The results are in for our 2024 poll of Film Comment‘s contributors and colleagues! On this page you’ll find a selection of the individual ballots submitted by our voters for the Best Films of 2024 category, covering features that were released either theatrically or virtually in 2024 in the United States. To see which films came out on top, check out our Best Films of 2024 list, which features original appreciations from critics, as well as links to features, reviews, and interviews about these films and directors from across the year.

Don’t see your favorite? Check out our Best Undistributed Films of 2024 list, featuring films that premiered this year but have not yet announced stateside distribution.

Coming next week: critic and programmer Inney Prakash’s list of Best Short Films of 2024, and filmmaker and programmer Gina Telaroli’s list of Best Restorations of 2024.

And finally, don’t miss our Best of 2024 Countdown Podcast, featuring guest critics Molly Haskell and Michael Koresky.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)

Lucia Ahrensdorf (critic)

Aggr0 Dr1ft
All We Imagine as Light
A Different Man
A Traveler’s Needs
Coma
Emilia Pérez
Gaucho Gaucho
Hard Truths
Hit Man
La cocina
Last Summer
Megalopolis
Red Rooms
Seeking Mavis Beacon
Spermworld
The Beast
The Room Next Door
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Substance
Vermiglio

Jamsheed Akrami (critic, scholar)

All We Imagine as Light
Anora
Close Your Eyes
Crossing
Dahomey
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Ghostlight
I’m Still Here
LaRoy, Texas
Nowhere Special
Sing Sing
The Last Stop in Yuma County
The Room Next Door
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Wild Robot
Touch
Terrestrial Verses
Vermiglio
Will & Harper

Jonathan Ali (programmer)

About Dry Grasses
Aggr0 Dr1ft
Bye Bye Tiberias
Dahomey
Ernest Cole: Lost & Found
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Janet Planet
La chimera
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Julien Allen (critic, Reverse Shot)

1. The Old Oak
2. The Taste of Things
3. Rebel Ridge
4. About Dry Grasses
5. Juror #2
6. The Human Surge 3
7. The Substance
8. Megalopolis
9. The Beast
10. Longlegs
11. Hit Man
12. Furiosa

Paul Attard (critic)

The Beast
Here (Zemeckis)
Juror #2
Megalopolis

“When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we’re free.”

Miriam Balanescu (critic)

About Dry Grasses
A Different Man
All We Imagine as Light
Anora
Challengers
Didi
Hoard
How to Have Sex
I Saw the TV Glow
Janet Planet
La chimera
Love Lies Bleeding
Nickel Boys
Perfect Days
Queer
Red Rooms
Robot Dreams
The End
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Taste of Things

Margaret Barton-Fumo (critic)

1. A Prince
2. La chimera
3. Anora
4. Janet Planet
5. Last Summer
6. The Beast
7. A Different Man
8. Challengers
9. Rumours
10. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
11. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
12. Love Lies Bleeding
13. Dahomey
14. How to Have Sex
15. Furiosa
16. Evil Does Not Exist
17. Queer
18. Oddity
19. Eno
20. Mambar Pierrette

Michael Blair (Film Comment)

1. Hard Truths 
2. No Other Land
3. Pictures of Ghosts
4. Universal Language
5. A Traveler’s Needs
6. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
7. La chimera
8. Janet Planet
9. A Different Man
10. The Room Next Door
11. Between the Temples
12. Last Things
13. All We Imagine as Light
14. Dahomey
15. Union

Guilherme Blanc (Artistic Director, Batalha Centro de Cinema)

1. Dahomey
2. The Human Surge 3
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. 20,000 Species of Bees
5. West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
6. The Old Oak
7. Kinds of Kindness
8. Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat
9. La chimera
10. Samsara
11. Life is Beautiful: a Letter to Gaza

Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader)

Richard Brody (critic, The New Yorker)

1. Nickel Boys
2. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
3. Megalopolis 
4. My First Film
5. Oh, Canada
6. Blitz
7. Between the Temples
8. The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
9. Juror #2
10. It’s Not Me
11. Hit Man
12. The Featherweight 
13. Evil Does Not Exist 
14. I Saw the TV Glow
15. Last Summer
16. The People’s Joker
17. Dahomey
18. No Other Land
19. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
20. Sasquatch Sunset

Graham L. Carter (critic and filmmaker)

A Prince
Black Tea
Close Your Eyes
Coconut Head Generation
In Our Day
Juror #2
Kottukkaali
Ricky Stanicky
Stress Positions
The Shadowless Tower

