Metrograph’s Best Film Experiences of 2024

A.S. Hamrah
Ferrari (2023) – Michael Mann

Eerie to see the Mille Miglia crash scene during a show at a multiplex in Massena, New York, at which I was the only person in attendance.

Aaron Hunt
Wake: Subic (2015) – John Gianvito

Abel Ferrara
Nuclear Now (2022) – Oliver Stone

I tell everyone they must see this film but no one listens.

Adeline Monzier
Misericordia (2024) – Alain Guiraudie

It’s so dark, funny, and deep. It’s also full of surprises—the film kept catching me off guard, which feels like a rare experience these days!

Amalia Ulman
Rap World (2024) – Connor O’Malley, Danny Scharar

This film made me feel things that have not been felt since World War II by some people that were in it.

Andrew Norman Wilson
Sparrow (2008) – Johnnie To

My first theatrical experience of this crucial Johnnie To film was afforded by MoMA’s retrospective of his work.

Anna Fitzpatrick
Les Roteuses (2023) – Garance Chagnon-Grégoire

I caught this short film about a feminist punk band dressed as wieners before a screening of Josie and the Pussycats at Toronto’s Revue Cinema.

Anna Shechtman
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971, restored 2024) – Robert Bresson

Annabel Brady-Brown
Green Card (1990) – Peter Weir

Anri Vartanov
YOL (1982) – Yılmaz Güney, Serif Gören

A transfixing prison parable that reveals the soul of a people with no nation. Seen at Cinema Tehran at the Roxy, November 17th.

Ari-Duong Nguyen
Monisme (2023) – Riar Rizaldi

It is a captivating and complex take on ecological horror. 

Aria Dean
The Year of the Cannibals or I Cannibali (1970) – Liliana Cavani

Saw it on a whim at BAMPHA during a trip to see my mom in the bay. That theater is amazing, and this film is so wryly funny and one of those what-am-I-doing-with-my-life-I’m-wasting-it-not-making-low-budget-masterpieces viewings. 

Arielle de Saint Phalle 
The Devil Queen (1974) – José Medeiros

Athina Rachel Tsangari
Barry Lyndon (1975) – Stanley Kubrick

Original 35mm print projected at the Warner Brothers lot screening room #5, 8am on a Sunday.

Blake Simons
Zerophilia (2005) – Martin Curland

A film about repression that shied away from its true nature, Zerophilia has been a joy to spotlight for audiences that see its potential. Cinema, like gender, can be fluid.

Bruce Bennett
Weekend At Weeki Wachee (1964) – Don Knotts

The IB Tech gold track in Chicago Film Society’s annual cinematic mixtape within a cinematic mixtape: the shorts compilation kicking off day 2 of their Technicolor Weekend at Siskel Center. 

Brynn Wallner
Roman Holiday (1953) – William Wyler

I watched this for the first time on my flight home after Rome, giddily recognizing all the monuments seen through Hepburn’s doe eyes. I sobbed through the ending—such grace!

Caden Mark Gardner
Castration Movie (2024) – Louise Weard

Weard has made the closest thing to a transsexual Dogme 95 film. With the evocative chapter titles of “incel superman” and “trap swan princess,” this barnburner is the feel bad movie of the moment.

Caroline Golum
The Good Fairy (1935) – William Wyler

Caught this gem at Nitrate Picture Show on a fantastic print. What was it about Budapest in the 1930s that had everyone so hot-under-the-collar? 

Carvell Wallace
The Exiles (1961) – Kent Mackenzie

When we left the theater neither of us even mentioned the film for the first 30 minutes. Then, when we finally started talking about it, we both wept. 

Danielle Burgos
“When Puppets Go Bad!” at Anthology Film Archives

Lunchroom Manners (1960, Coronet Instructional Films) / What Tadoo? (1985, J. Gary Mitchell Production Company) / Parents: Who Needs Them? (1973, Dan McConnell) / The Durango Daredevil Strikes Again! (1974, Coronet) / Parable of the Prodigal Son (1950). In the dark between Mr. Bungle and stranger-danger tunes, Skip regaled us with behind-the-scenes gossip and solicited audience traumatic puppet encounters. Educational films: real freaks only.

Danny King
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – Martin Scorsese

Davy Chou
The Battle of Algiers (1966) – Gillo Pontecorvo

Discovered for the first time at a film club I host in Phnom Penh, the impact continues to resonate deeply with me.

