The 50 best movies of 2024

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (Kevin Costner)

Release Date: July 29th | Genre: Western | Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller

Kevin Costner’s long-gestating western epic – the first of a purported four-part saga – began as an idea in 1988. Detractors would argue that it should have stayed there, as by the time Chapter 1 was finally released nearly four decades later in 2024, it was resoundingly rejected by critics and tanked at the box office.

For fans of knowingly old-school, achingly old-fashioned western storytelling, though, Horizon was a delight. Costner created an exciting, grand vision of life in the Midwestern territories during the Civil War and introduced audiences to a host of interesting characters to follow on their journeys, from gunslingers to soldiers to psychopathic killers to feuding tribes of Apaches.

Unfortunately, the reception afforded to Chapter 1 has likely put the kibosh on a theatrical release for Part 2, and the third and fourth parts are in limbo. It’s a shame, too, as the further adventures of Hayes Ellison, Francis Kittredge and their kin could have made for an almost definitive statement on the genre by Costner.

Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Release Date: September 27th | Genre: Thriller | Starring: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been one of the most visually arresting and visceral figures in psychological horror for more than a quarter of a century, and more than two dozen features into his career, Cloud is haunting and nerve-shredding proof that he hasn’t lost his touch.

Masaki Suda’s Ryosuke Yoshii earns a modest living reselling goods over the internet, only for his hubris to get the better of him when he fails to take into account that nobody is ever truly anonymous online after retreating to the woods following a big score that’s left behind some seriously dissatisfied customers.

Walking a deft tonal tightrope between satire, a relevant parable on the inherent dangers of the social media age, full-throttle action, disquieting atmosphere, and the occasional dose of jet-black comedy, Cloud sets proudly – and impressively – as Kurosawa’s second must-see technological terror after 2001’s magnificent Pulse.

MadS (David Moreau)

Release Date: October 18th | Genre: Horror | Starring: Lucille Guillaume, Laurie Pavy

After his controversial film King in 2022, the release of MadS sparked intrigue as to whether the director could redeem himself, following a teenage boy who helps an injured woman when leaving a house party, only for the evening to take a dark turn.

The French have built a reputation for grotesque and unconventional horror, and MadS is no exception. Moreau creates an anxiety-fuelled and wildly visceral zombie thriller that uses the one-take technique to heighten the suspense of the outbreak genre.

It deliciously merges the effects of psychedelia and paranoia, creating a state of bewildered suspense as the madness unfolds before your eyes.

All the Long Nights (Sho Miyake)

Release Date: February 9th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Mone Kamishraishi, Hokotu Matsumura

An intimate two-hander without a shred of romance, All the Long Nights is all the better for it; what Sho Miyake’s All the Long Nights lacks in plot and structure, it more than makes up for in heart, warmth, and a frank approach to the age-old question of what it means to be alone.

Mone Kamishiraishi’s Misa suffers from severe PMS, which becomes increasingly detrimental to her mental health. Meanwhile, Hokuto Matsumura’s Takatoshi struggles with regular panic attacks. On paper, it reads like a meet-cute waiting to happen, but that’s not the story Miyake is interested in telling.

Instead, the two co-workers at an assembly factory gradually forge a friendship that sees them grow close in a strictly platonic fashion. They’re definitely not soulmates, but they may well be kindred spirits. All the Long Nights is powered by a simple notion that often goes overlooked or neglected in modern society: sometimes, a little kindness and compassion can go a very long way.

A Traveler’s Needs (Hong-sang Soo)

Release Date: April 24th | Genre: Comedy Drama | Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hye-young

Isabelle Huppert and South Korean dramedy turned out to be the match made in heaven nobody even knew they wanted in A Traveler’s Needs, the latest from the country’s slice-of-life cinema specialist, Hong Sang-soo.

Some movies feel like they’d have no need to exist if it wasn’t for the person playing the main role, and that’s undoubtedly the case here. As the erstwhile title character, Huppert mesmerises as a French woman who becomes a French teacher for two Korean women despite not actually speaking any French with them.

It sounds simple, but as tends to be the case with Sang-soo, there’s much more going on under the surface. Weaving between the deadpan and disconcerting while strengthening the filmmaker’s reputation as among the best in the business of telling fascinating tales that don’t really seem to be about anything at all, yet somehow perfectly capture the beauty of the mundane

Daddy’s Head (Benjamin Barfoot)

Release Date: October 11th | Genre: Horror | Starring: Julia Brown, Rupert Turnbull

Questionable title aside, Benjamin Barfoot’s Daddy’s Head is a hidden horror gem that deserves to find a much wider audience. Its premise is genuinely novel in the world of scary movies, and Barfoot wrings maximum tension out of the film’s two or three primary locations. You’ll never look at the woods behind your house the same way again, that’s for sure.

The performances in the film are much better than can usually be expected from a low-budget horror. Scottish actress Julia Brown is particularly excellent as a frazzled stepmother struggling to cope with her stepson even before a malevolent supernatural force enters their house and uses her dead ex-husband’s face to communicate with the boy.

To its eternal credit, even though it flirts with the same tropes that many “elevated horror” films have used in recent years by linking supernatural forces and real-world trauma, it doesn’t entirely fall into the same traps some of them do.

Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)

Release Date: November 15th | Genre: Historical Epic | Starring: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal

The hype surrounding Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel to his 2000 sword-and-sandals classic threatened to eclipse the actual film. Some reports about early test screenings proclaimed it the greatest feat in cinema of the year; others condemned it as utterly unwatchable.

It falls somewhere in between, essentially retelling the original film but doubling its spectacle. Paul Mescal plays the latest avenging gladiator, and while he lacks Russell Crowe’s world-weariness, he brings a youthfulness to the formula that resurrects the story.

Then, there’s Denzel Washington, whose scene-stealing turn as a political powerbroker is both too campy to be taken seriously and worthy of an Oscar. CGI baboons, sharks, and a reluctantly violent stepfather provide even greater conflict than the first chapter, and while this sequel is undeniably overstuffed, it has the same irresistible appeal as a holiday feast. You’ll probably feel overindulged, but you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Klára Tasovská)

Release Date: February 18th | Genre: Documentary | Starring: Libuše Jarcovjáková

Upending the conventions of documentary filmmaking, Klára Tasovská uses still photography captured by subject Libuše Jarcovjáková to underline, illustrate, and enhance the artist’s lifelong desire to capture the essence of marginalised groups through her work in times of major social and political upheaval.

Retelling her story in an endearingly deadpan style, Jarcovjáková was there with her camera in the early 1960s when homosexuality was still a criminal offence in her native Czech Republic; she was there when the Tokyo fashion scene burst into life to usher in a new era of cultural modernity in the 1980s, and she was there when the Berlin Wall fell at the end of the decade.

Remarkably stylish, given its deliberate visual limitations, I’m Not Everything I Want to Be is less of a title and more of a summation of Jarcovjáková’s self-perception: she felt like she didn’t belong, sought solitude, and battled depression, but at the same time the documentary spotlights her constant presence and influence over several seismic historical shifts that wouldn’t look the same if she wasn’t there to photograph them.

The Outrun (Nora Fingscheidt)

Release Date: September 27th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Saskia Reeves

Saoirse Ronan has been earning acclaim for her acting talents since she was just a child, having secured an Oscar nomination at 13 after starring in Atonement. She’s racked up three more Academy Award nominations since, and we’ll be genuinely surprised if the Irish actor doesn’t earn another for her stunning performance in The Outrun.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, the film is an honest look at one woman’s journey towards healing as she moves back to the Orkney Islands after struggling with years of addiction. Ronan’s protagonist, Rona, returns home to find peace in the natural world, far away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

She finds a sense of hope in the countryside and even a job. It’s a beautiful film full of optimism, although it doesn’t hide Rona’s difficulties before reaching a sense of calm. Moving between the present day and her years in London, the film is a beautifully directed look at womanhood, addiction and recovery, family, nature, and what it means to be happy.

Only the River Flows (Wei Shujun)

Release Date: August 16th | Genre: Neo-noir | Starring: Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan

This year, Wei Shujun’s Only the River Flows took us back to the 1990s. In it, Zhu Yilong’s character, Ma Zhe, investigates a string of murders that uncover plenty of secrets within a small town.

While this might sound like the synopsis for various popular titles already in existence, Shujun’s film is totally unique. It takes a slightly absurdist approach to the plot, including a mesmerising dream sequence that makes the movie feel even more hallucinatory and special.

Well acted and executed, Only the River Flows didn’t receive as much attention as it deserved outside of its native China, but the art film is an impressive look at crime, community, and the line between truth and secrecy. This isn’t a typical crime thriller; instead, it takes a more studied and complex approach, feeling far removed from the kinds you see churned out by Hollywood. Shujun’s movie asks us existential questions that’ll have viewers thinking about what they just watched for days after.

Oddity (Damian McCarthy)

Release Date: August 30th | Genre: Horror | Starring: Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee

Oddity gave the world arguably the scariest horror movie moment of 2024. Indeed, it was a fright so downright shocking that it caused a chill to radiate up and down the spine. We’d wager it ruined the next scene for most people because they needed a few minutes to recover from the abject terror and could barely concentrate on what was happening.

The film isn’t just built around one scare, though. Instead, Damian McCarthy’s Irish horror triumph functions like a grab bag of horror subgenres that somehow work as a cohesive whole. It’s part ghost story, part slasher, part folk horror, part murder mystery, and all scary.

In a modern landscape where so many genres have fallen by the wayside, it’s heartening to know a thriving vein of low-budget horror can still find its audience in cinemas and on streaming services like Shudder. We can’t wait to see what McCarthy does next.

The Hypnosis (Ernst De Geer)

Release Date: December 11th | Genre: Dramatic Comedy | Starring: Asta Kamma August and Herbert Nordrum

The Hypnosis is a wonderfully odd and disorienting tale of millennial madness as a couple finds themselves on the brink of insanity after one of them uses a hypnosis tape to quit smoking, leading to bizarre consequences as she becomes completely uninhibited, unleashing unrestrained inner chaos.

The film is zany and satirical, with director Ernest De Greer critiquing the collective anxiety around authenticity. In a similar fashion to Ruben Östlund, the movie dials up the discomfort and awkwardness of the situation in a way that will leave you watching through your fingers and cringing into oblivion, revealing how performative and controlled we are in expressing our true selves and impulses.

Kill (Nikhil Nagesh Bhat)

Release Date: July 4th | Genre: Action | Starring: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal

The Hindi action movie Kill is so ludicrously and preposterously violent that it sometimes beggars belief. Luckily, it’s also wildly entertaining and innovative in its action, which takes place on an express train hurtling from Ranchi to New Delhi.

Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat makes terrific use of the space limitations of the train’s interior, which means the action never becomes rote or boring. The stunts that are accomplished in the film are also mind-blowing, while the fight choreography is innovative and punishingly hard-hitting.

The performances in the film are generally strong, but particular praise must go to Lakshya as the all-action protagonist and Raghav Juyal as the main villain. Juyal, in particular, seems to be having a ball being as despicable as possible, and it’s great fun to watch.

Dahomey (Mati Diop)

Release Date: September 11th | Genre: Documentary | Starring: Gildas Adannou, Morias Agbessi

A partially dramatised documentary that touches on fact and fantasy and trades in potent issues like appropriation and affirmation, Mati Diop foregoes the standard of its chosen medium to instead exist as an artistic, observational, and occasionally dreamlike exploration of African reclamation.

The Kingdom of Dahomey may have ceased to exist under that moniker in the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until over a century later that 26 historical artefacts were finally returned from Paris to their place of origin in present-day Benin, with Diop posing a fascinating overarching conceit: if Dahomey doesn’t exist anymore, how will the population react to their return?

Using indigenous language, spirited university debates, and narration told from the point of view of a statue to try and form an answer around such a complex situation with its hooks in centuries of Beninise history, Dahomey only runs for a little over an hour, but that’s more than enough time for Diop to make a powerful statement.

Bird (Andrea Arnold)

Release Date: November 8th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan

Andrea Arnold made a welcome return to contemporary British social realism this year with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Nykiya Adams, after making movies like the American road drama American Honey and the documentary Cow. Bird feels indebted to Fish Tank, with its focus on a young working-class girl feeling lost and lonely, yet Arnold modernises her approach, allowing her filmmaking to evolve with the times.

She taps into the current zeitgeist, truly seeming to understand modern working-class culture and thus making a movie that accurately reflects the landscape that many viewers really find themselves in. The movie weaves magical realism into its narrative – a first for Arnold – although her exploration of dreamworlds and escape is nothing new.

Bailey, the 12-year-old protagonist, finds herself adrift due to her rocky home life, leading her to meet the mysterious Bird, a man who stands on top of buildings and seems to possess powers that transcend his humanity. As the narrative unravels, we witness Bailey’s attempts to find a sense of security and stability; with Bird’s help, she just might be able to find it.

My Old Ass (Megan Park)

Release Date: September 13th | Genre: Comedy | Starring: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza

In her second feature, Canadian director Megan Park presents a teen who, while tripping on mushrooms in the woods with friends, encounters an older version of herself.

How the phenomenon happens or why she can continue talking to the older self even after she’s sober is never explained, and it doesn’t have to be because the chemistry between Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza is as charming and magnetic as the steamiest of romantic pairings. Park’s film perfectly captures the impatience and premature nostalgia of that last summer before college, and Stella is a charismatic screen presence, balancing perfect comic timing and teenage hubris with wisdom and humility.

Full of warmth and unexpected twists, the film also navigates the unfiltered emotions of falling in love for the first time, grieving the future, and questioning everything you thought you knew about yourself. It entranced audiences when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year and marked Park as a formidable new talent with a knack for crafting deeply human stories in unusual ways.

Look Back (Kiyotaka Oshiyama)

Release Date: October 25th | Genre: Animation | Starring: Yuumi Kawai, Mizuki Yoshida

Every now and then, you need to watch something that will temporarily lift your spirit. Look Back is perfect in its balance of life-affirming and soul-crushing, with a tender message about the power of art and human connection in alleviating pain.

It’s short and sweet – only 58 minutes – and follows two students whose lives are transformed when they are asked to sit next to each other in class, who find solace and comfort in each other through their shared love of drawing.

It explores the importance of authenticity in our work and the transformative power of collaboration, ending on a note of hopefulness as we see the impact of friendship on both central characters.

Janet Planet (Annie Baker)

Release Date: July 19th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler

Few films had such an effect this year as Janet Planet, with Annie Baker beautifully translating the language of theatre to the silver screen in her impressively assured feature debut.

The movie follows a young girl named Lacey over one summer, living in rural Massachusetts with her mother, Janet. As a shy child who could be described as ‘an old soul’, Lacey spends most of her time observing the adults around her and playing on her own, seemingly content in her own little world despite baring an aura of sadness: like a worry plagues her that she’s too young to understand.

Janet Planet captures the unique experience of being a child who feels too old to be young, not quite fitting in around people your age and only feeling seen by the adults around you, and desperately yearning to grow up and finally feel as though you belong.

Late Night with the Devil (Colin and Cameron Cairnes)

Release Date: March 22nd | Genre: Horror | Starring: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon

Character actor David Dasmalchian finally gets a chance to shine in Australian directing duo Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ inspired horror film, which uses its unique form to make the audience feel like they’re viewing a lost tape they should never have seen.

Ostensibly the events of a late-night talk show episode from Halloween night 1977, Late Night with the Devil asks an age-old question: what if a Johnny Carson-esque host attempted an exorcism live on air? Naturally, for Dastmalchian’s Jack Delroy, who is struggling with the loss of his wife to cancer, this turns out to be a terrible idea, and chaos ensues.

The Cairnes brothers smartly combine standard filmmaking with found footage elements and documentary sections, all made to look like they were shot in the ‘70s before being lost to time. The film is brilliant, scary, and fun, even if the directors did make a significant misstep when they included AI-generated art in one of the film’s montages.

Exhibiting Forgiveness (Titus Kaphar)

Release Date: October 18th | Genre: Drama | Starring: André Holland, John Earl Jelks

Generational familial trauma has long been fertile ground for filmmakers, actors, and features, but rarely has it been laid bare in a fashion as vulnerable, unvarnished, and powerful as Titus Kaphar’s debut Exhibiting Forgiveness.

On the surface, estranged parents seeking to reinsert themselves into the life of an estranged child aren’t ripping up the cinematic rulebook. However, when John Earl Jelks’ recovering addict La’Ron unexpectedly shows up to heal the wounds he left on André Holland’s Tarrell, forgiveness becomes a secondary concern.

Tarrell is a husband, father, and successful artist, all of which he’d built for himself because of the things he can’t forget. If somebody can’t forget, then it becomes a lot harder even to consider trying to forgive. Semi-autobiographical, cathartic on all fronts, thought-provoking, and unyieldingly introspective, Exhibiting Forgiveness is significantly more subtle and nuanced than its seemingly self-explanatory title suggests.

The Taste of Things (Trần Anh Hùng)

Release Date: February 9th | Genre: Historical Drama | Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel

Based loosely on the life of the 19th-century chef Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Trần Anh Hùng’s film is a love story centred around food.

Juliette Binoche plays Eugenie, a cook who has worked with and for a renowned chef named Dido (Benoît Magimel) for two decades. She speaks through food rather than words, refusing to eat with Dido’s guests by explaining that she’s already said everything she could say through her culinary creations. Dido is in awe of her as a chef and woman, a devotion evident during a scene in which he cooks an exquisite meal just for her.

Mutual respect and independence are the backbone of Eugenie and Dido’s relationship, but the food does the talking. The attention to detail in the cooking scenes is staggering, as intricate and precise as a death-defying car chase in a Mission: Impossible movie. The Taste of Things premiered at Cannes last year, where it earned the ‘Best Director’ prize, and it’s the perfect antidote to a bout of cynicism.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)

Release Date: December 6th | Genre: Black Comedy | Starring: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela

Surreal and ruthlessly unsanitised in equal measure, Rungano Nyoni’s follow-up to I Am Not a Witch centres on a Zambian family going through meticulous funereal rituals for a recently deceased uncle.

Looming over the gathering is the dark, open secret that the uncle was a tyrant whose abuse stretched to nearly every member of the extended family. Susan Chardy plays Shula, a niece who appears to be the only family member reluctant to play along with the performance of grief. She is quieter than the other characters, choosing to observe instead of participate fully. From the enraging tragedy of the family’s complicity in the abuse comes dark humour. Nyoni follows every minute detail with a hint of irony, which often takes the form of sight gags and Shula’s stoic silence.

Woven throughout the grim family drama is a technicolour children’s television show about farm animals, which leads to the revelation of the title: a guinea fowl is a small bird whose high-pitched cry warns others of predators. Even in its surrealist touches, the film has an unwavering clarity of vision.

A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)

Release Date: October 4th | Genre: Psychological Thriller | Starring: Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson

Cinema has long produced films about doubles, doppelgangers, and the blending of identities, and A Different Man follows this tradition. However, it is unlike anything that has come before.

Weaving themes of disability into its discussion of identity, the film is a witty and sharp look at vanity and outward appearance and the contrast this often has with what lies beneath. In A Different Man, Sebastian Stan plays a man with severe facial deformities who undergoes an operation that removes the growths and allows him to achieve the things he was unable to do before, such as becoming an actor and dating the woman he’s fancied for a while.

Yet, the superficial approach to life that Stan’s character, Guy, takes is soon complicated when he meets Oswald, a man with the same condition he had before his operation, played by Adam Pearson. The movie explores how the outside world can significantly impact an individual and how identity is a complex idea that can easily be changed. With great performances and direction, A Different Man is a unique but vital take on what it means to be human.

The Shadow Strays (Timo Tjahjanto)

Release Date: October 17th | Genre: Action | Starring: Aurora Ribero, Hana Malasan

Fans of ultraviolent martial arts films rejoiced when this bloody Timo Tjahjanto effort hit Netflix in October. This barnstorming movie recognises beauty in cinematic violence when executed to a high level and commits to giving its audience the kind of mayhem Hollywood would baulk at.

This heightened tale of a teenage assassin who rebels against the shadowy organisation that created her is perhaps nothing particularly new in its story. But it makes up for that with impeccably choreographed fight scenes, gunplay that would make John Wick weep, and a level of gore previously reserved for horror films.

None of this would work without actors who can make the audience care about the characters, though, and Tjahjanto casts brilliantly. We’d be shocked if leading ladies Aurora Ribero and Hana Malasan don’t become massive stars in the next few years, as their performances excel at grounding all the insanity in genuine human emotion.

Universal Language (Matthew Rankin)

Release Date: October 13th | Genre: Comedy | Starring: Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi

Universal Language is a delightfully odd ode to childhood and the oeuvre of Abbas Kiarostami, creating a world of magical realism in Matthew Rankin’s modern-day fairytale set against the backdrop of a snowy Winnipeg.

Rankin weaves together the lives of several people in this small town, following a tour guide, a man trying to reconnect with his estranged mother, a child trying to remove money frozen in an ice block and a turkey who has stolen a pair of glasses.

The dreamy brutalist landscape reminds us of the beauty found in everyday spaces and how the people around us can enrich our lives, creating a sense of magical realism that is both moving and deeply funny.

Black Dog (Guan Hu)

Release Date: August 30th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Eddie Peng, Tong Liya

This superlative Chinese drama won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in May, and it’s easy to see why. The story follows a former stunt motorcyclist, played by Eddie Peng, who returns to his hometown in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and takes on a job to capture a troublesome stray dog before tourists besiege the city.

Naturally, when Peng’s character finds the dog, he can’t just hand it over to be put down. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with the pooch – and maybe even finds himself in the process. It may sound cliche, but it never once feels like that in the hands of a director like Guan Hu and actors who lend total realism to the film.

Heartwarmingly, Black Dog had a lasting impact on its star: Peng adopted the dog – named Xin – after the shoot wrapped. And if that doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, we don’t know what will.

Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)

Release Date: May 3rd | Genre: Thriller | Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brien

Following her successful debut in the religious-themed horror movie Saint Maud, Rose Glass returned earlier this year with her long-awaited sophomore effort, Love Lies Bleeding.

With Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian in leading roles, we follow their characters as they embark on a relationship. However, this isn’t your average romance movie – the fact that Stewart’s Lou is part of a family of criminals, including her terrifying father, whom she has been estranged from, complicates things. Lou and O’Brian’s Jackie, a bodybuilder, are caught up in violence as the narrative unfolds into chaos.

The performances from the main pair and Ed Harris’ horrifying turn as the villain are spectacular, and the 1980s setting feels perfectly fitting for the characters. The movie is a stark contrast from the distinctively British Saint Maud, but with great cinematography, a thrilling score, and Glass’ studied direction, Love Lies Bleeding proves to be another hit from the filmmaker, one of England’s most exciting new faces in the industry.

Timestalker (Alice Lowe)

Release Date: October 11th | Genre: Sci-Fi Comedy | Starring: Alice Lowe, Jacob Anderson

Alice Lowe’s anti-romance will not be for everyone. Starring the director as a woman who travels across multiple centuries to pursue a man who wants nothing to do with her, it’s an absurdist comedy with a hint of science fiction that goes off the rails immediately and never attempts to get back on.

It is also one of the best comedies of the year, a film that deconstructs the Hollywood love story with gleefully irreverent humour and pitch-perfect satire. This is Lowe’s second film as a director, following 2016’s pregnancy serial killer comedy Prevenge. With Timestalker, however, she unleashes a new type of joyful abandon, bringing us a character who is petty, obsessive, self-absorbed, and impossible not to love.

Tanya Reynolds acts as the perfect foil for Lowe’s antics, playing her best friend and maid at various points in the story. Meanwhile, Nick Frost appears as a canine-adjacent spouse, stalker, and stalker-turned-spouse. The film premiered at South By Southwest earlier this year but hasn’t received nearly the attention it deserves.

Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood)

Release Date: November 1st | Genre: Legal thriller | Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette

Sometimes, there are few greater pleasures than watching an experienced filmmaker at work – and that’s exactly what Clint Eastwood did with Juror #2. An almost preternaturally low-key film, despite its life-and-death subject matter, it unfolds with the confident pace of someone who has seen it all before.

Even though it’s a legal thriller that would have fared well in that genre’s 1990s heyday, Eastwood avoids any of the grandstanding that usually comes with that territory. It doesn’t feature a courtroom outburst, and no morally superior speeches are yelled at the top of the characters’ lungs. Even its plot twists are rendered in a minor key, yet they have no less impact.

Ultimately, it was a crying shame that the release of Juror #2 was bungled so severely by Warner Bros, who sacrificed a true legend of the game to the whims of streaming. But if it does prove to be Eastwood’s swansong, he’s at least gone out on a high.

Hoard (Luna Carmoon)

Release Date: May 17th | Genre: Drama | Starring: | Saura Lightfoot Leon, Joseph Quinn

In Luna Carmoon’s debut feature, Hoard, we follow Maria on the cusp of adulthood as she navigates grief, loneliness, and her burgeoning sexuality. This isn’t your average coming-of-age tale; Carmoon centres abject imagery to convey the raw feelings that define Maria’s life. Bodily fluids are exchanged, popping candy is licked off wounds, ashes are consumed, and shepherd’s pie is flung, yet the film never feels like it is simply trying to provoke the audience for cheap thrills.

Carmoon’s film is considered and compassionate, even if certain scenes might leave you recoiling in horror. Showing the true grotesqueness that comes with girlhood and the messy transition between adolescence and becoming an adult, Hoard is a nuanced look at what it means to grow up in the shadow of loss.

As the protagonist finds herself trauma-bonding with Joseph Quinn’s Michael, an older man who is the same woman as her previously fostered, the movie paints a complex portrait of a pivotal moment in Maria’s life. In a landscape dominated by glossy Hollywood tales, Hoard is a refreshing dive into the realities of working-class Britain.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Ariane Louis-Seize)

Release Date: October 13th | Genre: Horror Comedy | Starring: Sara Montpetit, Felix-Antoine Benard

What would happen if a vampire was so disturbed by violence that she couldn’t get enough blood to feed herself? This is the premise of Canadian director Ariane Louis-Seize’s film, which premiered in Venice last year and won the ‘Giornate degli Autori Director’s Award’.

Sara Montpetit stars as Sasha, a young vampire and skilled pianist who is so averse to killing that she cannot bring herself to hunt. When her parents throw her out of the house to fend for herself, she teams up with a suicidal human teenager (Félix-Antoine Bénard) who is more than happy to offer himself as sustenance.

The title is its own punchline and might have been the best thing about the film if Louis-Seize hadn’t found a way to expand upon the premise. Instead of stopping at the gimmick of a vampire finding ready prey in suicidal humans, the story turns into a tale of teenage misfits who become unlikely kindred spirits. Set at night (Sasha would be in excruciating pain if she saw the sun, of course), it’s a moody dark comedy with a retro feel that breaks free of its title and visual style to be emotionally resonant and endearing.

