We must not delude ourselves — this year was a little bit of everything on the big screen. In addition to the weird stop-motion, there were the typical tennis, sweat, tears, soap opera, a soap-operatic melodrama, the year’s line-up really made us see that world cinema is not only alive but also offbeat and kicking. A cinephile who scrutinized each frame or merely a person who was there for the popcorn and the crazy ride, these were the films that made the year.
10. Snack Shack
If memory smelled like something, it’d be hot dogs, chlorine, and sunscreen—and Snack Shack is the perfect pairing. Adam Rehmeier crafts a dirty summer stoner comedy with Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle bringing the kind of on-screen chemistry you don’t see much anymore. It’s smart, dumb, and mawkish enough to get into your heart. Flawed in parts, but that way, it’s its charm.
9. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Never a chance after Fury Road, but George Miller still provides us with a dirty, gasoline-fed prequel. Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne are evenly matched over Furiosa with ferocity, and Chris Hemsworth is agonizingly camp as Dementor. The CGI here is more overt, illuminating the wasteland with a dreamlike glow. Grubby? Guilty as charged. But the kind you can’t wait to burrow back into.
8. Nosferatu
Robert Eggers finally gives us his take on the vampire myth, and it’s everything you’d hope for: gothic, unsettling, and gorgeous to look at. Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok is all nightmare fuel, while Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen adds a surprising emotional core. Eggers brings his trademark detail and dread, making this a horror film that lingers long after the credits roll.
7. Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot’s stop-motion gem is a surreal, gorgeous, laugh-out-loud, with a quirky visual sense. One minute it’s laugh-out-loud funny, the next minute it’s tear-jerking, and never hesitant to go totally and totally out there (heaven yes, even snails get their moment). Underneath all the goofy humor is a thoroughly human tale of perseverance, alienation, and hoping to find the best in the most unlikely spot. Get out the tissues.
6. Love Lies Bleeding
Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brien are magnetic in this pulpy, desert-drenched love story from director Rose Glass. Equal parts crime thriller and sweaty romance, it’s gritty, unapologetically queer, and as combustible as its Nevada setting. If you’re into movies that aren’t afraid to get messy and raw, this one burns bright.
5. Longlegs
If fear in its purest form could be bottled, Longlegs would be the title. This serial killer tale is fronted by Maika Monroe and supported by one of the most unsettling performances of Nicolas Cage’s career. Every cut is menacing, every sound winds your tension higher. It’s immaculately put together but oozing atmosphere, and so one of the scariest films of the year.
4. The Substance
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are trapped in this gory, satirical freak show that never blinks at gut-wrenching vanity and self-destruction. The make-up is preposterous, the tone is unreliable, but it finds some way of getting away with searing social commentary on beauty culture. It’s revolting, laugh-out-loud funny, and impossible to turn away.
3. Anora
Sean Baker’s overdue Palme d’Or is a film that. Jumbles romance, pandemonium, and astute social commentary into one. Mikey Madison shines as Anora, caught between gritty determination and unbridled vulnerability. It’s lighter in tone and more commercial than Baker’s past, but no less private—and side-achingly laugh-out-loud funny. In the unlikeliest of places.
2. Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve does it bigger. Timothée Chalamet allows Paul Atreides’ reveal to run amok with unbridled abandon, and the cinematography is plain spectacle. The politics, the wars, the scale–all turned up to 11. And in IMAX? Swallowed whole by another universe.
1. Challengers
Number one was the hyper tennis soap opera of Luca Guadagnino. Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, and Zendaya share a hunger, competition, and lust menage; all are punished and act, pumped. With the hot weather, aggressive editing, and desperate score from Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross, this was the 2024 buzz.
2024 brought us back to recall that cinema is not only alive, but living large in strange, risky, and unforgettable ways. If you were gasping, laughing out loud, or closing your eyes, the next 10 films assured the big screen still has magic to offer.