The Top 20 Movies of 2024

2024 is done, and I don’t think I watched enough movies. And I watched 185 according to Letterboxd, so make of that what you will.

Seriously though, between a grinding and tedious uni schedule that disillusioned me from going back, a demanding work schedule, and a three-month work experience in a country with no independent cinemas and where none of the year-end movies I wanted to watch are available (the Cinema Nova Instagram account mocks me every day), I do feel as though my palette has been somewhat limited this year. Still, I’ve certainly got some good cinematic stories to tell – I attended every day of the Melbourne International Film Fest, I travelled all the way to Ballarat to see the re-opening of the Regent Theatre, I got drunk with a bunch of gay nerds in the Astor Theatre to watch Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, and made first-time director Raven Jackson blush when I complimented her film at a Q&A. I get around.

As for what I thought about movies overall in 2024, there seemed to be less prestige events, less big Marvel releases or sleeper hits or insufferable marketing campaigns, and overall I didn’t quite feel as passionately charged for the movies I saw this year. There were many that got great festival acclaim that barely moved me, and many films that I heard were terrible that were either okay or just boring. There wasn’t quite the Past Lives or the Monster or the Poor Things that this year of staring at my laptop for six hours a day waiting for my lecturer to post the assignment he forgot to send us again needed.

Hell, even looking at the current Oscar scorecard, there aren’t many particularly significant or interesting films. There’s Conclave (an absolute snoozefest), Anora (a low-key comedy-drama Cinderella story), The Substance (people forgetting Death Becomes Her already exists and is half the length), Dune Part Two (more emotional impenetrability!), Nickel Boys (which looks like Hardcore Henry spent the past ten years eating soggy Graham crackers), or Wicked (Shite musical based on a shit musical) – really not that much interesting o. And I don’t think many of my favourite films are going to get involved this awards season, so I’ll put a little note at the end of each film with my prediction of its presence at the Oscars.

But enough dawdling, let’s get into my favourite films of the year 2024, released in Australia either theatrically, straight-to-streaming, or screened at a festival between January and December 31st, starting with some honourable mentions:

Blue Sun Palace (Dir. Constance Tsang) – Good on MIFF for taking random chances on microbudget films about Taiwanese masseuses in New York, because some of them turn out to be really good. Will Constance Tsang be the next big thing in indie film? Probably not, but I can dream.

Dune: Part Two (Dir. Denis Villeneuve) – Yeah, its emotionally distant and little Timmy is no Kyle McLachlan when it comes to charismatic despots, but those worms (and subsequent worm memes) are awesome.

Flow (Dir. Gints Zilbalodis)  – Kind of like Ice Age except without dialogue and where the character designs aren’t horrifying. Good stuff.

Green Border (Dir. Agnieszka Holland) – A gripping film with an excellent and saddening message, but I do prefer writing about films based on the narratives they create, not necessarily their real-world parallels. Good if you want to get angry at Europe.

Hit Man (Dir. Richard Linklater) – Fun!

Mami Wata (Dir. C.J. Obasi) – The best thing to happen to West African filmmaking since Who Killed Captain Alex, and this time I actually mean it.

Memory (Dir. Michel Franco) – I was coin-flipping between this and the other mostly-grey American indie film about accepting loss and the harsh pain of remembering on the list, so sorry Michel Franco, maybe do another thing with Tim Roth next time.

Rebel Ridge (Dir. Jeremy Saulnier) – A nicely thoughtful and forceful actioner, and Aaron Pierre’s cheekbones could be used as Stanley knives.

Souleymane’s Story (Dir. Boris Najkole) – Can we get more thrillers about fighting for freedom with the weight of the world slowly and inevitably crushing down on our protagonist? Because Souleymane shouldn’t do it alone.

Thelma (Dir. Josh Margolin) – Shove off, Tom Cruise, June Squibb is our new death-defying action star, and she’s got a good sense of humour to go along with it. R.I.P. Richard Roundtree as well.

