Best Films of 2024

My previous comments about the broken film distribution model still stands for 2024. What I didn’t expect was that this broken distribution model and its needlessly delayed timeline of seeing films 1-1.5 years after their Cannes debut would impact my perception of a film. This is because the world was in different place in May 2024 (Cannes) compared to the first few months of 2025, which is when I saw a handful of the award-winning Cannes 2024 titles. Films such as Anora (Palme D’or), All We Imagine as Light (Grand Prix), Emilia Pérez (Jury Prize), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Prix Special) paled in comparison to the chaotic drama that the world was thrown into. Perhaps, the warm weather at Cannes played a part in the glowing reception of these films but in the harsh reality of the cruel world, these films shrunk in stature. I like to think this isn’t a purely subjective take. Films such as Universal Language, Grand Tour and Misericordia also debuted at Cannes yet their artistic merit shone through. I may be picking on a few Cannes titles but this view also applied to other award winning festival films (Berlin, Sundance) so much so that for the first time in more than two decades, I cannot put together a list of 10 films.

My year-end list will only consist of 7 titles with 3 of those films being documentaries and 3 others that borrow heavily from documentaries. Three Documentaries in my end-of-the-year list is also another rare occurrence but all three films are timely. There are still a few 2024 films that I am waiting to see so perhaps by the end of 2025, I may be able to finally have a proper 10.

Best Films of 2024

1. No Other Land (Palestine co-production, Yuval Abraham/Basel Adra/Hamdan Ballal/Rachel Szor)

Easily the most relevant film of 2024! It is amazing that this film exists at all. This isn’t the first time theft of Palestinian land is shown on camera. Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008) showed how the Israeli army uses a pretext of security to annex a Palestinian family’s home. That 2008 fictional film, albeit based on real-life scenarios, was ignored. No Other Land shows this very topic in a documentary format and it has gotten some attention. The Academy Award for Best Documentary also helped gain distribution but people will see the film and nothing will change. In fact, the land grab and stealing has been increasing after this film came out. At least, this film documents what happens and in the future, it will be evidence that the world did nothing and watched it all happen.

2. Santosh (UK/Germany/India/France, Sandhya Suri)

The core topic of the film isn’t new as many films have depicted how corruption and abuse of power allows crimes against girls/women to go unchecked. Yet, since this isn’t an Indian production, it lends an outsider observational perspective that is focused on tiny details often neglected by Indian films. Director Sandhya Suri’s previous work on documentaries is also another reason those details help in giving this film a realistic feel. In addition, there is a new angle to observe the events from women. The film is shown from the perspective of a female police officer who is wearing the uniform but who is still a civilian at heart, due to how she got the job in the first place. That allows her to straddle the line between the two worlds while still maintaining her humanity.

The two performances by Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar are top-notch.

3. Soundtrack for a Coup D’état (Belgium/France/Holland, Johan Grimonprez)

Another film that takes a topic covered before but adds a new entry point which allows things to be considered in a new light. The assassination of Patrice Lumumba has been shown on film before but the association with jazz music and the incorporation of Khrushchev’s words give plenty of food for thought. This film will always be relevant because the cycle of events that this assassination started is still impacting our world.

4. Dahomey (France/Senegal/Benin/Singapore, Mati Diop)

The film focuses on the specific return of 26 artifacts to Benin but opens up what should be a universal debate about the fate of looted property across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Highly relevant and essential viewing.

5. Grand Tour (Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China, Miguel Gomes)

The film lives up to the title yet being playful. A woman is abandoned by her fiancée who runs away yet she doesn’t give up. She follows him around the world, picking up on clues. A leisurely chase.

6. Misericordia (France/Spain/Portugal, Alain Guiraudie)

One of the most creative murder investigation films that plays with genre and expectations. There is a very subtle deadpan layer to the film which becomes apparent once the strangeness of the scenarios increases.

7. Universal Language (Canada, Matthew Rankin)

Matthew Rankin showed his creative talent with The 20^th Century. This time he raises the creativity bar a few more notches with a reimagined version of Canada where Farsi-French are the two official languages and people confuse Manitoba with Alberta (entirely believable from a Toronto perspective).

Best Films of the 1920s

This Best of Decades list is inspired by the recent Decades Countdown at Wonders in the Dark. Also, the idea of looking back at Cinema made 100 years ago was appealing. Silent Cinema through the 1910s produced many worthy gems but the 1920s saw a jump in film production both in terms of quantity and quality. The “Roaring 20s” meant that Hollywood studio system was properly established along with the current star system. Notable directors also made their first films such as Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Sergei Eisenstein. In the case of Chaplin and Keaton, their style and notable signature was established in the 1920s including the releasing of many iconic films. Half of this top 10 could easily be filled with films from Chaplin and Keaton. Films of many genres were released not only in US but across Europe as well. Many of the films that have become part of the Essential Cinema canon came out in this decade as well, such as Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene), Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang), Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein), Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau), Greed (1924, Erich von Stroheim), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer) plus a handful of Chaplin (The Kid, The Gold Rush) and Keaton (Sherlock Jr., The General) titles.

