All in all, 2024 has been one of the best years of the 2020s for movies. There have been highs and lows, as one can expect in any given year, but the year’s best films are guaranteed to be fondly remembered for many years to come. Fans on the film-based social network Letterboxd have made sure to express their love for 2024’s best offerings in cinema, giving a few of the year’s moviesexceptionally high star ratings.
From deeply touching arthouse documentaries, likeDaughters, to hyper-popular blockbusters that have even joined the ranks of Letterboxd’s Top 250 highest-rated movies, likeThe Wild Robot,this list will rank Lettebroxd’s highest-rated 2024 releases. This top 10 includes movies from all over the world, spanning all sorts of different genres and styles. However, they all share something in common: they’re undeniably outstanding and shouldn’t be missed.
10’Hundreds of Beavers'
Average Letterboxd Rating: 4.2/5
The 2020s have put out plenty of hilarious comedies, but very few are as creative and as amusing as the proudly Wisconsinite indie slapstickHundreds of Beavers. This semi-silent spectacle inspired by the works ofCharlie Chaplin,Buster Keaton, and theLooney Tunesis about a drunken applejack salesman from the 19th century. He has to become America’s best fur trapper to win over the heart of a woman by defeating hundreds of beavers. Maybe more.
Impeccably directed byMike Cheslik,Hundreds of Beaversisa labor of love and non-stop dedication. It took years to produce and even longer to distribute until the team decided to self-distribute it—to terrific success so far. The lucky people who have seen it and reviewed it onLetterboxd call it one of the funniest movies they’ve ever seen, praising its silly yet deceivingly clever gags, Cheslik’s originality, and the naturally funny cartoonish visuals.
Hundreds of Beavers
9’Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron'
In 2023,Hayao Miyazaki, one of themost iconic fantasy movie directors, delighted the world by coming out of retirement and putting out the Oscar-winningThe Boy and the Heron, easily one of his best works. This year, the documentaryHayao Miyazaki and the Heronshowed the six-year-long process of making this gorgeous film, giving viewers a priceless insight into the creative mind and soul of the uncontested master of anime filmmaking.
It’s a beautiful companion piece to the themes of creativity and legacy ofThe Boy and the Heron, cementing Miyazaki as one of cinema’s greatest artists.
Making-of documentaries can be pretty hit-or-miss, butHayao Miyazaki and the Heronis one of the best. It’s a beautiful companion piece to the themes of creativity and legacy ofThe Boy and the Heron, cementing Miyazaki as one of cinema’s greatest artists. Life-affirming yet poignant, sweet yet heartbreaking, and as much ofa celebration of the beauty of filmmaking as it is an ode to the tedium that can come with it, it’s no wonder whyHayao Miyazaki and the Heronis so acclaimed by Letterboxd users.
Watch on Max
8’Daughters'
Daughtersis a tear-jerking documentary about four little girls preparing for a special Daddy-Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail. It’s an immensely powerful film that packs enough punch to leave even the most cynical viewers gasping for air.Documentaries rarely get any better than this.
Daughtersis as much ofa love letter to fatherhood and daughterhoodas it isa thoughtful critique of the broken American prison system. On Letterboxd, reviewers were deeply moved by the movie’s themes of rehabilitation, healing, and forgiveness. Conversely, they were also outraged by how difficult it is for inmates in America to see their families, honestly portrayed by directorsAngela PattonandNatalie Rae. This sensation of the 2024 festival circuit ought not to be missed.
7’The Wild Robot'
Despite their constant output of several movies each year, DreamWorks Animation is constantly pretty hit-or-miss. When their movies hit, though, they hithard. Case in point:The Wild Robot, their latest masterpiece based on the popular sci-fi novel for children byPeter Brown. It’s about Roz, an intelligent robot who gets stranded on an island inhabited only by animals. To survive the harsh environment, she has to bond with the inhabitants, which brings her to care for an orphaned baby goose.
Many would call thisthe greatest animated movie of 2024, and it would be hard to blame them.The Wild Robotisa beautiful and deeply moving celebration of motherhood, nature, and growth, with some stellar voice acting and some of the most striking animation in DreamWorks' whole filmography. The music is great, the story is delightful, and the third act is engrossing, makingThe Wild Robota virtually perfect film whose praises fans of animation on Letterboxd can’t sing enough.
The Wild Robot
6’Sing Sing'
Average Letterboxd Rating: 4.3/5
2024 saw the release of not just one but two movies powerfully critiquing the flaws in America’s prison system.Daughtersis incredible, andSing Singis just as well. Inspired by the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing Prison in New York,Sing Singis about a man wrongfully imprisoned at the titular prison who finds purpose by acting in a theater troupe with other inmates.