Those are the film’s I couldn’t quite get in the top 20, now let’s have a look at the rest, starting with…

20. No Other Land

Directors/Writers: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Cast: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Country and Language: Palestine/Arabic, Hebrew

Runtime: 95 minutes

It’s hard to know where to put a documentary about Palestine on a list such as this – the obvious instinct is to put it near the top of the list because I genuinely believe it is an important and necessary film, a harrowing and clear image of the devastation Israel is wreaking upon innocent people. Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham do an amazing job of showing the human side of the conflict in ways no other format can – film is a tool they use to maximum potential, and it is a film that angers and burns you.

But on the other hand, I always prefer to talk about movies that interest me artistically. No Other Land is a statement of witness like no other, but it’s not something I will bring up five years from now in my masterclass on how to make the best film of all time, because it’s not a film I ever want to watch as a reminder of humanity’s worst instincts. That makes it worthwhile, but something I don’t like remembering, and so putting it on the list in any spot is the best thing I can do. If I were to talk about impact, though, this could be number one.

Oscar chances: Pretty high as it turns out – No Other Land has been sweeping many of the critic’s groups awards for Best Documentary Feature, so it’s very possible that it could win this year like 20 Days in Mariupol last year. It would be a deserved award, but not a comforting one – Abraham’s house was firebombed when the film won an award at Berlinale, so winning an Academy Award would probably not please the filmmakers who then have to return home to either hostility or genocide.

19. Close Your Eyes

Director: Victor Erice

Writer: Victor Erice, Michel Gaztambide

Cast: Manolo Solo, Jose Coronado, Ana Torrent, Petra Martínez, María León, Mario Pardo, Helena Miquel, Antonio Dechent, Venecia Franco, José María Pou, Soledad Villamil, Juan Margallo

Country and Language: Spain/Spanish

Runtime: 169 minutes

A three-hour epic about a man reflecting on filmmaking and its uses in an ever-changing world is a premise that is either a death sentence or a message from heaven for me, and thankfully Victor Erice’s random return to filmmaking after a 30-year retirement is the latter. Slow, but in a compelling, mysterious way, Close Your Eyes is entrancing, and a real testament to the power of movies to provoke wonder and self-criticism. Just don’t be too surprised if you’re tempted to make a cup of tea halfway through.

Oscar chances: Unfortunately, while Close Your Eyes first screened in Melbourne in August this year, it already had its U.S. theatrical debut in October 2023, and as such was eligible for the previous year’s Oscars. Even so, Spain chose to submit the absolute snoozefest that was Society of the Snow instead of this for Best International Film, so what do I know. It’s not a very Oscar-y sort of film and it’s kind of hard to point to specific scenes as truly clip-worthy outstanding, but I would have liked to have seen it on the stage anyway.

18. Emilia Pérez

Director: Jacques Audiard

Writer: Jacques Audiard (Screenplay), Boris Razon (Book)

Cast: Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir, Edgar Ramirez

Country and Language: France, Mexico/Spanish, English

Runtime: 132 minutes

The biggest Oscar contender on the list is a French-Mexican musical about a lawyer who gets kidnapped by a drug lord who wants her help to proceed with their gender transition and the subsequent creation of a charity to dig up dead bodies.

Emelia Pérez, as you might have already guessed, is one wild ride, with a surprising variety of creative musical set-pieces and enough energy to propel it through the flaggier elements of its plot. It’s proven surprisingly divisive, but I recommend you take a look anyway, if merely out of morbid curiosity.

Oscar chances: Almost certain – a couple of weeks ago, it received 10 Golden Globe nods (the second highest in history behind Robert Altman’s Nashville) and proceeded to win four of them including Supporting Actress and Original Song. With the recent controversy surrounding the film, I doubt it'll ultimately win anything. Even so, I can’t wait for both the Letterboxd nerds and the Truth Social twats to lose their shit over its nominations, it’ll be a good spat.

