THE BEST PERFORMANCES OF 2024

A graphic showing the year 2024 with bright lights and illumination.

“Feeling seen, feeling beautiful, that is powerful. And I can't imagine my life without it.” - Pamela Anderson (as Shelly) in The Last Showgirl.

Let’s be honest: No one creates art for it not to be seen. A former boss of mine, Thane, once shared those words of wisdom with me just days into my first record store job back in college. And he was correct. Expression through art is not in and of itself a call for attention, but we create art to share. To amplify our voice. To be seen. To be heard. To be acknowledged.

Creating art also causes a unique conundrum because it requires us to be vulnerable, to take risks and to dig within ourselves to say something we feel needs to be heard. At the same time, it exposes us. We are unarmored from mockery. Ridicule. Criticism. In an increasingly polarized world, vulnerability continues to be weaponized and it threatens to silence an empowering strength that comes when people choose to express themselves.

In a fantastic performance in The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson speaks to the intoxicating rush that comes with sharing art with the world. Though it may read as a simple line of dialogue, Anderson’s character, Shelly, is not wrong: Once you are seen, once you are recognized, you want that moment again. And whether you are performing music at a community open mic night in a small town, or starring in the biggest grossing motion picture of the year, everyone in between - the artists, the musicians, the creators, the writers - all share a commonality in wanting an audience to engage with their ideas and feel something.

There’s real beauty and connection in that space.

As a movie reviewer, I acknowledge that I seek connection with this particular art form. The older I get, it seems like I push back more frequently when confronted with spoonfed emotion and/or heavy-handed dialogue. But I also try to be mindful and recognize the effort and attempt that comes with trying to evoke feeling and reaction. We watch movies to feel a range of experiences, to live vicariously through others’ pursuits. And sometimes, we are lucky enough to get a glimpse of what it means to take risks and make discoveries we may not quite understand or be ready to seek for ourselves.

Movies have the power to show us a different perspective, more than any other art form.

For example, I will never know what it is like to live in Gaza, but thanks to four brave filmmakers who created the documentary No Other Land, I have a deepening sense of understanding the real human suffering and politics at play, far beyond a glossy headline or around-the-clock news story.

I, myself, will never be a woman judged for getting older and desperately trying to cling to what once was, but Demi Moore illuminates that pain and anguish brilliantly in the shock-and-awe experience that is The Substance. And though I am personally not a member of the Transgender community, bold and brave filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun and Vera Drew helped me widen my window of understanding and better see and feel the emotions and experiences that friends and my own son has experienced in their journey in life.

Including the films and artists mentioned above, here is our annual look at 20 performances that left a resounding impression on not just myself, but movie audiences from all walks of life in 2024. I did not have an easy year personally, but these films made life easier to navigate and process what was existing in my world - even if the subject matter shared in these stories were sometimes difficult to watch and not always “fun.” I have added additional Honorable Mentions that are worth exploring. There is an embarrassment of riches to select from this year and undoubtedly, one or two of your favorites has likely been left off of this list.

Below, the Top 20 Performances of 2024 (in alphabetical order), presented with the words of the artists themselves or those who had a hand in bringing the stunning work we witnessed to life. 15 Honorable Mentions will follow.

Let’s begin…

**1. YUVAL ABRAHAM, BASEL ADRA, HAMDAN BALLAL, and RACHEL SZOR | as Directors | NO OTHER LAND**
Finally landing theatrical distribution after a year of sitting in limbo, *No Other Land* is a devastating documentary that focuses on two close friends (one Israeli and one Palestinian) who navigate the complexities of the conflict in Gaza. The first-time filmmakers (two from Israel, two from Palestine) bravely document how Basel and Yuval come together to try and seek common understanding and peace between their two distinctive countries. While the film advocates fiercely for peace, the dynamics and disparities between the two friends not only speaks to the oppression Basel encounters and the freedom Yuval experiences, but it brings forth visuals and images and shared emotions largely missed and overlooked by the nightly news and daily headlines, begging the question as to why the international community, and specifically the United States, has not done more to broker a peace deal.
**Shot over five years, and ending just after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel, *No Other Land* is undeniably powerful filmmaking.**
**(Basel Adra):** “It's a very dark moment because I always thought that when the people would see what's happening in the videos that we - I risk my life and other Palestinians risk their lives to film, it would change something. I mean, what happened in Gaza in the last year, I never, ever in my life imagined that we'd live to a day to see these massacres happening, and there's still the international community power backing Israel, giving it weapons. I mean, this is, like, shocking. So I don't have an answer if I believe or I don't believe in the power of the camera.”
**(Yuval Abraham):** “I think there are people with power who can stop this from going on. And I'm saying this is an Israeli. I think it's shameful that the U.S. has not taken any action to stop the onslaught. Like, we, as young activists who dream of a better future for both of our people, are seeing that dream being crushed by politicians who hold power and are not taking any action. And me and Basel and many others, you know, with the limited abilities that we have and the limited power that we have will continue to try to make a change. And this is why we made this film.” - *NPR Morning Edition, November 21, 2024*
**No Other Land will see a limited theatrical release on January 31, 2025.**

