It’s time to list the 10 best films of 2024. It feels like deja vu to say that the year had its ups and downs, and it was easier to find films for the Disapproval list. Still, there were some genuinely great films this year, where the top four came from four different A-List festivals. There will be some cheating already at the number 10 spot.
10. La mort viendra/Cuckoo
I jam two German films together to share this spot. Cuckoo (reviewed here) is Tilman Singer’s second film, following Luz in 2018. Both premiered at the Berlinale. La mort viendra (find the review here) is the latest film by Christoph Hochhäusler. It premiered in Locarno, but I watched it at the Black Nights Film Festival, where I also interviewed the director. The films are not similar, but both directors managed to find some variations within their respective styles, and hopefully, none of them will be offended to share this spot.
9. Flow
Apparently, I have a love story going on with Latvian cinema. For the third year in a row, a Latvian film is included in the top 10. Two years ago, it was Matiss Kaza’s The Taste of Water, which he also co-produced. This year, he produced Flow (Straume read the review), which is about a cat that gets its fair share of the taste of water as well. The film already won numerous awards, and surely, there will be many more. It was directed by Gints Zilbalodis. Will this be the last Latvian film on this year’s list?
8. L’Empire
During later years, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with Bruno Dumont. I even avoided his latest film, The Empire (L’empire), during the Berlinale competition. I managed to catch up with it later and was positively surprised. The story about a small village in Northern France, which is the battleground of undercover extraterrestrial knights, is irreverent in the best sense of the word and tongue in cheek in the right way. The jury, including Brady Corbet and, most notably, Albert Serra, awarded the film with a Silver Bear Jury prize. Serra was probably involved in the Best Director’s award as well, but that is a later story.
7. Diamant Brut (Wild Diamond)
Diamant brut is the first feature by Agathe Riedinger, and it was the first film in this year’s Cannes competition as well. The topic about a girl whose biggest wish is to be a participant in a reality show didn’t sound promising, but the film really impressed me. To my surprise, it is a minority view, but I explained my reasons when I reviewed the film.
6. I, the Song
Ever since I saw Dechen Roder’s Honeygiver Among the Dogs at the 2018 Berlinale, I have been waiting for her sophomore feature. Finally, it arrived and had its world premiere in the Critics’ Picks section at the Black Nights Film Festival. It was everything I was hoping for and more. To make things even better, I managed to interview the director. I also reviewed the film.