And the 2024 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year

The time has come once more for me to present my “Braddies”, a strictly personal awards list for films getting a UK release in the calendar year just gone – quite distinct from the Guardian’s collegiate best-of-year critics’ poll.

It’s been 12 months in which the big-worry issue refuses to go away, two little letters that until recently, didn’t mean anything much at all and now reduce us to a quiver of anxiety: AI. The conclusion of the writers’ strike was supposed to have provided for the primacy of creative humanity, and for keeping AI in its place as a tool. But studios are keen to find efficient and profitable ways to exploit their intellectual property and

Lionsgate has actually signed a deal with artificial intelligence firm Runway

to engage with their back catalogue. An uneasy thought. I was one of those who

winced at the film Alien: Romulus

which used AI to revive a very distinguished British actor for a major role and seemed very pleased with itself about how clever this was. What happened to originality?

Added to which, last year’s panto villain, heartless corporation beancounter David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, made a reappearance on the public stage – to more booing. Last year his studio was denounced for scrapping a finished film, Batgirl, for a tax write-off. Now it appears to let down one of Warner Bros’ most legendary names, 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, whose most recent film as a director is a legal thriller called Juror#2 – but Warner Bros put it out on a tiny number of screens as they prepared to dump it on streaming. Well, it’s not a masterpiece (though some critics, through a mixture of gallantry and contrarianism, seem almost to be claiming that it is). It does however deserve a fair hearing.

This was also the year that Daniel Day-Lewis dramatically un-retired and was

reported to be shooting a movie directed by his son Ronan

– a drama they have co-written about the father-son dynamic. It’s a high-risk venture, though perhaps no more of a risk than any feature film, and it’s marvellous to get Day-Lewis back.

For me, 2024 hasn’t been a vintage year for Hollywood and its big high-concept, high-prestige, luxury-ticket star vehicles, but there was plenty of amazing work from elsewhere in the world if you wanted to look for it: superb films from Alice Rohrwacher, Payal Kapadia, Sean Baker, Jane Schoenbrun and more. So here are my picks, and as ever, you are invited to comment on a winner and also to talk about people and films that should have made the grade.

Best film

La Chimera

All We Imagine As Light

The Zone of Interest

Anora

All of Us Strangers

Red Island

Love Lies Bleeding

I Saw the TV Glow

My Favourite Cake

The Beast

Best director

Alice Rohrwacher for La Chimera
Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest
Robin Campillo for Red Island
Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers
Sean Baker for Anora
Bertrand Bonello for The Beast
Marco Bellocchio for

Kidnapped

Rodrigo Moreno for

The Delinquents

Yorgos Lanthimos for

Poor Things

Agnieszka Holland for

Green Border

Best actress

Demi Moore for

The Substance

Sandra Hüller for The Zone of Interest
Emma Stone for Poor Things and

Kinds of Kindness

Mikey Madison for Anora
Danielle Deadwyler for

The Piano Lesson

Kani Kusruti for All We Imagine As Light
Divya Prabha for All We Imagine As Light
Chhaya Kadam for All We Imagine As Light
Cynthia Erivo for

Wicked

Saoirse Ronan for

The Outrun

Best actor

Cillian Murphy for

Small Things Like These

Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers
Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers
Josh O’Connor for La Chimera and

Challengers

Jeffrey Wright for

American Fiction

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest
Kôji Yakusho for

Perfect Days

Daniel Craig for

Queer

Ralph Fiennes for

Conclave

Hugh Grant for

Heretic

Best supporting actress

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave
Claire Foy for All of Us Strangers
Isabelle Huppert for

The Crime Is Mine

Emily Watson for Small Things Like These
Kathy Burke for

Blitz

Lesley Manville for Queer
Louise Mauroy-Panzani for Àma Gloria
Sakura Ando for Monster
Merve Dizdar for About Dry Grasses
Elizabeth Debicki for

MaXXXine

Best supporting actor

Jeremy Allen White for

The Iron Claw

Denzel Washington for

Gladiator II

Jamie Bell for All of Us Strangers
Alfredo Castro for

The Settlers

Jesse Plemons for Kinds of Kindness
Jeremy Strong for

The Apprentice

Yuriy Borisov for Anora
Michael Potts for The Piano Lesson
Nicolas Cage for Longlegs
Tom Hardy for The Bikeriders

Best cinematography

Hélène Louvart for La Chimera
Jeanne Lapoirie for Red Island
Jamie Ramsay for All of Us Strangers
Lukasz Zal for The Zone of Interest
Ranabir Das for All We Imagine As Light
Franz Lustig for Perfect Days
Yorick Le Saux for Blitz
Yunus Roy Imer for The Outrun
Drew Daniels for Anora
Yoshio Kitagawa for

Evil Does Not Exist

Best documentary

Grand Theft Hamlet

Occupied City

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

Black Box Diaries

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

A Long Journey Home

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger

Beatles ’64

Copa 71

Children of the Cult

Best screenplay

Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest
Osgood Perkins for Longlegs
Bertrand Bonello, Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin Charbit for The Beast
Radu Jude for

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers
Bas Devos for

Here

Peter Straughan for Conclave
Justin Kuritzkes for Challengers
David Zellner for

Sasquatch Sunset

Rose Glass and Weronika Tofilska for Love Lies Bleeding

Best debut

Thien An Pham for

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Ramata-Toulaye Sy for

Banel & Adama

Luna Carmoon for

Hoard

Amrou Al-Kadhi for

Layla

Felipe Gálvez Haberle for The Settlers
Giacomo Abbruzzese for

Disco Boy

Paola Cortellesi for

There’s Still Tomorrow

Baloji for

Omen (Augure)

Amanda Nell Eu for

Tiger Stripes

Cord Jefferson for American Fiction

Most likely to be overlooked by the boomer MSM

Hundreds of Beavers