The best 2024 movies:

1. Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
2. She Is Conann (Bertrand Mandico)
3. A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)
4. Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
5. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)
6. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
8. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
9. Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)
10. Hit Man (Richard Linklater)

The best from the previous five years, watched this year:

1. May December (Todd Haynes)
2. The Kingdom 3: Exodus (Lars Von Trier)
3. Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-Fai)
4. The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan)
5. Ham on Rye (Tyler Taormina)
6. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
7. The United States of America (James Benning)
8. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
9. Gemini Man (Ang Lee)
10. Evangelion 4.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Hideaki Anno)

The filmmaker of the year award goes to Tsui Hark. After beginning 2024 with his Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind, I moved on to the six-film Once Upon a Time in China series, stopping between episodes to check out other films he directed (Green Snake, The Blade, Love in the Time of Twilight) or produced (Iron Monkey, Burning Paradise, Dragon Inn) and related Wong Fei-hung stories (Drunken Master 2, The Magnificent Butcher).

Favorite non-Tsui Hark older movies watched this year:

1. Fanny & Alexander (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
2. Minnie and Moskowitz (1971, John Cassavetes)
3. The Decline of Western Civilization (1981, Penelope Spheeris)
4. U.S. Go Home (1994, Claire Denis)
5. Lone Star (1996, John Sayles)
6. Of Great Events and Ordinary People (1978, Raoul Ruiz)
7. Messiah of Evil (1973, Willard Huyck)
8. Body Melt (1993, Philip Brophy)
9. Cobra Verde (1987, Werner Herzog)
10. Brief Encounters (1967, Kira Muratova)
11. Deep Cover (1992, Bill Duke)
12. Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980, Les Blank)
13. Ga-ga: Glory to the Heroes (1986, Piotr Szulkin)
14. Junk Head (2017, Takahide Hori)
15. Serpent’s Path / Eyes of the Spider (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
16. The Music Lovers (1970, Ken Russell)
17. Gerry (2002, Gus Van Sant)
18. The Doom Generation (1995, Gregg Araki)
19. Demon Knight (1995, Ernest R. Dickerson)
20. The Right Stuff (1983, Philip Kaufman)
21. Body Bags (1993, John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper)
22. The Big Gundown (1967, Sergio Sollima)
23. The Big Parade (1925, King Vidor)
24. The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
25. À nous la liberté (1931, René Clair)
26. National Gallery (2014, Frederick Wiseman)
27. Red Psalm (1972, Miklós Jancsó)
28. Hamlet (2000, Michael Almereyda)
29. Torque (2004, Joseph Kahn)
30. Pauline at the Beach (1983, Eric Rohmer)

Favorite rewatches of the year (alphabetical):

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, John Carpenter)
Blade (1998, Stephen Norrington)
Careful & Archangel & Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin)
Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)
Fallen Angels (1995, Wong Kar-Wai)
Flesh for Frankenstein & Young Frankenstein
Lancelot of the Lake (1974, Robert Bresson)
Nadja (1994, Michael Almereyda)
Naked (1993, Mike Leigh)
Sense and Sensibility (1995, Ang Lee)
The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
Twin Peaks season 3 (2017, David Lynch)
Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Béla Tarr)

Favorite rock docs watched this year:

1. Athens GA Inside/Out and Two Headed Cow (Tony Gayton)
2. Zorn I-III (Mathieu Amalric)
3. The Little Richard Story (1980, William Klein)
4. The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (2022, Chad Stockfleth)
5. Hot Pepper (1973, Les Blank)
6. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (2017, Stephen Schible)
7. Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022, Ethan Coen)
8. Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall (2022, Bob Smeaton)
9. Oulaya’s Wedding and The Divine River (Hisham Mayet)
10. Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You (2023, Ryan Daly & Will Oldham)
11. The Other One (2023, Henry Threadgill)
12. Bad 25 (2012, Spike Lee)

Favorite shorts watched this year:

