Top 34 Movies from Film Festival 2024
Check out a selection of standout titles from major 2024 film festivals, showcasing some of the best indie filmmaking, festival discoveries and award‑season contenders. From Cannes and Berlin to Toronto, New York, BFI London, Savannah, Middleburg, Singapore and more, these films represent the year’s most talked‑about premieres.
Get a first look with trailers and clips, and get ready to add 34 remarkable films to your must‑watch list. This video and post highlight key selections from:
🏆 Savannah Film Festival
🏆 Middleburg Film Festival
🏆 Berlin International Film Festival
🏆 Gijón International Film Festival
🏆 Guadalajara International Film Festival
🏆 Singapore International Film Festival
🏆 QCinema International Film Festival
🏆 New York Film Festival
🏆 Gotham Awards season selections
🏆 BFI London Film Festival
🏆 Indonesian Film Festival
Andrea Arnold’s Bird is a 2024 drama starring Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, following a young girl navigating a volatile family and a drifting father figure on the fringes of British society.
It premiered in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2024, was named one of the National Board of Review’s top 10 independent films of the year, and earned Arnold the Prix de la Citoyenneté at Cannes, as well as festival and critics’ honours including an Outstanding Female‑Led Feature prize and a British Independent Film Award for Rogowski.
Pepe is a 2024 drama by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, a Dominican‑Namibian‑German‑French co‑production that gives voice to Pepe, one of the hippos once owned by Pablo Escobar, who narrates his story from beyond the grave through the oral traditions of local communities.
The film premiered in competition at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on 20 February 2024, where De Los Santos Arias won the Silver Bear for Best Director, establishing it as one of the year’s most original festival discoveries.
Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements is a 2024 experimental musical biopic‑concert film about indie band Pavement, mixing documentary footage, scripted scenes and segments from the jukebox stage musical Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical.
Described as a “semiotic experiment”, it premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2024 and playfully blurs the line between spoof biopic, live performance and fan essay.
Hong Sang‑soo’s A Traveler’s Needs follows a French woman in Korea (Isabelle Huppert) who drifts through odd jobs and financial difficulties before becoming a language tutor to two local women, spending downtime lying on rocks and drinking makgeolli.
The film premiered in the main competition at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, continuing Hong’s rich collaboration with Huppert.
Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour is a 2024 period drama set in 1918 Rangoon, where British civil servant Edward abandons his fiancée Molly on their wedding day and flees across Asia, while she doggedly follows his trail.
Premiering in competition at Cannes on 22 May 2024, it won the Best Director prize for Gomes and later earned further recognition, including directing and editing awards at Chicago, Valladolid and other festivals, and was selected as Portugal’s entry for the 97th Academy Awards.
Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says, adapted from Daisy Johnson’s novel Sisters, is an internationally co‑produced drama starring Mia Tharia, Rakhee Thakrar and Pascale Kann.
When September is suspended from school, her younger sister July begins to assert her own independence, leading to tension and psychological rupture during a holiday in Ireland. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on 21 May 2024.
Neo Sora’s Happyend is a Japanese‑American drama set in a near‑future Tokyo where two best friends face graduation under the looming threat of a major earthquake and the installation of a school surveillance system after a prank.
Premiering in the Orizzonti section at Venice on 2 September 2024 and released in Japan in October, it has since picked up multiple festival awards, including the Observation Missions for Asian Cinema prize at Golden Horse, the Young Cinema Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and jury honours at Jogja and Pingyao.
Edward Berger’s Conclave, adapted from Robert Harris’s novel, is a 2024 mystery thriller about Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) overseeing a papal election while unearthing secrets and scandals among the candidates.
After premiering at Telluride in August 2024, it was released by Focus Features and Black Bear, earning strong reviews for its performances, direction and production design, grossing nearly $58 million worldwide and landing on AFI and National Board of Review top‑ten lists, as well as scoring Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations and multiple ensemble and craft awards across U.S. critics’ groups.
Viktor Kossakovsky’s documentary Architecton is an extraordinary visual essay on stone, concrete and the materials that make up our built environment, following their journey from quarries to cities.
An international co‑production between Germany, France and the U.S., it premiered in competition at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it vied for the Golden Bear and was nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Film Award.
Radu Jude and philosopher Christian Ferencz‑Flatz’s Eight Postcards from Utopia is a 2024 Romanian documentary composed entirely of found footage from post‑communist Romanian advertising.
Divided into eight thematic segments and an epilogue, it uses the language of commercials to dissect consumerism, labour, gender and the promises of capitalism after the fall of communism.
Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby is a British musical romance about Helen, a chicken‑factory worker in North Wales caring for a mother‑figure, whose life brightens when her teenage crush Joanne returns, bringing both joy and unresolved trauma.
