Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light took the top spot on Sight and Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine, Best Films of the Year poll 2024.
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner, starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam, was the first Indian film to be selected in Official Competition at Cannes in three decades.
Director Payal Kapadia said, “When I was at film school, at The Film & Television Institute of India, we used to get a copy of Sight and Sound. We were all excited when the new edition came out and would clamour to read it. The magazine and its writers hold a special place in every cinephile’s heart, so to have my film, All We Imagine as Light at No. 1 in The Best Films of the Year Poll for 2024 is very special to me.”
Sight and Sound Managing Editor Isabel Stevens commented, “Watching All We Imagine as Light at
Cannes – even before it won the Grand Prix – confirmed for us at Sight and Sound that its director, Payal Kapadia, is a vital artistic voice in cinema right now. So we’re thrilled that her film has topped our 2024 poll. The way Kapadia marshals the tools of cinema – sound, music, performances, cinematography and how she mixes fiction and documentary – to conjure a singular lyrical atmosphere of desire and yearning really make her stand out. This film makes you look again at the world around you to find beauty in unexpected everyday things and places. Our poll is packed with original, independent and foreignlanguage films and in fact, all the films in our top ten are proof that there is a world of thriving and exhilarating independent cinema beyond the big studio franchises.”
Sean Baker Cannes Palme d’Or winning drama Anora took second place, followed by La Chimera, Alice Rohrwacher’s fascinating drama in third place.
In fourth is Mati Diop’s Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner Dahomey, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste is fifth; and Jia Zhang-ke’s contemplation of twenty-first century China’s seismic shifts, Caught by the Tides, is in sixth with its blend of documentary.
Seventh place is shared by Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding, starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian and Coralie Fargeat’s sensational body-horror satire The Substance starring Demi Moore.
Ninth place in the poll is No Other Land, a powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective; and completing the top ten is RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel.
Directors whose first or second feature make the top 50 include: Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light, 1), Mati Diop (Dahomey, 4), Rose Glass (Love Lies Bleeding, =7), Coralie Fargeat (The Substance, =7), Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land, 9), Ramell Ross (Nickel Boys, 10), Annie Baker (Janet Planet, =14), Alexander Horwarth (Henry Fonda for President, =21), Rich Peppiat (Kneecap, =25), Rungano Nyoni (On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, =25), Matthew Rankin (Universal Language, =25) and Déa Kulumbegashvili (April, =41).
The Top 10 in Sight and Sound’s Best Films of 2024 poll
- ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (Payal Kapadia)
- ANORA (Sean Baker)
- LA CHIMERA (Alice Rohrwacher)
- DAHOMEY (Mati Diop)
- HARD TRUTHS (Mike Leigh)
- CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (Jia Zhang-ke)
- LOVE LIES BLEEDING (Rose Glass)
- THE SUBSTANCE (Coralie Fargeat)
- NO OTHER LAND (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor)
- NICKEL BOYS (RaMell Ross)