1. Bouquets (Rose Lowder)
2. Pas de deux (1968, Norman McLaren)
3. Persian Series / I Take These Truths / Yggdrasill (Stan Brakhage)
4. Face Like a Frog / Quasi at the Quackadero (Sally Cruikshank)
5. E-Ticket (2019, Simon Liu)
6. The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933, Clyde Bruckman)
7. The Secret Cinema (1968, Paul Bartel)
8. Hedgehog in the Fog / The Heron and the Crane (Yuri Norshteyn)
9. Contractions (2024, Lynne Sachs)
10. Cowboy Jimmy / Cow on the Moon / The Playful Robot (Dusan Vukotic)
11. Remedial / Institutional / Saxon (Owen Land)
12. Scénario de Sauve qui peut la vie (1979, Jean-Luc Godard)
13. Sand or Peter and the Wolf (1969, Caroline Leaf)
14. Wee Wee Monsieur (1938, Del Lord)

Needs further study:
Me (2024, Don Hertzfeldt)

The best 2023 movies:
Not strictly ranked – divided into three tiers, then alphabetized.

Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
Mission: Impossible 7: Dead Reckoning 1 (Christopher McQuarrie)
–
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)
Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
The Last Movie Stars (Ethan Hawke)
Last Things (Deborah Stratman)
Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener)
–
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen)
Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)
Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
The Five Devils (Lea Mysius)
M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone)
A Man and a Camera (Guido Hendrikx)
One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Dos Santos & Powers & Thompson)
Topology of Sirens (Jonathan Davies)

–
The best from the previous five years, watched this year:

1. Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Petite Maman (Celine Sciamma)
3. The Wild Goose Lake (Yi’nan Diao)
4. Hotel by the River and In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo)
5. On the Count of Three (Jerrod Carmichael)
6. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
7. An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo)
8. 2nd Chance (Ramin Bahrani)
9. After Yang (Kogonada)
10. This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)

Favorite older movies watched this year:

1. Wim Wenders: Alice in the Cities / Wrong Move / Kings of the Road
2. Agnès Varda: Jane B. par Agnes V. / Kung-Fu Master
3. Hard-Boiled (1992, John Woo)
4. Love Torn In Dream (2000, Raoul Ruiz)
5. Total Balalaika Show (1994, Aki Kaurismäki)
6. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Fassbinder)
7. Mind Game (2004, Masaaki Yuasa)
8. The Falls (1980, Peter Greenaway)
9. The Silence Before Bach (2007, Pere Portabella)
10. You Can Count On Me (2000, Kenneth Lonergan)
11. The Devil-Doll (1936, Tod Browning)
12. Anticipation of the Night (1958, Stan Brakhage)
13. Wanda (1971, Barbara Loden)
14. History is Made at Night (1937, Frank Borzage)
15. Frailty (2001, Bill Paxton)
16. Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968, Melvin Van Peebles)
17. The White Balloon (1995, Jafar Panahi)
18. Sorcerer (1977, William Friedkin)
19. Bluebeard’s Castle (1963, Michael Powell)
20. Jimi Plays Monterey (1986, D.A. Pennebaker)
21. The River (1997, Tsai Ming-Liang)
22. Porco Rosso (1992, Hayao Miyazaki)
23. Mahanagar/The Big City (1963, Satyajit Ray)
24. The Conformist (1970, Bernardo Bertolucci)
25. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965, Martin Ritt)
26. The Hitcher (1986, Robert Harmon)

–
Favorite rewatches of the year
(ranked by rewatch experience, not necessarily quality of film)

1. In the Mouth of Madness on 35mm at the Plaza
2. SHOCKtober rewatches by Tod Browning, George Romero, Paul WS Anderson, Rob Zombie, Robert Eggers, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, David Prior, David Cronenberg, and David Robert Mitchell.
3. Meet Me in St. Louis and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Mean Streets and City of Lost Children all looking better than ever on HD.
4. World of Tomorrow trilogy (Don Hertzfeldt) with Trevor
5. The Nice Guys (2016, Shane Black)
6. Manhunt (Lang) and Nazarín (Buñuel)
7. The Kingdom I & II (Lars Von Trier)
8. Johnny Mnemonic and Chopping Mall

Favorite shorts watched this year:

1. The Roald Dahl shorts (2023, Wes Anderson)

2. The Frogs Who Wanted a King and Little Bird Gazouilly (Wladyslaw Starewicz)

3. Mnemonics of Shape and Reason
and Cloudless Blue Egress of Summer
and Kicking the Clouds (Sky Hopinka)

4. No Archive Can Restore You
and We Need New Names (Onyeka Igwe)

5. World / Light / Meditation (Jordan Belson)

6. To Do (Saul Pankhurst)
and A Room with a Coconut View (Tulapop Saenjaroen)
and Laika (Deborah Stratman)

7. Kitty Kornered (Robert Clampett)

8. Production Stills
and Picture and Sound Rushes (Morgan Fisher)

9. Delicieuse Catastrophe
and Coeur de secours
and Le Pas (Piotr Kamler)

10. Emergence Collapse (Rainer Kohlberger)

–
Didn’t watch enough quality television to make a list of shows this year, especially since I already put The Kingdom on the rewatch list and counted The Last Movie Stars as cinema, but shout out to Poker Face and the second seasons of Atlanta and Painting With John.