**2. PAMELA ANDERSON | Shelly Gardner | THE LAST SHOWGIRL**
A career-defining performance few, if any, may have seen coming, Pamela Anderson finally gets the chance to prove her naysayers wrong in her portrayal of Shelly, a Vegas showgirl faced with the sudden reality that her 30-year show is abruptly closing. Anderson wrings everything she can out of the screenplay, establishing Shelly as someone who can take care of others better than she can take of herself and those closest to her. While many have compared Anderson’s performance to that of Mickey Rourke’s in “The Wrestler,” the actor finally has an opportunity to dig deep and deliver a dramatic performance she knew she was capable of. She creates a raw, unvarnished, and very real emotional and undeniable connection to the film’s audience.
**(Gia Coppola, director):** “Obviously, there were similarities with Pamela and Shelly’s character traits. She seems so much a woman that was turning her frown upside down and making lemonade out of lemons, and that’s so much of what that character does. It was this bubbly, bright spirit sometimes, in a way, to protect themselves. I saw that with Pamela, and although there were similarities because she wanted to express herself as an actress, I think that there was enough of a difference that it was going to feel exciting to her as a role and not just as this documentary approach.” - *Deadline Hollywood, November 14, 2024*
**The Last Showgirl expands into wide theatrical release, beginning January 8, 2025**

3. THE CAST OF “GHOSTLIGHT” |
Keith Kupferer (Dan), Katherine Mallen Kupferer (Daisy), and Tara Mallen (Sharon)
One of the most moving films of 2024 is the underseen drama “Ghostlight,” observing a family recovering from trauma and exploring the places they, and we, individually go to find salvation and acceptance. Starring Keith Kupferer, his wife Tara, and daughter Katherine, the emotions shared between a real family elevates the dramatic moments in *Ghostlight*. And a secondary cast, led by Dolly De Leon, offers humor and acceptance, becoming a second home for Keith’s character, Dan, who unwittingly becomes a community actor in a makeshift, scrappy, one-night-only performance of “Romeo & Juliet.”
Overcoming adversity can be something we can face head on or run from and ignore. “Ghostlight” is a lot of things - an emotional drama, a story of recovery and restarting a life different than what you have known, while also showing us the power of finding acceptance and embracing vulnerability within a community that only wants you to find peace and happiness.
**(Directors O’Sullivan and Thompson on casting a real-life family):**

**(Kelly O’Sullivan):** “Keith had played my dad, so I saw him from this far away every night. Oftentimes, I would be in scenes with him and just be awed. It’s distracting. It’s annoying, honestly, how good he is. We’d come to a scene, and I’d be like, ‘This scene isn’t gonna work,’ and he’d make it work. So, as I was writing Dan, I already had him in mind. He wrote and said he’d love to audition, and I told him I wrote it for him.
He’s never gotten to play the lead before. It’s just cool to get to do that for your buddy. You’re awesome; you should be a lead. He then wrote and asked if Katherine could audition. She came in and did a reading and did amazing. She thought she did a terrible job, and she was backstage saying, ‘I screwed up. I was flat.’
They had that dynamic. Tara is an amazing theater actor. Why don’t we just cast the whole family?”
**(Alex Thompson):** “We have this ensemble, but we’ve never worked with Keith, Katherine, or Tara…our casting director was talking to Kelly. (Kelly) knew Tara’s work well. I watched her reel. ‘Oh no, this is very unlikely, but they are all incredible.’ We could have cast three of the best actors working in Chicago to play father-mother-daughter, and I don’t know if we ever could have gotten to the level of vulnerability they get with one another.” - *RogerEbert.com, June 13, 2024*
**Ghostlight is available for streaming on AMC+, Acorn TV, and for purchase on VOD.**

4. THE CAST OF “HIS THREE DAUGHTERS” | Carrie Coon (Katie), Natasha Lyonne (Rachel),
and Elizabeth Olsen (Christina)
When three estranged sisters come together to care for their ailing father, old issues and suppressed emotions bubble to the surface in a small New York apartment. Led by the powerhouse trio of Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen, and written and directed by Azazel Jacobs, this underseen Netflix gem is full of powerful performances from the trio, while also exploring the ease with which disagreements and misunderstandings can become chasms nearly too impossible to repair.
**(Director Azazel Jacobs):** “When I started writing this, I started with that first monologue that Katie gives, and it got me so excited to have a character who's just speaking and letting everything pour out. I have to bring it back to the experience I have with my parents — it's just like time has suddenly changed for me. There's a realisation that this time that I have right now could be the only time that there is.
Whenever I'm making a movie I'm always thinking about how it could be the last film that I ever make because I'm never sure I'll be able to make another for one reason or another. This one poured out with a very specific urgency of needing to get things out and needing to say things. Writing felt more like transcribing because these characters had so much bubbling up in a way that I hadn't experienced with previous characters before.”
**(on introducing the apartment as an almost secondary character in the film):** “One of the things that I tried to do so it didn't feel claustrophobic was to unveil the apartment in the same way that we were unveiling the characters of the sisters. As they're slowly showing more sides of themselves to each other, we're also discovering more sides to the apartment. Hopefully it feels like the apartment grows as they do, and that they constrict each other as much as the apartment constricts them” - *Filmhounds, September 2024*
**His Three Daughters is available for streaming on Netflix.**

