Best films of 2024

As the cinematic smorgasbord of 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect – from experimental indie gems to sweeping epics, this year’s films captured the essence of a world in flux—grappling with identity, legacy, and the boundaries of storytelling itself. The following list, counting down my top 52 films of the year (one per week!) in reverse order, is a celebration of the diversity and creativity that struggled through to somehow make it to our screens in 2024. Each entry offers something singular: moments that thrilled, haunted, and inspired, reminding us why cinema remains a vital and ever-evolving art form. Let’s dive into the year’s very best, one film at a time. Here’s to cinema: alive and well, whatever they say!

52. The End (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer): After a stranger threatens a wealthy family’s underground compound, Son questions their perfect existence. Oppenheimer’s The End is a haunting post-apocalyptic musical where privilege and denial collide. Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon deliver gripping performances, blurring optimism and delusion. The film challenges audiences to confront the cost of ignoring the cracks in our fortresses of privilege, offering a surreal experience that will make you laugh before making you flinch.
53. The Substance (dir: Coralie Fargeat): A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. Coralie Fargeat’s Cronenbergian pastiche of The Picture Of Dorian Gray sprays a lot at the audience, and most of it sticks. The internal logic doesn’t really stack up, and it’s certainly not subtle, but it’s well worth surrendering to its gloopy and increasingly gonzo charms anyway. The spirit of Screaming Mad George lives on – gimme Moore!
54. Youth (Homecoming) (dir: Wang Bing): Wang Bing concludes his monumental Youth trilogy in expansive fashion, giving ever wider scope to the lives of migrant workers in Zhili’s textile factories as they plan to go to their remote hometowns to visit their families and celebrate the festivities for New Year’s break. With so many shots of length coach journeys through the mountains, I found this film to be transportive in every sense.
55. Grand Theft Hamlet (dir: Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane): Two unemployed friends have a fresh idea: They want to stage Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ in Grand Theft Auto. But even in a virtual world, reality intrudes in a wild and trippy film shot entirely inside the ultra-violent video game. This is my favourite lockdown movie, and it features an all-timer game alert: <Elsinore_Hamlet took the easy way out.>
56. Timestalker (dir: Alice Lowe): A karmic journey that sees the hapless heroine Agnes reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man. A film for the incurable erotomaniac in all of us, Alice Lowe’s reincarnation quasi-romcom gamely asks: what if Virginia Woolf’s Orlando kept getting decapitated, plus there were dildo gags, dance aerobics, and Nick Frost grunting like an angry little dog? 
57. Sons (dir: Gustav Möller): Eva, an idealistic prison officer, faces a dilemma when a young man from her past is transferred to her prison. Without revealing her secret, she moves to the most violent ward. Here begins a psychological thriller where her sense of justice puts her morality and future at stake. Gustav Möller’s follow up to The Guilty is a tough, muscular prison drama that pits prison officer Eva (Sidse Babett Knudsen) against violent inmate Mikkel (Sebastian Bull). Effectively a two-hander, it’s boosted by their superb performances and the grim, no-nonsense direction and grimy cinematography. 
58. Dìdi (弟弟) (dir: Sean Wang): In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom. Sometimes these Sundance coming-of-age films can feel like they’re rolling off a Sundance workshop conveyor belt, but Didi works because it leans enough into its cultural and period specificity. Good to see MySpace and AOL Messenger getting some love, and great job by Sean Wang in making them cinematic. It makes me wonder when we’re going to get the big Limewire movie.
59. Crossing (dir: Levan Akin): Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city. A tender, wistful, funny story about the need to fight to protect and hold close those we love, rather than turn our backs… Crossing succeeds in part due to every performance knocking it out of the park. This was gloriously charming and deserved to be a big mainstream crossover hit.
60. Dahomey (dir: Mati Diop): Thousands of royal artifacts from the West African kingdom of Dahomey were taken by French colonists in the 19th century. This documentary follows the journey of 26 treasures through the voices of cultural historians and students. It’s best when showing Beninese passionately debating or capturing lyrical moments (like a girl snoozing outside an all-night café). The voiceover conceit with the Bronzes’ thoughts was hit or miss, but overall it’s excellent, further establishing Mati Diop as a poetic talent standing high above the prose of so many others.
