While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.
Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.
Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)
1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing)
4. By the Stream (Hong Sangsoo)
5. Go-Between (Chris Kennedy)
Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)
1. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
2. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
3. Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
4. Bogancloch (Ben Rivers)
5. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)
6. No Sleep Till (Alexandra Simpson)
7. Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries (Massimo d’Anolfi & Martina Parenti)
8. Happyend (Neo Sora)
9. El Affaire Miu Miu (Laura Citarella)
10. The Sparrow in the Chimney (Ramon Zürcher)
Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)
1. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
2. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
3. Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
4. Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)
5. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
6. Apocalypse in the Tropics (Petra Costa)
7. Broken Rage (Takeshi Kitano)
8. One to One: John and Yoko (Kevin Macdonald)
9. Riefenstahl (Andres Veiel)
10. My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev)
David Katz (@davidfabiankatz)
1. Youth (Hard Times and Homecoming) (Wang Bing)
2. Revolving Rounds (Johann Lurf/Christina Jauernik)
3. Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)
4. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
5. Eight Postcards from Utopia (Radu Jude)
6. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
7. The Sparrow in the Chimney (Ramon Zürcher)
8. By the Stream (Hong Sangsoo)
9. Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
10. Foul Evil Deeds (Richard Hunter)
Jared Mobarak (@jaredmobarak)
1. The Mother and the Bear (Johnny Ma)
2. Horizonte (César Augusto Acevedo)
3. We Live in Time (John Crowley)
4. Seven Days (Ali Samadi Ahadi)
5. Sketch (Seth Worley)
Rory O’Connor (@RorySeanOC)
1. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
2. Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareiša)
3. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)
4. Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
5. Invention (Courtney Stephens)
6. Youth (Hard Times) (Wang Bing)
7. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)
8. The Sparrow in The Chimney (Ramon Zürcher)
9. Foul Evil Deeds (Richard Hunter)
10. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
Savina Petkova (@SavinaPetkova)
1. Measures for a Funeral (Sofia Bohdanowicz)
2. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
3. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
4. Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
5. Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareisa)
6. Fire of Wind (Marta Mateus)
7. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
8. On Falling (Laura Carriera)
C.J. Prince (@cj_prin)
1. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
2. Ick (Joseph Kahn)
3. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)
4. Invention (Courtney Stephens)
5. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
Jordan Raup (@jpraup)
1. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
2. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
3. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
4. Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
5. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev)
6. Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
7. Youth (Hard Times and Homecoming) (Wang Bing)
8. Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)
9. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)
10. Jimmy (Yashaddai Owens)
Alistair Ryder (@YesitsAlistair)
1. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
2. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)
3. The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)
4. Eight Postcards From Utopia (Radu Jude)
5. Pavements (Alex Ross Perry)
Christopher Schobert (@filmswoon)
1. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
2. Measures for a Funeral (Sofia Bohdanowicz)
3. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)
4. The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan)
5. The Assessment (Fleur Fortuné)
6. Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
7. Saturday Night (Jason Reitman)
8. Conclave (Edward Berger)
9. The Last Showgirl (Gia Coppola)
10. Shepherds (Sophie Deraspe)
Jourdain Searles (@judysquirrels)
1. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
2. Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
3. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
4. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
5. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
6. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire (Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich)
7. On Swift Horses (Daniel Minahan)
8. The Assessment (Fleur Fortune)
9. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)
10. bluish (Milena Czernovsky, Lilith Kraxner)