Strippers, rebellion and figs: Here are the Best Movies of 2024

It's that time of the year again, and the Euronews Culture team has been reflecting on the movies released this year that have made 2024 a banner year for cinema. 

There have been barnstormers, tearjerkers and unexpected treasures amongst a largely terrible year for blockbusters when it comes to both quality and box office numbers – leading to what was referred to as Flopbuster season.  

Whether it’s Argylle, Furiosa, The Crow, Borderlands, Venom: The Last Dance, Madame Web, Joker: Folie à Deux, Gladiator II, Kraven The Hunter and Megalopolis, the worst offenders were mostly unwarranted sequels, reboots or comic book and video game adaptations. 

The less said about the never-ending Wicked press tour, the better. 

Granted, the superhero extravaganza Deadpool & Wolverine brought in the big bucks, and one sequel did manage to impress and make our Top 20, so there were exceptions to the rule which clearly states that audiences want something more than cookiecutter naffness. 

This end of year list is hardly a definitive ranking, simply because no year of moviegoing can be reduced to a simple Top 20 - and nor should it be. However, these are the movies that followed us home after the screenings and lodged themselves in our minds. And hearts. And fragile spines. (More on The Substance in a bit.) 

Our selection is the result of some hard - and mostly democratic - choices from the part of the Euronews Culture team, who has kept to the cast-iron rule that the films need to have been released in European theatres this year. This means that even if we’ve seen the likes of The Brutalist, April, Nosferatu, I’m Still Here, A Real Pain, Hard Truths, Sing Sing, A Complete Unknown and Nickel Boys, they are sadly absent as they get Europe-wide releases in 2025. 

And if you’re wondering where Perfect Days, The Holdovers and Tótem are, they were released in most European territories last year and already made our Best Movies of 2023 list. Just clarifying, as these three films were standouts. 

Before we start, our 2024 honourable mentions go to the following films: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist; Edward Berger’s Conclave; Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl; Phạm Thiên Ân’s Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell; Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These; Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour; Tatiana Huezo’s El Eco; Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land; Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice; Alex Garland’s Civil War; Noémie Merlant’s The Balconettes. 

Considering how strong those releases were, it’s safe to say that our Top 20 picks are absolute must-sees. And no, Megalopolis did not make the cut, despite protests from one wayward member of the team - purely because his protestations were scoffed at by the rest of the group, who thought that despite its ambitions it remained pompous tripe. 

As previously stated: “mostly democratic” choices.

So, without further ado, our countdown to the best film of 2024 begins with...

20) Dìdi

Sean Wang’s feature-length debut is an enormously charming and heartfelt exploration of growing up in the strange overlap between Gen Z and Millennial culture.

Set in the mid-2000s, the film captures the era’s essence with pinpoint accuracy. From cringey MySpace profiles and Paramore T-shirts to the early days of YouTube, every detail feels spot-on. At the heart of the story is a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy (played with pitch-perfect awkwardness by Izaac Wang), who is navigating the confusion of adolescence - messy friendships, family dramas, first crushes, and the impossible quest to figure out who you really are.

Much like Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade and Jonah Hill's Mid90s, Dìdi manages to balance humour, heartbreak and nostalgia, serving a nostalgic gut punch for anyone who’s ever been 13 and is deeply mortified by the whole thing. TF

19) 2073

With every year that passes comes an expanding sense that humanity’s not getting any better – much less learning from its mistakes. So, fair warning: the latest documentary from Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy) may not be the ideal way to end the year if you’re in the mood for seasonal cheer.

In the space of 85 minutes, the British filmmaker delivers an unsettling genre-bending docu hybrid which tackles the biggest challenges endangering our present, all set in a fictional dystopian future. Imagine Children of Men with Judge Dredd patrolling the streets alongside a swarm of drones, and you’re pretty much there.

Broadly inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée – which also inspired Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys – this urgent cautionary tale features contemporary news footage interspersed with interviews and a depressingly familiar rogues gallery (Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Nigel Farage, Viktor Orbán, Elon Musk) to illustrate not only the disruption of democracy but that it’s not about facts anymore. It's about emotions and the distortion of a shared reality. Essentially playing out as a “I hope someone finds this” time capsule sent from the future, 2073 is a way for us to recognize our already triggered downfall before it's too late.