61. Blitz (dir: Steve McQueen): In World War II London, nine-year-old George is evacuated to the countryside by his mother, Rita, to escape the bombings. Defiant and determined to return to his family, George embarks on an epic, perilous journey back home as Rita searches for him. Blitz is the movie we need right now: a subject matter designed to lure in Telegraph-reading Brexiteers, before delivering a picaresque adventure story about the vitality of post-empire multicultural diversity & the evils of racism. It’s a big, bold, exciting and really unsubtle.
62. Ponyboi (dir: Esteban Arango): Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past. I loved how much the lead character looked like Cher, and how much the love interest (or is he?) looked like Sam Elliot. An alternate-reality Mask reunion!
63. Azrael (dir: E.L. Katz): In a world where no one speaks, a devout female hunts down a young woman who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is due to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil deep within the surrounding wilderness. Azrael is a nail-biting white-knuckle bloodbath, and Samara Weaving is electric. A cult smash in the making!
64. Immaculate (dir: Michael Mohan): An American nun embarks on a new journey when she joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. However, her warm welcome quickly turns into a living nightmare when she discovers her new home harbours a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors. Sydney Sweeney’s punchy nunsploitation pregnancy horror has THE BALLSIEST ENDING of any mainstream horror you’ll see this year. I can’t believe they went there.
65. Dying (dir: Matthias Glasner): Mother Lissy, father Gerd, son Tom and daughter Ellen: the members of the Lunies family are estranged. But confronted with death, they finally meet each other again. Darkly funny existential depression comedy. Builds and builds and crosses all kinds of boundaries. Slightly sprawling. Features the best mid-recital meltdown since Tár, and the best vomiting since Triangle of Sadness. Dying feels like a more accessible Lars Von Trier – high praise indeed.
66. Exhuma (dir: Jang Jae-hyun): After tracing the origin of a disturbing supernatural affliction to a wealthy family’s ancestral gravesite, a team of paranormal experts relocates the remains—and soon discovers what happens to those who dare to mess with the wrong grave. For my money this is the best Korean horror since 2016, the year that brought us The Wailing and Last Train to Busan. In fact it’s a must see for The Wailing fans as it plays in such similar territory: a geomancer, a shaman and a Christian spiritualist race to solve the riddle of a dying baby and its links to a mysterious unmarked family grave.
67. Things Will Be Different (dir: Michael Felker): In order to escape the police after a robbery, two estranged siblings lay low in a metaphysical farmhouse that hides them away in a different time. There they reckon with a mysterious force that pushes their familial bonds to unnatural breaking points.
68. Abigail (dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett): A group of criminals kidnaps a teenage ballet dancer, daughter of a gang leader, for a $50 million ransom, only to discover she is not ordinary. As the kidnappers start to fall, they realize they are trapped with her. Abigail is a bloody and entertaining slice of horror – a killer ensemble vs a killer ballerina, filled with gags, gore, and twists. Standouts are Dan Stevens and Kevin Durand, while Melissa Barrera shines as a killer final girl. My audience cheered each kill – this is a real horror crowd pleaser.
69. Your Monster (dir: Caroline Lindy): After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet. With its tale of men stealing their muses’ ideas, this reminded me of the making of Suspiria.
70. Inside Out 2 (dir: Kelsey Mann): Teenager Riley’s mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. To my mind, this is better than the first one – thornier, less predictable and more complex. Some emotions just don’t resolve easily…
71. Queer (dir: Luca Guadagnino): In 1950s Mexico City, William Lee, an American expat in his late forties, leads a solitary life amidst a small American community. However, the arrival in town of Eugene Allerton, a young student, stirs William into finally establishing a meaningful connection with someone. Guadagnino’s adaptation of Queer has a standout performance from Daniel Craig, a masterclass in physicality soundtracked by Nirvana, Prince and New Order. A journey through desire, beyond the self & out into the infinite. As the song goes: come as you are.