17. Monkey Man

Director: Dev Patel

Writer: Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela, John Collee

Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikander Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Zakir Hussain

Country and Language: India, Indonesia, United States/English, Hindi

Runtime: 121 Minutes

The muscliest, meanest action movie in a long time comes to us from the sensitive boy from Skins, Dev Patel, who took his camera to the mean streets of Batam and filmed a rage-fuelled journey of vengeance against a corrupt police force and a fundamentally broken system of religious theocracy. Filled with awesome fights, striking photography and Patel’s luscious locks, this is a dang good time and an absolute shame that Netflix rejected it all those years ago. Imagine watching this during the pandemic and curse Netflix’s name.

Oscar chances: Since the Oscars haven’t implemented a stunt category (which in my opinion they shouldn’t – stunt supervisors are already nominated under Visual Effects and precedent has shown that nomination prestige does little to help improve trade sectors and unions), Monkey Man doesn’t have a lot of angles to come from. It didn’t make the December shortlists for any technical categories either, so that’s sad. But at least Dev Patel has the money and trust to give it a crack next time.

16. Spaceman

Director: Johan Renck

Writer: Colby Day (Screenplay), Jaroslav Kalfar (Book)

Cast: Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, Isabella Rossellini, Paul Dano

Country and Language: United States, Czech Republic/English

Runtime: 107 minutes

Adam Sandler’s baggy-eyed, dad-bod energy in his later years might have driven him more towards hangout comedies with his friends, but that energy’s a great aid in yet more proof that he’s one of the more underrated actors out there. A Czech pilot flying through space on an existential journey with a giant spider (excellently animated and played to perfection by Paul Dano), Sandler brings a real humanity to a character who would be completely lost if played by any other actor. Plus, I’m a sucker for a good space movie with lots of nice lighting and a Max Richter soundtrack. Put it alongside Arrival and Ad Astra.

Oscar chances: None – putting aside how I seem to be the only person who likes this film, it released all the way back in February beyond the vestige of Oscars collective memory, and Netflix threw all their marketing money at Emelia Pérez. The only Oscars reference to it I could find was that it was on a longlist for Visual Effects, but since it didn’t transition to the December shortlist, we can consider its campaign dead. A real shame – I want to go back to when there were 10 Oscar-bait astronaut movies a year, please.

15. A Quiet Place: Day One

Director: Michael Sarnoski

Writer: Michael Sarnoski (Screenplay), John Krasinski (Story)

Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff

Country and Language: United States, United Kingdom/English

Runtime: 99 minutes

Quiet Place 1 was about the important of families to navigate unfamiliar paths, Quiet Place 2 was about the importance of community and connection in crisis, and the prequel Day One is about how we also shouldn’t forget ourselves when disaster comes. It’s a great cap to a great trilogy, and one that has brought me a strange amount of comfort for a movie about aliens slaughtering the population of New York.

Michael Sarnoski (Pig, a strong recommend) brings a musclier action-horror perspective to Day One, moving away from the slow jump scares of the prior films and allowing the series to really close out with a bang. I hope they don’t make a fourth film, because I can’t think of a better ending than this series could have gotten than this. Also, Lupita Nyong’o and her cat are treasures.

Oscar chances: Nope - didn't even make the shortlist for Sound, and I don’t see many other nominations heading to Day One as a big, unsubtle genre movie. The last pair of Quiet Place movies got a couple of awards thrown their way, so there’s a minor, minor chance in another category, but since I’m the only person who loves these movies, I don’t think that’ll happen. I feel very out of touch sometimes, and loving this in a year where The Substance is courting serious Oscar attention is metastasising arthritis in me as I type this.

14. Chicken for Linda!

Directors/Writers: Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach

Cast: Melinée Leclerc, Clotilde Hesme, Laetitia Dosch

Country and Language: France/French

Runtime: 73 minutes

As someone who has read many a Tintin book in my time, I know of the French’s talent for telling childish adventure stories to amuse the whole family. I thought that France had forgotten to do that after last year brought us Smoking Causes Coughing and Michel Ocelot’s latest PowerPoint presentation masquerading as animation, but Chicken for Linda gave me hope.