Having premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, prior to the re-election of Trump, 2073 gains an additional weight following recent current events - as if to say that humanity just can’t seem to open its eyes to the slow creep of its own undoing. Granted, 2073 is not an exercise in subtlety – but that’s precisely the point. Humanity as a whole isn’t known for its understatedness, and this film is a brilliantly edited reminder that author Marie Lu was right when she wrote in her 2017 novel “Warcross”: “Everything's science fiction until someone makes it science fact.” We’re running out of time. DM 

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with director Asif Kapadia.

18) Bird

Amid the desolation of poverty-ridden Britain, a young girl befriends a peculiar man.

After establishing herself as a director of devastating kitchen sink realism through films like Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold’s escape into magical realism with Bird was one of the most refreshing films of the year. Driven by an impressive performance from the young Nykiya Adams as the 12-year-old Bailey, Arnold’s film fizzes with many of the themes from her previous work.

Life for Bailey is tough. She lives in squalor with her chaotic father Bug – played with devilish abandon by an ever-reliable Barry Keoghan – her father’s fiancé and her half-brother Hunter who is getting involved in violent gang activity. On the other side of town, Bailey’s mother lives with her siblings under the yoke of an abusive partner. Arnold is no stranger to depicting these kinds of grim realities; what’s new to her filmography is the introduction of a character like Bird, a wistful presence played with endearing mystery by Franz Rogowski. What’s so impressive about Bird is Arnold’s delicate balance of harsh conditions with the introduction of Bird and the opportunity he presents to Bailey for transcendence through nature and kindness.

In less capable hands, Bird would feel mawkish, but the film deftly weaves its themes of brutality, hope, despair, and joy effortlessly - all with some of the best needle drops this year, including everyone from Fontaines D.C. to Coldplay. JW

17) Love Lies Bleeding

Sweaty skin, bulging biceps, brain-splattered walls - Love Lies Bleeding is not your typical love story. The second feature from British director Rose Glass, whose Saint Maud (2019) is widely considered one of the past decade’s greatest horrors, expectations were large. Appropriately, Glass delivered something even larger.

Set in the underbelly of 1989 rural New Mexico, a solitary Lou (Kristen Stewart) spends her days managing her dad’s (a terrifying skullet-donning Ed Harris) gym, unclogging toilets before returning home, where she listens to Allen Carr's ‘Easyway to Stop Smoking’ and masturbates on the sofa. Then she meets Jackie (Katy M. O'Brian), a bodybuilder with dreams of competing in Las Vegas. The two begin a heated relationship as Jackie also starts taking steroids, this combination of authentic and artificial hormones resulting in a violent outburst that threatens to unravel the dark secrets of Lou’s criminal family, putting both their lives at risk.

At once dirty and dreamy, it’s a film soaked in the contrasting ambiences of nicotine-stained pulp and star-spangled romanticism. From visceral close-ups of straining muscles to hallucinogenic slow-mo running, there’s the feeling we’re in a world distorted by oxytocin-pumped illusions of grandeur. It’s a mutated meet-cute that metastasises into magical realism, revealing love to be both destructive and empowering, bloodied and beautiful, hopeless and huge. AB 

16) Dune: Part Two

Anyone unconvinced of the scale of the triumph Denis Villeneuve achieved with Dune: Part Two should watch the new spin-off series ‘Dune: Prophecy’. HBO’s visually bland show is dragged further down by dull politics and passionless performances.

For all of Frank Herbert’s expansive approach to world building in the original ‘Dune’ novel, set tens of thousands of years in the future, the book has long proven impossible to adapt well despite valiant attempts by David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Villeneuve silenced all detractors with the epic first part to his proposed trilogy. A confidently realised sci-fi vision brought the desert planet of Arrakis to the screen, mammoth sandworms and all. It was anchored by magnetic performances from a cast helmed by Timothée Chalamet, bringing the sterile personalities of the novel to life. One of the greatest achievements of cinema this year was Villeneuve landing the follow-up second half of the story. 

Dune: Part Two delivers on every promise made by the first half. The arid universe is just as believable thanks to Villeneuve’s dedication to Herbert’s world and his penchant for practical effects. Chalamet is a powerhouse as Paul Atreides, wrought by loss and prophecy, transforming from traumatised teen to galactic dictator. He’s accompanied by the terrific Zendaya, who as Chani has been given a meatier role in the films to bring out the emotional impact of the story. Plus the sandworms are back and more sublimely awesome than before. It’s a meaty complex sci-fi world that isn’t afraid of spectacle. A film this good being the fifth biggest blockbuster of the year is enough to revive some faith in Hollywood. JW 

15) The Feline Double-Bill: Flow & Gokogu no Neko (The Cats of Gokogu Shrine)

It’s been a good year for cats in cinema. From the Scottish Fold in Argylle to fearless Frodo in A Quiet Place: Day One, felines are more in demand than ever - a welcome reputation cleanser for a species still sullied by Tom Hooper’s disastrous Cats. Far from the jump scare screeches of old, two notable releases this year put cats’ inherent zen at their core, tender stretches of story that radiate with purrs and peacefulness. 

