The best movies of 2024 as ranked by AP film writers

As much as theaters are humming right now, with “Wicked” and “Moana 2" bringing moviegoers by the droves, it's been a fairly bruising movie year.

In between the blockbusters, though, the challenge of not just capturing the attention of audiences but of simply getting to the screen feels more perilous than ever. The year was marked by filmmakers who wagered everything from a $120 million pile ( Francis Ford Coppola's “Megalopolis” ) to their life (the dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's “The Seed of the Sacred Fig").

Considering the paths of the “The Apprentice” (about Donald Trump's rise in New York) or the Israeli occupation documentary “No Other Land” (which still lacks a distributor), the question of what gets released was a common and chilling refrain.

That also made the movies that managed their way through — the ones that told urgent stories or dazzled with originality at a time of sequel stranglehold — all the more worth celebrating.

Here are The Associated Press’ Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr's picks for the best movies of 2024:

Was this a great year for movies? The consensus seems to be no, and that may be true. But it did produce some stone-cold masterpieces, none more so than Payal Kapadia’s sublime tale of three women in modern Mumbai. It’s a grittily real movie graced, in equally parts, by keen-eyed documentary and dreamy poetry. Beguilingly, “All We Imagine As Light” grows more profound as it cleaves further from reality. In theaters.

Like Kapadia, RaMell Ross started out in documentary before bringing a singular eye to narrative film. His adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, about two Black teenagers at an abusive reform school in the Jim Crow South, is shot mostly from the two boys’ first-person perspective. The result is one of the most visually inventive American films of the decade and, just as certainly, one of the richest in empathy. Opens in theaters Dec. 13.

So many of the reasons to go to the movies — to laugh at a clattering comic set piece, to witness the breakthrough of a young performer, to be devastated by something tragic — are contained within the thrillingly kitchen-sink “Anora.” It’s a concoction that only Sean Baker could conceive, let alone execute. (And, by the way, if you liked Yura Borisov’s performance alongside Mikey Madison, seek out 2021’s “Compartment No. 6.”) In theaters.

Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore feature — a dramatic leap forward for filmmaker and a transfixing trans parable — is a chilling 1990s coming of age in which a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”-like series called “The Pink Opaque” offers a possible portal out of drab suburban life and other suffocations. It feels chillingly, beautifully ripped out of Schoenbrun’s soul — and it’s got a killer soundtrack. Streaming on Max, available for digital rental.

The fury of Agnieszka Holland’s searing migrant drama is suitably calibrated to the crisis. Along the Poland-Belarus border, a small band of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan are sent back and forth across a wooded borderland — sometimes they're even literally tossed — in a grim game of “not in my backyard.” It’s not an easy movie to watch, nor should it be. To keep up with the times, more uncomfortable movies like this may be needed. Streaming on Kino Film Collection, available for digital rental.

We also need more big, fun movies with Ryan Gosling. David Leitch’s affectionate ode to stunt performers manages to celebrate behind-the-scenes crew members while simultaneously being completely carried by two of our most winning movie stars in Gosling and Emily Blunt. The societal value of watching Gosling cry to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” should not be underestimated. Streaming on Peacock, available for digital rental.

The way the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who was forced into exile while editing this, condenses real-life social upheaval into a family drama makes this a uniquely disquieting film. Like Kurosawa’s “Stray Dog,” Rasoulof’s movie centers around a lost handgun. The subsequent search reveals just how deeply the Iranian government's policies have seeped into the most intimate relationships. In theaters.

We had not one but two movies this year that captured the therapeutic properties of theater. Each, almost unbelievably, deftly eludes tipping into cliche thanks to abiding compassion and authenticity in the performances. Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s “Ghostlight” is about a grieving father, a construction worker (an exceptional Keith Kupferer), who reluctantly joins a local production of “Romeo and Juliet.” “Sing Sing” dramatizes a real rehabilitation prison program. Its screening at Sing Sing Correctional, where many of its performers were once incarcerated, was easily the most moving moviegoing experience of the year for me. “Ghostlight” is available for digital rental. “Sing Sing” returns to theaters Jan. 17.

In Azazel Jacobs’ funny, tender and raw family drama, a flawless cast of Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne play three sisters caring for their dying father. In close quarters and with death looming, it all comes out. Streaming on Netflix.

In between large, lengthy epics, Martin Scorsese has made some his most interesting and personal films. In this, Scorsese narrates for director David Hinton his lifetime journey with the films of Powell and Pressburger, the great filmmakers of “The Red Shoes,” “I Know Where I’m Going!” and “Black Narcissus.” As an expression of movie love — of the power of film to transfix you, to change your life, to live alongside you as you grow older — “Made in England” could hardly be more effusive. Such insightful, passionate testimonies are an increasingly necessary lifeblood in a film culture where algorithms are typically blind to the treasures of cinema’s past. Streaming on WatchTCM and available for digital rental.