Devika Girish
Tamone Prai (1959) – Thamrong Rujanaphand

I saw this film—an amateur King Kong riff set in rural Thailand and directed by a wedding videographer—during the 2024 Flaherty Film Seminar at the Thai Film Archive. It was projected on 16mm, with live dubbing and scoring. There were no English subtitles. It was a glorious example of cinema’s ability to circulate and translate beyond all kinds of boundaries—national, linguistic—and yet maintain an intractable sense of singularity. 

Dora Leu
A Flower in Hell / Jiokhwa (1958) – Shin Sang-ok

Man, they don’t end films like they used to.

Elizabeth Purchell
Suburban Dykes (1991) and Safe is Desire (1993) – Debi Sundahl

At IFC Center—maybe tacky to list your own screening, but producer Nan Kinney declined to do a post-screening Q&A because she wanted people to go home and hook up!

Emerson Rosenthal
The Bikeriders (2023) – Jeff Nichols

In Rome this summer, I brought my whole family to the Cinema Troisi to see a film about nothing… just vibes. We were the only ones in the theater. 

Eric Allen Hatch
Dahomey (2024) – Mati Diop

With Mati Diop Q&A at AFI Fest: sometimes all you need to recharge your brain is as simple as a probing film paired with a thoughtful and incisive Q&A.

Eric Kohn
The Brutalist (2024) – Brady Corbet

NYFF turned away 100-plus people from a 70mm screening of this absorbing American epic, which justifies its heft, but it was the buzzy energy in the room that had the big “cinema is alive” energy we need now.

Erika Balsom
Falling Lessons (1992) – Amy Halpern

This 16mm screening of Amy Halpern’s sole feature film was part of a retrospective organised with great care by Kathryn Siegel and Sophia Satchell-Baeza as part of Open City Docs in London. It was a rare treat to immerse myself in the work of this underappreciated filmmaker, who passed away in 2022.

Ethan Vestby
Pizza Man (1991) – J. F. Lawton

Truly baffled by this ’90s DTV comedy in which centrist demagogue Bill Maher faces off against political parodies, including as the final boss, the 47th President of the United States.

Filipe Furtado
Também Somos Irmãos (1949) – José Carlos Burle

A Brazilian classic that was only available in blurry copies, now nicely restored. A reminder of the richness of film that has disappeared and is still waiting to be discovered.

Gabriel Jandali Appel
Horizon: An American Saga (2024) – Kevin Costner

Watched on a cross country Delta flight (have watched 1.5 times so far, all on planes, excited for more).

Geoff Dyer
About Dry Grasses (2024) – Nuri Bilge Ceylan

I kept putting off going to the cinema to see this because a run-time of 190 minutes, even from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is at the limits of my endurance—but those minutes flew by and the film is an unmissable masterpiece.

Gina Telaroli
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – George Stevens

A truly wild film—the dissolves!—that I saw at Film Forum on an insanely beautiful IB 35mm Technicolor print—15 reels!—courtesy of the George Stevens Collection at the Academy Film Archive. 

Giovanni Marchini Camia
E.T. (1982) – Steven Spielberg

In 70mm at Arsenal, Berlin. A fitting goodbye to Arsenal’s soon-to-be-former location: thank you, dear Arsenal, for all these years of preserving wonder amidst the crushing bleakness of Potsdamer Platz.

Graham Carter
Alouette, je te plumerai (1988) – Pierre Zucca

In 2024, some kind soul made English subtitles for this, a film made for me.

India Donaldson
Midnight Run (1988) – Martin Brest

When it was over my face hurt from smiling.

Isabella Trimboli
Gina (1975) – Denys Arcand

Was totally delighted by this Denys Arcand crime film, which I saw at Anthology this summer. Grotty Québécois getting up to no good, giant white furs, grisly Ski-Doo chases… perfect! 

Jason Evans
Fertile Memory (1981) – Michel Khleifi

As Prismatic Ground’s Inney Prakash has noted, presenting Palestinian films “is the bare minimum for a festival at this moment.” Films can’t replace action, but hopefully they help deepen our commitment.

Jeffrey Crowley
The Teacher (2023) – Farah Nabulsi

A highly emotional, uncannily stupefying call to arms, curator Lina Matta’s summertime presentation of Nabulsi’s latest, as part of perennial favorite film series “ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema,” made The Teacher feel like the only movie in the world that matters… And much more frivolously, I can’t not mention my own short film, Signs of the Time, which screened at Metrograph in April!