72. Sister Midnight (dir: Karan Kandhari): An arranged marriage in Mumbai: the husband is limp and spineless and, once the wife arrives in the marital hovel, she assumes a particularly crude form of misanthropy. Trapped in the hell of coupledom, Uma is transformed into a disturbing and ruthless figure, giving free rein to her own feral impulses. A wonderfully tricky dark fairy tale with elements of Jim Jarmusch’s DNA in it.
73. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (dir: Wes Ball): Generations after Caesar’s reign, apes now dominate and live harmoniously, while humans linger in shadows. A young ape’s journey challenges his understanding of the past and shapes the future for both species. I was not expecting this to be an anti-fascist religious parable with Beneath The Planet Of The Apes elements, but here we are!
74. The Iron Claw (dir: Sean Durkin): The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports. This beautiful, haunting tragedy makes it three for three for Sean Durkin, one of the most consistently strong directors of the century.
75. Cuckoo (dir: Tilman Singer): After reluctantly moving to the German Alps with her father and his new family, Gretchen discovers that their new town hides sinister secrets, as she’s plagued by strange noises and frightening visions of a woman pursuing her. Cuckoo is the giallo-tinged, health-spa-set, hallucinatory monster movie you didn’t know you needed. It’s queer, it’s deranged, it romps along like an early-80s Argento flick… and it gives Dan Stevens his best role since The Guest. I adored it.
76. A Different Man (dir: Aaron Schimberg): Aspiring actor Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost. This excellent metafictional tale of identity, delusion, and confidence but be deemed Kaufman-lite, but in my book that’s still a huge compliment.
77. The Promised Land (dir: Nikolaj Arcel): Denmark, 1755. Captain Ludvig Kahlen aims to conquer an uncultivable Danish heath and establish a colony for the king, but faces opposition from the ruthless lord of the region. Will his ambition bring wealth and honour, or cost him his life? The Promised Land boasts one of the most wonderfully hateful villains of the year – I really just couldn’t wait for him to get his just desserts.
78. It’s What’s Inside (dir: Greg Jardin): A pre-wedding reunion descends into a psychological nightmare for a group of college friends when a surprise guest arrives with a mysterious suitcase. For all its high-concept madness, It’s What’s Inside is ultimately a film about relationships, everyday delusions, and human emotions, and if it didn’t succeed on that level it would just be a fun concept. Fortunately it’s smart, funny, insightful and rather savage. If you wished Primer or Coherence were crossed with the run-around-the-house antics of Clue to produce a dark relationship comedy, then this is the movie for you. I loved it. But go in cold!
79. Kinds of Kindness (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos): A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader. It’s Yorgos’s Plemonade, and we’re all drinking it. Also, I need Willem Dafoe’s shell suit.
80. A Real Pain (dir: Jesse Eisenberg): Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. Plays in part as if it was Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP TO THE HOLOCAUST. Amazingly, this works. Hilarious and touching.
81. In a Violent Nature (dir: Chris Nash): An undead monster’s resurrection in a remote wilderness leads to a rampage after a locket is removed from its entombed corpse. Chris Nash’s ‘ambient slasher’ redefines the genre, offering an 80s horror homage that’s both reflective and bloody. Following a Voorhees-style killer through the woods in pursuit of teens, the film’s observational style humorously subverts slasher tropes. A meditative and gory triumph, with the kill of the year.
82. Conclave (dir: Edward Berger): After the unexpected death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with managing the covert and ancient ritual of electing a new one. Sequestered in the Vatican with the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders until the process is complete, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could lead to its downfall. Every cast member fires on all cylinders in this consistently engrossing page-turner of a movie (if such a thing is possible), I’m giving Conclave a ConRave. Review. A rave review.