Amanda Chen (critic)

1. No Other Land
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Perfect Days
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
5. Anora
6. Challengers
7. Universal Language
8. Janet Planet
9. The Settlers

Edo Choi (programmer, Museum of the Moving Image)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. Youth (Homecoming)
3. Youth (Hard Times)
4. Nickel Boys
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Last Summer
7. Eureka
8. Janet Planet
9. Here (Devos)
10. It’s Not Me
11. Between the Temples
12. No Other Land

Frame for frame, experimental shorts were the strength of 2024: Banging on Their Bars in Rhythm (Everson), Being John Smith (Smith), Careless Passage (Hiler), Dedication: Bernice Hodges (Beavers), Hey Sweet Pea (Peoples), How to Run a Trotline (Elsaesser), Labores in curse (Ramo), Man Number 4 (Pennell), Neighboring Animals (Clark), Refuse Room (Liu), A Shifting Pattern (Sherman), Sinking Feeling (Epcar), Unstable Rocks (Rosinska)

Phil Coldiron (critic)

A Fidai Film
All We Imagine as Light
Coma
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Music
The Beast
Youth (Hard Times)
Youth (Homecoming)

Matt Connolly (critic)

1. Last Summer
2. All We Imagine as Light
3. Janet Planet
4. Didi
5. The Wild Robot
6. A Real Pain
7. Challengers
8. Anora
9. La cocina
10. I Saw the TV Glow
11. The Beast
12. Nickel Boys
13. Evil Does Not Exist
14. The Substance
15. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
16. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
17. Kinds of Kindness
18. Hit Man
19. Furiosa
20. Juror #2

Benjamin Crais (critic and scholar)

Close Your Eyes
No Other Land
Red Rooms
Stress Positions
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Jordan Cronk (critic; programmer, Acropolis Cinema)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. It’s Not Me
3. Close Your Eyes
4. The Beast
5. The Human Surge 3
6. Music
7. Eureka
8. Megalopolis
9. Last Summer
10. The Brutalist
11. In Our Day
12. Aggr0 Dr1ft
13. Youth (Hard Times)
14. Anora
15. Juror #2
16. Hit Man
17. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
18. Trap
19. Evil Does Not Exist
20. Samsara

Limited to one film per director, lest Hong (A Traveler’s Needs), Bonello (Coma), and Wang Bing (Youth [Homecoming]) take up too much of this list.

Adrian Curry (critic)

1. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
2. About Dry Grasses
3. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
4. The Beast
5. Kinds of Kindness
6. Challengers
7. Nickel Boys
8. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
9. All We Imagine as Light
10. Trap

Trap (M. Night Shyalaman)

Robert Daniels (critic, RogerEbert.com)

All We Imagine as Light
Babygirl
Dahomey
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Evil Does Not Exist
Furiosa
Green Border
How to Have Sex
Hundreds of Beavers
I Saw the TV Glow
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
La cocina
Nickel Boys
No Other Land
Sing Sing
The Beast
The Brutalist
The Monk and the Gun
The People’s Joker
Under the Fig Trees

Bedatri Datta Choudhury (critic; programmer, DOC NYC; editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

1. No Other Land
2. About Dry Grasses
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
5. Nickel Boys
6. Dahomey
7. The Room Next Door
8. Perfect Days
9. A Different Man
10. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
11. Pictures of Ghosts
12. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
13. The Taste Of Things
14. Universal Language
15. Janet Planet
16. Union
17. Bye Bye Tiberias
18. I Saw the TV Glow
19. Didi
20. Santosh

Ayanna Dozier (critic and scholar)

1. The Beast
2. Evil Does Not Exist
3. Toute une nuit 
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
5. Coma
6. La chimera
7. No Other Land
8. A Different Man
9. My First Film
10. Megalopolis

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli (filmmaker)

1. Last Things
2. Dahomey
3. The Beast
4. No Other Land
5. Love Lies Bleeding
6. Conclave
7. A Different Man
8. Red Rooms
9. Club Zero
10. Coma
11. La Chimera

A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)

Daniel Eagan (critic)

1. At Averroès & Rosa Parks
2. The Breaking Ice
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. Juror #2
5. No Other Land
6. Evil Does Not Exist
7. The Roundup: Punishment
8. Love Lies Bleeding
9. Girls Will Be Girls
10. Black Dog
11. Furiosa
12. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
13. Megalopolis
14. Perfect Days
15. Cu Li Never Cries
16. Mexico 86
17. Inside Out 2
18. Mori / I Died
19. Customs Frontline

Sarah Fensom (critic)

1. Dahomey
2. About Dry Grasses
3. Last Summer
4. The People’s Joker
5. Megalopolis
6. In Our Day
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
8. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
9. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
10. Samsara
11. Terrifier 3
12. A Traveler’s Needs
13. The Shadowless Tower
14. Rumours
15. Evil Does Not Exist

Such an engrossing year of releases! What impressed me about the films on my list this year wasn’t their faultlessness but rather the scope of their ambition.