Jenni Olson
Something Special, aka Willy/Milly (1986) – Paul Schneider

Pamela Adlon stars in this wacky magical teen gender-swap comedy that now (in 2024) reads as a prescient portrayal of transmasc/intersex teen Willy and his supportive, loving parents (just skip the tacked on heteronormative ending). 

Jessica Almereyda
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) – Ivan Dixon

John Semley
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) – Brian De Palma

De Palma’s classic, screened in a renovated mausoleum showroom, with musical accompaniment by a School of Rock-style teen rock group—kids have to learn about Paul Williams sooner or later!

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) – Phạm Thiên Ân

Seeing this Vietnamese mind-boggler on a big screen at Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center made me realize that everything I thought I knew about uncanny camera movements was incomplete.

Jordan Cronk
It’s Not Me (2024) – Leos Carax

Baby Annette Forever.

Joshua Fu
Gone to Earth (1950) – Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Felt blessed to see this Powell & Pressburger in a 35mm print at the Academy (allegedly from Scorsese’s personal collection)—technicolor, whimsical fauna, Jennifer Jones’s décolletage, something for everyone!

Joshua Minsoo Kim
Passage Through: A Ritual (1990) – Stan Brakhage

I called up Philip Corner, who did the soundtrack for this, and he told me that both Stan and Marilyn considered this the best Brakhage film. They’re right.

Jourdain Searles
Challengers (2024) – Luca Guadagnino

Julien Allen
Cuadecuc, vampir (1971) – Pere Portabella

Bafflingly uncategorizable, and gorgeous.

Kaila Hier
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – Vincente Minnelli

At the Nitrate Picture Show in a packed room on, you guessed it, a nitrate print! What a magical experience.

Katie Gee Salisbury
Song (1928) – Richard Eichberg

I stayed up till 4 am to stream Song through the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Anna May Wong’s performance was magnetic, the music by Stephen Horne melancholic and magical.

Kelli Weston
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) – Henry Jaglom

Keva York
Clifford (1994) – Paul Flaherty

Replace all child actors with 40-year-old Martin Short.

Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
Honeysuckle Rose (1980) – Jerry Schatzberg

Immediately felt like a masterpiece, even upon first viewing. Watched on rose-hued, original run 35mm print at Film Forum, followed by a birthday cake celebration for Jerry Schatzberg’s 97th.

Lucy Kerr
Possession (1981) – Andrzej Żuławski

I can’t believe it took me until this year to watch this movie. Thanks to Metrograph for releasing!

Luke Goodsell
The Little Richard Story (1980) – William Klein

Lyla Wolf
Water Lilies (2007) – Céline Sciamma

Saw Water Lilies and decided to stay for Fallen Angels and it was a perfect night.

Lynne Tillman
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) – Yasujirō Ozu

His last film.

Mackenzie Lukenbill
Excerpts from Five Year Diary (1981-1997) – Anne Charlotte Robertson

Spectacle Theater. In the post-privacy age, an important reminder that self-documentation is capable of feeling dangerous, necessary, beautiful, and affective.

Mark Asch
Megalopolis (2024) – Francis Ford Coppola

I saw this at Cannes, when the live component was debuted before an unsuspecting audience; when the lights came up, immediately after the onscreen destruction of New York City, and a man in a suit walked out in front of the screen, I was confused, agitated, somehow uncertain if the real world was about to intrude on the film or the film on the world—“I guess now we know how you would have reacted if you were at the premiere of L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de la Ciotat,” my friend told me after. I’m not owned, I’m not owned.

Marlowe Granados
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) – Paul Shrader

The film makes you want to go to Venice and only narrowly avoid being in an erotic thriller. I could look at young Rupert Everett forever. 

Matthew Folden
A Bucket of Blood (1959) – Roger Corman

With an introduction by Michael Bilandic.

Matt Turner
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [extended edition] (2001) – Peter Jackson

Sometimes life feels like too much. When that happens, you go to your local multiplex, buy a medium mixed popcorn, sit down and press the button that makes the leather chair noisily recline. “It began with the forging of the great ring.”

Michael Almereyda
Black Narcissus (1947) – Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Restoration screened at MoMA, introduced by Scorsese.

Naomi Fry
Janet Planet (2024) – Annie Baker

Perfect movie!

