Credit: Harald Krichel

Luca Guadagnino’s 10 favourite movies

Thu 26 June 2025 21:30, UK

Luca Guadagnino is now one of the most coveted directors in the business after the huge commecial and critical success of Queer and Challengers, with both adding a unique edge to his running commentary on desire, queer or otherwise, and the most complex aspects of all romantic relationships.

To his portrayal of longing and loneliness in Queer, to his scathing look at ego and jealousy in A Bigger Splash, the director has created a vast body of work that explores every sexual and romantic entanglement under the sun.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the director also has exquisite taste in film, with Guadagnino joining many others to list his ten favourites of the 21st century for the New York Times, celebrating known and surprising influences that allow us greater insight into his brilliant mind.

First up, the director listed A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg, a dark story that perhaps highlights his own fascination for shining a light on the seediness of things that aren’t what they seem, with unrest and violence bubbling below the surface and revealing the secrets that people keep to themselves. It’s a strand that definitely crops up in his own work, with many of his characters living in a secret inner world as they grapple with their identities and how to express themselves.

Fat Girl is a truly explosive and uncomfortable film, and Guadagnino’s choice to list the Catherine Breillat classic is not surprising, given his own fascination with desire and the various ways it manifests. While this is certainly a very sinister exploration of desire, perhaps it is something we will see more of in his upcoming film After The Hunt. Alongside this, Sex is Comedy also worked its way onto the list, another expository movie about sex and the complications around filming sex scenes. An important film considering recent conversations and debates around the importance of intimacy coordinators on set.

Ghosts of Mars is perhaps the most unexpected of his choices, a John Carpenter horror that is generally quite widely disliked within his filmography, while a polar opposite choice is In the Mood for Love, which is the most predictable in this roster given that most people always have something good to say about the film. It is widely herald as a modern masterpiece, with the central themes resonating with Guadagnino’s Queer and his portrayal of pining and yearning.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s Me and You and Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl were also included in his top picks, with the latter being a stunning indie drama about gender identity and acceptance as a young trans girl navigates her new identity in rural France. Redacted and Teza are both interesting choices given that both are about the horrors of war, albeit explored through very different lenses, perhaps drawing attention to a genre that is now more contentious than ever.

And lastly, Guadagnino’s love for Millennium Mambo makes perfect sense for a closer as one of the most heart-wrenching and melancholic tales of desire and heartbreak, with the entrancing visuals and gloomy score perfectly capturing the limbo state that saunters in following the ending of a relationship and the brief glimpses of hope you see as you begin to rediscover yourself on your own.