2024 was such an incredible year for films with something truly for everyone. For me, personally, there were so many amazing films I had a difficult time making a list only including ten films. There are so many films floating outside my final Top Ten that on another day might be in the final ten; a true year of riches.

Some films outside my final list below that I need to shout out include, Dune: Part Two, The Shrouds, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and A Real Pain. I also specifically need to shout out Gaga Chromatica Ball. I was blessed to see this in a room full of Little Monsters and some of my favorite people. Mother Monster knows how to put on a show and the way her film captures the energy and passion she brings is extraordinary.

The films that made it into my official Top Ten are films that not only had an immediate impact on me while watching, but also emotionally stayed with me after.

Here are my Top Ten films released in 2024.

10. No Other Land (Dir. Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Basel Adra)

No Other Land is easily the most important film of not just this list, but the year. It’s an urgent film that needs seen by all; its importance grows increasingly more and more each day. No Other Land is intimate yet large in scope as it shows the horrors in the Occupied West Bank through the eyes of a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist. It’s a heartbreaking, infuriating watch that is an absolute necessity. The pain of hearing children identify what exists so they know it’s real will never leave my mind. No other documentary this year is as powerful as No Other Land.

9. A Different Man (Dir. Aaron Schimberg)

 A Different Man never goes exactly where you think it’s going as there’s always an interruption and the film takes you somewhere else entirely, in the best possible way. Aaron Schimberg frames the story of the film as an almost house of mirrors. Sebastian Stan dominated 2024 with A Different Man and The Apprentice but his performance in Schimberg’s film is one of the sharpest, most thrilling roles he’s ever taken on. Paired with the brilliant Adam Pearson, the chemistry between them is perfect as A Different Man explores how societal norms can drive anyone to the brink of manic behavior, but is that something we can control? The film acts as a twisty fable on self-identity, complicit behaviors within society, and the yearning to belong.

8. I Saw the TV Glow (Dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

 I Saw the TV Glow is a rare film that feels magical and terrifying while testing the boundaries of how you can truly lose yourself while watching a film. Jane Schoenbrun allows the audience to feel and absorb the cautionary tale of a life half-lived in a film exploring loneliness, identity, obsession, and friendship. Justice Smith delivers one of the best performances of 2024. Smith packs in the unbearable distress and isolation felt by Owen as the story progresses and their pain grows. I Saw the TV Glow is unbelievably authentic and real the way it transports you not only back in time but to those real feelings.

7. The Last Showgirl (Dir. Gia Coppola)

Gia Coppola’s latest film is an emotional journey of an artist coming to terms with their career ending. The Last Showgirl is earnest as it showcases the lives of women working in Las Vegas and the relationships they’ve built with one another as a means of survival. Coppola brilliantly dives into the aspect of the communities built around you to make it through as important as the work you’re doing and art you’re creating. The Last Showgirl feels beautifully authentic as it connects with not only Vegas but the lives of the artists who keep Sin City running. Pamela Anderson feels she’s finally given a role she’s worthy of; she shines every emotional moment she’s given and brings life to Shelley in a way no one else ever could. The entire ensemble is brilliant and one of my favorites of 2024.

6. April (Dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili)

April is truly one of the most tense, viscerally captivating films of 2024. It’s absolutely haunting, beautiful, and painful to watch and process. Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili brings one of the most important pro-abortion films ever to the screen in an unnerving fashion. April has surreal horror-like elements that make the film feel otherworldly as it delivers themes that you’ve read about in the news but Kulumbegashvili makes them achingly beautiful yet viscerally captured on screen. Nothing here is for shock value, April is entirely presenting the true fastenings of stillbirth, pregnancy, abortion, and society’s views of imposing unreasonable laws on a woman’s body. The cinematography, Matthew Herbert’s score, and the brilliant direction come together for one of the best films of 2024. April truly took my breath away.