83. Monkey Man (dir: Dev Patel): Kid is an anonymous young man who scrapes by in an underground fight club, wearing a gorilla mask and getting beaten for cash. Years of suppressed rage lead him to infiltrate the city’s elite, unleashing a campaign of retribution against those who harmed him. Writer/director/producer/star Dev Patel’s action movie triumph channels Bruce Lee, The Raid, Bollywood and even a little bit of Jim Carrey to deliver a cinematic knockout. Monkey Man tweaks John Wick’s nose, and punches RRR in the balls.
84. Babygirl (dir: Halina Reijn): A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern. Nicole Kidman has the dog in her and Harris Dickinson is the dog wrangler supreme, in this Secretary for the 2020s – a darkly comic erotic drama about power, consent, desire and honesty. Kidman delivers a powerhouse performance and Dickinson is a revelation. Babygirl is hot, heady, and very very horny.
85. Oddity (dir: Damian Mc Carthy): After the brutal murder of her twin sister, Darcy goes after those responsible by using haunted items as her tools for revenge. Oddity is the best supernatural horror so far this year. Damian McCarthy’s follow-up to Caveat had us covering our eyes and begging for relief. Dripping with tension, laced with sly humour, and unafraid to go for the jump-scare jugular. Nothing wrong with that when it’s done this well!
86. I Saw the TV Glow (dir: Jane Schoenbrun): Teenager Owen navigates suburban life until his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — revealing a supernatural world beneath their own. As his perspective shifts in the pale glow of the television, he wrestles with whether the impact of the show, The Pink Opaque, which features two friends battling supernatural forces, is ultimately good or bad. Starting sweetly then spiraling into horror, I Saw The TV Glow echoes Philip K. Dick’s ideas of a false reality, making it a standout “can we escape the matrix” trans film since The Matrix.
87. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (dir: David Hinton): Martin Scorsese presents a personal documentary about British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It’s a touching, fascinating tribute that highlights Scorsese’s own inspirations taken from the filmmakers, including Blimp-like time shifts around the fight scenes in Raging Bull and the Lermontov-like obsession of Travis Bickle in The Red Shoes.
88. Love Lies Bleeding (dir: Rose Glass): Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family. The stranger-comes-to-town sunny neo-noir of Red Rock West meets the “be gay, do crimes” attitude of Bound and the hallucinatory steroid psychosis of Magazine Dreams, in Rose Glass’s henched-up, loved-up pop thriller. A knock-out!
89. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (dir: Merlin Crossingham, Nick Park): Gromit’s concern about Wallace’s reliance on inventions comes to a head when a “smart” gnome gains autonomy. With a vengeful figure from the past, Gromit faces dark forces to save Wallace. This may be the greatest Wallace and Gromit movie, filled with nods to Scorsese’s Cape Fear, Mann’s Manhunter, and Kubrick’s 2001. A notable gag, reminiscent of The Simpsons’ Treehouse Of Horrors: “Here’s your problem, ya had it set to ‘Evil.’” My favorite bit of background wordplay is the canal barge delightfully named “Accrington Queen.”
90. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (dir: Mohammad Rasoulof): An investigating judge in Tehran grapples with mistrust as political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears. Suspecting his wife and daughters, he imposes drastic measures at home, causing rising tensions and suspending social norms and family rules. This features the best use of YouTube since Ready Or Not.
91. ME (dir: Don Hertzfeldt): A musical odyssey about trauma and the retreat of humanity into itself. I had the joy of witnessing the following post-screening interaction: “This feels like an accidental movie, in a good way. This movie kinda feels like I was crossing the street and got hit by a car, and the movie kinda fell out of me.” Would you say this is a hopeful film? “Yes.”
92. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir: George Miller): Young Furiosa is captured by a biker horde led by warlord Dementus. As they cross the wasteland, they confront the citadel of Immortan Joe, igniting a brutal war for dominance. Furiosa must navigate numerous trials to find her way home. This is the best Chris Hemsworth has ever been. Some pacing issues and a more blatant use of CGI stop this from topping Fury Road in my eyes, but it is still an epic high-octane rush to the head – and much more mythic than the other film.