**5. THE CAST OF “SING SING” |**
Colman Domingo (John “Divine G” Whitfield), Clarence Maclin (as himself), Paul Raci (Brent Buell), Sean San Jose (Mike Mike), and more than a dozen graduates of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts Program at Sing Sing Prison who appear as themselves.
**Few films deliver moments of hope, inspiration, drama, and whisk us away on an emotional rollercoaster like *Sing Sing*, a powerful drama about the rehabilitative nature of the arts.**
Based on a true story, with a cast largely comprised of graduates from the Rehabilitation Through the Arts Program at Sing Sing prison, writer/director Greg Kwedar crafts a story based on the life of John “Divine G” Whitfield, played by a tremendous Colman Domingo, the de facto leader of a group of inmates who put on stage shows of varying genres and styles. In featuring the film debut of Clarence Maclin, playing a younger version of himself, the film carries an unmatched authenticity and could pass as a documentary in certain moments. And while both of those performances could well be on their way to Oscar nominations, the interplay between the non-professional actors, Domingo, and a terrific Paul Raci, as the director of a wildly inventive production, underscores the power of a program that has a recidivism rate of just 3% since its implementation.
**(Colman Domingo):** “I think we take a sledgehammer to any trope. We’ve had *Shawshank Redemption*, *The Wire*, and all these [onscreen] experiences where we think it’s nothing but violence, nothing but darkness. We want to show that there are people in there, taking accountability and responsibility and wanting to do the work of healing to better themselves. I think that’s kind of radical. I think that we’re showing radical love between Black and Brown men which is not typical. That was something very important to me. This is a part of our healing and our liberation for ourselves and our mental health— to feel soft, to feel vulnerable, and to smash tropes of toxic masculinity that we’re raised with. And that was not something I was putting on it but that was something I received by talking to these guys when I saw how affectionate with each other and looking after each other.” - *The Hollywood Reporter, August 2, 2024*
**After a release in theaters in July 2024, Sing Sing will return to theaters on January 17, 2025.**

**6. TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET | as Bob Dylan | A COMPLETE UNKNOWN**
Timothee Chalamet disappears into the role of a young Bobby Dylan, arriving in New York City in 1961 as a hopeful singer/songwriter and ending 1965 as a revolutionary who famously “plugged in” his acoustic music and turned the music industry upside down in doing so.
Delayed multiple times because of the pandemic and other production schedules, Chalamet devoted more than five years in preparing for the role and admitted that it was very hard for him to let the character go when production wrapped. He sings, plays guitar, and harmonica, and creates a Bob Dylan character that the artist himself has personally endorsed.
**(Chalamet):** “This is a movie about folk music and folk musicians. The authenticity needs to be felt. My fear was that … (the performance would) just sort of (be) watered down and crystallized and made sing-songy where it was raw. You know, Bob Dylan had a very bad case of bronchitis in his early 20s that helped make his voice sound the way it is. You hear the iron ore in his voice. You hear the "North Country Blues" when he talks. So I don't want to lose any part of that.”
**(on not meeting Bob Dylan during the making of the film):** “… My honest feeling is … we've gotten something like 55 albums from this man. His contribution to the American artistic scene of the last 60 years is monumental. So if I ever did meet him, I would just say thank you. And not thank you for the role, not thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for your work.”
**(director James Mangold on Chalamet performing Dylan’s music):**“ You want an actor to control the performance, and you don't want at any point where musicality is coming out of their mouth or fingers for it to be a kind of, you know, a little earwig in their ear and some playback, let alone the idea that it would be Bob Dylan's real voice coming out of Timmy's mouth … But what you have to also recognize is we're making a movie about folk music predominantly. And what is folk music if not authenticity, directness, intensity, honesty?” - *NPR: All Things Considered, December 25, 2024*
**A Complete Unknown is now playing in theaters.**

**7. LILY COLLIAS | Sam | GOOD ONE**
As Sam, Lily Collias gives a breakthrough performance as a 17-year-old heading out for a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills with her father and his oldest friend. As the two men wrestle with struggles in life and try to navigate their ongoing friendship, Sam is faced with a front-row seat to the arguments, debates, and clashes which ensue before being placed in a position of making a most difficult decision.
Wise beyond her years, Collias commands the screen opposite co-stars James Le Gros and Danny McCarthy, and hits every emotional peak and valley that director India Donaldson presents to her characters and audience.
**(Collias, on seeing the film with her father):** “The first time he saw it was at Sundance at the premiere, and he sat next to me, and I remember that being a very specific moment for me. I would turn and see him kind of emotional. There’s a scene where I’m crying, and I saw he just started shuddering, and he said something to me that I’ll remember forever: ‘I just don’t know if I’ll ever get used to seeing my daughter cry.’ Because what dad can look at their daughter crying and not feel the same? I think it gave my dad an awareness.”
**(on a pivotal moment near the end of the film):** “All of my guy friends are like, ‘I feel really badly, but I don’t think I noticed something was wrong for the longest time,' and I was like, ‘Yeah, take note of that.'“
Collias also adds that her girlfriends pick up on things significantly faster, even as early as the film’s first 10 minutes, recognizing something seems off before the trio even leave for the camping trip. - *Indiewire, August 7, 2024*
**Good One is available to purchase on VOD.**