Colman Domingodelivers an Oscar-worthy powerhouse performance in the lead role, to no one’s surprise. ButSing Sing’s biggest revelations are the many supporting actors who are actual former inmates and members of the RTAplaying themselves. It’s through these men’s presence that the movie’s main thesis becomes undeniable:art is the most powerful, liberating, cathartic force at humans' disposal.Sing Singis flawlessly written and visually strong, making itA24’s highest-rated 2024 movie on Rotten Tomatoes.
Watch on Apple
5’Look Back'
Fans of anime feature films were delighted this year byLook Back, an hour-long coming-of-age drama about the overly-confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto, who couldn’t possibly be more different. A love for drawing manga, however, brings these two small-town girls together. It’sa deep, pure, and bittersweet movie, and its runtime goes by in such a flash that there’s really no excuse to skip this wonderful picture.
Look Backis one ofthe best anime moviesof recent years, reeling in viewers with its soft, colorful animation and seemingly simple story. It then allowsits incredibly punchy effect to creep up on viewers and take them on an emotional roller coasterlike no other. It doesn’t matter that audiences are guaranteed to walk out ofLook Backwith a bit of a broken heart: It’s such a lovely cinematic experience that the pain is worth it. Isn’t that what the artistic process is all about?
4’How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies'
The Thai dramedyHow to Make Millions Before Grandma Diesis 2024’s definitive feel-good watch, at least according to Letterboxd users who reviewed it. It’s about a university dropout low on cash and luck who volunteers and agrees to care for his terminally ill grandmother in the hopes of pocketing a decent inheritance. What follows is a story that may be a bit formulaic but packs such a strong emotional effect thatit far transcends any clichéd tropesthat it might stick a bit too closely to.
This touching tale about aging and family relationships flows surprisingly naturally, never feeling the least bit sentimentalist or manipulative.How to Make Millions Before Grandma Diesis one ofthe best movies of the 2020s so far,an ode to grandmas and familial bondsthat proves that sincere crowd-pleasers can be just as worthy of praise as any hyper-complex arthouse drama.
Rent on Apple
3’I’m Still Here'
Average Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5
The exceptional Brazilian biopicI’m Still Heretells the story of activistEunice Paiva. Played masterfully byFernanda Torresin one of the year’s best performances, it follows this mother who had to reinvent herself after her family’s life got shattered by an act of arbitrary violence during the tightening grip of Brazil’s military dictatorship from the ’70s.
One of the best biopicsof recent years,I’m Still Hereis a politically complex and riveting portrayal of this horrifying chapter in Brazil’s history. Yet, it’s alsoa universally relatable and deeply human tale of strength and bravery. Fans on Letterboxd were particularly impressed by Torres’s larger-than-life performance but also had lots of praise to throw atI’m Still Hereas a whole, calling it a chilling tale and a painfully timely reminder of just how easily totalitarianism is able to inject its effect into a nation. Thankfully, activism will always triumph.
I’m Still Here
I’m Still Hereis not yet available to stream or purchase in the US and Canada.
2’No Other Land'
This Israeli-Palestinian documentary isone of the most emotionally powerful movies of the 2020sso far, and it’s not even close.No Other Landshows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance that develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and the Israeli journalist Yuval. In these horrifying times, movies like this oneshine as a light of hope that proves the inimitable power of art and filmmaking.
No Other Landis one ofthe best documentaries of the past 25 years, an urgent and potently honest story that doesn’t shy away from the brutality and turmoil of the West Bank. Yet, it also effortlessly taps into the humanity at the heart of the camera’s observations.Unflinching and powerful but also undeniably hopeful,No Other Landis a documentary that no reviewer on Letterboxd would doubt calling essential viewing.
No Other Landis currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.
1’Dune: Part Two'
The highest-rated film on Letterboxd of 2024 is one that, for a long time, was believed to be impossible. After all, a sci-fi novel as gargantuan and influential asFrank Herbert’sDunewas thought to be impossible to translate into a film that lived up to its legacy. What Herbert didn’t know was that a Canadian director born two years after the publication of his seminal work would prove that their two imaginations were a match made in Heaven. WithDune: Part Two, which sees Paul Atreides ally himself with the native people of Arrakis to bring down the regime that destroyed his family,Denis Villeneuvehas proved thatDunewas never unadaptable—it just had to wait for him.
Massive in its scope, haunting in its visuals and music,riveting in its story and character study, and powerful in its critique of blind faith in charismatic leaders,Dune: Part Twois the kind ofsci-fi masterpiece that only comes along once or twice in a generation. It’s one ofthe best sci-fi movies of all time, a work of art that can be enjoyed with equal passion by longtime fans of the source material and by people not even slightly familiar with it. The cast is marvelous, the script is flawless, and Villeneuve’s direction is the best of his career. According to Letterboxd,Dune: Part Twois the best film that 2024 has to offer.