Also: “Grand Tour,” “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,”“No Other Land,”“Rebel Ridge,”“The Brutalist,”“Between the Temples,”“Evil Does Not Exist,” “Universal Language,” “Daughters”

Steve McQueen tells a different kind of World War II story in “Blitz,” a powerful and clear-eyed odyssey through London during the German bombing raid. Structured around a 9-year-old boy (Elliott Heffernan) trying to make his way back to his mother (Saoirse Ronan), it is a sneakily revolutionary glimpse into and poignant elegy for worlds unexplored and stories untold. Streaming on Apple TV+.

Poetic and transportive, Kapadia’s Mumbai-set film explores the vibrations of a thrilling but brutally impersonal metropolis, the lives of three women in different stages and predicaments (forbidden love, loneliness, eviction) and delicacy of female friendships.

Josh Margolin’s debut feature about a 90-something (played by the incomparable June Squibb ) on a mission to get $10,000 back from a scammer is so modest in scope and effortlessly enjoyable that it’s easy to undervalue. This independent film feels as sharp and put-together as a yesteryear studio comedy. It’s pure joy and one of those movies you could recommend to anyone. Streaming on Hulu.

It takes a special kind of movie to transcend the echo chamber of arthouse cinephelia and become a cultural moment, but Baker’s “Anora” did it. A classic in waiting, Baker and his star Mikey Madison, who lifts the streetwise stripper trope, take audiences on an unforgettable ride in this fairy tale that falls apart in spectacular fashion.

Ross transforms Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel about the abuses and generational trauma of a reform school in the Jim Crow South for the screen by employing first-person point-of-view. It’s a bold choice that pays off, transporting you into the heartbreaking reality of Elwood and Turner, two characters you won’t soon forget.

Decades of dreaming about a film does not always seem to benefit said film, but Denis Villeneuve was able to translate his passion for Frank Herbert’s opus into pure cinematic spectacle, and doom, about the rise of a leader. It’s a grand and thrilling adventure that could make sci-fi nerds out of us all. Streaming on MAX.

Jesse Eisenberg grapples with modern and historical trauma in the disarmingly entertaining road trip film “A Real Pain,” which he wrote, directed and stars in alongside Kieran Culkin as cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland. In theaters.

Saoirse Ronan delivered one of the year’s absolute best performances as an alcoholic who goes further and further into seclusion in the Orkney Islands in an attempt to start life anew. Films about addiction are hardly novel, and yet Nora Fingscheidt captures the wild highs, lows and in-betweens of the human condition with unapologetic honesty. Available for digital rental.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to “Drive My Car” takes us to a small mountain village in Japan, where residents are hesitant to welcome a big city company with plans to set up a glamping site. It’s a slow-burn kind of experience, with community debates about mountain streams and septic tanks that might not sound terribly exciting and yet it’s one of the year’s most haunting and effective. Streaming on Criterion Channel, available for digital rental.

It was a great year for first-time directors, including India Donaldson whose quietly brilliant character study of a teenage girl on a camping trip with her dad and his friend resonates even a year later. Streaming on Apple TV+

Also: “The Taste of Things”; “Green Border”; “Challengers”; ”Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ”; “La Cocina”; “Will & Harper”; ”Conclave”; “Maria”; “Young Woman and the Sea”; “Tuesday”; “Lee”.

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Kani Kusruti in a scene from "All We Imagine As Light." (Janus and Sideshow Films via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Kani Kusruti, center, in a scene from "All We Imagine As Light." (Janus and Sideshow Films via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Natasha Lyonne, from left, Elizabeth Olsen, and Carrie Coon in a scene from "His Three Daughters." (Netflix via AP)

This image released by IFC Films shows Keith Kupferer, left, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer in a scene from "Ghostlight." (IFC Films via AP)

This image released by Kino Lorber shows a scene from "Green Border." (Kino Lorber via AP)

This image released by A24 shows Colman Domingo, left, and Clarence Maclin in a scene from "Sing Sing." (A24 via AP)

This image released by Neon shows Mark Eydelshteyn, left, and Mikey Madison in a scene from "Anora." (Neon via AP)

This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Richard Roundtree, left, and June Squibb in a scene from the film "Thelma." (Magnolia Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet, left, and Zendaya in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Saoirse Ronan in a scene from "The Outrun." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Metrograph shows Lilly Collias in a scene from "Good One." (Metrograph via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Kieran Culkin, left, and Jesse Eisenberg in a scene from "A Real Pain." (Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ryan Gosling in a scene from "The Fall Guy." (Eric Laciste/Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Amazon/MGM shows Ethan Herisse, left, and Brandon Wilson in a promotional photo for the film "Nickel Boys." (Orion Pictures/Amazon/MGM via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Saoirse Ronan, left, and Elliott Heffernan in a scene from "Blitz." (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Janus and Sideshow Films shows Kani Kusruti, left, and Divya Prabha in a scene from "All We Imagine As Light." (Janus and Sideshow Films via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain's Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)