Selected for the BFI/British Council GREAT 8 showcase at Cannes 2023 and premiering at Edinburgh, it secured UK‑Ireland distribution via Studio Soho in 2024.
Uberto Pasolini’s The Return is a 2024 drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche that reimagines the final chapters of Homer’s Odyssey, focusing on Odysseus’s homecoming and its emotional fallout.
It premiered in the Gala section at TIFF on 7 September 2024 and was released theatrically in the U.S. by Bleecker Street in December, positioning itself as a grown‑up, literary awards‑season entry.
John Crowley’s romantic dramedy We Live in Time, written by Nick Payne, charts a decade‑long relationship between a couple played by Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh through a non‑linear structure.
Premiering at TIFF on 6 September 2024, it was released by A24 in the U.S. and StudioCanal in the UK, grossing over $30 million worldwide and earning praise for its performances and emotional storytelling.
Crocodile Tears (Air Mata Buaya) is an Indonesian coming‑of‑age thriller and debut feature from Tumpal Tampubolon, about Johan, a young man living with his controlling mother on a crocodile farm whose world shifts when he falls for Arumi.
It premiered in TIFF’s Centrepiece programme, had its Asian premiere at Busan and competed for the Sutherland Trophy at BFI London, while also earning five nominations at the 2024 Indonesian Film Festival including Best Picture.
Laura Carreira’s debut feature On Falling is a British‑Portuguese social drama about Aurora, a Portuguese immigrant and warehouse worker in Glasgow whose life is defined by precarity, wage labour and mounting emotional breakdown.
It premiered in TIFF’s Discovery section and later screened in competition at San Sebastián, where Carreira won Best Director (ex aequo), and at BFI London’s First Feature Competition, where it took the Sutherland Award, with a UK‑Ireland release planned for early 2025.
Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail is a 2024 Australian stop‑motion tragicomedy about Grace Pudel, a lonely misfit whose life story—loosely inspired by Elliot’s own experiences—unfolds from childhood into adulthood with humour and melancholy.
After premiering at Annecy in June 2024 and opening in Australia in October, it went on to win major animation awards at Ottawa, Sitges, Mill Valley and BFI London, making it one of the year’s most acclaimed animated features.
Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s documentary Porcelain War won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2024 for its intimate portrait of Ukrainian artists who continue creating ceramics and art while living under Russian occupation and bombardment.
It has since picked up further honours, including Best Documentary at Seattle, an audience award at Cinéfest Sudbury and a Special Jury Mention at Sarasota, underlining its resonance with festival audiences.
Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s The Quiet Son adapts Laurent Petitmangin’s novel What You Need from the Night, depicting a father (Vincent Lindon) whose relationship with his son (Benjamin Voisin) fractures when the young man embraces far‑right politics.
Premiering at the 81st Venice Film Festival, it earned the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, confirming Voisin as one of the most compelling young performers in contemporary French cinema.
Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks is an Icelandic drama about a young woman processing grief over the sudden death of her first love over the course of a single summer day in Reykjavík.
It opened the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2024, signalling strong critical interest in its intimate, time‑compressed story.
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest, adapted with Joslyn Barnes from Jim Crace’s 2013 novel, is a medieval English drama about a village that scapegoats three outsiders amid enclosure and economic upheaval.
Starring Caleb Landry Jones, it premiered in competition for the Golden Lion at Venice 2024, adding a distinctive historical allegory to the year’s festival slate.
Carson Lund’s Eephus is a 2024 sports dramedy about the final game of an amateur New England baseball league before their field is demolished, played by ageing men clinging to ritual and community.
It premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, screened in New York Film Festival’s Main Slate, and played at Munich and Valladolid, standing out as a low‑key, richly observed hangout film.
Nicolás Pereda’s Lázaro at Night is a Canadian‑Mexican docufiction made with theatre collective Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol, following three actors whose messy love triangle blurs with the film they are auditioning for.
Premiering at the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film and later screening in TIFF’s Wavelengths, it continues Pereda’s playful mixing of performance, reality and fiction.
Alain Guiraudie’s thriller Misericordia stars Félix Kysyl and Catherine Frot and premiered in the Cannes Première section, competing for the Queer Palm.
Released in France by Les Films du Losange in October 2024, it later won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film and the Golden Spike at the Valladolid International Film Festival, where Guiraudie also picked up Best Screenplay.
RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s novel, is a 2024 American drama about two Black teenagers sent to an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida, inspired by the real Dozier School for Boys.
Premiering at Telluride and released by Amazon MGM, it earned AFI top‑ten recognition, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations, and festival awards including Stockholm’s Bronze Horse and Gotham honours for Best Director and Breakthrough Performer, confirming it as one of the year’s key American prestige titles.