**8. KIERAN CULKIN | Benji Kaplan | A REAL PAIN**
Kieran Culkin jumps off the screen as Benji, reuniting with his cousin David (Jesse Eisenberg), for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. As the two childhood best friends find themselves in different places in their lives, old tensions bubble to the surface and the two men see themselves differently than they ever have before, while learning about a shared and collective history.
Balancing a caustic wit, with a fear of letting people get close to him, Culkin is a character who seems unable to get out of his own way, and yet we simply want to root for him to find a path to happiness and success regardless of the mistakes and misjudgments he continually makes.
**(Culkin, on a pivotal monologue given by Jesse Eisenberg’s character, David, about Benji):** “I’m sure there’s definitely a good amount of envy from Benji about the kind of life [David has], the fact that we come from the same place at the exact same time, and we’re that close, but we’ve gone on these different paths where, I’m sure to a certain degree, Benji is happy with his path. I mean, not really, but [David has] seemed to figure it out. And I think Benji knows that he hasn’t quite figured out life, and the way I see it anyway is I think he probably understands that he probably never will.”
**(On shooting scenes at an actual concentration camp)**: “The thing with shooting there, I had never been to a concentration camp before, and I appreciated when reading the script, the way that it was written … the characters walk into this room (with shoes displayed which were worn by victims). When we got there, it didn’t feel like we were ever on a set. There wasn’t a lot of setup. There was no scene work, there wasn’t anything. So we got to just walk in and experience it in real-time. I’m dressed like Benji, so I’m Benji, and I’m there. Particularly with the shoes, I didn’t want to go in that room until I heard action. I just didn’t want to see it. Not for an acting perspective, like, ‘let’s get it,’ just because I just didn’t want to be in there unless I had to.” - *Indiewire, October 31, 2024*
**A Real Pain is now available for purchase on VOD.**

**9. DAVID DASTMALCHIAN | Jack Delroy | LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL**
A 1970s talk show host, desperately trying to turn around his ratings as he competes against Johnny Carson, concocts an episode of his show that turns out to be unlike any other in the history of television.
With an opportunity to finally be a leading man, character actor David Dastmalchian gives one of 2024’s most memorable turns as Jack Delroy, an entertainer grappling with personal tragedy and also determined to remain relevant and in the public eye. On a special Halloween episode, he decides to conduct an interview with a teenage girl possessed by a demon as a means to turn his show’s fortunes around.
**Presented largely as a “here’s what happened”-style documentary, *Late Night with the Devil* developed a significant fanbase due, in no small part, to Dastmalchian’s masterful performance.**
**(Dastmalchian):** “So here’s this movie set in the - for all intents and purposes - innocuous, fun, silly world of late-night talk shows. These are springboards for musicians and entertainers to get on and yuk it up and hopefully have a little bit of fun. And yet at the center of it all is this very broken, very frayed man who has so many boulders of unprocessed trauma, grief, and unwellness brewing within him that in his effort to entertain people, to boost his ratings, to save his show, he makes some errors in judgment, and the horror that is unleashed is the consequence.”
**(on his inspiration for the role):** “There was a late night talk show host in Australia who was American. Don Lane was actually from Chicago and a big influence on me. He was this great interviewer, and he ruled late night in Australia during the same time that our movie takes place. But what I loved about Don Lane was he had this genuine and sincere interest in wanting to believe elements of the supernatural. And so he would bring on people who profess to have psychic or media, mystic powers, or spoon benders or whatever. And he did so with an open mind and always wanted to give them a chance, as opposed to maybe, say, making them the butt of a joke.” - *Nerdist, March 21, 2024*
**Late Night With the Devil is available for streaming on Shudder, AMC+, and Hulu.**

**10. VERA DREW | as Director, Co-Writer, Editor, and Lead Actor (as Joker the Harlequin) | THE PEOPLE’S JOKER**
After years of fighting with major studios (one in particular), a variety of legal entanglements, and other cease-and-desist claims against her film, Vera Drew’s innovative and groundbreaking *The People’s Joker* emerged as one of 2024’s most talked about films. Returning to theaters multiple times throughout the year, Drew’s film saw her wear multiple hats and never wavering in bringing her unique, autobiographically-inspired story to screens big and small.
As Joker the Harlequin, Drew portrays an aspiring clown who is defined as “painfully unfunny,” while trying to come to terms with her gender identity. Simultaneously, she attempts to join Gotham City's sole comedy program in a world where comedy has been outlawed. A film mixing live action, animation, satire, comedy, and an exciting unpredictability, Joker finds a community that welcomes her and accepts her, though she soon comes face-to-face with a cruel caped crusader who rules Gotham City.
**(on spending nearly all of 2023 to have her movie seen):** “2023 was one of the most just challenging, exhausting years of my life, because the movie was in limbo for a while. But ... it wasn't in *too* much of a limbo … there wasn't anybody that was really looking to distribute it. You get a lot of press at TIFF, and then you see "rights issue" slammed over every headline. Nobody's really looking to buy that movie.
I also took it out to festivals, and we did secret screenings, which was a lot of fun. We could do these secret screenings but also spread some rumors, like, ‘Hey, maybe *The People's Joker* is screening.’ That was fun. This movie has always just been a snake eating its own tail, because it is so personal and based on my life. But the release of the movie has really kept that continuum of like, where does the movie start and stop, and where does my life end and begin?”
**(reflecting back on the film’s release and overwhelming praise):** “I don't even know if I have been able to really process it emotionally. I think there's a massive amount of relief, first of all, just because, like you said, we had the festival buzz, we had underground buzz, but I was also getting told every step of the way by a lot of people that I was surrounded by that ...the momentum wasn't going to keep going. The Richard Brody piece [in the New Yorker]: "Best superhero movie I've ever seen." I keep reading it, because I keep thinking it was something I dreamt. I don't know. It's really cathartic, and it's healed me in a way.” - *Seattle Gay News - April 19, 2024*
**The People’s Joker is now available for purchase on VOD.**

