The best films of 2024

End of the year, time for rankings. Just as we couldn't skip the annual The Alphabet of Fashion, which encapsulates all the trends that characterized 2024, the same goes for the ranking of the best films released this year in Italy. Works that shaped the imagination of the past twelve months, alternating between poor creatures, blockbuster tornadoes, and black-market medicines to become the best version of oneself. There were hearty meals, Palme d'Or-winning sex workers, and Indian John Wicks. A remarkable cinematic 2024. Presented here in strict alphabetical order.

 Anora by Sean Baker 

Set to the remixed notes of Greatest Day by Take That, the film written and directed by Sean Baker made Mickey Madison a star. In the movie, the actress, known for Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood and Scream 5, plays a sex worker who meets a client she believes could change her life and is determined to marry her. But fairy tales don’t exist, or rather, they always have an unexpected ending in the cinematic world of the Summit, New Jersey auteur. Three films in one, it opens in the world of nightclubs, transitions into one of the most irreverent comedic segments in years, and concludes with a heart-wrenching finale. One thing is certain when the film fades to black: you’ll have completely fallen in love with Anora.

Challengers by Luca Guadagnino 

Relationships are like tennis, as Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan tells us in Challengers. With Luca Guadagnino’s film, we find ourselves directly at Wimbledon. Eroticism in 2024 has never been as rhythmic and enveloping as it is in the non-sex scenes between the protagonist and her two friends/lovers, brilliantly portrayed by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Everything is here: love, competition, victory, and defeat—all for the sake of scoring a point. As seen in the concluding sequence, one of the most beautiful not only of the year but of cinema as a whole, alongside that of Anora.

The Taste of Things by Trần Anh Hùng

Cinema is an experience, and The Taste of Things is among the “culinary” kind. Throughout the film, the protagonists played by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel do nothing but roast meat, clean vegetables, warm broths, and prepare desserts. Their love flows through the dishes, ready and served; their relationship is a dance consumed for years between the kitchen and the bedroom. Trần Anh Hùng’s film is precisely this—a long, spiced, appetizing, pungent, and sweet complete meal. 

Enea by Pietro Castellitto

It’s a love-or-hate situation. The ability to elicit such contrasting emotions cannot leave one indifferent. This is the cinema of Pietro Castellitto, who, in his second feature Enea, doubles down on the surreal, the excessive, and the whimsical, attempting to narrate the improbable evolution of a protagonist played by Castellitto himself. We see him entangled in relationships, drug dealings, and the hypocritical glamor of an unreal bourgeois Rome. 

Green Border by Agnieszka Holland

Three narrative lines, one objective: to portray the horrors and injustices at the so-called “green border” marking the limbo between Poland and Belarus. Agnieszka Holland presents the brutal and dangerous practices of illegal immigration in black and white in Green Border, intertwining the lives of a Syrian family, a border guard, and an activist, offering diverse perspectives on the same issue. 

The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer

Horror is conveyed entirely through sound in the work that described the Holocaust without ever showing it. The Zone of Interest is the piece that, in 2024, won the Academy Award for Best International Film and, above all, reignited viewers' consciousness by using all the tools cinema can offer. Placing a wall between the viewer and the atrocities happening on the other side increases the sense of suffering and discomfort the director wants the audience to feel, activating an awareness and indescribable pain that cuts like a blade. A treatise on how we remain blind to evil, turning our eyes away from it.   

My First Film by Zia Anger

Not only theatrical releases, but also streaming has brought us small gems. For example, My First Film by Zia Anger, a work where the boundaries between autobiography, documentary, and meta-cinema blend, creating a completely new, immersive, fluid, and malleable viewing, writing, and staging experience. The interplay of real life and cinematic life stems from a shared seed and then expands, crosses the screen. A cinema without borders, with a filmmaker narrating and revealing herself with honesty, beauty, and freedom. 