Jason Fox (critic)

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Janet Planet
Last Things
Life Is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
The Last Year of Darkness
Three Promises
Union

Jean-Michel Frodon (critic)

1. Evil Does Not Exist
2. The Beast
3. A Traveler’s Needs
4. La chimera
5. Dahomey
6. All We Imagine as Light
7. Megalopolis
8. The Old Oak
9. Bird
10. The Room Next Door
11. Joker: Folie à Deux
12. Youth (Hard Times)
13. No Other Land
14. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
15. The Mother of All Lies
16. Perfect Days
17. Here (Devos)
18. On the Adamant
19. Bushman
20. Ernest Cole: Lost & Found

Lawrence Garcia (critic)

1. This Closeness
2. A Prince
3. Coma
4. Close Your Eyes
5. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
6. Music
7. Last Summer
8. The Human Surge 3
9. In Our Day
10. A Traveler’s Needs

Annie Geng (critic and scholar)

Anora
A Different Man
A Traveler’s Needs
Between the Temples
Good One
Kinds of Kindness
La chimera
My First Film
Stress Positions
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Devika Girish (Editor, Film Comment)

1. La chimera
2. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
3. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
4. All We Imagine as Light
5. Dahomey
6. No Other Land
7. The Human Surge 3
8. The Beast
9. A Traveler’s Needs
10. The Room Next Door
11. Youth (Hard Times)
12. Nickel Boys
13. Coma
14. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
15. Here (Devos)
16. Union
17. Last Things
18. Mambar Pierrette
19. Santosh
20. A Fidai Film

Best Old New Picks: Tongpan (Isan Film Group, 1977); Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembene, 1988); Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman, 1969); The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)

Best Film-Viewing Experience: Seeing Tamone Prai (Thamrong Rujanaphand, 1959)—an amateur King Kong movie shot in rural Thailand by a wedding videographer—projected on 16mm at the Thai Film Archive with live narration and scoring. Courtesy of the 2024 Flaherty Seminar!

The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)

Leonardo Goi (critic)

1. The Brutalist
2. The Beast
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. Evil Does Not Exist
5. All We Imagine as Light
6. Dahomey
7. Megalopolis
8. Anora
9. Close Your Eyes
10. Here (Devos)
11. Samsara
12. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
13. Music
14. La chimera
15. Good One
16. Aggr0 Dr1ft
17. Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point
18. Dream Team
19. The Shadowless Tower
20. Gasoline Rainbow

Leo Goldsmith (critic and scholar)

1. Last Things
2. Evil Does Not Exist
3. Youth (Hard Times)
4. Janet Planet
5. Chime
6. I Saw the TV Glow
7. Eureka
8. The Human Surge 3
9. Dahomey
10. No Other Land

Caroline Golum (filmmaker, critic, programmer)

Anora
Between the Temples
Conclave
Dream Team
Eephus
Evening Song for Three Voices
Failed State
In Search of Gladys Glover
Juror #2
La chimera
Last Year of Darkness
Megalopolis
My Morning with Magic Mike
Rumours
She is Conan
The Becomers
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
The French-Italian
Trap

My sole rubric for what constitutes a “good” film—especially where new releases are concerned—is simple: did I enjoy watching this film? The titles on this unranked list passed with flying colors.