**11. CYNTHIA ERIVO and ARIANA GRANDE | as Elphaba (Erivo)** **and Glinda (Grande) | WICKED**
The movie that dominated the conversations during the holiday season in 2024, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande silenced skeptics who wondered if they could pull off the roles made famous by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in the long-anticipated big-screen adaptation of one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time.
**Spoiler alert: They did.**
Erivo’s show-stopping vocals and physical stuntwork have gone viral, as has her nuanced performance that will continue next fall in *Wicked: For Good*. Grande’s impressive comedic timing and pitch perfect vocal abilities created genuine chemistry with her co-star and the two performances are likely to be defining moments in each of their careers.

(director Jon M. Chu on Erivo): “I think casting Cynthia just is probably the smartest thing I ever did in my life. She looked at this as a very personal story and she brought those things of what it feels to be othered, what it feels like to have people constantly tell you, you need to act this way or that way for people to accept you, that you have to prove yourself to someone. But she’s also the same person who at drama school dreamed, dreamed big, that she would be able to get there. And those dreams were also crushed, whether it’s at drama school or elsewhere.”
**(on working with Grande):** “(I wanted Ariana to) overcome the Ariana Grande image in order to do it. And I know how hard it is. I’ve seen actors who do their first lead in a movie, and that’s not easy. That also takes skills and that takes actual craftsmanship. And every time she came in, Ari was the most interesting person. She was funny, she was emotional. But more than that she understood the nuance of this character in a way that felt so real it wasn’t a performative version of it. “… By the end it was like, if the audience feels like this is a discovery, they’re going to see things they’ve never seen in Ariana Grande before.” - *Deadline, January 1, 2025*
**Wicked is currently playing in theaters and available for purchase on VOD.**

**12. RALPH FIENNES | Cardinal Lawrence | CONCLAVE**
As Cardinal Lawrence, Ralph Fiennes plays a character tasked with running the secretive process of selecting a new pope, following the unexpected passing of the existing religious leader. As the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders assemble within the Vatican, the Cardinal uncovers a long trail of secrets and surprising development that threaten to disrupt the foundations of the Church.
For all of its surprising plot twists, discoveries, and melodramatic flourishes, *Conclave* is a whirlwind of tension, with moments of comedy, high drama, and timely and topical musings on the role and influence organized religion plays in the modern world. Fiennes centers the film, rationalizing, deflecting, defending, and comprehending an endless list of situations and problems that he is forced to solve.
**(Fiennes on Cardinal Lawrence):** “One thing that surprised me was the character of Lawrence. He's wonderfully complex and carries a sense of interior contradiction and struggle. He leans towards a more monastic life but he also also struck me as someone who was well-read and who read different interpretations of the Gospels and their teachings. He's not an iconoclastic person, but he does lean towards this view that the church can modernize … As an actor, the notion that a priest had a crisis with prayer is very interesting. His crises and doubts make him more real and that much more human.
In many ways, I think acting is closer to a sport like tennis. If my opponent — in this case, my director or scene partner — hits the ball to me, how I respond to what they send my way has to be dictated in the moment. I may come up with a strategy or way to play the game but intellectual and cerebral thinking only goes so far. At the end of the day, I have to be open, for example, to how Stanley Tucci [who stars as Cardinal Bellini] is going to play the scene. In the scenes where we're debating and things get heated, I gave a lot of thought to the emotions between us. We both were following our instincts together and that makes each take different too.” - *National Catholic Reporter, November 15, 2024*
**Conclave is available for streaming on Peacock and for purchase on VOD.**

**13. JOMO FRAY | as Cinematographer | NICKEL BOYS**
After being forced to attend Nickel Academy, teenager Elwood Curtis adjusts to life in a brutal reformatory school located in the Jim Crow South. Forming a friendship with another teenager, Turner, the two stick together, balancing survival and optimism as the Civil Rights Movement gains traction in the United States.
While director RaMell Ross certainly belongs on this list, you literally cannot look at *Nickel Boys* without seeing Jomo Fray’s groundbreaking work. In a cinematic world where it feels like everything has been attempted, Fray’s ability to present the entire film through the point-of-view of its main character is a bold and risky obstacle to overcome. Ross’ approach to this material admittedly takes a few minutes to adjust to, but Fray’s unprecedented talent captures the little details most films miss, while placing us in a challenging, at times uncomfortable, but wholly immersive cinematic viewing experience.
**(on his approach and technique):** “if I wanted to do handheld, that felt more connected to the spine of a body, a full body movement, then maybe shoulder handheld would work. Other times, … I wanted the perspective to feel like it was coming from the neck, so a body was stationary, but a neck can move quickly in a way that holding a camera on the shoulder doesn’t often articulate. It was separating the camera block from the camera brain with an umbilical cord so that the grip would be holding a backpack with the brain of the camera to an umbilical cord, so I could just hold the camera block and then be able to quickly maneuver the perspective of that because I was holding it and it was moving from my wrist.
It’s a funny thing in this movie where ideally it feels organic. Ideally it feels obvious that it just feels like, ‘oh, well, this is the only way you would see this.’ And it must’ve been somewhat simple to do. But the funny thing is just the level of orchestration any given shot took from my entire team having to be in harmony with each other about what we were about to do with any scene.
On the beginning of every day, Nora Mendes, the production designer, would take RaMell and I and walk us through the room and she would say, okay, here are 10 hero items in the room. You can interact with any of these. These are really interesting. These are telling aspects of the story. And so over the course of the take, you can hit them in any order. You can hit eight of them. You can hit two of them. You can hit none of them. But here they all are as almost these miniature base camps in any given set.” -
*Film Independent, November 27, 2024*
**Nickel Boys is currently playing in select theaters, expanding to wider release in January 2025.**