Natalia Winkelman
Welcome to LA (1976) – Alan Rudolph

In 35mm, during the Early Films of Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duval series at BAM.

Natasha Stagg
Good One (2024) – India Donaldson

Nathan Lee
Trenque Lauquen (2022) – Laura Citarella

I sat my ass down on New Years Day, locked in for all two hundred and sixty minutes of this wondrous oddity, and only peed ONCE. 

Nathan Silver
Remorques (1941) – Jean Grémillon

Nicholas Russell
Ghostwatch (1992) – Lesley Manning

Nick Newman
Yokohama BJ Blues (1981) – Eiichi Kudo

This tangled, smooth neo-noir fulfills most of what I want from cinema, and no experience this year surpassed hosting its US premiere through Amnesiascope. More to come in 2025.

Nicolas Rapold
Horseplayer (1990) – Kurt Voss

With Brad Dourif Q&A at Anthology Film Archives.

Olivier Assayas
Mes petites amoureuses (1974) – Jean Eustache

Had never seen it. Blew my mind.

Owen Kline
UP! (1976) – Russ Meyer

A delirious sold-out screening at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn.

Perwana Nazif
Toute une nuit (1982) – Chantal Akerman

Pina’s spectral cigarette smoke, the sound of heels on late night pavement, the absurdity of “desire”…

Philippa Hawker
Blind Beast (1969) – Yasuzō Masumura

Of the six memorable, often confronting films in the Yasuzō Masumura season at the Melbourne Cinematheque this was the wildest ride.

Rachel Handler
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) – Radu Jude

Furious, hilarious, devastating, maybe the only movie that has accurately captured the inherent absurdity of being alive right now.

Radu Jude
Scénarios + Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario” (2024) – Jean-Luc Godard

And “En el aire conmovido”—an exhibition curated by Georges Didi-Huberman (in Madrid’s Reina Sofia), which is an amazing montage work.

Rayne Fisher-Quann
Janet Planet (2024) – Annie Baker

Did not know what it was about and earnestly said out loud as I walked into the theatre “I’ll be okay as long as it’s not about mothers and daughters.”

Richard Hell
Queens of the Qing Dynasty (2022) – Ashley McKenzie

A movie, a director, actors, so attuned to the ordinary, the everyday, as known by the forgotten and rejected and impossible, that watching it is like being reborn moment by moment.

Ryan Swen
La Région Centrale (1971) – Michael Snow

A holy grail, partially glimpsed in abbreviated form last year and finally experienced in all its ragged glory on 16mm thanks to the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Sam Huber
The Joy of Life (2005) – Jenni Olson

Sasha Frere-Jones
35 Shots of Rum (2008) – Claire Denis

There aren’t many films that take labor and love at face value, but we have this. The actors run the show.

Sean Price Williams
Cocksucker Blues (1988) – Robert Frank, Danny Seymour

Screening at MoMA. Absolutely mammoth event. The room was absolutely transported to endless Rolling Stones hotel slumber parties. 

Sierra Pettengill
The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962) – Timothy Carey

Beamed without warning into my living room like the divine revelation it is. 

Ted Gerike
BG (2024) – Arthur Jafa

At Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles. 

Thora Siemsen
No Other Land (2024) – Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Hope this film gets US distribution.

Victoria Ashley
Muriel’s Wedding (1994) – P. J. Hogan

Never gets old!

Victoria Uren
Master Gardener (2022) – Paul Schrader

Will Sloan
Magic Spot (2022) – Charles Roxburg

The DIY cinema of Matt Farley and Charlie Roxburgh has been an entirely grassroots, word-of-mouth phenomenon, so it’s only fitting that when their first-ever NYC retrospective took place this summer, it was at a microcinema, Spectacle. From a weekend full of great screenings, I will especially treasure the memory of looking around during Kevin McGee’s climactic song in the brilliant Magic Spot and seeing so many of my fellow audience members wiping away tears. Dear reader… I was crying too.

Willow Catelyn Maclay
Ginger Snaps (2000) – John Fawcett

At the Paradise Theater in Toronto for the Canadian book launch of Corpses, Fools and Monsters.

Yuka Murakami
Dillinger is Dead (1969) – Marco Ferreri

The most lovely Piccoli performance (the kitchen scene) and an incredible soundtrack.

Zoe Dubno
Ball of Fire (1941) – Howard Hawks

“That is the kind of woman that makes whole civilizations topple!”