Fun, beautifully animated with an abundance of personality, and featuring all of the naughty children, blundering men and beautiful women you would expect from a French cartoon of its ilk, Chicken for Linda is just a dang good time at the movies. It feels like a genuine classic, something you dig up from the 80’s or 90’s to put on with your kid and smile to while your child doodles with their crayons on the white carpet.

Oscar chances: Surprisingly low – even in a year where it wouldn’t be going up against Pixar (Inside Out 2), Disney (Moana 2 and Mufasa), Netflix (Wallace and Gromit 2) and DreamWorks (The Wild Robot), it’s still competing with a slate of acclaimed international animation including Japan’s Look Back, Australia’s Memoir of a Snail, Latvia’s Flow, and its fellow French compatriot Sirocco and the Valley of the Winds (which is pretty mid, but has its fans). I would be overjoyed if this got nominated, but alas, off to the DVD shelf you go.

13. Hundreds of Beavers

Director: Mike Cheslik

Writer: Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews

Cast: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank, Doug Mancheski, Luis Rico

Country and Language: United States/English

Runtime: 108 minutes

Proof that you don’t need $400 million to create an exciting, visually stunning adventure that pays tribute to all eras of filmmaking from Georges Melies to Markiplier, Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers is a laptop-borne ridiculous romp through the frozen North. Our protagonist keeps coming up with ways to hunt these hundreds of beavers to win the heart of a girl in the way of classic romances, while the beavers constantly troll him and make fun of him like any good YouTube prank video. At its heart, It’s just a silly film about men in beaver costumes beating each other with logs. I loved it.

Oscar chances: Ineligible – to qualify for the Oscars, you need a distributor to pay for a week’s worth of screenings at a theatre in L.A. or New York. Boldly, the producers of Hundreds of Beavers decided to self-distribute by sending the film directly to theatre owners without expensive screenings in necessary theatres. They then sent it straight to streaming, destroying any chance it had to being nominated – not that it was ever going to considering it’s a videogame-inspired absurdist dark comedy about a man trying to brutally murder thousands of woodland creatures, but still.

12. Red Island

Director: Robin Campillo

Writer: Robin Campillo, Gilles Marchand

Cast: Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Quim Gutiérrez, Charlie Vauselle, Amely Rakotoarimalala, Hugues Delamarlière, Sophie Guillemin, David Serero

Country and Language: France, Madagascar/French

Runtime: 116 minutes

An autobiographical film with a self-reflective view on colonialism and the lies told to us by systems we’re forced to trust combined with nice photography and random-ass fantasy scenes that look like they’ve been cut out of MirrorMask? Where have you been all my life?

Robin Campillo (BPM: Battements Par Minute) tells the story of his upbringing during the final days of French administration in Madagascar. Maybe some would argue his is not the story to be told in that historical context, but it’s woven deftly with the broad political context and is done in a way that very few other films I can think of have tried. Good stuff.

Oscar chances: None – foreign films don’t have a chance if they don’t get submitted for Best International Film (as only one submission is allowed per country) unless you’re a prestige filmmaker like Akira Kurosawa. Emelia Pérez took France’s spot this year, with Red Island reportedly not even being considered. A shame, especially considering how the Senegalese submission Dahomey deals with very similar reckonings of France’s colonial past, and as such it would be an interesting comparison. Speaking of…  

11. Dahomey

Director/Writer: Mati Diop

Cast: Makenzy Orcel

Country and Language: Benin, Senegal/French

Runtime: 68 minutes

Atlantiques’s Mati Diop wastes no time in her 68-minute observation of the repatriation of hundreds of artifacts from French museums to Benin, a cool and meditative film that shows every detail and covers many perspectives in its brief runtime. For a brief hour, we see an event where an entire country has tuned in to some capacity – on the radio, in active debate, discussing with their family, self-promoting. Then life goes back to normal, but with an element of change in the air – people stand up a little straighter, think a little about their place in the world. It’s a great film for showing the effect of national events that might have no direct impact but provoke discussion and reflection across the entire populace.