Gints Zilbalodis’ striking animated film Flow, which premiered at Cannes, recently won Best Animated Film at the European Film Awards and has been selected as Latvia’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Oscars. It follows a black cat trying to find refuge amidst a devastating flood that sinks its homeland, teaming up with various other animals along the way. Dialogue-free and visualised in a uniquely blocky style reminiscent of old computer games, it’s a movie that leaves space for our imaginations to swim. The detailed micro-characteristics of each species, like the overly-keen labrador, the grumpy capybara and the inscrutable secretarybird, create endearing dynamics that float themes of friendship and the importance of banding together despite differences. While the topic of climate change also looms large, Flow is most rewarding when viewed as a simple story told beautifully - at points rather stressful, but ultimately life-affirming catnip for the soul. 

As for The Cats of Gokogu Shrine, it is a gentle observational documentary by Kazuhiro Soda that premiered at the 2024 Berlinale. Focused on an ancient Shinto shrine overrun by cats, it unfurls into a deeply touching portrayal of a Japanese community coexisting together. Elderly men gather to fish while stray cats cheekily steal their sardinella. A woman, who’s not allowed cats in her apartment, regularly visits the shrine to de-stress and see her favourite cow-patterned kitty. A quiet groundsman spritzes plants and wrinkles his nose at all the cat-lovers. It’s a warm hug of a documentary, the meditative flow of its pocket of life generating a sense of presence and calm - something we could all do with more of. AB

14) Oddity

There are always those who bemoan that modern horror can’t live up to the pinnacle of the “good ol’ days”. It’s true that finding a new and bold approach to familiar tropes amongst unscary and rather cynical cashgrabs isn’t always easy, but 2024 has proven once again that there are some truly fantastic horror films out there. 

This year, we’ve had Stopmotion, Late Night With The Devil, Heretic, The Substance and The Devil’s Bath delighting dreadheads and white knucklers alike. (More on those last two in a bit – and please note that the bafflingly overhyped Longlegs hasn't made the cut, despite the social media buzz making a portion of the internet lose their collective shit for very little.)

One which stood out amongst a stellar bunch was Damien McCarthy’s Oddity. For the follow-up to his acclaimed Caveat, the Irish writer-director delivered another slow paced chiller, this time about a blind medium trying to uncover the truth behind her twin sister’s murder. Oh, and there’s a wooden mannequin involved that will haunt your dreams and will make you reassess your Top 3 sleep paralysis demons ranking.

The film is a supernaturally-tinged home invasion movie that reveals itself to be a creepy exploration of loss, as well as a canny retelling of the Golem myth.The performances throughout are excellent – especially Carolyn Bracken, who completely aces playing both sisters – and McCarthy makes the most of the slim budget and limited locations. Oddity is a testament to ratcheting tension and crafting intelligent, heart-pumping jump scares – which are few but perfectly orchestrated. They cannily serve this tale of how the spirit world can seek retribution against evil that is all-too-human. DM

13) Kneecap

Selected as Ireland's official submission to the Oscars, Kneecap is a wildly entertaining exploration of resilience and rebellion against systemic oppression.

Based on the real-life Irish hip-hop band Kneecap, who perform in their native Irish language, the film stars the band members as themselves, adding a layer of authenticity to this drug-fuelled origin story set in post-Troubles Belfast. Through their lyrics, the band puts a middle finger up to English rule in Northern Ireland and the suppression of their linguistic heritage.

Marking director Rich Peppiatt’s debut feature, the film is brimming with energy, thanks to its experimental filming style, raucous performances - including a memorable supporting turn from Michael Fassbender - and the occasional bum flash! It's a superb testament to the importance of language, cultural preservation, and the unflinching spirit of hip-hop. TF

Check out Euronews Culture's interview with director Rich Peppiatt.