A.S. Hamrah
Ferrari (2023) – Michael Mann

Eerie to see the Mille Miglia crash scene during a show at a multiplex in Massena, New York, at which I was the only person in attendance.

Aaron Hunt
Wake: Subic (2015) – John Gianvito

Abel Ferrara
Nuclear Now (2022) – Oliver Stone

I tell everyone they must see this film but no one listens.

Adeline Monzier
Misericordia (2024) – Alain Guiraudie

It’s so dark, funny, and deep. It’s also full of surprises—the film kept catching me off guard, which feels like a rare experience these days!

Amalia Ulman
Rap World (2024) – Connor O’Malley, Danny Scharar

This film made me feel things that have not been felt since World War II by some people that were in it.

Andrew Norman Wilson
Sparrow (2008) – Johnnie To

My first theatrical experience of this crucial Johnnie To film was afforded by MoMA’s retrospective of his work.

Anna Fitzpatrick
Les Roteuses (2023) – Garance Chagnon-Grégoire

I caught this short film about a feminist punk band dressed as wieners before a screening of Josie and the Pussycats at Toronto’s Revue Cinema.

Anna Shechtman
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971, restored 2024) – Robert Bresson

Annabel Brady-Brown
Green Card (1990) – Peter Weir

Anri Vartanov
YOL (1982) – Yılmaz Güney, Serif Gören

A transfixing prison parable that reveals the soul of a people with no nation. Seen at Cinema Tehran at the Roxy, November 17th.

Ari-Duong Nguyen
Monisme (2023) – Riar Rizaldi

It is a captivating and complex take on ecological horror. 

Aria Dean
The Year of the Cannibals or I Cannibali (1970) – Liliana Cavani

Saw it on a whim at BAMPHA during a trip to see my mom in the bay. That theater is amazing, and this film is so wryly funny and one of those what-am-I-doing-with-my-life-I’m-wasting-it-not-making-low-budget-masterpieces viewings. 

Arielle de Saint Phalle 
The Devil Queen (1974) – José Medeiros

Athina Rachel Tsangari
Barry Lyndon (1975) – Stanley Kubrick

Original 35mm print projected at the Warner Brothers lot screening room #5, 8am on a Sunday.

Blake Simons
Zerophilia (2005) – Martin Curland

A film about repression that shied away from its true nature, Zerophilia has been a joy to spotlight for audiences that see its potential. Cinema, like gender, can be fluid.

Bruce Bennett
Weekend At Weeki Wachee (1964) – Don Knotts

The IB Tech gold track in Chicago Film Society’s annual cinematic mixtape within a cinematic mixtape: the shorts compilation kicking off day 2 of their Technicolor Weekend at Siskel Center. 

Brynn Wallner
Roman Holiday (1953) – William Wyler

I watched this for the first time on my flight home after Rome, giddily recognizing all the monuments seen through Hepburn’s doe eyes. I sobbed through the ending—such grace!

Caden Mark Gardner
Castration Movie (2024) – Louise Weard

Weard has made the closest thing to a transsexual Dogme 95 film. With the evocative chapter titles of “incel superman” and “trap swan princess,” this barnburner is the feel bad movie of the moment.

Caroline Golum
The Good Fairy (1935) – William Wyler

Caught this gem at Nitrate Picture Show on a fantastic print. What was it about Budapest in the 1930s that had everyone so hot-under-the-collar? 

Carvell Wallace
The Exiles (1961) – Kent Mackenzie

When we left the theater neither of us even mentioned the film for the first 30 minutes. Then, when we finally started talking about it, we both wept. 

Danielle Burgos
“When Puppets Go Bad!” at Anthology Film Archives

Lunchroom Manners (1960, Coronet Instructional Films) / What Tadoo? (1985, J. Gary Mitchell Production Company) / Parents: Who Needs Them? (1973, Dan McConnell) / The Durango Daredevil Strikes Again! (1974, Coronet) / Parable of the Prodigal Son (1950). In the dark between Mr. Bungle and stranger-danger tunes, Skip regaled us with behind-the-scenes gossip and solicited audience traumatic puppet encounters. Educational films: real freaks only.

Danny King
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – Martin Scorsese

Davy Chou
The Battle of Algiers (1966) – Gillo Pontecorvo

Discovered for the first time at a film club I host in Phnom Penh, the impact continues to resonate deeply with me.