93. Cloud (dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa): Ryosuke Yoshii, an ordinary person reselling items online, earns grudges from those around him and becomes ensnared in a life-threatening struggle. Cloud is an action-thriller and a moral fable reflecting on the dangers of modern miscommunication and capitalism, where self-interest breeds inhumanity. In this absurdist masterpiece, rampant capitalism becomes value-free, leading down an inhuman road of destruction.
94. Phantosmia (dir: Lav Diaz): Hilarion Zabala struggles with a phantom smell due to a psychological issue. A counselor suspects phantosmia and recommends he confront the dark aspects of his past military life while reassigned to the remote Pulo Penal Colony, facing the harsh realities of his current situation. Memoria meets The Act Of Killing, as conceived by Dostoevsky, Phantosmia is another triumph for Diaz.
95. Civil War (dir: Alex Garland): In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war. An immersive action epic about the hunger for that one perfect shot, what it takes to get it, and what you might lose along the way, Alex Garland’s masterpiece is an empathetic yet questioning love letter to combat photographers.
96. Longlegs (dir: Osgood Perkins): FBI Agent Lee Harker, a gifted recruit, investigates an elusive serial killer. As the case reveals occult evidence, Harker finds a personal connection and must race to save another innocent family. Longlegs is a triumph – unsettling and terrifying, dragging the audience into hell. Its stylish cinematography and sound design create an atmosphere of dread, punctuated by jolts of violence. Combining the unnerving elements of I Am The Pretty Thing…, the plot twists of The Blackcoat’s Daughter, and the ominous fable of Gretel and Hansel, this is Perkins’ greatest work to date.
97. Nickel Boys (dir: RaMell Ross): Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida. This film is devastating – and what a strength to have the courage to adapt a novel in cinematic terms. It’s so easy to imagine a much much lesser version of this that was covered in voiceover lifted straight from the source material. But no… this is how you do it.
98. Bird (dir: Andrea Arnold): 12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere. A gritty yet dreamlike exploration of family dysfunction and the search for escape, set against the sometimes bleak, sometimes joyful backdrop of Gravesend. Anchored by powerful performances from Nykiya Adams and Franz Rogowski, the enigmatic Bird beautifully blends social realism with surreal fantasy, revealing hope amidst harsh realities. Lyrical and majestic.
99. Anora (dir: Sean Baker): Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. An anti-Fairytale of New York, Anora is an emotional triumph—a Cinderella story for a doomed generation, blending humor, romance, and heartbreak against the backdrop of a gritty anything-can-happen Big Apple. Mikey Madison delivers a fearless, captivating performance, in Sean Baker’s most powerful and reflective film to date.
100. Challengers (dir: Luca Guadagnino): Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Major champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a “Challenger” event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. The best, most erotic love story of the year. Shout out to the guy walking out of the cinema afterwards, frowning and saying to his girlfriend “well, there was more tennis than I was expecting.”
101. Chime (dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa): A chef’s life is disrupted by a chime that brings with it an increasing sense of dread. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back on his Cure tip and playing games with horror tropes and audiovisual signifiers. Chime shows a steadfast refusal to collapse into a coherent rationality. Destabilise that shit, girl, go off!
102. La Chimera (dir: Alice Rohrwacher): Just out of jail, crumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up. Pure cinematic magic – as one character says, “That’s what we’re here for, to estimate the inestimable...” And how!
103. The Brutalist (dir: Brady Corbet): Visionary architect László Tóth escapes post-war Europe to rebuild his life, work, and marriage to Erzsébet in America. Settling in Pennsylvania, he catches the eye of industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, but power and legacy carry a heavy cost. A monumental achievement, this is a towering epic of brushed concrete & broken dreams, a ziggurat of love, death, power, control & the search for eternity. Adrian Brody is excellent, Guy Pearce is phenomenal. Film of the year, from one of our greatest working directors.

To find if and where these are streaming, I recommend Just Watch.

Cinema: It’s alive!