12) Yórgos Lánthimos & Emma Stone Double-Bill: Poor Things & Kinds of Kindness

Poor Things may feel like a 2023 film, having won last year’s Venice Golden Lion and bagged Emma Stone her second Best Actress Oscar, but it was released at the very beginning of the year and therefore makes the cut. We’ve already chewed your ears off about its merits and regulars of good Euronews Culture parish will know how much we enjoyed Lánthimos’ singular Victorian Frankenstein riff.

The thing is that 2024 is very much a Lánthimos / Stone year. The Greek filmmaker and the American actress didn’t do things by halves and treated audiences to a second helping with the Cannes-premiering Kinds of Kindness. Who says we can’t have nice things? Well, bleak things, because the second of the two saw the director reclaim his title of King of the Greek Weird Wave.

Kinds of Kindness is a strange anthology triptych that is darker and far more surreal than his recent output – the perfect film for those who have been missing that queasy malaise felt during the indelibly uncompromising Dogtooth and troubling The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It tells three loosely connected stories using the same acting troupe in different roles. There’s group sex, cannibalism, cults, doppelgängers, and not as much kindness as the title would have you believe.

It’s Lánthimos’ intoxicatingly hilarious and cruel spin on The Twilight Zone. Stone may have been less centre stage compared to Poor Things - with Jesse Plemmons stealing the show and rightly nabbing the Best Actor Palme on the Croisette this year. However, the actress assured that what could feasibly have been a fun but disposable victory lap following Poor Things was actually nothing of the sort. The three deadpan allegories, about the limits of love and free will, as well as the relinquishing of control in relationships, make up a theatre-of-the-absurd trip into the Yórgostonesphere worth taking. And we won’t have to wait long before a third Lánthimos-Stone collab, as Bugonia is scheduled for next year. Rejoice! DM

11) Queer

Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has been busy this year, with two films released in theatres in the last 12 months: Challengers and Queer. We’re going for the latter – and here’s why.

Over the course of his career, Guadagnino has shown himself to be a master at depicting desire. From the vicious-limbs and surrealist spectacles of Suspiria to the sun-slanted glances and poked-peaches of Call Me By Your Name, he manages to capture the unspoken yearnings both within and between people with a tantalising tactility. It’s this strength that truly elevates his adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novella, texturing the source material with a rich visual underworld while also capturing the present feeling of a specific time and place.

William Lee (Daniel Craig) is an expat living in Mexico City, wandering its neon-drizzled streets and bars like a ghost, in a crumpled white suit and haze of cigarette smoke. After becoming infatuated with a young man named Eugene (Drew Starkey), the two embark on a journey of self-discovery. It’s here that the film takes a sudden turn from simmering inside an Edward Hopper painting to a Fear and Loathing-esque hallucinogenic blast that seeks to pull every particle of our protagonist’s being apart and put it back together again.

Sensual aesthetics, a purposefully anachronistic soundtrack and career-best performance from Craig all combine to make Queer a deeply affecting movie experience that articulates so many truths about longing, loss and mortality. Intense? Yes, but its heaviness feels oddly freeing, as though we’re rearranging ourselves alongside Lee, his world a phantom memory we inhabit as wholly and fleetingly as a stranger’s touch. AB

10) All Of Us Strangers

Japanese author Taichi Yamada’s ghost story "Strangers" is adapted to the screen, this time with an English setting and a homosexual couple at the centre. For all the changes, it retains the original’s conceit as lonely screenwriter Adam, played with deep wells of empathy by Andrew Scott, returns to his childhood home to find his long-dead parents still there, trapped in the amber of his youthful memories of them. All the while, Adam sparks up a romance with neighbour and fellow loner Harry, a powerfully restrained Paul Mescal.

Andrew Haigh’s take on the Japanese story is full to the brim with feeling. Adam’s parental visits dig up his fears over his sexuality not being accepted before diving head-first into the grief of childhood bereavement. The parent-child scenes are as weepy as 2024 cinema gets. It manages to continuously feel earned - in no small part thanks to Scott’s world-weary eyes, translating across acres of feeling.