Favorite shorts watched this year (chronological):

1. Rose Gold and Red Film (Sara Cwynar)
2. Les Escargots (1965, Rene Laloux)
3. The Human Voice (2020, Pedro Almodóvar)
4. By Pain and Rhyme and Arabesques of Foraging (2013, David Gatten)
5. Labor of Love (2020, Sylvia Schedelbauer)
6. Voyage d’une Main (1985, Raoul Ruiz)
7. On Memory (2021, Don Hertzfeldt)
8. O Black Hole! (2020, Renee Zhan)
9. Peter & the Wolf (2006, Suzie Templeton)
10. Kiev Frescos and Earthearthearth
11. True/False shorts In Flow of Words and Last Days of August
12. The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1970, Les Blank)
13. A La Mode and Science Friction (Stan Vanderbeek)
14. Owl (2019, Kelly Reichardt & Christopher Blauvelt)
15. Something to Remember (2019, Niki Lindroth Von Bahr)
16. Saturday and Strife of Love in a Dream and Grosse Fatigue (Camille Henrot)
17. Who Killed Cock Robin? and The Brave Little Tailor and The Band Concert
18. Wasteland series and Hoarders Without Borders (Jodie Mack)
19. Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder (2017, Fern Silva)
20. Messages 1-5 (2021, Pat O’Neill)
21. These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us and Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)
22. The Newest Olds (2022, Pablo Mazzolo)
23. Scaffold and Indefinite Pitch
24. Cilaos and La Bouche (Camilo Restrepo)
25. Notebook and Lights (Marie Menken)

–
Favorite TV watched this year:

The Rehearsal
How To with John Wilson season 2
Kids in the Hall season 6
Irma Vep
Cabinet of Curiosities (1) (2)
Travel Man season 1

Favorite older movies watched this year:

1. Sign ‘o’ the Times (1987, Prince)
2. The Concert for Bangladesh (1972, Saul Swimmer)
3. Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1960, Aram Avakian & Bert Stern)
4. Duel (1971, Steven Spielberg)
5. Miami Blues (1990, George Armitage)
6. Drifting Clouds (1996, Aki Kaurismaki)
7. Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett)
8. Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971, Dario Argento)
9. La France (2007, Serge Bozon)
10. Le Trou (1960, Jacques Becker)
11. Morvern Callar (2002, Lynne Ramsay)
12. Arrebato (1980, Ivan Zulueta)
13. Dragon Inn (1966, King Hu)
14. Roadgames (1981, Richard Franklin)
15. Rouge (1987, Stanley Kwan)
16. The Mission (1999, Johnnie To)
17. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972, Rainer Fassbinder)
18. Eating Raoul (1982, Paul Bartel)
19. Vanishing Point (1971, Richard C. Sarafian)
20. Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971, Lucio Fulci)

–
Favorite rewatches of the year
(ranked by rewatch-experience, not necessarily quality of film)

1. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang) at the multiplex
2. RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven) at the Plaza
3. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola) at the Plaza
4. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
5. Youth of the Beast (Seijun Suzuki)
6. Trouble Every Day and High Life (Claire Denis)
7. SHOCKtober picks Prince of Darkness and The Fog and Bride of Chucky and Hellraiser III
8. Classic comedies A Night at the Opera and Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The Chaplin Revue
9. Blood Simple (Coens)
10. Svankmajer shorts

The best 2022 movies:

1. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
2. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. The Girl and the Spider (Ramon & Silvan Zürcher)
4. Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller)
6. Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
7. Athena (Romain Gavras)
8. Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland)
9. After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)
10. Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill)
11. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)
12. RRR (S.S. Rajamouli)
13. Neptune Frost (Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman)
14. