As 2024 draws to a close, our team of writers, reveling in independent cinema at festivals worldwide, unveils its top 10 discoveries of the year.
After attending over fifty film festivals across the globe this year, our team of journalists had the pleasure of immersing ourselves in a rich tapestry of auteur cinema from all corners of the world. From Sundance to Cannes, Tribeca to Locarno, Visions du Réel to RIDM, with stops in Berlin, Venice, Toronto, and countless others, we also seized the opportunity to meet and interview many of the creative forces behind contemporary cinema. Among them were Anna Hints, Antonella Sudasassi, Raam Reddy, Tyler Taormina, Carson Lund, Julien Colonna, Yôko Yamanaka, Rúnar Rúnarsson, Qiu Yang, Subina Shrestha, Suhasini Maniratnam, Siew Hua Yeo, Péter Kerekes, Duong Dieu Linh, and many more.
Throughout 2024, we shared these enriching encounters and our exciting discoveries with you, averaging nearly one article per day. Now, as the year draws to a close, and before diving into the 2025 film festival season, we take a moment to look back and celebrate the films that resonated most deeply with our team. Here are our editorial staff’s top picks for 2024.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 films of 2024 according to our editorial team:
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Abdul Latif:
- The Guest (dirs. Zvika Gregory Portnoy, Zuzanna Solakiewicz)
- Who Do I Belong To (dir. Meryam Joobeur)
- When the Light Breaks (dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson)
- Reas (dir. Lola Arias)
- In the Land of Brothers (dirs. Alireza Ghasemi, Raha Amirfazli)
- Simon of the Mountain (dir. Federico Luis)
- Salve Maria (dir. Mar Coll)
- Forest (dir. Lidia Duda)
- Some Rain Must Fall (dir. Qiu Yang)
- sr (dir. Lea Hartlaub)
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Aurélie Géron:
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
- The Story of Souleymane (dir. Boris Lojkine)
- Holy Cow (dir. Louise Courvoisier)
- Okurimono (dir. Laurence Lévesque)
- Anora (dir. Sean Baker)
- The Labour of Pain and Joy (dir. Karoliina Gröndahl)
- Valentina and the MUOSters (dir. Francesca Scalisi)
- Who Cares? (dir. Alexe Poukine)
- Reas (dir. Lola Arias)
- Where the Trees Bear Meat (dir. Alexis Franco)
Top 10 Documentaries of 2024 by Michael Granados:
- Direct Action (dirs. Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau)
- Youth (Hard Times) (dir. Wang Bing)
- Youth (Homecoming) (dir. Wang Bing)
- Afternoons of Solitude (dir. Albert Serra)
- exergue – on documenta 14 (dir. Dimitris Athyridis)
- Archéologie de la lumière (dir. Sylvain L’Espérance)
- Henry Fonda for President (dir. Alexandre Horwath)
- A Want In Her (dir. Myrid Carten)
- Under a Blue Sun (dir. Daniel Mann)
- Collective Monologue (dir. Jessica Sarah Rinland)
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Niikhiil Akhiil:
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
- Every You, Every Me (dir. Michael Fetter Nathansky)
- Girls Will Be Girls (dir. Shuchi Talati)
- Daughter’s Daughter (dir. Huang Xi)
- Anora (dir. Sean Baker)
- They Will Be Dust (dir. Carlos Marques-Marset)
- Emilia Pérez (dir. Jacques Audiard)
- Don’t Cry Butterfly (dir. Dương Diệu Linh)
- Viet and Nam (dir. Truong Minh Quy)
- In the Belly of a Tiger (dir. Jatla Siddartha)
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Mehdi Balamissa:
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
- Universal Language (dir. Matthew Rankin)
- Bird (dir. Andrea Arnold)
- Holy Cow (dir. Louise Courvoisier)
- Yintah (dirs. Jennifer Wickham, Michael Toledano, Brenda Michell)
- Afterwar (dir. Birgitte Stærmose)
- Intercepted (dir. Oksana Karpovych)
- Mediha (dir. Hasan Oswald)
- Emilia Pérez (dir. Jacques Audiard)
- A Family (dir. Christine Angot)
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Kristin Ciliberto:
- Anora (dir. Sean Baker)
- Dune Part. II (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
- Strange Darling (dir. J.T. Mollner)
- The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
- Hit Man (dir. Richard Linklater)
- Flow (dir. Gints Zilbalodis)
- The Fall Guy (dir. David Leitch)
- Small Things Like These (dir. Tim Mielants)
- Thelma (dir. Josh Margolin)
- Wicked (dir. Jon M. Chu)
Top 10 Films of 2024 by Ryan Yau:
- The Room Next Door (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
- Challengers (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
- Afternoons of Solitude (dir. Albert Serra)
- The Teacher (dir. Farah Nabulsi)
- Longlegs (dir. Osgood Perkins)
- All We Imagine As Light (dir. Payal Kapadia)
- Nickel Boys (dir. RaMell Ross)
- Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (dir. Tyler Taormina)
- My First Film (dir. Zia Anger)
- Jimmy (dir. Yashaddai Owens)
Top 7 Films of 2024 by Polina Grechanikova:
- Young Hearts (dir. Anthony Schatteman)
- Conclave (dir. Edward Berger)
- It Ends with Us (dir. Justin Baldoni)
- Crossing (dir. Levan Akin)
- The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
- A Real Pain (dir. Jesse Eisenberg)
- The Master and Margarita (dir. Michael Lockshin)
We hope that these lists, reflecting our diverse, unique, vibrant, and open-minded team of writers, will assist you in discovering or rediscovering films that have appeared significant and impactful to us this year. We look forward to sharing our findings from what the 2025 festival season has in store for us.