Mars Express (Jérémie Périn)

Release Date: May 3rd | Genre: Animation | Starring: Léa Drucker, Daniel Njo Lobé

Some incredible animated French movies are out there, from Fantastic Planet to My Life as a Courgette, and now Mars Express has joined the ranks. Directed by Jérémie Périn, the movie is set in 2200. It follows Aline and Carlos, two private detectives (with Carlos being an android replica) who are sent to Earth to investigate a cybernetics student who has built up a reputation as a hacker.

The movie explores the division between humans and their android counterparts, with the characters exploring a city on Mars where corruption lurks around every corner. With Léa Drucker and Mathieu Amalric lending their voices to characters, the movie is a well-executed slice of animated science-fiction, drawing from obvious influences like Blade Runner and Fantastic Planet, as well as a wide array of film noir movies.

The film hasn’t received nearly enough praise or recognition, but Mars Express is a fascinating take on the cyberpunk genre, blending European and Hollywood mystery movies with a unique animation style, breathing fresh life into the sci-fi thriller genre.

Good One (India Donaldson)

Release Date: August 9th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Lily Collias, Danny McCarthy

Camping in the wilderness might sound like a dream to some and a nightmare to others. In Good One, the promise of a wholesome camping trip is shattered when 17-year-old Sam finds herself betrayed by her father, Chris, and his best friend, Matt, who has come on the trip, too.

The trio’s time in the woods turns into something unexpected, leaving Sam forever changed by the pivotal trip. The film depicts the challenges Sam faces as a queer teenage girl, teased and treated strangely by Matt, who attempts to wield his maleness to disastrous consequences. She is smart and holds her own against the adults, but soon, we realise that Sam is being asked to grow up too quickly.

The movie doesn’t offer lots of heavy action or explain what’s happening. It is a slice of life gone wrong, with director India Donaldson—in her directorial debut—carefully focusing on Sam’s experience of the trip. Donaldson might have grown up as the daughter of Sleeping Dogs director Roger Donaldson, but the filmmaker has a distinctive and necessary voice of her own.

The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)

Release Date: January 19th | Genre: Dramatic Comedy | Starring: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Alexander Payne returned to form with his 1970s period drama set at a boy’s boarding school. Known for their preoccupation with white middle-class malaise, Payne’s movies can sometimes be tedious and alienating, but he found a much more moving story this time.

Paul Giamatti plays a curmudgeonly English teacher forced to babysit a troublesome student over the holidays. Joining them is the school’s cook, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who recently lost her only son to the Vietnam War. The film could easily have been a mawkish tale of misfits finding common ground for the holidays, but Payne makes sure that the clashes in personality are not easily overcome.

Giamatti’s character is a self-hating elitist with a real disdain for his students. Dominic Sessa, playing the student he has to look after, is sullen and sarcastic. But through the slow, tortured march of their time together, they begin to open their clenched fists and reveal true humanity. The film was nominated for five Oscars, and Randolph won for her outstanding performance as a woman working through grief in her own way. Dark, comedic, and moving in equal measure, it’s one of Payne’s best films and an instant Christmas classic.

Witches (Elizabeth Sankey)

Release Date: November 22nd | Genre: Documentary | Starring: Elizabeth Sankey

Witches is a deeply vulnerable and poignant documentary from Elizabeth Sankey about the correlation between postpartum depression and the portrayal of witches throughout history. It layers footage from films that explore the complex inner meaning of madness and feminine power.

By describing her own experience with post-partum depression and being institutionalised, Sankey delves into the devastating history of women who were burned at the stake and the scary resemblance their stories bear to the women she met inside the mother and baby unit.

By detangling the stigma associated with motherhood and mental illness, the director poses questions about the unspoken struggles of being a mother and the expectation to achieve an innate sense of peace after becoming one, shattering this idealistic image with staggering statistics about the so-called maternal instinct and the damage caused by our beliefs around this.

Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)

Release Date: November 22nd | Genre: Drama | Starring: Zhao Tao, Li Zhubin

Every Jia Zhangke project is a passion project, but Caught by the Tides takes the auteur’s career-long commitment to authenticity to new heights, having been a labour of love that took the Chinese maestro more than 20 years to complete.

Almost impossible to quantify, but in the best possible way, the film flirts with metafiction as Zhangke mounts his most self-referential work yet. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, the combination of conventional narrative, nonlinear storytelling, and behind-the-scenes footage from his own filmography to create something that’s equal parts familiar and unique.

In less capable hands, Caught by the Tides could have easily fallen victim to navel-gazing and self-indulgent nostalgia. Still, with Zhangke at the helm, it maintains the throughline of his entire filmography while doubling as his most personal, moving, and intoxicating film yet.

I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)

Release Date: July 26th | Genre: Psychological Drama | Starring: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine

I Saw the TV Glow was Jane Schoenbrun’s highly anticipated sophomore film, following the liminal strangeness of their debut feature, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.

The movie takes place in a similarly dystopian world, with the main character, Owen, becoming lost in the fringes of reality after becoming obsessed with a TV show called The Pink Opaque. It is a ferocious wake-up call to the devastating effect of not living authentically and someone who becomes a shadow of their true self, with an urgent message about the power of self-realisation and what happens when queer people are forced to assimilate.

By blending horror and surrealism, Schoenbrun creates a transcendental and ethereal story about becoming lost in potential, fading into the background of an alternate life as the real you grows further away.

Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar)

Release Date: July 12th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin

Rooted firmly in fact but with artistic and creative licence to spare, Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing speaks to the uplifting, inspiring, and redemptive powers of finding joy in performance, a universal feeling that rings true regardless of setting and circumstance.