Devika Girish
Tamone Prai (1959) – Thamrong Rujanaphand

I saw this film—an amateur King Kong riff set in rural Thailand and directed by a wedding videographer—during the 2024 Flaherty Film Seminar at the Thai Film Archive. It was projected on 16mm, with live dubbing and scoring. There were no English subtitles. It was a glorious example of cinema’s ability to circulate and translate beyond all kinds of boundaries—national, linguistic—and yet maintain an intractable sense of singularity. 

Dora Leu
A Flower in Hell / Jiokhwa (1958) – Shin Sang-ok

Man, they don’t end films like they used to.

Elizabeth Purchell
Suburban Dykes (1991) and Safe is Desire (1993) – Debi Sundahl

At IFC Center—maybe tacky to list your own screening, but producer Nan Kinney declined to do a post-screening Q&A because she wanted people to go home and hook up!

Emerson Rosenthal
The Bikeriders (2023) – Jeff Nichols

In Rome this summer, I brought my whole family to the Cinema Troisi to see a film about nothing… just vibes. We were the only ones in the theater. 

Eric Allen Hatch
Dahomey (2024) – Mati Diop

With Mati Diop Q&A at AFI Fest: sometimes all you need to recharge your brain is as simple as a probing film paired with a thoughtful and incisive Q&A.

Eric Kohn
The Brutalist (2024) – Brady Corbet

NYFF turned away 100-plus people from a 70mm screening of this absorbing American epic, which justifies its heft, but it was the buzzy energy in the room that had the big “cinema is alive” energy we need now.

Erika Balsom
Falling Lessons (1992) – Amy Halpern

This 16mm screening of Amy Halpern’s sole feature film was part of a retrospective organised with great care by Kathryn Siegel and Sophia Satchell-Baeza as part of Open City Docs in London. It was a rare treat to immerse myself in the work of this underappreciated filmmaker, who passed away in 2022.

Ethan Vestby
Pizza Man (1991) – J. F. Lawton

Truly baffled by this ’90s DTV comedy in which centrist demagogue Bill Maher faces off against political parodies, including as the final boss, the 47th President of the United States.

Filipe Furtado
Também Somos Irmãos (1949) – José Carlos Burle

A Brazilian classic that was only available in blurry copies, now nicely restored. A reminder of the richness of film that has disappeared and is still waiting to be discovered.

Gabriel Jandali Appel
Horizon: An American Saga (2024) – Kevin Costner

Watched on a cross country Delta flight (have watched 1.5 times so far, all on planes, excited for more).

Geoff Dyer
About Dry Grasses (2024) – Nuri Bilge Ceylan

I kept putting off going to the cinema to see this because a run-time of 190 minutes, even from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is at the limits of my endurance—but those minutes flew by and the film is an unmissable masterpiece.

Gina Telaroli
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – George Stevens

A truly wild film—the dissolves!—that I saw at Film Forum on an insanely beautiful IB 35mm Technicolor print—15 reels!—courtesy of the George Stevens Collection at the Academy Film Archive. 

Giovanni Marchini Camia
E.T. (1982) – Steven Spielberg

In 70mm at Arsenal, Berlin. A fitting goodbye to Arsenal’s soon-to-be-former location: thank you, dear Arsenal, for all these years of preserving wonder amidst the crushing bleakness of Potsdamer Platz.

Graham Carter
Alouette, je te plumerai (1988) – Pierre Zucca

In 2024, some kind soul made English subtitles for this, a film made for me.

India Donaldson
Midnight Run (1988) – Martin Brest

When it was over my face hurt from smiling.

Isabella Trimboli
Gina (1975) – Denys Arcand

Was totally delighted by this Denys Arcand crime film, which I saw at Anthology this summer. Grotty Québécois getting up to no good, giant white furs, grisly Ski-Doo chases… perfect! 

Jason Evans
Fertile Memory (1981) – Michel Khleifi

As Prismatic Ground’s Inney Prakash has noted, presenting Palestinian films “is the bare minimum for a festival at this moment.” Films can’t replace action, but hopefully they help deepen our commitment.

Jeffrey Crowley
The Teacher (2023) – Farah Nabulsi

A highly emotional, uncannily stupefying call to arms, curator Lina Matta’s summertime presentation of Nabulsi’s latest, as part of perennial favorite film series “ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema,” made The Teacher feel like the only movie in the world that matters… And much more frivolously, I can’t not mention my own short film, Signs of the Time, which screened at Metrograph in April!