**14. MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE | Pansy | HARD TRUTHS**
Reuniting with writer/director Mike Leigh, Marianne Jean-Baptiste is extraordinary in *Hard Truths*, a salty, viscous, but also at times charming film about the tempestuous nature of relationships and the ways fear and anxiety can debilitate people. Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman perpetually lashing out from a sense of fear, mental health struggles and anger management issues. When forced to spend time with her younger sister (Michelle Austin), a person completely different than Pansy in virtually every way, unconditional love and the strength and support of family are significantly tested.
**(on working with Mike Leigh):** “The initial conversation is usually ‘Should we work together again? I don’t know what it’s going to be about. I don’t know what you’ll be playing in it, but we’ll have a great time.’
He always asks that you come in with a list of people that you know, real people, and you go through that list and it gets smaller and smaller and smaller until you land on a few people. And then you start creating a whole new character inspired by little bits and pieces and characteristics of that person from their first memory to the age they’re going to be playing in the film. And all of the characters in the film are created in that way, by really just doing very, very in depth work on creating them.”
**(on creating Pansy):** “I had to find the school in London that Pansy went to, I’d have to find the house so that you start building a parallel universe for those characters, but in finite detail. So we created the school, the friends at school, their neighbors, their grandparents, aunts, uncles, mother. Even though you don’t see them in the film, they’re what make up the character and their experiences. So when you actually go to improvise, there’s so much information in your brain that you are able to do it.” - *Deadline, November 16, 2024*
**Hard Truths is playing in select theaters and expands in wider theatrical release on January 10, 2025.**

**15. MIKEY MADISON | as Ani | ANORA**
**Bold. Fearless. Defiant. Fierce. Charming. Endearing. Flawed. Vulnerable.**
All these words and more describe Mikey Madison’s breathtaking performance in Sean Baker’s extraordinary *Anora*, a movie that continues the filmmaker’s tradition of telling truly American stories about individuals in our society who are so often discarded and cast aside.
Madison gives the performance of the year as Ani, a 23-year-old sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya (a/k/a Ivan) (Mark Eydelshteyn), the reckless, spoiled son of a Russian billionaire. However, when her new husband’s parents learn of the wedding, they send fixers to take care of the situation and Ani is forced to mature rapidly as she demands to be seen as a responsible, mature adult by everyone she encounters.
**(on preparing for the role of Ani):** “I’ve seen his (Sean Baker’s) films. I know he’s told stories about sex workers. I trusted him immediately. When I read the script in its entirety [and realised] she’s a sex worker and there’s nudity, it seemed natural to me. I was excited to explore that character and dive into the research.
I committed more to the preparation process and dedicated more time than anything I’ve ever done before. I started small, working on her backstory, to create this character from the ground up. I sat down at my computer early on and wrote a hundred or so questions. What kind of cigarettes does she smoke? How did she like school? What were her grades? I filled in all the blanks.
On set, the first day, I was, ‘I know exactly who this person is. I am her. I’m wearing her clothes. I have her nails on.’ There’s no question someone could ask me about her life (and) I wouldn’t have an answer to. I avoid conflict like the plague, but she’s so sure of her place in the world and fights tooth and nail for the life she feels she deserves. She will not back down. I liked that about her.” - *ScreenDaily, December 29, 2024*
**Anora is playing in select theaters and available to purchase on VOD.**