Emerson Goo (critic)

1. A Different Man
2. Youth (Hard Times)
3. Ghost Cat Anzu
4. Look Back
5. Juror #2
6. All Shall Be Well
7. The Tuba Thieves
8. Bye Bye Tiberias

Jessica Green (programmer)

Abigail
All We Imagine as Light
Blink Twice
Blitz
Brats
Challengers
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
Eureka
Furiosa
His Three Daughters
Last Summer
Megan the Stallion: In Her Words
Nickel Boys
Pictures of Ghosts
Queer
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
The Greatest Night in Pop
The Substance
Totem

Victor Guimarães (critic, programmer)

1. The Human Surge 3
2. Aggr0 Dr1ft
3. Music
4. Close Your Eyes
5. The Tuba Thieves
6. Last Things
7. Eureka
8. Last Summer
9. Evil Does Not Exist
10. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
11. Dahomey
12. No Other Land
13. Trap
14. Megalopolis
15. Ernest Cole: Lost & Found

Last Things (Deborah Stratman)

Matilda Hague (critic)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. Last Things
3. No Other Land
4. Aggr0 Dr1ft
5. The Human Surge 3
6. All We Imagine as Light
7. Juror #2
8. Anora
9. The Substance
10. Twisters

Jawni Han (critic)

1. No Other Land
2. All We Imagine as Light
3. Challengers
4. Close Your Eyes
5. Last Summer
6. Juror #2
7. Dahomey
8. A Traveler’s Needs
9. Evil Does Not Exist
10. Trap

Christopher Harris (filmmaker)

Dahomey
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Undistributed pick: Mascon: A Massive Concentration of Black Experiential Energy, The Otolith Group

Molly Haskell (critic; Contributing Editor, Film Comment)

1. Anora
2. All We Imagine as Light
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. Hard Truths
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. The Room Next Door
7. A Different Man
8. Dahomey
9. Janet Planet
10. The Brutalist
11. No Other Land
12. La Chimera
13. Green Border
14. About Dry Grasses
15. Juror #2
16. Conclave
17. Last Summer
18. Hit Man
19. Nickel Boys
20. Megalopolis

Maggie Hennefeld (critic)

1. Union
2. The People’s Joker
3. Bird
4. The Substance
5. La chimera
6. Anora
7. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
8. Rumours
9. Copa 71
10. Janet Planet
11. Love Lies Bleeding
12. Wicked Little Letters
13. Bye Bye Tiberias
14. Girls State

The new restoration of Bona (Lino Brocka, 1980) is definitively the best US theatrical release film of 2024! There are many films I haven’t had the chance to see yet that would surely be on my list, especially All We Imagine as Light and Dahomey. I plan to boycott Nosferatu, which looks totally unwatchable.

J. Hoberman (critic; Contributing Editor, Film Comment)

1. No Other Land
2. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
3. The Goldman Case
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
5. Intercepted
6. Green Border
7. Dahomey
8. Civil War
9. Hard Truths
10. Janet Planet

Darren Hughes (critic; Artistic Director, Film Fest Knox)

1. Last Summer
2. Here (Devos)
3. Mambar Pierrette
4. Music
5. Gasoline Rainbow
6. Kidnapped
7. Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point
8. Eureka
9. Youth (Homecoming)
10. In Our Day
11. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
12. Mountains
13. Hit Man
14. Last Things
15. Peak Season
16. Dahomey
17. Between the Temples
18. Kinds of Kindness
19. Dune: Part Two
20. This Closeness

Eric Hynes (critic; Curator of Film, Museum of the Moving Image)

1. Look Into My Eyes
2. Nickel Boys
3. No Other Land
4. Janet Planet
5. Between the Temples
6. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
7. About Dry Grasses
8. Good One
9. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
10. Hit Man
11. Last Summer
12. Sasquatch Sunset
13. Bird
14. All We Imagine as Light
15. Dahomey
16. Intercepted
17. Universal Language
18. Eureka
19. I Like It Here
20. The Blackbox Diaries

May Adadol Ingawanij (scholar; co-curator, Flaherty Film Seminar 2024)

Evil Does Not Exist
Flow
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

Azadeh Jafari (critic)

1. The Beast
2. The Girl with the Needle
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. Vermiglio
5. The Other Way Around
6. Totem
7. Close Your Eyes
8. Only the River Flows
9. The Substance
10. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
11. I’m Still Here
12. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
13. It’s Not Me
14. Furiosa

Hit Man (Richard Linklater)

Sona Karapoghosyan (critic; programmer, Golden Apricot Film Festival)

1. La chimera
2. Dahomey
3. Eureka
4. Music
5. All We Imagine as Light
6. Here (Devos)
7. The Human Surge 3
8. Evil Does Not Exist
9. Matt and Mara
10. No Other Land
11. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
12. Pictures of Ghosts
13. Rumours
14. Bird
15. Agent of Happiness
16. Perfect Days
17. Sweet Dreams
18. Totem
19. Santosh