Stylishly shot but never overbearingly so, All of Us Strangers is also a warm depiction of the redemptive power of relationships against childhood trauma. Haigh is at points unrelenting in his depiction of loneliness, and the final twist of his depressing knife risks turning parodic, but the overall effect is a tender fable that won’t leave a dry eye in the house. JW 

9) La Bête (The Beast)

Set in 1910, 2014 and 2044, The Beast is unafraid of confounding viewers at first as it jumps through genres as comfortably as it does time. Based – very loosely – on the 1903 Henry James novella "The Beast in the Jungle", French director Bertrand Bonello creates a tragic Jamesian setting for the 20th century segment, alongside a spine-chilling thriller about modern incel culture, and a futuristic allegory about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

All three eras are tied together by Léa Seydoux who leads as the 2044 woman forced by AI overlords to purge her emotions through re-experiencing past lives and the eternal recurrence of a tragic foil, played by George MacKay. Seydoux is astonishing in a multifaceted performance that keeps you centred as the plot weaves across centuries.

Audiences unwilling to engage will be turned off by its audacity, but The Beast’s greatest quality is its own pomposity. Watch with an open mind to its unwieldy plot and this is an impassioned plea for humanity. Engrossing, bewildering and glorious – it’s an audacious film whose risks never boil over into the ridiculous as Seydoux and MacKay continuously sell the bold tripartite world Bonello has brought to the screen. JW

8) Emilia Pérez

French director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Dheepan) orchestrated a barnstorming comeback this year, one that nobody was quite ready for. 

* Deep breath *

His Mexico-set, Spanish-language, gangster-trans-musical-melodrama featuring gender transitioning, cartels, gorgeous choreographies and songs about vaginoplasty wowed Cannes, where it won two Palmes. Emilia Pérez also cemented itself as a Golden Globe and Oscars frontrunner by sweeping the board at the European Film Awards earlier this month.

This Sicario on Broadway follows a Mexican cartel boss (played to perfection by Karla Sofía Gascón), who wants to become a woman. In order to do so without the cartels getting a whiff of his plan, he kidnaps a lawyer (Zoé Saldaña), who is tired of defending violent husbands in a corrupt system. If you haven’t seen it yet, we’re leaving the skinny extra lean. Safe to say, however, that this eccentric tale of emancipation, identity, corruption and redemption is a bold swing for the fences, a perfectly orchestrated kitschy folly with a fully realised vision that never plays it safe.

Karla Sofía Gascón made history on the Croisette by becoming the first trans performer to take home the Best Actress Palme (alongside the rest of the female cast as an ensemble) and we wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if more accolades were coming her way. She makes this film centred around fascinating women a truly enlivening experience, as there’s so much power, pathos and earnestness seeping through every moment of her performance – as well as the double-act she forms with Saldaña. Better get the awards cabinet ready – this genre and gender bending film is a triumph. DM  

Check out Euronews Culture’s footage of the European Film Awards and our chats with Karla Sofía Gascón. 

7) Zielona Granica (Green Border)

The title of veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s powerful feature refers to the forests that make up the no-man’s land between Belarus and Poland. There, refugees from the Middle East and Africa desperately try to reach the European Union and find themselves trapped in an absurd to-and-fro overseen by both the Belarusian and Polish governments. Refugees are lured to the border, with the promise of safe passage to the EU. The reality is that they are political pawns in a rigged game orchestrated by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko; they are brutally evicted between the two sides, neither of which claims any responsibility and continues to condemn them to a horrifically finite in-limbo.

Over the course of four chapters ('Family', 'The Guard', 'The Activists', 'Julia') and a damning epilogue addressing the sin of hypocrisy when it comes to mass dehumanization, the stories intertwine to expose a gripping and emotionally devastating indictment of a continuing EU crisis.

Having based the film on meticulous research and interviews with refugees, border guards and activists, Holland always avoids melodrama – in part also thanks to the raw authenticity to the performances and Tomek Naumiuk’s superb black-and-white photography, which often lends the film a quasi documentary feel. Holland chooses to focus on the shards of light desperately fighting to peek through corroded humanity, and her film at times recalls Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić‘s Quo Vadis, Aida?, in the way she deftly narrows the scope of the narrative without ever diminishing the scale of the real-life atrocity. Rare are films that manage to deftly blend righteous anger and compassionate filmmaking like this piece of humanist filmmaking. DM

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with director Agnieszka Holland.

6) Des Teufels Bad (The Devil’s Bath)

Based on extensive research into historical court records, The Devil’s Bath sees Austrian directing duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala shine an unsettling light on a previously unexplored chapter of European history. By giving a voice to history’s voiceless, we discover how hundreds of people – mostly women – “cured” themselves of their depression by driving themselves to suicide by proxy, in order to avoid eternal damnation.

