It happens almost every year. By early December, mainstream media and professional reviewers begin publishing their best film lists. Many of them include films that have not been released to the public, and thus, we cannot see anywhere —unless one goes to a nearby film festival, if lucky. That is usually the case for so-called “foreign” films and those aiming for an Oscar nomination and wanting to make enough noise at the right time. That certainly did not happen during the COVID pandemic, as the only way to see a film was online. The tradeoff here was the small screens we had to settle for.
As a result, most years, my selection includes films from the previous year that were released late to the public or had a limited release and could only be seen online. Needless to say, this year is no exception. That said, what matters most is to keep enjoying films as much as possible and identify those that we liked the most, for whatever reason.
Below is my selection of best films, followed by a few recommendations. To avoid rankings, films are sorted chronologically in ascending order according to the date I saw them. This year, I have added the mini-reviews I write when I see them—with some exceptions.
- Tótem — Lila Avilés (2023, Mexico, France, Denmark, Netherlands) — Review
- The Taste of Things — Anh Hung Tran (2023, France, Belgium) — Review
- The Settlers — Felipe Gálvez Haberle (2023, Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark) — Review
- The Old Oak — Ken Loach (2023, United Kingdom, France, Belgium) — Review
- Evil Does Not Exist — Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (2023, Japan) — Review
- Last Summer — Catherine Breillat (2023, France, Norway) — Review
- Green Border — Agnieszka Holland (2023, Poland, United States, Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Germany, Turkey) — Review
- Close Your Eyes — Víctor Erice (2023, Spain, Argentina) — Review
- Pictures of Ghosts — Kleber Mendonça Filho (2023, Brazil) — Review
- Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell — Thien An Pham (2023, Vietnam, Singapore, France, Spain) — Review
- All We Imagine as Light — Payal Kapadia (2024, France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, United States, Belgium) — Review
And a few that might be worth seeing at some point…
- The Zone of Interest — Jonathan Glazer (2023, United States, United Kingdom, Poland) — Review
- The Teachers’ Lounge — Ilker Çatak (2023, Germany) — Review
- Perfect Days — Wim Wenders (2023, Japan, Germany) — Review
- Io Capitano — Matteo Garrone (2023, Italy, Belgium, France) — Review
- You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack — Robert Bahar, Almudena Carracedo (2024, Spain)
- About Dry Grasses — Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2023, Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden) — Review
- Trenque Lauquen — Laura Citarella (2022, Argentina, Germany) — Review
- Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World — Radu Jude (2023, Romania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia) — Review
- The Shadowless Tower — Zhang Lu (2023, China) — Review
Raúl