Inspired by a real-life prison programme, Colman Domingo’s wrongly convicted John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield seeks solace, companionship, and fulfilment as part of a group of inmates attempting to stage an original production, all while he protests his innocence and continues his quest for exoneration.

The prison drama and redemption arcs contained therein are well-worn cinematic tropes, but Sing Sing paints them in completely fresh and dazzlingly vibrant colours. It seamlessly combines professional actors and former members of Rehabilitation Through the Arts to place it on the precipice between cinema and verite-style docudrama. By keeping one foot in each world, it achieves the best of both.

No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor)

Release Date: February 17th | Genre: Documentary | Starring: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

A documentary created by a quartet of Palestinian and Israeli activists, journalists, and filmmakers was always going to have a lot to say, given the current political climate. This makes No Other Land urgent, essential, and destined to take its place in history.

Shot over the course of four years, Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal forge a friendship with Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. People from different countries become friends all the time. Still, the looming shadow of conflict transforms their relationship and shared experiences into an act of defiance, a damning indictment of the human cost of war, and an often harrowing means to relay observations and generate conversations.

No Other Land is a riveting documentary that doesn’t just demand to be seen; it demands to be discussed at length as a ground-level portrait of the everyday cost incurred by a terrifying depiction of something as seemingly innocuous as people trying to live their lives under the shadow of displacement and devastation.

Crossing (Levan Akin)

Release Date: July 19th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Mzia Arabuli, Luca Kankava

After the breakout success of his 2019 feature And Then We Danced, many cinephiles were intrigued by the premise of Crossing, described as a queer retelling of the road-trip movie following a retired teacher who travels to Turkey with her neighbour to search for her estranged transgender niece.

The film is full of heart, empathy and humour, exploring an underseen aspect of queer culture in Istanbul and a community of people who have typically been excluded from cinema. Lia is an interesting character, hardened by the traditionalism of her beliefs but becoming softer by the film’s end through her relationship with Achi.

By connecting to a younger generation she has previously been detached from, she finds understanding and compassion for a person she has never understood, with Akin breathing an optimistic strand into a narrative that we would do well to infuse into the real world.

Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger)

Release Date: March 22nd | Genre: Animation

Animation has become incredibly advanced over the years, but that doesn’t mean a gleefully simple and childlike style can’t still work.

Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams doesn’t overcomplicate its imagery, using a flat and bright style that will certainly appeal to children. Yet, the result is one of the most emotional and tender looks at human connection, alienation, and loneliness. On the surface, this might look like a movie for viewers who haven’t reached double digits yet, but Robot Dreams is a tale suitable for everyone, and you might even find yourself relating to Dog, the isolated protagonist who relies on a robot for companionship while living in New York.

Based on Sara Varon’s comic book of the same name, the movie has received widespread acclaim since its release. It further proves that animation can serve as a vehicle for powerful stories as much as it can entertain kids. With little dialogue between the characters, Robot Dreams uses visual and musical cues to communicate its message, and the results are magical.

Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)

Release Date: September 6th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin

Mike Leigh has been considered one of Britain’s most established directors since the 1970s, and his impressive work as a social realist filmmaker has helped the cinematic style to become one of the country’s signature genres. Telling stories about working-class British lives, Leigh’s movies are nothing short of extraordinary, and with Hard Truths, the filmmaker has proved his legendary status once again.

The film sees him reunite with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, whom he previously directed in the breathtaking Secrets and Lies, this time playing Pansy, a woman who struggles to contain her depression. Pansy finds living hard, and as she tries to navigate her day-to-day life, she clashes with others and threatens the stability of her relationships. However, her sister, Chantelle, understands her sibling like no one else despite the fact the pair are incredibly different.

The movie is a great return to Leigh’s social realist style – a moving and quietly powerful study of mental illness and womanhood that feels like a raw and genuine peak behind the curtain of one woman’s muddled inner world. Jean-Baptiste was fantastic in Secrets and Lies, and here, she proves to be a formidable force once again.

The Settlers (Felipe Gálvez Haberle)

Release Date: February 9th | Genre: Western | Starring: Alfredo Castro, Mark Stanley

Westerns rarely come more vivid and revelatory than Chilean director Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s The Settlers. The film starred a few recognisable faces to British audiences, namely Game of Thrones’ Mark Stanley and Fargo’s Sam Spruell, and it starts off in a seemingly traditional manner.

However, the movie soon becomes an uncomfortably searing exploration of the Selk’nam genocide, the systematic wiping out of the indigenous people of the South American Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It’s an upsetting, confronting film, but it is staged with incredible verve and visual style by Haberle.

In some ways, The Settlers could function as a companion piece to a movie like Killers of the Flower Moon, as it creates a similarly immersive experience of a truly dark time in history – and refuses to look away.

Girls Will Be Girls (Shuchi Talati)

Release Date: December 18th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Preeti Panigrahi, Kesav Binoy Kiron

Shuchi Talati’s coming-of-age drama premiered at Sundance in January, winning the ‘Audience Award’ in the ‘World Cinema Dramatic’ category. Set in a Himalayan boarding school, it stars Preeti Panigrahi as Mira, a head prefect whose perfect grades and goody-two-shoes reputation falters when she meets a worldly older student named Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron), and she becomes uneasy about their natural rapport when she brings him home to meet her overbearing mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti).

Girls Will Be Girls is a story about a mother and daughter that masquerades as a romance. The contentious relationship between Mira and Anila is sometimes rooted in the usual struggles between a parent and a child but at others rooted in romantic rivalry. In the background is Mira’s recognition that, despite her excellence as a student and authority as a prefect, her school and her home are dominated by the patriarchy.

