Our 10 favourite films of 2024
2024 was another exceptional year for film. Movies with complex, empowered female leads dominated the conversation, tackling themes like ageism, agency, and female desire. Just look at the hits from the Cannes Film Festival alone, including Emilia Pérez, All We Imagine as Light, Anora, and The Substance.
Horror and suspense — genres that have historically relegated women to meek supporting roles — finally flipped the script with the arrival of Maxxxine, in which a female sex worker goes face-to-face with a serial killer, and Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Blink Twice, which centres on a group of women whose best chance at surviving a strange island is themselves.
Other standouts included Zendaya’s mega double feature — the sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two, followed by steamy tennis drama Challengers — and a cinematic reimagining of the beloved Broadway musical Wicked. Here, Harper's Bazaar recalls some of the biggest filmic hits of 2024.
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, whose impressive oeuvre (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All) explores love in all its nuances, hit the clay court with Zendaya as his muse. In Challengers, she plays former tennis star Tashi, whose connection with two of the sport’s male greats, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), culminates in the ultimate climactic courtside ménage à trois. Even though love means nothing in tennis, it means everything in Challengers.
Wicked
The beloved West End musical — an adaptation of the 1995 novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which was itself a reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — made its way into cinemas this November. Unfolding over two parts, the fantastical film, directed by Jon M. Chu, stars vocal powerhouses Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda), with additional support from Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, and Michelle Yeoh.
Anora
Writer-director Sean Baker’s dramedy, Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, stars Mikey Madison as a sex worker living in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who ends up falling for one of her clients, Vanya — the son of a Russian oligarch. Anora, who speaks some Russian, is dazzled by Vanya’s lifestyle, and the two grow closer, with Vanya ultimately proposing to her. But other forces at play conspire to drive them apart.
Blink Twice
The highly-anticipated directorial debut from Zoë Kravitz follows a cocktail waitress (Naomi Ackie) who meets a tech billionaire (Channing Tatum) at a fundraising gala and is invited to join him and a colourful cast of characters on his private island. Things, though, are not what they seem, and she begins to question whether she’ll make it out alive.
Emilia Pérez
This musical crime thriller follows a brilliant lawyer named Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana) who, after winning a contentious case, receives an anonymous call offering a lucrative opportunity: a cartel leader wants her help obtaining gender-affirming surgery in order to live as a woman and leave the drug trade behind.
All We Imagine as Light
This intimate drama from writer-director Payal Kapadia premiered at Cannes earlier this year and not only won the Grand Prix but became the first film from India to compete in the main competition in 20 years. A moving portrait of the power of friendship and sisterhood, it centres on two roommates, Anu (Divya Prabha) and Prabha (Kani Kusruti), and their friend Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), who work together in a hospital in Mumbai. Each woman has a complicated personal life: Anu, who is Hindu, has a secret Muslim lover, Prabha has a long-absent husband that lives in Germany, and Parvaty finds herself at risk of losing her home.
Maxxxine
The third installment of writer-director Ti West’s X horror film series (rounded out by X and Pearl) sees Mia Goth reprise her role as Maxine Minx, an adult film performer who has big dreams of becoming a Hollywood star in 1980s Los Angeles. Just as she gets her big break, a serial killer known as the Night Stalker begins to target young starlets, and Minx must fight not only for her career, but for her life. The cast is rounded out by a shiny roster including Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Halsey, and Kevin Bacon, among others.
The Substance
Perhaps one of the buzziest, most inflammatory films to come out of Cannes this year, Coralie Fargeat’s satirical body horror is a searing critique of ageism and unrealistic beauty standards. Demi Moore shines as Elisabeth, a once-celebrated Hollywood actor, who is fired from her long-running gig as the host of an aerobics show. Desperate to regain the spotlight, she turns to a black-market serum called The Substance, which promises to create a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of her — at a cost. Margaret Qualley also stars.
Dune: Part Two
The massive, planet-hopping saga that swirls around Paul Atreides, Chani, and the Fremen continues with part two of Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 sci-fi novel. In this instalment, Paul, played by Timothée Chalamet, and Chani, embodied by the indomitable Zendaya, unite in mind, body, and spirit, with Paul assuming his position at the helm of a rebellion against their enemies.
Conclave
Based on Robert Harris’s 2016 thriller of the same title, Conclave follows a group of the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders as they gather in Vatican City from all over the world to select the new Pope. As five men cattily vie for the most powerful position in the church, Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who was tasked with leading the selection process by the former Pope prior to his untimely death, discovers a series of riveting secrets that if unearthed could derail the papal inauguration — or worse.
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