In crafting this profoundly immersive and disturbing psychological portrait of a dogmatic loophole, carried throughout by the wonderful Anja Plaschg (aka: musician Soap&Skin, who also provides one hell of an ominous score), the directors employ some stunning William Blake references, as well as the cinematic language of horror. Unlike their previous films Goodnight Mommy or The Lodge, however, The Devil’s Bath defies easy categorisation. It’s a lot of things at once: a stunningly shot period piece; a spine-chilling critique of religious dogma; a heart-wrenching excavation of the past’s voiceless; a moody metaphysical exploration of the cages that have travelled through time to persist in current-day society. And considering ecclesiastical doctrine remains alive and well to this day, there’s an added timely resonance to the film, which echoes still-persistent stigma surrounding depression and suicide. 

In short, The Devil’s Bath is a lot to take in and the furthest thing from light viewing - but it’s fascinating and enveloping to the point of being unmissable. DM 

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala.

5) All We Imagine As Light

Payal Kapadia’s second feature film All We Imagine As Light was the first Indian film to play in Cannes Competition in 30 years, and it was rewarded with the Grand Prix. Sadly, India passed on the opportunity to send it to the Oscars next year, which is quite the misfire as it’s a stunning piece of work.

This immersive and tender drama depicts how the lives of three Hindu women intersect. There’s a senior nurse at a specialty hospital, a younger nurse who has embarked on a clandestine romance, and a cook who works in the kitchen at the hospital. Through them, we witness the daily hardships facing working-class women in Mumbai. 

On the surface, it’s a tale dealing with love and relationships; but as the runtime progresses, unexpected surreal elements are injected and break the verité style. Kapadia injects increasing hope throughout the runtime and builds to a compassionate ode to friendship and female solidarity, which in turn becomes a uniquely haunting meditation on belonging and the dislocations inherent to life.

Considering the sheer number of films desperately vying for gongs during awards season, Kapadia’s stunning work deserves more than to get lost in the hustings. Especially when it takes a magical realist twist in its final half hour, which may be one of the most glorious moments in cinema this year. DM

4) The Substance

A spine-splintering regurgitation of repressed female rage, Coralie Fargeat’s body horror spectacle was one of 2024’s most cathartic and courageous movies.

In a familiar tale of Hollywood ageism, aerobics presenter Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is fired shortly after celebrating a milestone birthday. Her slimy boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) - nothing is subtle here - explains between sloppy mouthfuls of shrimp that, “At 50, well, it stops.” Feeling invisible and dejected, Sparkle orders a mysterious black market injectable known as ‘The Substance’, which promises to create a “younger, better, more perfect” version of yourself. The catch? There are many - the first being you must birth this “better” version of yourself from your spine.

Stylish, squelchy and sicko-coded, this is a movie that manages to feel completely original despite its obvious cinematic influences (David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Frank Henenlotter to name but a few). Winning best screenplay at Cannes, it also signalled an exciting revival of brazen horror, hailing Fargeat as one of the genre's most innovative voices alongside fellow French filmmaker Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titane).

While the messages within The Substance aren’t new, they depressingly remain just as pertinent in an age of social media, filters and body tweakments. It’s a reminder of the ways patriarchal standards have hurt women, and in turn, how we have turned that hatred in on ourselves. But more than anything, it’s a bloody great time at the cinema. AB 

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with director Coralie Fargeat.

3) Anora

This year’s Palme d’Or went to Sean Baker’s riotous modern fairytale, which doubles up as a stealthy gut-punch tragedy. It follows the eponymous and feisty exotic dancer (Mikey Madison), who meets a young Prince Charming named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn). He’s a wiry nepo baby with Tigger energy and ultra rich Russian parents, who come into play when they find out their boy has impulsively married “the whore”.

Them hitting DEFCON 1 sets in motion a propulsive screwball comedy which updates Pretty Woman and shares the same chaotic energy as the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems. At its heart though is darkness, as Baker – known for delving into the lives of sex workers in his previous films such as Tangerine and Red Rocket – explores the American Dream through the prism of empathy linked to class divisions. This leads to a slight but effective commentary on how the good life is something often given to those who deserve it the least, and how those who society chooses to marginalize will always be set up to fail.