Monkey Man by Dev Patel

They called it the John Wick of Mumbai, but Monkey Man is so much more. In his directorial debut, Dev Patel, who also stars in the film, directs a dynamic and electrifying action movie that follows with speed and equal intensity the perilous, chaotic, and disruptive fate of young Kid. It combines tradition and a love for cinema, classic action film elements, and a contemporary, respectful reflection on gender identity. Entertainment cinema meets the traditions and customs of a country, skillfully edited by Dávid Jancsó, Joe Galdo, and Tim Murrell and illuminated by Sharone Meir's psychedelic neon lighting.

Perfect Days by Wim Wenders

«Oh it's such a perfect day, I’m glad I spend it with you…» sang Lou Reed in 1972. Wim Wenders’ film, shot in Tokyo and starring Kōji Yakusho, takes its title from that song in the album Transformer. A man, his routine, cleaning toilets, his books, watering plants, and listening to songs. Perfect Days is a work that teaches us to live one day at a time. Because «now is now, next time is next time».

Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos

If 2023 had Barbie, in 2024 its dark counterpart is Bella Baxter in Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. A true feminist manifesto, an awakening to identity, personality, understanding how the world works, and how we choose to face it. In the film, we experience this through a protagonist who quickly became an icon, thanks to the sublime writing of the character by Tony MacNamara (adapted from Alasdair Gray’s novel), the Oscar-winning performance of Emma Stone, and the setting, from costumes to sets, which instantly created another of the Greek director’s unique, quirky universes. Side note: In 2024, Lanthimos also directs Kinds of Kindness, another work with Emma Stone, marking a return to themes of relationships, love, and power dynamics. Worth checking out.

Saturday Night by Jason Reitman

On the fiftieth anniversary of its debut, Jason Reitman writes and directs a depiction of the beginning of the most revolutionary and enduring show American television had ever known. A group of new comedians, exceptional humorists, comedy geniuses, and champions of nonsense were ready to destroy everything, even before the conventions of the era destroyed them. In Saturday Night, the American director revisits the premiere night of the most incredible live show ever conceived, doing so from the perspective of its creator. A young man who wanted to change the entertainment world and succeeded. 

The Substance by Coralie Fargeat

Body horror and a critique of beauty standards imposed by the entertainment industry. Coralie Fargeat revitalizes Demi Moore, who makes a comeback as a former fitness program host dismissed to make way for the "new," the "fresh," what is deemed "sexy." The Substance critiques the absurdities we inflict on ourselves just to please others. It pushes the genre to its limits, fearlessly delivering an over-the-top and grotesque final act that is unforgettable. The desire to be beautiful at all costs, even when our lives are at stake. 

Twisters by Lee Isaac Chung

There is a scene in Twisters by Lee Isaac Chung that encapsulates the blockbuster cinema theories of the last decade. When the frame of a cinema is ripped away by the fury of an impending storm, the remaining rectangle, equivalent to a movie screen, seems to be projecting one of those disaster movies typically seen in theaters. Yet, nothing in that moment of the film is "fake," as the tornadoes viewers see inside the cinema, where they've taken refuge, are the same ones about to destroy their town. Thus, fiction becomes life itself, and the textbook sequence, which could belong to the best of Steven Spielberg – who is, indeed, the film's producer – reminds us that even large-scale spectacles can tell us a lot about our times and where cinema is headed.

Vermiglio by Maura Delpero

Set in the snowy expanses of Trentino, there is a small story that first captivated the Venice Film Festival and is now preparing its journey toward the Oscars. It is Maura Delpero's second film, the delicate Vermiglio, tales of daughters, women, and mothers that the director and screenwriter frames with care and respect, portraying the conditions of women in Italian villages during the Second World War and showcasing their resilience. A modest yet profoundly moving work that balances the meticulous writing of its characters with the grandeur of the landscapes it captures.

Wicked by Jon M. Chu

We can still hear you singing from here – after all, it would be impossible not to. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked have won over audiences with the first part of the famous Broadway musical, brought to the big screen, already topping box-office records. A global success for the prequel to the story of The Wizard of Oz, as well as a musical tale about what it means to be considered different. A colorful, extravagant, and lavish work that has reached the second spot among the highest-grossing musicals of all time, second only to Mamma Mia! Side note: for more on witches, don’t miss the documentary Witches on Mubi.