A busy day job and ongoing health issues – I have multiple sclerosis – meant that I probably watched less new films in 2024 than I did in previous years. That said, I still saw a number of absolute standouts, and certainly more than enough to form my own top 10. A few caveats: firstly, if your favourite film didn’t make my list there is a genuine chance I have not seen it. Secondly this list’s definition of a 2024 release means “released in Australia in 2024”, so inevitably a couple of 2023 productions are going to make my list. Finally I post an annual ‘great films’ list, and it is not called a ‘best films’ list for a reason. All I am claiming in this annual post is that here are 10 films I thought were particularly great and which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Of course there are always more than 10 films I really enjoy in any given year, so let’s start with an enthusiastic shout-out to A Green Fever, Typist Artist Pirate King (a 2022 film that took until 2024 to hit Australia), Poor Things, 60 Minutes, The Ride Ahead, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, The Great Escaper, Exhuma, In a Violent Nature, and Vulcanizadora.

10. Civil War
Directed by Alex Garland.
It was very timely, given US politics in 2024, for writer/director Alex Garland to create this provocative and frightening snapshot of a future America split by politics into two warring factions. In my review, I wrote: ‘By following a small group of journalists through an episodic series of encounters – warzones, street battles, refugee camps, and some horrifying atrocities – it showcases the very human cost of war. It particularly showcases the sort of repellent urban warfare in which body counts are high and the civilian cost can be catastrophic. In the context of Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s devastating attacks in Gaza, Civil War feels particularly timely.’

9. Inside Out 2
Directed by Kelsey Mann.
It was something of a relief, following more than a few middling releases from Pixar Animation Studios, to see the company back on top with another exceptional outing – and a decent quality sequel at that. In my review I wrote: ‘This is a Pixar sequel in the good mode of Toy Story, as opposed to the shakier territory of Monsters University and Finding Dory. The story is well thought-out, the animation is attractive, and the voice performances – a mixture of new and returning talent – is wonderfully entertaining.’

8. The Imaginary
Directed by Momose Yoshiyuki.
Weirdly the anime I most adored in 2024 was not Miyazaki Hayao’s long-awaited new feature The Boy and the Heron, but a film by one of his Ghibli proteges. While clearly taking some valuable lessons in storytelling from Miyazaki, Momose also finds his own wonderfully entertaining style. In my review I wrote: ‘The beautiful visuals might suggest a particularly soft, gentle film for children, but The Imaginary boasts a far more literary sense of drama and adventure. It is perfectly suitable for children, but it might give nervous parents some pause.’

7. IF
Directed by John Krasinski.
IF, a charming fantasy about imaginary friends, failed to gather much excitement upon release. I honestly no idea why. John Krasinski adopts a radical shift in gears from his A Quiet Place franchise to tell a story that is sweet, satisfying, and wonderfully well thought-out and expressed. In my review I wrote: ‘An original family film, such as the one Paramount Pictures have bankrolled and released here, is a rare and valuable thing. A genuinely great example of the form is rarer still.’ I really hope future audiences pick up on this one in a way 2024 viewers failed to do.

6. Stolen
Directed by Elle Márjá Eira.
Sámi filmmaker Elle Márjá Eira made a superb directing debut here with a rural thriller that told a familiar story with a surfeit of style and Swedish natural landscapes. It is the Sámi culture, however, that resonates. From my review: ‘The film’s background is richly detailed with what feels an authentic Sámi experience, in which indigenous tradition and practice chafes against modern-day priorities like iron ore mining. Communities are losing members as young Sámi abandon their families for broader Sweden. Racism, both mean-spirited and ignorant, persists.’

5. Ferrari
Directed by Michael Mann.
Another 2023 film that only reached Australian viewers in 2024 and, like IF, a film that I found superb while everyone else seemed to ignore. If nothing else it marks the swansong of the late Troy Kennedy Martin, who wrote Edge of Darkness and The Italian Job. In my review I wrote: ‘It does not attempt to shoe-horn Ferrari’s entire life and career into the space of two hours. It focuses not on the cars but the characters. Those characters are well-developed and complicated. Martin’s screenplay finds the most interesting element of the story and emphasises that: not the race, nor the cars, but the collapse of a marriage.’

4. Robot Dreams
Directed by Pablo Berger.
The year’s best animated feature, bar none. It was such a pleasure to see traditionally animated cinema appearing in cinemas, and to see Sara Varon’s graphic novel adapted so effectively and with such emotional resonance. In my review I wrote: ‘It is the underlying character drama that surprises the most. When dog and robot commence their friendship, it feels authentically exciting and honest. When their idyllic life is thrust into crisis on the beach, that emotional honesty continues. The story regularly pushes in unexpected directions – some joyful, some tragic – and winds up in places that feel well-considered and effective.’

3. Love Lies Bleeding
Directed by Rose Glass.
Probably the biggest surprise of my movie-going year. Director Rose Glass scored a palpable hit among critics with her debut film Saint Maud (2019), which I did not really enjoy, so it was a pleasure to find her second feature so well-suited to my own tastes. In my review I noted: ‘It is a neo-noir thriller, as well as a lesbian romance, and also a black comedy. On top of that it features moments of body horror, and of surrealism – one could easily argue it expands into elements of magical realism. Ultimately describing it seems less a matter of what it is as what it is not: Love Lies Bleeding is not like other films.’

2. The Substance
Directed by Coralie Fargeat.
It is through women filmmakers like Coralie Fargeat and Julia Ducournau that the notorious New French Extremity movement has reshaped and reinvigorated itself for the 2020s. Shocking, shameless, and shockingly shameless, this wet, gory black comedy was my second favourite film of the year – and it was honestly a close-run thing. From my review: ‘The best kind of satire is that which can straddle both comedic and serious moments in the same text. Fargeat’s film does exactly that. It portrays female self-destruction at the bidding of patriarchal pressures, and it does so in ways that are dramatic, darkly funny, and regularly quite difficult to watch. It does not take long for [the film] to emerge as fully-fledged body horror, replete with a surfeit of gore, confronting violence and self-abuse, and flinch-generating medical procedures.’

1. Challengers
Directed by Luca Guadagnino.
There are no sex scenes in Challengers, and yet it is far and away one of the most relentlessly horny films I have ever seen. Luca Guadagnino presents a masterful exploration of power – the seeking of it, the maintaining of it, and its surrender – between three elite tennis players over a 13-year span. From my review: ‘Guadagnino demonstrates such a canny sense of play here. It is all a game: tennis matches, sexual relationships, personal manipulations. It weaves drama, comedy, sports, and action in a manner that is hugely complex but which comes across as light and effortless. We are a third of a way through the year, and I believe we have reached 2024’s first bona-fide masterpiece.’