5. The Beast (Dir. Bertrand Bonello)

A story that starts as an almost Edith Wharton love story and ends with the feeling of David Lynch as the mastermind…. I could not have loved this more. It’s hard to find the words for why this film is so impactful and masterful. It feels deep rooted in my head. The Beast features some of the most chilling, unnerving scenes of the year with visceral pacing that feels overwhelming at times. Watching the film is an experience all in its own.  Léa Seydoux and George MacKay are incredible together but Seydoux delivers one of the best performances of the year. The Beast is truly an odyssey that has never left my mind.

4. The Brutalist (Dir. Brady Corbet)

As a little angel, I knew Brady Corbet was a masterful filmmaker years ago but The Brutalist is a towering, monumental achievement. Many have and will continue to compare to The Godfather Part Two or any Paul Thomas Anderson, but that feels….lazy to me. Corbet has continued to dive into themes of poison of the promised American dream with his latest feature and this time with Adrien Brody delivering not just a performance of the year, but the performance of a lifetime. The complex story of an artist being exploited for his genius to find any source of identity after surviving and escaping post-war Europe could feel overdone in the hands of another filmmaker but Corbet has such a unique hand it feels as if it had never been shown on film before.

3. Babygirl (Dir. Halina Reijn)

Halina Reijn brilliantly dives into explore the complex, internal battle many women specifically face of if their desires are worth exploring or not. Romy (Nicole Kidman) is a CEO, mother, and wife yet all she wants is to let go and be dominated. Society, significantly since the girlboss era, has conditioned women to not feel appropriate in wanting to feel the need to be submissive; that it’s wrong to want to let go of control in any place, specifically the bedroom. Is it feminist to want to be bent over, spanked and told to drink milk out of a saucer? Babygirl is not just about these explicit acts but how women come to terms with letting go of the shame associated with it and just enjoying their pleasure. The bookended opening and ending brilliant tie together these themes with a film allowing Kidman not only to let her freak flag fly but let down her (wig) hair and become the woman Romy has always wanted to be.

2. The Substance (Dir. Coralie Fargeat)

In a year of complex female relationships exploding on screen (and in music, girl it really is so confusing), The Substance is the most imperative exploration of a woman’s most important relationship…..with herself. The Substance acts as a bloodcurdling scream about society’s impositions and unforgiving expectations put onto women. The frustration women experience attempting to achieve and maintain beauty we’re conditioned to uphold in order to receive validation from those around us. How much of the expectations thrusted upon us are also coming from within us? How much of that is society’s fault but also our own fault? It’s impossible to keep the balance and The Substance reminds us how important that balance is. Demi Moore delivers the performance of a lifetime in The Substance. The film only works as well as it does with someone delivering a go-for-broke performance that fires on all cylinders and she knocks it out of the park. Many will feel sick to their stomachs over the grotesque imagery of body horror throughout the film, but the truly sickening part is how Coralie Fargeat brings to the screen the self-loathing and hatred aging women feel due to society’s impositions and vision of what women should look and act like. 

1. Nosferatu (Dir. Robert Eggers)

If you’ve been following me at all the last two years, maybe Nosferatu being my number one isn’t shocking, but there was a real fear for me I hyped it up too much and could be let down… Since Robert Eggers first mentioned a yearning to bring a new version of Nosferatu to the screen on the press tour for The Witch in 2016, I have been waiting… Eggers is a master of period accuracy and tapping into all I love about gothic romance stories. Somehow, his Nosferatu exceeded all my (very high) expectations. Eggers was able find a brilliant reason to reimagine this classic tale as he focuses his telling on Ellen and her perspective. Lily-Rose Depp makes the perfect Ellen at the center of Nosferatu. Women have often found themselves drawn to vampire tales for how they explore the internal struggle of shame associated with our carnal desires that may not be deemed acceptable by the public and how these stories often showcase the dangers of not believing women. Focusing on these themes with a female protagonist allows for a brilliant reason to bring Nosferatu back to the big screen. For the next few months, all my thoughts will narrated in Bill Skarsgård’s brilliant Count Orlok voice. The movie of the century for me.