16. DEMI MOORE | Elisabeth Sparkle | THE SUBSTANCE

In what is likely becoming the most buzzworthy movie of 2024, Coralie Fargeat’s award-winning horror satire *The Substance* has bee,n dismissed in some circles as little more than grotesquerie or an on-the-nose satire/body horror freakshow that is too obnoxious to mean much. As more and more people, those thoughts largely dissipate. Once you experience the film and ponder a very pointed commentary Fargeat is making, you realize that this is a sadistically smart film, slicing through tried-and-true narratives in Hollywood and calling out the insane double standards which exist for men and women in the entertainment business.
In the leading role, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a fitness icon who is fired by her boss (Dennis Quaid) on her 50th birthday. Desperate to hold on to everything she has amassed in her career, she accepts an offer from a laboratory to take an experimental serum that promises to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.
Not for the squeamish, *The Substance* is a searing, visceral, and gory takedown of objectification and unreal expectations placed upon women in society. With a great supporting performance by Margaret Qualley, The Substance may give some people pause for its grotesque makeup effects and blood-soaked sequences. But Moore’s approach to the role of Elisabeth demands the film be taken seriously, as it proves to be a far more meaningful and powerful statement than some wish (or want) to give it credit for.
**(director Coralie Fargeat on the concept and casting Demi Moore):** “The theme of the movie is something I’ve been working around for a long time. I felt strong enough to kind of cope with the disturbance that digging into this is going to create.
I knew (a lot of) actresses would obviously be frightened jumping into something that confronts them with a phobia that I think as women we all have, but is especially heightened for actresses. I hadn’t even put (Demi Moore) on my list because I said, ‘She will never do it.’ (After reading her memoir) I really discovered someone that was at a stage of her life where she had already confronted all the fears and all the phobias, all that violence. I really discovered someone who was so ahead of her time.” -
*The Hollywood Reporter, September 5, 2024*
**(Moore on accepting the role):** “It really captivated me, the way in which it was exploring this subject of aging and, in particular, that violence that we can have against ourselves, the way in which we all — men and women alike — can dissect and criticize our own reflection. It just felt so relatable, on a human level. The other part of it was new territory for me — a body horror film. But as an actor, there were so many interesting challenges, not just the physical side of it, with the prosthetics, but the emotional rawness needing to be conveyed with very little dialogue.” - *The Hollywood Reporter, December 2, 2024*

The Substance is available for streaming on MUBI
and for purchase on VOD.

**17. JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT and EMILY KASSIE | as Directors (NoiseCat and Kassie) and Cinematographer and Co-Editor (Kassie) | SUGARCANE**
As powerful a debut film as you will find, *Sugarcane*, directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, looks at the discovery, in 2021, of unmarked graves on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. Through ample research, discussion with family members and Indigenous leaders, countless stories of separation, assimilation and abuse of children come to light as the reality of segregated boarding schools for Native and Indigenous peoples are discovered to have severly harmed the very people they were intended to serve.
Haunting, chilling, maddening, but necessary and vitally important in showcasing resilience and the efforts to heal long-standing wounds, *Sugarcane* is one of this decade’s most impressive documentaries and a film that deserves to find a wider audience.
**(NoiseCat):** “Our background is in journalism, and in our prior work, you go somewhere for a few days – you know, a week was a long time to get to work on something like this – and you have to get answers to the questions that you’re looking for, and that sort of thing. One of the big things that we discovered in the field was that pacing of allowing silence to linger after things had really been discussed. So that was something that we learned and discovered in the field, and was also something that was really true, as I’ve said in other interviews, to the way in which this history is lingering and processed in this community.”
**(Kassie):** “Something that was really special about the collaboration with Julian was that we would talk about something, and we would talk about these silences that had permeated his family, that his *kyé7e* [grandmother] wasn’t able to talk about yet. In the room, when I was filming with them, I could feel her, and I could feel where her breath would catch. I could see when her thumbs would start to … twiddle. There’s a moment, for example, where she says, ‘There’s stuff I should have talked about.’ And Julian says, ‘What kind of stuff?’ You can feel in that moment that he’s pushing just a little bit. And I could feel from spending time with her, spending time with Julian, that that was going to be it for her. That she was probably going to reach a wall there, and knew to stay on her so that that silence could speak louder than whatever she could possibly say.” - *Rough Draft Atlanta, December 6, 2024*
**Sugarcane is available for streaming on Disney+, Hulu, and Fubo.**

**18. JANE SCHOENBRUN | as Writer and Director | I SAW THE TV GLOW**
As haunting as it is complicated and as brave as it is revealing, *I Saw the TV Glow* is a film that addresses gender identity and the way people not only suppress themselves but also hide from an increasingly dangerous world.
Using the entry point of a late-night television show that teenagers enjoy, one teenager in particular, Owen (Justice Smith), becomes obsessed with watching the show alongside classmate Maddy (Brigitte Lundy-Paine). The more Owen watches the show, the more a reality begins to fracture. Once the show ends, and as years pass by, Owen continues to struggle with suffocating emotional pain and turmoil, as well as an escalating fear that with each passing day Owen loses the chance to experience an authentic life.
**(on the autobiographical elements of the film):** “I've pushed back a little on the narrative of it being a cautionary tale. I do so because I wrote this film after two months on hormones. Culturally, that's the part of a "gender transition" that we tend to think of as the beginning. To me, it was very much not a beginning. In many ways, it was the catharsis of half of my life, but that moment of un-repression, that moment of the egg cracking - when you finally see yourself clearly in a way that makes it hard to unsee - was (a) very hard one for me, because I really do think that repression is a survival mechanism. If I had transitioned in my own youth in the '90s - Well, first of all, I just didn't have the language to understand what that was, because the language of transness that was being fed to me was created by cis people who were making movies about trans people being monsters or being disgusting, and I didn't want to be either of those things. But to have come out to myself and started the process of transitioning would've been deeply unsafe. You always give up privilege when it happens, but doing that at 14 as opposed to 31, in the '90s as opposed to 2019 would have been a lot. I don't think I would be here if I had done that.”
**(on finding distribution with studio A24):** “I knew that if I got to work with A24, I'd be working with a company where the expectation is that you're going to see something a little bit different. Getting that opportunity … the chance to make something that was this personal, this visceral, this much speaking from inside (the) trans experience that hasn't really been done, at least on this level - Every part of the process was completely surreal. I felt like I was pulling off some kind of existential bank heist.” - *The Academy A.Frame, May 16, 2024*
**I Saw the TV Glow is available for streaming on MAX.**

