Cannes 2024 delivered one of the strongest line‑ups in recent festival memory, from historic prize‑winners and political firebombs to daring formal experiments and star‑driven genre pieces.
This list rounds up 10 of the very best films that premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival – titles that went on to dominate critics’ polls, awards races and festival programs worldwide. Think of it as your curated watchlist for the new wave of festival cinema.
More “best of” lists from Venice, Toronto, Sundance, New York, BFI London and beyond are on the way, so stay tuned to Cinema Awards Archive for ongoing festival and awards‑season coverage.
All We Imagine as Light is a 2024 drama written and directed by Payal Kapadia, an international co‑production between France, India, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy, featuring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon. Shot in Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi, it follows the inner lives and shifting relationships of women working in Mumbai and beyond.
The film premiered in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2024, the first Indian feature in the main competition since 1994, and won the Grand Prix. It later topped the Sight & Sound poll for best film of 2024 and was named one of the National Board of Review’s top five international films, while also earning two Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director for Kapadia.
Kapadia’s work has been showered with additional honours, including Cannes’ Prix des Cinémas Art et Essai (special mention), major prizes at San Sebastián, Chicago, Montclair and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best International Feature at the Gotham Awards and multiple critics’ prizes for Best Foreign or International Film across Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto and San Diego.
Sean Baker’s Anora is a 2024 American comedy‑drama about a young Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, only to face ferocious pushback from his powerful family.
The film premiered on May 21 in competition at Cannes 2024, where it won the Palme d’Or, and later became Baker’s biggest commercial success after a theatrical release via Neon in October. It was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute and received multiple Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress and Best Director.
Anora has swept critics’ groups and festivals worldwide, earning Best Picture and Best Director citations for Baker, acting awards for Madison and Yura Borisov, and prizes for screenplay and editing from organisations including the Boston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle critics.
Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides (Fengliu yidai) is a 2024 Chinese drama built from footage gathered over 22 years, some drawn from Jia’s earlier films, blended into an impressionistic, non‑linear mix of fiction and non‑fiction.
The film premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes on 18 May 2024 and later screened at Toronto and Busan (Gala Presentation), where it was praised for its time‑spanning portrait of modern China and its experimental narrative structure.
Francis Ford Coppola’s long‑gestating passion project Megalopolis is a 2024 epic science‑fiction drama set in an alternate New York City renamed “New Rome”, where visionary architect Cesar Catilina clashes with a corrupt mayor over plans to rebuild the city as a futuristic utopia.
Selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, the film polarised critics and industry insiders, but stood out as one of the festival’s boldest auteur statements. Coppola self‑financed production and marketing, and Lionsgate ultimately released the film theatrically in the United States, where it drew mixed reviews and modest box office, but intense debate about its ambition and excess.
Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a 2024 black comedy‑drama co‑produced by Ireland, the UK, the U.S. and Zambia. It follows Shula, who discovers her uncle’s body on an empty road at night, and during the funeral her family’s buried secrets and generational abuses slowly come to light within a middle‑class Zambian household.
The film competed in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on 16 May 2024, where Nyoni won the Best Director prize, and later screened at Toronto, New York, BFI London and the Mumbai Film Festival, confirming her as one of the most vital new voices in contemporary world cinema.
It will be released in the UK and Ireland by Picturehouse Entertainment and in the U.S. by A24, suggesting a strong international rollout beyond its festival run.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a 2024 political thriller about Iman, an investigating judge in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court who becomes consumed by paranoia as nationwide protests intensify and his service pistol goes missing. The fictional drama incorporates real footage from the 2022–23 Iranian protests and stars Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki.
Premiering in competition at Cannes on 24 May 2024, the film received the Special Jury Award and a raft of parallel prizes, including the FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, François Chalais Prize and the Prix des Cinémas Art et Essai. Rasoulof, who had been sentenced to prison in Iran prior to the premiere, fled to Germany and appeared with the cast on the Cannes red carpet, turning the screening into a powerful act of protest.
Critically acclaimed and theatrically released in France and Germany, the film was named Best International Film of 2024 by the National Board of Review, nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Non‑English Language Film, chosen as Germany’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards and recognised by multiple critics’ groups, with Rasoulof winning directing honours in Los Angeles and Dallas–Fort Worth.
Arnaud Desplechin’s Spectateurs! (Filmlovers!) is a 2024 docufiction that revisits his recurring character Paul Dédalus from My Sex Life… and My Golden Days, using him as a guide through a whirlwind of moviegoing memories, cinephile fantasies and archival imagery.
Desplechin has described the film as a celebration of the magic of movie theatres themselves—how they shape identity, memory and emotion. It premiered in the Special Screenings section at Cannes 2024, where it was in contention for the L’Œil d’or documentary prize.
Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is a 2024 feminist, satirical body‑horror film about Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an aging fitness TV icon who, after being fired by her sleazy producer (Dennis Quaid), turns to a black‑market biotech drug that creates a younger, “perfect” version of herself (Margaret Qualley) with increasingly horrific side effects.
Premiering in the Cannes main competition on 19 May 2024, Fargeat’s screenplay won the festival’s Best Screenplay prize. The film went on to be a critical and commercial success, grossing over $77 million worldwide on a modest budget and earning five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
It has also collected a string of genre and critics’ awards, including Best Horror or Thriller Feature at the Astra awards, Best Picture and Best Director from New York Film Critics Online, multiple visual‑effects prizes and a Best Supporting Actress win for Qualley from the Seattle critics, confirming it as one of the year’s defining horror films.
Emanuel Pârvu’s Three Kilometers to the End of the World (Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii) is a 2024 Romanian drama set in a small village in the Danube Delta, where 17‑year‑old Adi is violently attacked in a homophobic assault.
In the aftermath, the fragile peace of the village fractures as his parents, neighbours and local authorities confront their prejudices, religious conservatism and complicity. The film premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, where it won the Queer Palm and the European University Film Award, and was later chosen as Romania’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language (Une langue universelle) is a 2024 Canadian absurdist comedy‑drama that playfully blurs national borders, languages and identities as it imagines a Winnipeg–Tehran hybrid city populated by characters switching tongues and realities.
The film premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, where it won the sidebar’s first Audience Award, and later collected the Bright Horizons Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival, Best Canadian Discovery at TIFF and the Summit Award for Best Canadian Feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival. It was named one of the National Board of Review’s top five international films of 2024 and selected as Canada’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
From Payal Kapadia’s groundbreaking All We Imagine as Light and Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora to the political fury of The Seeds of the Sacred Fig and the visceral shock of The Substance, Cannes 2024 has already shaped the global awards conversation and the year’s best‑of lists.
If you enjoyed this Cannes line‑up, make sure to like, share and subscribe to Cinema Awards Archive on YouTube for upcoming breakdowns of the top films from Venice, Toronto, Sundance, New York, BFI London and more.
Follow our blog for festival spotlights, Oscar race analysis, critics’ prize round‑ups and curated watchlists that bring the world’s great cinema together in one place.
Cinema Awards Archive – reliving Hollywood’s golden moments and celebrating the best of world cinema.