No Other Land is a 2024 documentary made collectively by Palestinian and Israeli activist‑filmmakers Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, documenting home demolitions and resistance in the occupied West Bank.
It premiered in Berlin’s Panorama section, winning both the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award, was shortlisted for the 97th Oscars and has since garnered major documentary prizes from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Gotham and numerous U.S. critics’ groups.
David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds is a Canadian‑French body‑horror drama starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt, revolving around a widower who creates a high‑tech cemetery allowing the living to watch the decomposition of their loved ones’ bodies.
It premiered in the Cannes main competition in May 2024 and is slated for a French theatrical release in early 2025, marking Cronenberg’s latest exploration of technology, grief and flesh.
Robinson Devor’s documentary Suburban Fury revisits Sara Jane Moore’s 1975 assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford, examining her life, motives and the social climate that produced her.
The film was selected for the Main Slate of the 2024 New York Film Festival, signalling strong critical interest in its archival and interview‑driven approach.
Trương Minh Quý’s Viêt and Nam is a romantic drama about two Vietnamese coal miners in love who dream of escaping their harsh lives, only to be separated by circumstance and a looming sense of doomed futurity; the film has reportedly been banned in Vietnam.
It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, was nominated for the Queer Palm, then played TIFF’s Wavelengths, New York’s Main Slate and Mumbai’s World Cinema section, while also winning Best Picture in QCinema’s Asian Next Wave competition and a Best Director prize at Singapore.
Matías Piñeiro’s You Burn Me takes its title from a surviving fragment by Sappho and uses a text‑centred approach to adapt “Sea Foam”, a chapter of Cesare Pavese’s Dialogues with Leucò, staging a conversation between Sappho and Britomartis about heartbreak and desire.
The hour‑long film, which films both the act of reading and associative imagery, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and later screened at Gijón and Guadalajara, offering a layered essay on myth, love and cinema.
Steve McQueen’s Blitz is a 2024 World War II drama about Londoners during the Blitz, led by Saoirse Ronan and newcomer Elliot Heffernan, with a supporting cast including Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke and Stephen Graham.
It opened the BFI London Film Festival in October 2024, then received a limited theatrical release before streaming on Apple TV+, earning generally positive reviews for its performances and intimate approach to wartime London.
Elton John: Never Too Late, directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, is a 2024 documentary produced by Disney and Rocket Entertainment that chronicles Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour while weaving in archival performances, personal journals and behind‑the‑scenes family footage.
It premiered at TIFF in September 2024 and received a limited theatrical run before streaming on Disney+, serving as a definitive tour document and personal portrait.
Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez is a Spanish‑language French musical crime comedy about a Mexican cartel boss who transitions and disappears into a new identity, blending operatic melodrama, crime plotting and song.
Premiering in competition at Cannes, it won the Jury Prize and a collective Best Actress award for its female ensemble, and went on to receive a record 10 Golden Globe nominations for a non‑English‑language film, as well as AFI Top Ten recognition and selection as France’s entry for the 97th Academy Awards.
Pablo Larraín’s Maria is a 2024 psychological drama about opera legend Maria Callas, played by Angelina Jolie, focusing on the last seven days of her life in 1977 Paris as she reflects on art, love and regret.
An Italy‑Germany‑U.S. co‑production, it premiered in competition at Venice 2024 to strong reviews for Jolie’s performance, then rolled out theatrically and on Netflix, while picking up festival honours including cinematography and directing awards at Middleburg and Savannah.
Paul Schrader’s Oh Canada, adapted from Russell Banks’s novel Foregone, stars Richard Gere as a dying documentarian who sits for a final interview and confesses that his radical public persona was built on lies and betrayals.
Premiering at Cannes 2024 and released by Kino Lorber in December, it reunites Schrader and Gere for the first time since American Gigolo and continues Schrader’s late‑career run of morally troubled male character studies.
From Cannes prize‑winners like All We Imagine as Light, Emilia Pérez and Viêt and Nam to Berlin standouts like Pepe and No Other Land, and North American premieres at TIFF, NYFF and Sundance, these 34 films capture the breadth of festival cinema in 2024.
If you enjoyed this round‑up, make sure to like, share and subscribe to Cinema Awards Archive on YouTube for more festival breakdowns, awards‑season tracking and deep dives into the year’s most acclaimed films.
Follow our blog for upcoming lists covering Oscar contenders, critics’ favourites, international hidden gems and box‑office milestones from around the world.
Cinema Awards Archive – reliving Hollywood’s golden moments and celebrating global cinema, one festival at a time.