Jenni Olson
Something Special, aka Willy/Milly (1986) – Paul Schneider

Pamela Adlon stars in this wacky magical teen gender-swap comedy that now (in 2024) reads as a prescient portrayal of transmasc/intersex teen Willy and his supportive, loving parents (just skip the tacked on heteronormative ending). 

Jessica Almereyda
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) – Ivan Dixon

John Semley
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) – Brian De Palma

De Palma’s classic, screened in a renovated mausoleum showroom, with musical accompaniment by a School of Rock-style teen rock group—kids have to learn about Paul Williams sooner or later!

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) – Phạm Thiên Ân

Seeing this Vietnamese mind-boggler on a big screen at Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center made me realize that everything I thought I knew about uncanny camera movements was incomplete.

Jordan Cronk
It’s Not Me (2024) – Leos Carax

Baby Annette Forever.

Joshua Fu
Gone to Earth (1950) – Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Felt blessed to see this Powell & Pressburger in a 35mm print at the Academy (allegedly from Scorsese’s personal collection)—technicolor, whimsical fauna, Jennifer Jones’s décolletage, something for everyone!

Joshua Minsoo Kim
Passage Through: A Ritual (1990) – Stan Brakhage

I called up Philip Corner, who did the soundtrack for this, and he told me that both Stan and Marilyn considered this the best Brakhage film. They’re right.

Jourdain Searles
Challengers (2024) – Luca Guadagnino

Julien Allen
Cuadecuc, vampir (1971) – Pere Portabella

Bafflingly uncategorizable, and gorgeous.

Kaila Hier
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – Vincente Minnelli

At the Nitrate Picture Show in a packed room on, you guessed it, a nitrate print! What a magical experience.

Katie Gee Salisbury
Song (1928) – Richard Eichberg

I stayed up till 4 am to stream Song through the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Anna May Wong’s performance was magnetic, the music by Stephen Horne melancholic and magical.

Kelli Weston
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) – Henry Jaglom

Keva York
Clifford (1994) – Paul Flaherty

Replace all child actors with 40-year-old Martin Short.

Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
Honeysuckle Rose (1980) – Jerry Schatzberg

Immediately felt like a masterpiece, even upon first viewing. Watched on rose-hued, original run 35mm print at Film Forum, followed by a birthday cake celebration for Jerry Schatzberg’s 97th.

Lucy Kerr
Possession (1981) – Andrzej Żuławski

I can’t believe it took me until this year to watch this movie. Thanks to Metrograph for releasing!

Luke Goodsell
The Little Richard Story (1980) – William Klein

Lyla Wolf
Water Lilies (2007) – Céline Sciamma

Saw Water Lilies and decided to stay for Fallen Angels and it was a perfect night.

Lynne Tillman
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) – Yasujirō Ozu

His last film.

Mackenzie Lukenbill
Excerpts from Five Year Diary (1981-1997) – Anne Charlotte Robertson

Spectacle Theater. In the post-privacy age, an important reminder that self-documentation is capable of feeling dangerous, necessary, beautiful, and affective.

Mark Asch
Megalopolis (2024) – Francis Ford Coppola

I saw this at Cannes, when the live component was debuted before an unsuspecting audience; when the lights came up, immediately after the onscreen destruction of New York City, and a man in a suit walked out in front of the screen, I was confused, agitated, somehow uncertain if the real world was about to intrude on the film or the film on the world—“I guess now we know how you would have reacted if you were at the premiere of L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de la Ciotat,” my friend told me after. I’m not owned, I’m not owned.

Marlowe Granados
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) – Paul Shrader

The film makes you want to go to Venice and only narrowly avoid being in an erotic thriller. I could look at young Rupert Everett forever. 

Matthew Folden
A Bucket of Blood (1959) – Roger Corman

With an introduction by Michael Bilandic.

Matt Turner
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [extended edition] (2001) – Peter Jackson

Sometimes life feels like too much. When that happens, you go to your local multiplex, buy a medium mixed popcorn, sit down and press the button that makes the leather chair noisily recline. “It began with the forging of the great ring.”

Michael Almereyda
Black Narcissus (1947) – Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Restoration screened at MoMA, introduced by Scorsese.

Naomi Fry
Janet Planet (2024) – Annie Baker

Perfect movie!