Top 10 films of the 1920s:

1. Metropolis (1927, Germany, Fritz Lang)

2. The Gold Rush (1925, USA, Charles Chaplin)

3. The Crowd (1928, USA, King Vidor)

4. Battleship Potemkin (1925, Soviet Union, Sergei Eisenstein)

5. The General (1926, USA, Clyde Bruckman / Buster Keaton)

6. Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Soviet Union, Dziga Vertov)

7. Nosferatu (1922, Germany, F.W. Murnau)

8. Pandora’s Box (1929, Germany, G. W. Pabst)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, France, Carl Theodor Dreyer)

10. Napolean (1927, France, Abel Gance)

Honourable mentions:

The Kid (1921, USA, Charles Chaplin)

The Cameraman (1928, USA, Edward Sedgwick / Buster Keaton)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germany, Robert Wiene)

Un chein Andalou (1929, France, Luis Buñuel)

Top 10 by Country

Germany and US are tied with 3 films each in the top 10. France and Soviet Union have 2 films each. The top 10 ended up being more spread-out than I had anticipated. Of course, there are still a lot of films from many international nations that are either lost or not widely available, which means this list will change over the years.

Best Films of the 1950s

The Best Films of the 1950s list is inspired by the Decades list countdown at Wonders in the Dark. I will duly post the previous decades list (1920s-40s) over the next few weeks but I will start with the 1950s.

As per Sam Juliano's ask, we are allowed up to 30 titles. It is quite hard to narrow the list down to 30 films and this list has changed quite a bit over the last few decades. There are a handful of titles that were not in this list 5 years ago. For now, here goes.

Best Films of the 1950s (roughly in order of preference):

1. Apur Sansar (1959, India, Satyajit Ray)

2. Pickpocket (1959, France, Robert Bresson)

3. Ikiru (1952, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

4. Tokyo Story (1953, Japan, Yasujirô Ozu)

5. The Wages of Fear (1953, France/Italy, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

6. Seven Samurai (1954, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

7. The Seventh Seal (1957, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)

8. Rear Window (1954, USA, Alfred Hitchcock)

9. Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Poland,  Andrzej Wajda)

10. Pyaasa (1957, India, Guru Dutt)

11. Rashomon (1950, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

12. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)

13. La Strada (1954, Italy, Federico Fellini)

14. Kaagaz ke Phool (1959, India, Guru Dutt)

15. Vertigo (1958, USA, Alfred Hitchcock)

16. Sweet Smell of Success (1957, USA, Alexander Mackendrick)

17. Umberto D. (1952, Italy, Vittorio De Sica)

18. Godzilla (1954, Japan, Ishirô Honda)

19. Death of a Cyclist (1955, Spain, Juan Antonio Bardem)

20. 12 Angry Men (1957, USA, Sidney Lumet)

21. Roman Holiday (1953, USA, William Wyler)

22. The Red Balloon (1956, France, Albert Lamorisse)

23. The 400 Blows (1959, France, François Truffaut)

24. Orpheus (1950, France, JeanCocteau)

25. Rififi (1955, France, Jules Dassin)

26. Los Olvidados (1950, Mexico, Luis Buñuel)

27. The Gunfighter (1950, USA, Henry King)

28. Hiroshima mon Amour (1959, France, Alain Resnais)

29. Fires on the Plain (1959, Japan, Kon Ichikawa)

30. Ace in the Hole (1951, USA, Billy Wilder)

Steven Soderbergh Double-bill

Notes on two recent Steven Soderbergh films:

Presence (2024)

Black Bag (2025)

Very few directors can boast the career arc of Steven Soderbergh. His feature debut film is the stuff of Cinematic dreams. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, won the audience award and then went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Winning the Palme d’Or at the first time of asking and at the age of 26 is an incredible feat, especially for an independent film. Soderbergh then made the jump to commercial cinema yet still finding a way to incorporate artistic indie film elements. Films such as Out of Sight (1998), Ocean’s Eleven, (2001) have a cool seductive feel and it is safe to say that in the hands of another director would have turned into mindless action films. Soderbergh directed many notable films such as Erin Brockovich (2000), Traffic (2000), Che (2008), Contagion (2011). That is why his 2011 announcement that he would retire from filmmaking was a shock. Later on, as more details emerged, he expressed his reasons related for that retirement and his return to filmmaking with a new distribution model. He has certainly re-emerged with a new prolific creativity that has filtered into both films and TV series. Case in point, his recent double: Presence (2024) and Black Bag (2025).

Both Presence and Black Bag refine genre (horror and spy thriller respectively) through an independent film’s sensibilities such as singular location and limited cast. The end result are highly creative engaging films.

The idea behind Presence is electric: a horror film where the entire perspective is seen via the eyes of the spirit with the camera doubling as the spirit’s eyes. The hovering camera is a technical joy to behold and also lends a levity to the film as the camera floats from room to room. There are no conventional jump scares in the film but still some hair-raising moments. Due to the spirit’s POV, the entire film is confined to the house the spirit occupies. The confined house location along with a very tight script and running time of just 84 minutes ensures the film is engaging from start to finish.

Black Bag is equally efficient with his running time of 93 minutes and film is bookended with scenes in a house’s dining room. These dining room scenes feature smart probing dialogues laced with alcohol or drugs (at film’s start) which ensure brutal honest jabs. The camera does leave the house and follows the characters to their place of work and outdoor locations to show agents at work in the field or making deals/exchanging information. A spy thriller wouldn’t be complete without blood, explosions and backstabbing, all three of which are present in the film but in unconventional forms. The film’s lighting and cinematography is more akin to a small indie film and add to the film’s atmosphere. Black Bag looks and feels like an indie spy thriller but one that features Hollywood recognizable stars.

It is safe to say that Soderbergh wouldn’t have been able to make films such as Presence and Black Bag prior to his retirement. However, since Logan Lucky (2017), Soderbergh has been releasing such creative films. Presence and Black Bag form a nice trilogy along with 2022’s Kimi as Soderberg worked with writer David Koepp on all 3. Soderberg and Koepp have certainly formed a nice combination and it will be interesting to see if the two combine for more films.