And instead of just essentially being a slideshow, Diop decided to throw in some amazing music, awesome sound design from the Sound of Metal team and a dense, mystic atmosphere to the whole affair. Good documentary instincts, look forward to the next one.

Oscar chances: Very good – Dahomey was on the shortlist for both Best Documentary and Best International Film, and while I doubt it will win either (see previous entries No Other Land and Emelia Pérez respectively), it would be a good nomination. I wish it had made the shortlist for Music or Sound, but this will do for now.

10. Every You Every Me

Director/Writer: Michael Fetter Nathansky

Cast: Aenne Schwarz, Carlo Ljubek

Country and Language: Germany/German

Runtime: 104 minutes

No, not the Cruel Intentions song, and I was annoyed at that coming up every time I typed the film’s title into Google.

Every You Every Me plays like a masterful response to every pretentious European drama over the past few years, with its dense dialogue with no dead space, purposeful non-linearity and actual befitting social commentary that isn’t shoved in out of nowhere. But beyond that, it’s a strong, emotionally affecting film about questioning the purpose of relationships and why they even matter to begin with. Even if some of its bizarre creative decisions feel a little out of place, they still strongly contribute to the sweep and emotional pointedness of one of the best films to come out of Germany in recent memory.

Oscar chances: Nope! Much like Red Island, this film got crowded out by another International Film submission, but this one annoys me – Iranian filmmaker Mohammed Rasoulof fled house arrest in Iran and edited his Iran-shot, Iran-produced and Iran-directed movie Seed of the Sacred Fig in Germany, resulting in that being submitted and shortlisted as the German submission. C’mon Deutschland – I know that you want that Oscar, but stick up for your own films!

9. Four Daughters

Director/Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania

Cast: Olfa Hamrouni, Hend Sabri, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Nour Karoui, Ichraq Matar

Country and Language: Tunisia/Arabic

Runtime: 107 minutes

Sometimes you just need a good film about watching a bunch of women discussing their lives over tea. Throw in some daringly imaginative documentary license and you have one of the very best films of the year.

Kaother Ben Hania re-creates the events of Olfa’s daughters leaving the family, with actresses standing in for scenes that Olfa and her remaining daughters find too hard. The blend of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and just watching these scenes of Tunisian culture and historical context is brilliantly concocted, and it’s truly endearing and fascinating to watch.

Oscar chances: What are the Oscar chances if the film was already nominated last year? That’s right, Four Daughters was already nominated at the 2023 Oscars for Best Documentary but lost to 20 Days in Mariupol. So while it may have only been released in Australia in April 2024, I got to it too late to call its Oscar nomination. Still, I’d call this one a win.

8. Ghostlight

Director: Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan

Writer: Kelly O’Sullivan

Cast: Keith Kupferer, Dolly de Leon, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Hana Dworkin, Tommy Rivera-Vega, Alma Washington, H.B. Ward, Dexter Zollicoffer, Lia Cubilete, Deanna Dunagan, Francis Guinan

Country and Language: United States/English

Runtime: 115 minutes

If there’s anything that I learned that I love this year, it’s films about people who make art for arts sake, who find joy and passion and genuine emotion in performance and design. Ghostlight (not named after the Doctor Who episode) is just that, telling the story of a construction worker (an excellent Keith Kupferer) who joins a community theatre and finds the space to reconcile his past.

Excellently shot and written, and although it’s almost sickeningly sentimental, I cried anyway. Absolute recommend.

Oscar chances: Not much – Ghostlight’s subtlety and quietly gestating emotions work strongly against it in a year when everything else is also emotionally distant but also had a much higher budget. I think Ghostlight would be a great nomination in the same way that Past Lives or Minari was, in the sense that they're films that can be described as truly American and insightful, or ones that America need now to understand itself. But I wouldn’t predict a nomination, unless the Academy wants to slide Keith Kupferer an out-of-nowhere Best Actor nod, which is the only timeline I can even imagine.