Madison is a revelation, while her co-stars Eydelshteyn and Yura Borisov stand out as the immature loverboy and Francophonically-challenged “gopnik” Igor. Bolstered by Baker’s direction and a pitch-perfect soundtrack, they make Anora one of the most entertaining and furtively impactful movies of 2024. Baker and Madison are shoo-ins for Oscar noms, and don’t be surprised when Anora emerges as a frontrunner when it comes to Best Film. DM

2) The Zone of Interest

Jonathan Glazer’s masterpiece The Zone of Interest is a retelling of the Holocaust that turns traditional narratives on their heads. Set just outside of Auschwitz, it follows the family life of camp commandant Rudolf Höss. Glazer directs from a distance, setting up stationary cameras in the house and allowing his actors to go about their quotidian lives.

Referencing Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” concept, the household’s middle-class problems, led by a pitch-perfectly impassive performance from Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss, could be the makings of a dull film. It’s anything but. Thanks to oppressive sound design and just enough reference, the inhuman crimes of the Holocaust leer across every moment. Incalculable tragedy is kept from direct sight.

While other Holocaust films veer into trite sentimentality with hero narratives, Glazer instead zones in on the true cause behind evil – the sheer number of people that allowed it to happen. By creating such normal figures as his central characters, Glazer accuses those who live side-by-side with atrocities as being as complicit as those perpetuating them. Much like Joshua Oppenheimer’s seismic documentary The Act of Killing, this is Arendt’s philosophy writ large.

When he received the Oscar for Best International Feature last year (the film came out in theatres this year though), Glazer used his speech to denounce Israel’s assault on Gaza. He was met with a tirade of criticism. Nearly a year on, Glazer’s emphatic film’s message is still yet to be taken seriously enough. JW

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with Sandra Hüller.

1) Iranian Double-Bill: My Favourite Cake & The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Our top pick for Best Film of the Year goes to two movies - for the first time. Both hail from Iran and stand out not only because they keep the spirit of Mahsa Amini alive by challenging state despotism, but because they are two of the most impactful cinemagoing experiences of 2024. Both were shot in secret around the same time as the Women, Life, Freedom protests and use different means to become revolutionary in their own ways.

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake is a gently subversive film that dares to pepper radicalism within a poignant tragicomedy. It follows lonely septuagenarian widow Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) who yearns to reconnect with the lost freedoms of her youth. She sets her sights on divorced taxi driver Faramarz (Esmaeil Mehrabi) and brazenly invites him to spend a stolen evening with her. Behind a seemingly harmless set up and a Linklater-ish second half lies messages of female empowerment that are not tolerated under the nation’s repressive regime. Driven by two magnificent central performances, which make the allegorically loaded epilogue truly resonant, Moghaddam and Sanaeeh’s film is a subtle but powerful snapshot of the harsh realities facing Iranian women, as well as a commentary about what could befall those daring to take control of their destinies. It’s impressive and haunting in equal measure. 

As for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, from dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, it was one of Cannes’ most talked about titles this year – and not just because of the nail-biting story behind Rasoulof’s presence on the Croisette. It is a more brazen and outspokenly radical film, which examines Iran's contemporary tensions through a family’s internalization of present turmoil.

By showing how a patriarch turns against his family after a rebellious germ starts to sprout within the family unit, Rasoulof escalates things from claustrophobic domestic drama to thrilling psychodrama with shades of horror to better expose Iran's theocracy as one built on violence and paranoia. The Seed of the Sacred Fig will represent Germany at the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film – an inspiring choice because it shows how intercultural exchanges thrive in open society. Even if it faces competition from France’s pick, the more immediately accessible Emilia Pérez, Rasoulof’s unmistakable call to arms for those who refuse to accept control insidiously concealed as love would make a very worthy winner.  

The work Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha and Mohammad Rasoulof are not only windows into the crimes of state despotism but meaningful acts of bravery in the name of justice and art. They are, on a purely artistic level, superb films; and when anchored in their socio-political contexts, achievements that should not be taken for granted. Western audiences are fortunate to watch films from filmmakers who dare to challenge oppression, misogyny and tyranny; My Favourite Cake and The Seed of the Sacred Fig offer escapism but also the precious reminder that cinema can speak truth to power.

Art often requires creatives to put it all on the line so that voices aren’t silenced. Moghaddam and Sanaeeha, who are currently facing brutal repression at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s judicial system, have done just that. Rasoulof, who managed to flee Iran this year so his film could be shown to the world, also risked it all. Nothing should be taken for granted – least of all these two stunning films. DM 

Check out Euronews Culture’s interview with Mohammad Rasoulof. 

There we have it. 

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