The best films of 2024, a life-changing year at the movies

Late last year, I was sitting in a screening of La Dolce Vita at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. It was a film I fell in love with as a young person discovering film in high school. Seeing it for the first time on the big screen, though, was like seeing it with new eyes. Watching Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) wander through the streets of Rome in search of stories and meaning felt modern. It was a movie that, despite premiering 65 years ago, spoke to a sense of restlessness that felt endemic to my experience. The film was thrilling for its sense of romance and excitement, but also for the dull numbing feeling of meaninglessness. The whiplash between these fire-charged feelings — vitality and ennui — was intoxicating. 

In many ways, 2024 was a life-changing year at the movies for me. For the first time since the pandemic, the frost of isolation and alienation began to melt. Life came into focus and with it, my love of cinema suddenly felt real and important again. It wasn’t merely a hunger, but a kind of lust; not a need to consume but a desire to explore. This meant discovering new filmmakers but also going back and revisiting old favourites. It felt like seeing again for the first time in a long time.

Some people in the Cult MTL comment section will be surprised to learn that I’m a lover, not a hater. Just because I’m unimpressed by movies like Deadpool vs. Wolverine or apprehensive about Anora’s politics, doesn’t mean I’m not deeply, passionately invested in cinema. My tastes are my own and I’m unapologetic about the fact that I prefer films that are intimate and new. I prefer small films about people looking at each other; I prefer new images that imagine new ways of experiencing the world.

My favourite film of the year, Afternoons of Solitude, captures that sense of newness. The film is a documentary about bullfighting but is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Director Albert Serra’s exhaustive style and preference for digital and new technologies means that the film has an unparalleled intimacy. Bringing us directly into the ring, with its spectacular and fascistic violence, the movie invokes a closeness to power and machismo that would be otherwise inaccessible. It’s a film that captures a feeling very rarely seen in contemporary cinema anymore: that art isn’t separate from life, but intertwined with it. It’s transformative for both the subject and filmmaker, as well as the audience. 

Many films on my list tackle this idea in different forms, by blurring the line between fiction and documentary, embracing spontaneity or improvisation in style and challenging reality itself. A movie like Festin Boréal, about a moose rotting in the Quebec boreal forest, attempts to draw us back to earth, exploring the realm of a natural world that we’ve turned our back on. Another homegrown film, Universal Language (set for wide release in Quebec on Jan. 31), reimagines Canada’s two solitudes as French and Farsi. That reimagining of Canada’s linguistic and cultural divide reaches towards a deeper truth than a purely realist approach could find. It’s a movie borne out of deep imagination and consideration for the relationship between art, culture and people.

In a time of increased uncertainty and cynicism, art shouldn’t be treated merely as a form of escape, but an opportunity to see and engage with the world in new ways. Watching challenging or different types of films can be a transformative experience if you allow yourself to be taken down roads that may seem unfamiliar. If you open up your heart and mind, you might surprise yourself at the new experiences available to you.

Few of this year’s awards contenders were of particular interest to me, and some of those that are, such as The Brutalist and Nickel Boys, have yet to screen in Montreal (so would only qualify for our Best of 2025 list). That doesn’t mean, though, that it wasn’t a great or exciting year for film. 

Montreal has an incredible film culture, and if you’re willing to go to festivals or check out smaller cinemas, there are more great films there to be discovered. 

As always, this list is composed of films available to see in Montreal including festival and VOD titles. Some notable films that have featured on many best-of lists this year, like La Chimera, The Beast and Last Summer, were included on our 2023 list.

The best films of 2024

1. Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
2. Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
3. Miséricorde (Alain Guiraudie)
4. Universal Language (Matthew Rankin)
5. Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
6. His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs)
7. Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
8. Festin Boréal (Robert Morin)
9. Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski)
10. The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson)

Honourable mentions: Dahomey (Mati Diop), Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps (Louise Weard, Furiosa (George Miller), She Is Conann (Bertrand Mandico) and The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)

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