A heady rush of romantic addiction, a transcendent reflection on community, a searing refugee drama and an empathetic portrait of fury rank among THR film reviewers’ favorites of the year.

Movies continued their difficult post-pandemic recovery in 2024. Hindering that process was a pipeline drastically thinned by the previous year’s protracted writers’ and actors’ strikes; the summer release slate was especially anemic. The outlook got a boost from the bumper crop of early-winter releases led by Wicked, Moana 2 and Gladiator II, but box office nonetheless seems headed for an annual tally around half a billion short of 2023 revenues.

The success of Deadpool & Wolverine demonstrated that reports of the MCU’s twilight may be premature. But a glance at what are likely to be the year’s 10 top-grossing titles points out Hollywood’s aversion to risk-taking original material. All but one entry is a sequel or spinoff — and that exception, Wicked, is based on a Broadway blockbuster that’s been building brand recognition for 21 years.

A notable exception to that downward trend for adult fare was Conclave, which turned a papal election into an unexpectedly juicy political thriller elevated by a superlative ensemble cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

A stellar ensemble also distinguished the considerably smaller theatrical release, Sing Sing, led by Colman Domingo in sensational form as a prison theater group member. The profoundly empathetic drama acquires stirring authenticity via the casting of formerly incarcerated alumni of the rehabilitation program, notably Clarence Maclin in what could prove to be a star-making turn.

Another of the year’s outstanding ensembles was Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen in His Three Daughters, Azazel Jacobs’ wry chamber piece about scrappy, semi-estranged sisters brought together by their father’s impending death. Playing three women of entirely different temperaments forced to find common ground in sadness, the cast could not be better, shrugging off the standard clichés of the indie grief drama in a film graced as much by spiky humor as tenderness.

Other standout debuts included Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker’s luminous rethink of the mother-daughter drama, Janet Planet; India Donaldson’s transfixing micro-portrait of an eye-opening moment in a young woman’s late adolescence, Good One; Sean Wang’s lovely, semi-autobiographical Asian American coming-of-age tale, Didi; cinematographer Rachel Morrison’s knockout boxing drama The Fire Inside; and Vera Drew’s subversive unauthorized queer supervillain parody, The People’s Joker.

Read on for my ranked Top 10, followed by 10 alphabetically listed honorable mentions, and those of my invaluable reviews team colleagues, Lovia Gyarkye and Jon Frosch. — DAVID ROONEY

1. All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia’s transcendent narrative debut shows her roots in documentary as its opening shots survey the metropolitan sprawl of modern-day Mumbai at night. Fragments of conversation establish it as a city of transplants, many of whom think wistfully of the lives they left behind. The writer-director closes in on two nurses who share an apartment. Prabha, played by Kani Kusruti with soulful depths you could drown in, heads the obstetrics ward with brisk efficiency and goes home alone to ponder the worth of her marriage to a long-absent husband. Her younger colleague, Anu (Divya Prabha), takes life less seriously, courting scandal in her clandestine relationship with a Muslim. When an older co-worker (Chhaya Kadam) takes eviction as her cue to leave Mumbai, the two nurses accompany her back to the seaside village where she grew up. In quiet ways, that change of location proves transformative for all three, bringing them peace and a sense of community captured in a closing shot that’s pure poetry.