Natalia Winkelman
Welcome to LA (1976) – Alan Rudolph

In 35mm, during the Early Films of Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duval series at BAM.

Natasha Stagg
Good One (2024) – India Donaldson

Nathan Lee
Trenque Lauquen (2022) – Laura Citarella

I sat my ass down on New Years Day, locked in for all two hundred and sixty minutes of this wondrous oddity, and only peed ONCE. 

Nathan Silver
Remorques (1941) – Jean Grémillon

Nicholas Russell
Ghostwatch (1992) – Lesley Manning

Nick Newman
Yokohama BJ Blues (1981) – Eiichi Kudo

This tangled, smooth neo-noir fulfills most of what I want from cinema, and no experience this year surpassed hosting its US premiere through Amnesiascope. More to come in 2025.

Nicolas Rapold
Horseplayer (1990) – Kurt Voss

With Brad Dourif Q&A at Anthology Film Archives.

Olivier Assayas
Mes petites amoureuses (1974) – Jean Eustache

Had never seen it. Blew my mind.

Owen Kline
UP! (1976) – Russ Meyer

A delirious sold-out screening at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn.

Perwana Nazif
Toute une nuit (1982) – Chantal Akerman

Pina’s spectral cigarette smoke, the sound of heels on late night pavement, the absurdity of “desire”…

Philippa Hawker
Blind Beast (1969) – Yasuzō Masumura

Of the six memorable, often confronting films in the Yasuzō Masumura season at the Melbourne Cinematheque this was the wildest ride.

Rachel Handler
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) – Radu Jude

Furious, hilarious, devastating, maybe the only movie that has accurately captured the inherent absurdity of being alive right now.

Radu Jude
Scénarios + Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario” (2024) – Jean-Luc Godard

And “En el aire conmovido”—an exhibition curated by Georges Didi-Huberman (in Madrid’s Reina Sofia), which is an amazing montage work.

Rayne Fisher-Quann
Janet Planet (2024) – Annie Baker

Did not know what it was about and earnestly said out loud as I walked into the theatre “I’ll be okay as long as it’s not about mothers and daughters.”

Richard Hell
Queens of the Qing Dynasty (2022) – Ashley McKenzie

A movie, a director, actors, so attuned to the ordinary, the everyday, as known by the forgotten and rejected and impossible, that watching it is like being reborn moment by moment.

Ryan Swen
La Région Centrale (1971) – Michael Snow

A holy grail, partially glimpsed in abbreviated form last year and finally experienced in all its ragged glory on 16mm thanks to the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Sam Huber
The Joy of Life (2005) – Jenni Olson

Sasha Frere-Jones
35 Shots of Rum (2008) – Claire Denis

There aren’t many films that take labor and love at face value, but we have this. The actors run the show.

Sean Price Williams
Cocksucker Blues (1988) – Robert Frank, Danny Seymour

Screening at MoMA. Absolutely mammoth event. The room was absolutely transported to endless Rolling Stones hotel slumber parties. 

Sierra Pettengill
The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962) – Timothy Carey

Beamed without warning into my living room like the divine revelation it is. 

Ted Gerike
BG (2024) – Arthur Jafa

At Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles. 

Thora Siemsen
No Other Land (2024) – Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Hope this film gets US distribution.

Victoria Ashley
Muriel’s Wedding (1994) – P. J. Hogan

Never gets old!

Victoria Uren
Master Gardener (2022) – Paul Schrader

Will Sloan
Magic Spot (2022) – Charles Roxburg

The DIY cinema of Matt Farley and Charlie Roxburgh has been an entirely grassroots, word-of-mouth phenomenon, so it’s only fitting that when their first-ever NYC retrospective took place this summer, it was at a microcinema, Spectacle. From a weekend full of great screenings, I will especially treasure the memory of looking around during Kevin McGee’s climactic song in the brilliant Magic Spot and seeing so many of my fellow audience members wiping away tears. Dear reader… I was crying too.

Willow Catelyn Maclay
Ginger Snaps (2000) – John Fawcett

At the Paradise Theater in Toronto for the Canadian book launch of Corpses, Fools and Monsters.

Yuka Murakami
Dillinger is Dead (1969) – Marco Ferreri

The most lovely Piccoli performance (the kitchen scene) and an incredible soundtrack.

Zoe Dubno
Ball of Fire (1941) – Howard Hawks

“That is the kind of woman that makes whole civilizations topple!”