7. The Promised Land

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

Writer: Nikolaj Arcel, Anders Thomas Jensen (Screenplay), Ida Jessen (Book)

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg

Country and Language: Denmark/Danish

Runtime: 127 minutes

You can’t beat a good old fashioned historical drama covered in mud, sex and gore, even when it’s just about a disillusioned army officer trying to plant potatoes in Denmark’s Jutland Heath. The team and lead star of the excellent A Royal Affair return with this stunning-looking, extremely cinematic epic about struggling for acceptance in systems that are designed to destroy you, and pull it off with wickedly entertaining aplomb. Mads Mikkelsen is particularly fantastic in what could be his best role yet.

Oscar chances: Unfortunately, not only was this one already submitted last year, but it didn’t even get nominated! The Promised Land made it onto the shortlist alongside similarly wonderful Scandinavian submissions Fallen Leaves and Godland (both in last year’s Top Ten for me), but all three got shoved aside in last year’s stacked competition. Maybe if it got submitted this year instead it would make more of an impact considering the duds topping the prediction charts – I mean, Kneecap? Really, Academy? Really?

6. Robot Dreams

Director: Pablo Berger

Writer: Pablo Berger (Screenplay), Sara Varon (Graphic novel)

Country and Language: Spain/No dialogue

Runtime: 102 minutes

Director of black-and-white German expressionist horror film Blancanieves Pablo Berger returns with a light-hearted, boldly animated film about adult friendships between a dog and a robot. It’s a premise that sounds ridiculous, but Berger and his amazing animation team pull it off, making a film with the spirit and humour of Woody Allen’s more adventurous 80’s affairs like Zelig or Purple Rose of Cairo. It’s caring, hilarious and occasionally emotionally devastating, but it is engrossing to the end and has stuck with me for a long time.

And it also ruined Earth, Wind and Fire for me. You’ll hear what I mean.

Oscar chances: Another film from last year that did get a nomination but went up against The Boy and the Heron and Across the Spider-Verse, rendering it completely helpless. Personally, I feel as though it’s far more deserving of the award than either of those (shock and horror!), but I’m not sure it would get a nomination if submitted this year, given the tight competition I mentioned in the Chicken for Linda! segment. Even so, still excited for the weird shit Pablo Berger does next – keep smoking those leaves, man.

5. Grand Theft Hamlet

Director/Writer: Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls

Cast: Sam Crane, Mark Oosterveen, Pinny Grylls, PahTeb

Country and Language: United Kingdom/English

Runtime: 89 minutes

Another film about art for art’s sake, except this time it’s entirely set in Grand Theft Auto Online and features a ragtag group of Shakespeareans, loners and Finnish trolls trying to put on a virtual production of Hamlet.

Far from being just a string of silly set-pieces in GTA set to soliloquies, Grand Theft Hamlet is a fascinating character study of friendships, the community appeal of art, COVID-era uncertainty and how video games are amongst the best forms of human connection. And yes, there’s an alien with a bazooka humping the air in the background, but that’s what gives it its special flavour.

Oscar chances: I’ve written a few times already about a film released for the previous year’s award season, but Grand Theft Hamlet is unique – it’s only eligible for 2026’s Oscars! That’s because despite its European and Australian festival run, it is not booked to screen in America until January 2025, at which point it will be forgotten by the time of the next Oscars. Here’s hoping this gets a good run on streaming afterwards, because this lends itself really well to a Netflix or Prime movie to watch with friends.

4. The Teacher’s Lounge

Director: İlker Çatak

Writer: Johannes Duncker, İlker Çatak

Cast: Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau

Country and Language: Germany/German

Runtime: 99 minutes

Like being stuck in a pressure cooker while your gym teacher’s yelling at you, The Teacher’s Lounge is the year’s most nail-biting thriller, propelled by Leonie Benesch’s excellent performance as she explores a world of muted language, power dynamics and the domino effect of accusations. It’s a microcosm of social commentary that rakes at your gullet, trying to wear you out through masterfully directed tension that doesn’t let up for a second. And it’s about figuring out who took lunch money in a primary school. Awesome.

Oscar chances: Another one from last year, because Europe imports film canisters to Australia by steam-powered tugboat. This one actually got nominated for Best International Film and was probably the most deserving nominee of 2023, but unfortunately went against The Zone of Interest (still confused about that one) and got overlooked. Would probably do much better if it released in America in 2024, as it’s a real burst of personality compared to the other submissions which…uugh.

3. Memoir of a Snail

Director/Writer: Adam Elliot

Cast: Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Jacki Weaver, Dominique Pinon

Country and Language: Australia/English

Runtime: 94 minutes

I love it when films from Melbourne gain international attention, and this isn’t just patriotism talking when I say the international attention given to Memoir of a Snail is 100% deserved. Putting aside the phenomenal animation where every prop and details is hand-crafted and placed just right, Adam Elliot’s latest is a genuinely emotional family drama with some of the best black comedy put into a film in a long time. If you aren’t crying or  laughing during this movie, you might have a screw loose. Special props to Jacki Weaver for the best voice performance of the year as well.

Oscar chances: It’s actually doing pretty strongly for itself on the American festival circuit (Adam Elliot’s Instagram sure loves reminding me of the awards he won, and you know damn well I like every post he does about it). So it’s got a good chance of being nominated, although it probably won’t win due to the bigger-budget competition and in order to prevent Adam Elliot from thanking his lubricant company as he did at the Q&A I was at. It’s better than many of the Best Picture contenders, but I doubt it’ll go that far. Still, a man can dream.

2. Kinds of Kindness

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writer: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filipou

Cast: Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamadou Athie, Joe Alwyn

Country and Language: United States, Ireland/English

Runtime: 164 minutes

Certainly the most uncommercial film on this list – a near-three-hour anthology consisting of lots of hard sex, brutal violence and comedy by someone who doesn’t seem to have much humanity left – but it’s not what I would call arthouse or pretentious. Yorgos structures his films like an essay, and Kinds of Kindness is pretty clear in its explorations of how people misconstrue abuse and restrictive systems as “kindness”. What makes him special as a filmmaker is taking intelligent, clear theses like that and then cramming them up his bottom and writing all of his dialogue through Google Translate, turning it into bleak comedy and tragedy. And I absolutely dig that.

Oscar chances: Oh, God no – even if half my audience walking out didn’t show how well this would go down with the Academy, I can’t imagine them nominating it in any category and then having to pick a clip to show it off. At least Poor Things had some good dancing clips in between random violence and orgies – Kinds of Kindness is either dry office buildings or Emma Stone trying to sweat so hard that jizz comes out of her forehead.

1. Challengers  

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Writer: Justin Kuritzkes

Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist

Country and Language: United States/English

Runtime: 131 minutes

And my number one film of the year is Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, a film that truly felt cinematic in a way I rarely see anymore. Full of pounding energy and furious pacing, a cavalcade of amazing technical and production values and a cast of genuine star power, Challengers is the kind of movie that makes you remember why you love movies. Packed theatre, big popcorn, loud speakers – I want to go right back to that day.

More importantly, Challengers will probably be the first film I can think of when someone asks me to describe “a 2020’s movie”. Since cinema is either so stuck in nostalgia for older techniques or digitised to the point of inhumanity, a movie like Challengers, so representative of its era – big bold colours of the tennis court, beautiful cast of all races and creeds, themes of alienation and artifice inherent to the digital age – is guaranteed to be worth something historically. I’ll be looking forward to that day.

Oscar chances: So far, the awards season has shown a respectable outcome for Challengers, gaining consistent nominations in screenwriting, music, cinematography and editing. Whether that will translate into Best Picture or an actual win looks unlikely so far, but even if it got just one nomination I’ll be happy, because it proves I’m not entirely insane and even Hollywood’s blandest picks occasionally go with mine sometimes. I’m only human, after all.