that ending is messy and gleefully chaotic. It’s what we deserve, and it’s almost like audiences actually love original, creative works with a different point of view. More, please.
Then we have Kyle Logan, who says this:
The Substance may be the filmic equivalent of the famous "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards" quote/joke. But it’s not only in the writing that Coralie Fargeat refuses to engage subtlety, she pushes every aspect of the film to its extreme. The cinematography’s sheen is sometimes hard to look at, the costumes don’t convey character so much as draw our eyes to the characters with their bold bright colors, the sound design regularly hits a pitch that’s near sickening, and of course, all those shots of Margaret Qualley’s butt. Yet it’s a perfect instance of “feature not a bug,” as that maximalism makes The Substance impossible to look away from and one of the best films of the year.
And Dave Canfield added:
The greatness of Coralie Fargeats film lies in deft movement between the cold and soulless meat market of celebrity and that of raw bleeding humanity trying to forestall its inevitable trip to the slaughterhouse. Demi Moore, whose own name ironically resembles demure- part of a catch phrase of late for the younger generation playing at innocence, plays an aging celebrity risking her last bit of dignity in a bid for sex symbol relevance. In one heart breaking scene she stares into a mirror getting ready for a date with a nerdy high school chum she’s reconnected with. It’s a moment of lost redemption as she desperately applies layer after layer of makeup unable to accept herself as she is.
Margaret Qualley plays the new, supposedly better version of Moore with equal depth. No mere sexpot. She is the embodiment of callous ambition and appetite, willing to devour Moore's life for fame and fortune. At one point she answers the door to her apartment staring down her annoying awkward male neighbor. The scene would be all about empowerment if Qualley’s character wasn’t so unapproachable unconcerned with anyone but herself.
Perhaps the film is best summed up by it’s central metaphor of how celebrity is personified in it’s dysfunctional world. A group of women performing aerobics as a camera scans their leotarded frames from head to taint in closeup. To be queen of this world is to be essentially faceless underscoring the films final move towards a grotesque transformation.
If your favorite film hasn't been mentioned yet, it isn't because someone hacked our brains and made us forget it, Ennennum-style. Maybe it's just that not many of us have seen it yet because it wasn't easily available (also Ennennum-style, unfortunately).
Below is the entire list of all titles our writers mentioned. Is your favorite film of 2024 still not in here? Tell us about it then! Check us on Twitter-X, our Facebook page or even better yet: that new BlueSky thing.
Here is the entire list:
100 Yards
AGGRO DR1FT
Alien Romulus
All of Us Strangers
All the Long nights
All We Imagine as Light
Anora
The Arctic Convoy
At Averroès & Rosa Parks
Atikamekw Suns
Babygirl
The Beast
Between the Temples
The Bikeriders
Blink Twice
Bramayugam
The Breaking Ice
The Brutalist
Caught by the Tides
Challengers
Civil War
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Cuckoo
Dead Mail
Deadpool & Wolverine
Deus Irae
A Different Man
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Dune: Part Two
Dying
Emilia Perez
Ennennum (See picture above)
Evil Does Not Exist
Femme
First Omen
Flow
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The Girl With the Needle
Grand Tour
Green Border
Heresy (Witte Wieven)
Heretic
The Human Surge 3
Hundreds of Beavers
I Saw the TV Glow
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be
In a Violent Nature
Inshallah a Boy
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
It's What's Inside
Juror #2
La Chimera
Last Summer
Late Night with the Devil
Longlegs
Love Lies Bleeding
Mads
Matt and Mara
The Moon
My First Film
New Dawn Fades
Nickel Boys
No Other World
Nosferatu
Oddity
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
The Other Way Around
The People's Joker
Perfect Days
Q
A Real Pain
Red Rooms
Sasquatch Sunset
Saturday Night
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Self-Revolutionary Cinematic Struggle
The Shadowless Tower
Smile 2
The Sparrow in the Chimney
Steppenwolf
The Substance
Super Happy Forever
Time Addicts
Torch Song
Toxic
Trap
Twisters
Ulysses
Universal Language
Vermiglio
Viet and Nam
Vulcanizadora
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
We Live in Time
Yintah