The 15 best films of 2024 for the half-year – Dune 2 is relegated to second place by sweaty masterpiece

The year is half over. This is a good time to take stock: Which films have stood out between January and June 2024 after the 2023 winners? Which highlights should no film fan miss? The Moviepilot editorial team’s ranking shows you the best films of the first half of 2024.

The 15 best films of 2024 so far: We have chosen

Before we get started, here is a brief explanation of how the list of the best films of 2024 came about:

Ready so far? Then dive into the outstanding works that we warmly recommend to you from 2024:

The best films of 2024 – 15th place: Opus – Ryuichi Sakamoto

103 minutes in a dark room, in thoughtful black and white images and with only one instrument: In Opus – Ryuichi Sakamoto the eponymous composer sits down at the piano one last time and guides us through his work with great devotion. Ryuichi Sakamoto died of cancer on March 28, 2023. Director Neo Sora captured his last concert on camera and created one of the most astonishing, thoughtful and touching films of the year. (MH)

The best films of 2024 – 14th place: May December

Six months late, May December also to Germany. In his oppressive masterpiece about an actress who visits her real-life role model for an authentic role embodiment, Todd Haynes opens an unusual mixture of soap kitsch and taboo subject, which allows the leading actresses Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore to give top performances.

The best films of 2024 – 13th place: La Chimera

La Chimera is an enigmatic adventure film, a fragile drama and a meditation on loneliness in society. After the strong Happy as Lazzaro, Italian director Alice Rohrwacher has created another work that lives from the texture of its analogue images and follows a character where we can never be sure whether she is marching straight into the abyss or finding fulfillment in the uncertainty of her journey. An eternal search for treasures that should perhaps remain hidden. Fortunately, Rohrwacher has brought this film to light. (MH)

The best films of 2024 – 12th place: Dying

As a German cinema that you have to see in 2024, the first half of the year saw Die by Matthias Glasner. With a brilliant performance by Lars Eidinger, we delve into the shattered Lunies family and experience 3 hours of the deepest blows of fate and unexpected comedy, when orchestras rehearse, mother-son relationships break down and farewells follow new beginnings, which could just as well have entitled the film “Life”.

The best films of 2024 – 11th place: The Boy and the Heron

With the Oscar-winning animated film The Boy and the Heron Anime veteran Hayao Miyazaki returned once again for an extraordinary fantasy trip and showed us the exciting journey of a Japanese boy who, after the war, ended up in a colorful, dark fantasy world full of strange characters (human herons and gigantic parakeets!) to search for his deceased mother. Thoughtful, thrilling and touching, it convinced us too.

The best films of 2024 – 10th place: The Holdovers

It is very likely that The Holdovers is becoming a Christmas film classic this year. Alexander Payne’s quirky feel-good holiday film about an unloved teacher captivates with quirky yet lovable characters around Paul Giamatti and seems as if Snape and Harry Potter had to spend Christmas together at Hogwarts.

The best films of 2024 – 9th place: Innocence

The Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda cautiously leads us after films like Shoplifters and Broker in The innocence once again delves into the pitfalls of families: Because her son is behaving strangely, a mother publicly accuses his teacher. But what really happened in the film, which has the international title Monster? Koreeda explores this with sensitivity and captivating images – a very worthwhile experience.

The best films of 2024 – 8th place: Furiosa

Hotly anticipated, George Miller plunges into the spectacle of Mad Max: The Complete Sagathe backstory of Charlize Theron’s character. Between roaring engines and crazy stunts, Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a thrilling performance and keeps the atmosphere burning for 148 minutes.

The best films of 2024 – 7th place: Civil War

With Civil War Sci-fi talent Alex Garland returned this year to unleash a second civil war in the USA in the not-so-distant future. Following the well-acted quartet of war reporters around Kirsten Dunst on their devastating road trip required strong nerves, but was rewarded with a gripping war film experience that made it impossible to look away.

The best films of 2024 – 6th place: Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2 not only successfully stormed the cinema charts (and became the most successful film of 2024 so far), but also our top lists. Animation studio Pixar once again causes chaos in the head when the personified feelings of a pubescent girl tumble over the top and newcomers like doubt perfectly capture youth. Funny and touching, the sequel is surprisingly in no way inferior to the outstanding first part.

The best films of 2024 – 5th place: The Zone of Interest

With a sobriety that makes the horror all the more tangible, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest the idyllic life of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, who live, bathe and tend their garden right next to the concentration camp. The 105 minutes are disturbing, grueling and shocking, shedding light on the subject of the Holocaust from a completely new perspective, and thus manage to pour the indescribable into images.

The best films of 2024 – 4th place: All of Us Strangers

As a tender ghost story and thrilling fantasy highlight, All of Us Strangers an enormous emotional resonance that will not disappear anytime soon. When Andrew Scott, as a lonely screenwriter, unexpectedly meets his dead parents again and cautiously approaches his neighbor (Paul Mescal), Andrew Haigh directs it with an intensity that leaves no eye dry at the end.

The best films of 2024 – 3rd place: Poor Things

As usual, Yorgos Lanthimos gave us an Emma Stone as a child in a woman’s body and made Poor Things This makes it a provocative alternative to Barbie. The wacky reinterpretation of Frankenstein won four Oscars, including Best Actress, and convinced many of us as a bizarre sci-fi fairy tale.

The best films of 2024 – 2nd place: Dune 2

Dune: Part Two can be found in most of the top half-year lists in the Moviepilot editorial team. Denis Villeneuve’s hotly anticipated sci-fi sequel to his Frank Herbert adaptation swept through the cinemas like a sandworm and also kept us hooked as a visual spectacle with a devastating story when Paul Atreides launched a counterattack against the Harkonnens. Fortunately, Dune 3 has already been announced to quench our thirst for further anticipation after returning to the desert planet.

The best films of 2024 – 1st place: Challengers

The greatest cinema experience of the year for us so far was Challengers. After Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All, director Luca Guadagnino has long been known to film fans as an exceptional talent. But what he tells (and how he tells it) in this sweaty masterpiece about his tennis love triangle is simply breathtaking and incredibly sensual right up to the very last redeeming shot. The best film of the year, with which Zendaya even surpasses her Dune 2 performance.

We hope that we have been able to give you some hot film tips to catch up on (or watch again) with the Moviepilot editorial team’s favorite films. Let’s see how this list changes by the end of the year, when we will take stock again.

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