19. HARPER STEELE and WILL FERRELL | WILL & HARPER

While filming a movie, Will Ferrell received an email from a close friend of almost 30 years. The message, from former “Saturday Night Live” writer Harper Steele, shared that Will’s long-time friend was coming out as a trans woman. Having not spoken in some time, Will asks Harper to join him on a road trip, hoping to reconnect and have the opportunity to get to know Harper as she lives her life as her authentic self. Over a cross-country road trip spanning 16 days, this charming, emotional, and honest documentary addresses new realities, wonderful memories, and a deeper understanding of what it means to live a life on your own terms.
**(Ferrell):** “You get an email from a friend announcing this kind of dramatic news and I didn't really stop to think how much pain, how much anguish there was to get to that point, how much thought it took to write that email. ... This was something that obviously was a part of her this whole time, and the sadness of her kind of putting it aside, kind of squashing it down, but then (having) the courage that it took to get to that point where she was like, "Enough, I'm going to give up the fight." I just learned how incredibly strong she is, how articulate she is. She's always made me laugh. … And a lot of people have come up to us just saying, ‘It's just nice to see friends stick up for each other.’ I think that's what we're most proud of about this whole thing.”
**(Steele):** “It wasn't a decision about right timing. It was a decision about living in misery and not wanting to do that anymore. So it just took me a long time to finally give up — and I do think of it as a giving up. I just collapsed into myself and found the other side and it's been so much better. I've discovered that vulnerability is truly a really powerful superpower. I'm not calling that a feminine trait. For me personally, to walk out of my house in a dress was a very vulnerable and raw moment, and what became of that moment was pure joy. So trusting vulnerability more has been something that truly has been helpful to me.” - *NPR Fresh Air, October 7, 2024*
**Will & Harper is now available for streaming on Netflix.**

**20. GINTS ZILBALODIS | as Co-Writer, Director, Co-Producer, Co-Composer, Cinematographer, Art Director, and Editor | FLOW**
One of 2024’s best discoveries is the Latvian film *Flow*, an animated, dialogue-free story of a cat who tries to survive after its home is destroyed by a catastrophic flood. Along the way, Cat creates a makeshift community consisting of a lemur, bird, capybara, and a dog. Together, traveling on floodwaters in an abandoned boat, the animals seek dry land, while learning about and relying on each other, to hopefully reach their next destination.
**(Zilbalodis, on creating his story and making his film dialogue-free):** “I wanted to tell the story without dialogue, and having these animals act like animals allowed me to do that. So at no point did I ever consider having any human characters in the film because then they would need to speak and that would kind of break this concept. But I did want to leave some clues about what might have happened to the humans and let the audience try to figure it out themselves by watching the environment. And so there are multiple layers of storytelling. There’s the journey that the characters go through, and then you can try and piece together the history of this world or what happened to the humans. But that wasn’t the most interesting part for me. I’m fine if people don’t think about it or catch it on the first watch, but if they decide to watch it again, there’s something in the film that will offer a different experience and they can look for different stories in the background, as well.”
**(on trusting his audience…and his sound designer):** “… There are certain scenes with no music, where it’s just the sounds for sometimes five minutes, which is quite rare in animation, where music often spoon-feeds the information to the audience. And I wanted to trust the audience that they will figure out the intention and the meaning without having the music constantly telling you exactly how to feel. I thought the sound designer (Gurwal Coïc-Gallas) would be excited to have this opportunity, but he actually said that he felt a lot of pressure because he couldn’t hide behind the dialogue or the music, and he had to be able to carry everything for a pretty prolonged period. But I think he really did an amazing job doing that.” - *Hammer to Nail, December 12, 2024*
**Flow is currently playing in theaters.**
*Composite photo courtesy of Loud and Clear Reviews*

AND 15 MORE PERFORMANCES
WORTH SEEING FROM 2024

Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce | László Tóth (Brody) and Harrison Lee Van Buren, Sr. (Pearce) | The Brutalist
The Cast of “Challengers” | Mike Faist (Art), Josh O’Connor (Patrick), and Zendaya (Tashi)
Danielle Deadwyler | Berniece | The Piano Lesson
Chris Hemsworth | Dementus | Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Oksana Karpovych | as Director | Intercepted
Nicole Kidman | Romy | Babygirl
James McAvoy | Paddy | Speak No Evil
Jesse Plemons | Marine (uncredited) | Civil War
Zoe Saldaña | Rita | Emilia Pérez
Chris Sanders | as Writer and Director | The Wild Robot
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong | Donald Trump (Stan) and Roy Cohn (Strong) |
The Apprentice
June Squibb and Richard Roundtree | Thelma (Squibb) and Ben (Roundtree) | Thelma
Maisy Stella | Elliott | My Old Ass
Fernanda Torres | Eunice Paiva | I’m Still Here
Denzel Washington | Macrinus | Gladiator II