This delicate, layered film captures the awkwardness, intensity, and disappointment of first love. It also features stunning cinematography from Jih-E Peng and subtle yet exquisite sound design that steeps you in the lush, meditative rhythms of the natural environment.

I’m Still Here (Walter Salles)

Release Date: November 7th | Genre: Biographical Drama | Starring: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello

Internationally recognised Brazilian movies tend to focus on the country’s vast income inequality, but Walter Salles’ docudrama takes a different approach, zeroing in on a family whose blissful existence is torn apart by the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s.

It’s based on the real-life disappearance of politician Rubens Paiva, who was taken in for questioning one afternoon and was never seen again. Told through the eyes of his wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres), it shows in painful detail the contraction of a once joyful, tight-knit family in the wake of a perpetually pending tragedy.

This is Salles’ first film in over a decade, and it’s personal. As a child, he was friends with one of the Paiva children and was a frequent visitor to their lively home. He brings a specificity to the character of Eunice, showing a woman whose dignity and resilience became a symbol of how easily a carefree life could be upended and redirected by a senseless act of political tyranny.

The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)

Release Date: December 20th | Genre: Historical Drama | Starring: Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce

It’s a tall order for any filmmaker to craft a 215-minute epic and keep the audience engaged from the first minute to the last, but Brady Corbet makes it look easy by immersing viewers in the dark and dingy world of The Brutalist and keeping them engrossed throughout.

Following the life of a Hungarian architect as he relocates to America to build a new legacy, the unflinching and ambitious narrative unfolds across decades and hits a sweet spot that’s incredibly difficult to reach, based solely on how many filmmakers have failed previously: The Brutalist is both an ode to the immigrant experience so intrinsic to the complexion of the United States, without shying away from the tragedy that’s often inherent to the so-called ‘American Dream’.

Anchored by Adrien Brody‘s best performance this side of his Oscar-winning turn in The Pianist with stellar support from Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, The Brutalist tells an intensely personal story against the backdrop of history with artistic virtuosity to spare.

The Substance (Caroline Fargeat)

Release Date: September 20th | Genre: Horror | Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley

Coralie Fargeat’s feminist body horror film became a viral sensation when it was released this fall. It had already won ‘Best Screenplay’ when it debuted at Cannes, but in the shadow of Brat summer, The Substance’s ultra-stylised, off-the-rails excesses felt like a natural evolution.

It stars Demi Moore as an ageing Oscar-winning actor who tries a mysterious treatment that promises to create a younger version of herself. Fargeat blends sexy and grotesque so seamlessly that it’s easy to forget how incongruous they should be.

Exploring themes of misogyny and the grotesque flip-side of plastic surgery while referencing countless classic films, Fargeat’s film is campy, satirical, and downright revolting in the best way. Buoyed by razor-sharp performances from Moore and Margaret Qualley and given stylistic texture through practical effects, a pulsating score, and the instantly iconic production and costume design, this film is a strangely invigorating gore-fest and an instant classic.

Anora (Sean Baker)

Release Date: November 1st | Genre: Dramatic Comedy | Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn

Sean Baker‘s Anora has been endlessly labelled the film of the year, with Mikey Madison adding a spiky vulnerability to her portrayal of the title character, a New York stripper who becomes swept up in a rags-to-riches romance with the son of a Russian oligarch.

It’s a gritty fairytale with a twist, evolving into a tragedy of modern love as we realise this sugar-coated ending was never possible. Anora becomes clouded by her desire for a better life, allowing herself to bend the rules of her profession in the hope it will lead to upward mobility, only to have the rug pulled out from under her.

It’s simultaneously one of the funniest and most heartbreaking movies of 2024, with moments that feel harmlessly entertaining until it suddenly crosses a line and becomes devastating in its bleak honesty about our transactional ideas of love.

All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)

Release Date: November 29th | Genre: Drama | Starring: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha

All We Imagine as Light is a rare gem of a film that feels wholly authentic in its simplicity and sentimentality, following two women as they navigate the joy and heartache of modern love in Mumbai.

One of them hasn’t seen her husband in years after he began working in Germany, and the other is in a secret relationship despite her parents’ eagerness for her to have an arranged marriage with a stranger. Each frame feels incredibly tender and intentional, with lush and careful images balanced against an entrancing story and hypnotic performances.

It’s equal parts dreamy and realistic, grounded in the chaos of city life but with a whimsical core that intimately connects you to these women’s inner world and desires.

Conclave (Edward Berger)

Release Date: November 29th | Genre: Thriller | Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci

Edward Berger followed up his excellent version of All Quiet on the Western Front with this nailbiting thriller about fraught attempts to elect the next Pope after a tragic death. To his credit, Berger takes a concept that doesn’t scream ‘thrills and spills’ and proves that, in his hands, a group of Cardinals conducting cloak-and-dagger discussions in a darkened theatre can be just as thrilling as any car chase.

The film is gripping from minute one, carrying the audience along with intrigue, great acting, and Volker Bertelmann’s pulsing, stirring score. Ralph Fiennes is customarily superb as the constantly conflicted Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, and he is supported by a murderer’s row of character actors doing some of their best work.

Perhaps the most significant thing to recommend Conclave for, though, is that the audience doesn’t necessarily need to have any interest in religion to enjoy it. It’s such a well-crafted thriller and asks so many fascinating questions about modern life that even the most committed agnostic can connect to its characters and their plight.