Daniel Kasman (editor, MUBI Notebook)

1. Chime
2. Last Summer
3. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
4. Kidnapped
5. Daaaaaali!
6. Red Rooms
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
8. Lumberjack the Monster
9. Good One
10. The People’s Joker
11. Juror #2
12. A Prince
13. Aggr0 Dr1ft
14. Close Your Eyes
15. Gasoline Rainbow
16. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
17. Yannick
18. Trap
19. Challengers
20. Between the Temples

John Klacsmann (archivist, Anthology Film Archives)

A Different Man
Evil Does Not Exist
Here (Zemeckis)
Kinds of Kindness
Last Summer
New Strains
Power
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Union

Michael Koresky (critic; editor, Reverse Shot)

1. Nickel Boys
2. Hard Truths
3. Janet Planet
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
5. I Saw the TV Glow
6. Juror #2
7. Evil Does Not Exist
8. Dahomey
9. Last Summer
10. Good One
11. A Traveler’s Needs
12. All We Imagine as Light
13. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
14. No Other Land
15. The Room Next Door
16. Eureka
17. Mambar Pierrette
18. Hit Man
19. The Brutalist
20. Green Border

Clinton Krute (Managing Editor, Film Comment)

1. The Room Next Door
2. Evil Does Not Exist
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. Janet Planet
5. Hard Truths
6. Mambar Pierrette
7. A Traveler’s Needs
8. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
9. In Our Day
10. Youth (Hard Times)
11. La chimera
12. All We Imagine as Light
13. Dahomey
14. Music
15. It’s Not Me
16. Here (Devos)
17. Eureka
18. Queer
19. Universal Language
20. The Beast

Dorota Lech (programmer, Toronto International Film Festival)

The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Intercepted
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Dahomey
Vermiglio
About Dry Grasses
Universal Language
Black Box Diaries
All We Imagine as Light
Nickel Boys
Green Border
Challengers
La chimera
No Other Land
Hit Man
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Last Summer
Evil Does Not Exist
The Beast
Look Into My Eyes

Nathan Lee (critic and scholar)

1. Here (Devos)
2. La chimera
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. Chime
5. A Prince
6. Challengers
7. A Traveler’s Needs
8. Rebel Ridge
9. Rumours
10. The Vourdalak

Rumours (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson)

Dennis Lim (critic; Artistic Director, New York Film Festival)

1. Evil Does Not Exist
2. The Beast
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. The Human Surge 3
5. Here (Devos)
6. Eureka
7. Hard Truths
8. Last Summer
9. A Traveler’s Needs
10. Youth (Homecoming)
11. Youth (Hard Times)
12. Dahomey
13. Music
14. Nickel Boys
15. Janet Planet
16. Blitz
17. No Other Land
18. All We Imagine as Light
19. The Room Next Door
20. Between the Temples

Chloe Lizotte (editor, MUBI Notebook)

1. Evil Does Not Exist
2. Hard Truths
3. The People’s Joker
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
5. Last Summer
6. Last Things
7. The Human Surge 3
8. A Different Man
9. Rumours
10. Hundreds of Beavers

Beatrice Loayza (critic)

1. The Beast
2. Last Summer
3. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
4. Evil Does Not Exist
5. Red Rooms
6. A Prince
7. Pictures of Ghosts
8. Hard Truths
9. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
10. All We Imagine As Light
11. A Different Man
12. Music
13. Challengers
14. The First Omen
15. Mambar Pierrette
16. Vermiglio
17. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
18. The Girl with the Needle
19. The Substance
20. Anora

Guy Lodge (critic, Variety)

1. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
2. Close Your Eyes
3. No Other Land
4. Housekeeping for Beginners
5. Babygirl
6. Anora
7. All We Imagine As Light
8. Nickel Boys
9. Sweet Dreams
10. The Brutalist
11. Nosferatu
12. Apolonia Apolonia
13. Last Summer
14. Dahomey
15. Love Lies Bleeding
16. Small Things Like These
17. The Origin of Evil
18. Good One
19. Daaaaaali!
20. The Girl With the Needle

Mackenzie Lukenbill (critic and archivist)

1. Last Things
2. No Other Land
3. Dahomey
4. The Beast
5. La chimera
6. My First Film
7. Coma
8. Love Lies Bleeding
9. Janet Planet
10. A Different Man
11. I Saw the TV Glow
12. A Fidai Film

