Best Movies of 2024: Best Director
Continuing my look at the best movies of 2024, I am now going to make my pick for the best director of 2024. 2024 was an interesting year for film, which made it an interesting year for directors. While there were plenty of established directors who turned out excellent work this year like Denis Villeneuve, Richard Linklater, Luca Guadagnino, Tim Burton, George Miller, and M. Night Shyamalan, I was most impressed by the work from up-and-coming and lesser-known directors. Directors like RaMell Ross, Brady Corbet, Coralie Fargeat, Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan, Greg Kewdar, Arkasha Stevenson, and Jane Schoenbrun may not be household names, but they made some of the best movies of the year and assured us that the future of film is in good hands.
Like the other lists, I am going to pick “nominees” for Best Directoral Debut and Best Director and pick a winner for both, which will be highlighted in bold. Here are my picks for the best director and best directorial debut of 2023.
Directorial Debut
Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County
Greg Jardin, It’s What’s Inside
Titus Kaphar, Exhibiting Forgiveness
Coraline Lindy, Your Monster
Arkasha Stevenson, The First Omen
The five names listed above give me hope for the future of cinema. All five showcased their unique voices and talents behind the camera, and they all got me excited about their future projects.
The debut I was most impressed by was Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen, a prequel to Richard Donner’s 1976 horror classic. It’s no secret that many horror prequels are bad, especially ones made so many years after the original. But her work on The First Omen is superb and the film itself was one of the great surprises of 2024. It’s a patient, stylish, terrifying film that perfectly ties into the original. I was blown away by Stevenson’s confidence and skill behind the camera. She crafted one of the best horror prequels of all time.
Best Director
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Luca Guadagnino, Challengers
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys is RaMell Ross’s first narrative feature and only his second feature film following his Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and it is one of the most impressive narrative debuts I have ever seen. Ross shoots the film through the perspective of our main characters, two young Black boys in Jim Crow-era Florida, a bold decision that could have felt like a gimmick in the hands of a lesser director. But Ross’s vision to have us see what our main characters see and live in this world through their eyes is unlike any film experience I’ve ever had. It’s a powerful experience full of beauty and empathy.
From Corbet making a sprawling American epic with only $10 million to Villeneuve crafting another space epic to Schoenbrun cementing herself as a completely new and unique voice in Hollywood to Guadagnino making a pulsating, sexy sports film that might be the best of his career, 2024 was a great year for directors. But Ross’s handling of the film, both visually and emotionally, is the work of a true artist. Watching Nickel Boys is cinematic poetry and Ross is a true visionary.
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