It’s an exquisite torture, compiling the annual end-of-year list. Casting the mind back and rediscovering the gems that made my heart sing, only to then kill my darlings, one by one, and whittle down the list. But the anguish does confirm that this was a strong year, for narrative features at least. There were fewer standout, knock-your-socks-off documentaries: two made my top 10 in 2024; none figure in this list (although Tamara Kotevska’s stunning North Macedonian fable The Tale of Silyan came very close). And while animation is one of the recent significant success stories (KPop Demon Hunters is now Netflix’s most-watched film ever; Japanese anime titles such as Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle are smashing box-office records worldwide), I was disappointed by the lack of innovative, risk-taking animation in cinemas this year. Elsewhere there’s much to celebrate, particularly new talent: five out of my top 10 are films by first-time fiction feature directors, including my ultimate winner.
10. Pillion
Harry Melling is the lovesick submissive taken on by Alexander Skarsgård’s unfeasibly handsome, cruelly indifferent dom, in this BDSM romcom set in suburban south London. For all the wincingly graphic insights into Ray and Colin’s “arrangement”, this debut from Harry Lighton has a tender heart beneath the leathers and chains.
A magnetic Fernanda Torres is the centre of Walter Salles’s factually based story of a Brazilian family targeted by the military dictatorship in the early 1970s. Torres plays Eunice Paiva, a housewife and mother turned civil rights lawyer, who tirelessly campaigns to discover the truth about her husband’s disappearance. A satisfying, substantial piece of storytelling that captures the look, sound and taste of a specific time and place.
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Part of the Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s loosely connected trilogy set in modern Oslo, Dreams is an effortless, elegant work that explores the aftermath of a schoolgirl’s intense crush on her teacher. Unapologetically talky and literary in its approach, it is funny, insightful and features a score of unparalleled loveliness. An extended argument about the feminist failings of the 1983 film Flashdance is among my favourite scenes of the year.
7. A Real Pain
‘A bittersweet treasure’: Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain.
Two semi-estranged cousins reunite on a Holocaust tour of Poland to honour their dead grandmother in the second directorial outing from Jesse Eisenberg, who co-stars. This is a bittersweet treasure elevated by the crisp, acutely perceptive writing and terrific performances, especially from a heartbreaking, hilarious Kieran Culkin, who won the best supporting actor Oscar.
The directorial debut of actress Embeth Davidtz, who also plays one of the main roles, this adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Alexandra Fuller has been unfairly overlooked in the awards conversation. Driven by a remarkable, almost feral central performance by seven-year-old Lexi Venter, the film offers a child’s-eye view of rural Rhodesia at the tail end of the Bush war. It’s jagged, scratchy and earthy, and really rather special.
5. Santosh
Another fiction feature debut from a documentary film-maker, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh was the UK’s submission to last year’s international Oscar category. A taut, muscular police procedural, it follows a widowed young woman who is offered her late husband’s job in the local force of a small town in the rural north of India. Driven by a quietly compelling performance from Shahana Goswami, the film deals with caste-based prejudice, institutional sexism and the lure of corruption.
It has been a banner year for Josh O’Connor, who once again delivered consistently excellent work in everything he touched. But it’s his performance in Kelly Reichardt’s slyly slow-burning art heist movie that stood out for me. Set in the 1970s against the backdrop of the Vietnam war and civil unrest, it’s an immaculately stylish portrait of a hopelessly deluded man. Special mentions go to Rob Mazurek’s skittish jazz score and Anthony Gasparro’s witty production design.
3. Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor’s directorial debut announces a fully formed talent on every level. Victor wrote, directed and starred in a film that was drawn from their own experiences as a victim of sexual assault. What’s striking, aside from the work’s assurance and confidence, is the wit, humour and emotional intelligence Victor brings to a story that could have easily been thrown off by the weight of its subject matter.
Timothée Chalamet plays a ping-pong prodigy and gigantic pain in the ass Marty Mauser, a showman who believes he can bring table tennis to the masses in 1950s America. Even the most Timbivalent viewers will be won over by Chalamet’s rattling, reckless energy in Josh Safdie’s thrilling period piece. There’s much to admire, but I was particularly struck by the casting. It’s a film full of imperfect, lived-in faces.
1. Nickel Boys
Documentary film-maker RaMell Ross moved into fiction with this remarkable adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel about a Black teenager in segregated 1960s America who is sent to a draconian reform school. The immersive first-person point-of-view cinematography and textured sound design magnifies the power of the performances: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, in particular, is phenomenal. This is that rarest of beasts – a genuinely original, groundbreaking piece of cinema.
Discovery of the year
Posy Sterling in Lollipop
Once in a while you see a performance so raw and truthful it feels as though it was ripped from real life. Posy Sterling, who won the Breakthrough Performance prize at the British independent film awards, delivered one such blisteringly powerful turn in Daisy-May Hudson’s tough, unflinching portrait of a struggling single mother, Lollipop. Remember Sterling’s name – she’s a talent to watch.
Photographs by Landmark media/Alamy/Searchlight Pictures