Saffron Maeve (critic)

1. Close Your Eyes
2. All We Imagine as Light
3. The Beast
4. Trap
5. Stress Positions
6. Janet Planet
7. Matt and Mara
8. A Traveler’s Needs
9. Dahomey
10. This Closeness

Giovanni Marchini Camia (critic; programmer, Locarno; publisher, Fireflies Press)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. Evil Does Not Exist
3. The Human Surge 3
4. Youth (Homecoming)
5. Youth (Hard Times)
6. The Beast
7. Dahomey
8. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
9. Last Summer
10. Only the River Flows
11. Anora
12. A Traveler’s Needs
13. All We Imagine as Light
14. Music
15. Coma
16. Trap
17. Oh, Canada
18. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
19. Flow
20. The Settlers

Caden Mark Gardner (critic)

1. The Beast
2. I Saw the TV Glow
3. Nickel Boys
4. Anora
5. Furiosa
6. Janet Planet
7. Last Summer
8. La chimera
9. Evil Does Not Exist
10. Hard Truths
11. The Bikeriders
12. The People’s Joker

Hannu Matias Björkbacka (critic)

1. Anora
2. Megalopolis
3. The Room Next Door
4. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
5. Last Summer
6. How to Have Sex
7. Kinds of Kindness

Willow Catelyn Maclay (critic)

Close Your Eyes
I Saw the TV Glow
Juror #2
Last Summer
Stress Positions
The Beast
The People’s Joker
The Substance
Trap

Celia Mattison (critic)

1. Hard Truths
2. I Saw the TV Glow
3. Problemista
4. A Real Pain
5. Good One
6. Bird
7. The Beast
8. Nickel Boys
9. Small Things Like These
10. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
11. Anora
12. Challengers
13. My First Film
14. La chimera
15. Oh, Canada
16. Dune: Part Two
17. Trap

Carly Mattox (critic)

1. I Saw the TV Glow
2. Anora
3. Dahomey
4. Here (Devos)
5. Janet Planet
6. Nickel Boys
7. Universal Language
8. Queer
9. A Real Pain
10. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
11. A Different Man
12. All We Imagine as Light
13. La chimera
14. Limbo (Sen)
15. Red Rooms
16. The Beast
17. Robot Dreams
18. Conclave
19. Longlegs
20. Hit Man

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Phạm Thiên Ân)

Alyssandra Maxine (critic)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. Moving
3. Oasis 
4. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
5. Poetry 
6. Bona
7. Anora
8. Peppermint Candy
9. I Saw the TV Glow
10. A Traveler’s Needs
11. Trap
12. This Closeness
13. All We Imagine as Light
14. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Wish I had more to add here, but releases trickle in slowly into the Philippines (where I’m based) and it’s just been a busy year for me outside of film.

Edward McCarry (critic)

1. In Our Day
2. A Traveler’s Needs
3. Moving
4. Où sont tous mes amants?
5. Close Your Eyes
6. Chime
7. Evil Does Not Exist
8. Here (Zemeckis)

Steven Mears (critic; Copy Editor, Film Comment)

1. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
2. The Beast
3. All We Imagine as Light
4. Anora
5. Close Your Eyes
6. Green Border
7. Sugarcane
8. Janet Planet
9. La chimera
10. Flipside
11. Hit Man
12. Evil Does Not Exist
13. A Different Man
14. Gasoline Rainbow
15. Good One
16. Between the Temples
17. The Wild Robot
18. Ghostlight
19. Small Things Like These
20. Strange Darling

Vikram Murthi (critic, Downtime)

1. Evil Does Not Exist
2. The Beast
3. Janet Planet
4. Anora
5. Red Rooms
6. Coma
7. Good One
8. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
9. No Other Land
10. Challengers
11. Art Talent Show
12. Hit Man
13. Flipside
14. Rebel Ridge
15. A Different Man
16. Between the Temples
17. Nickel Boys
18. Megalopolis
19. Pictures of Ghosts
20. Here (Zemeckis)

A snapshot of my viewing up to 11/26/24. I haven’t yet had the chance to see a handful of “major titles” that may have impacted this list. My ranking is equally rooted in fervent belief and impulsivity.

Cristina Nord (programmer)

1. La chimera
2. Music
3. Dahomey
4. Queer
5. West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
6. I Heard It Through the Grapevine
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
8. Here (Devos)
9. Harvest
10. Concrete Valley
11. A Traveler’s Needs
12. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat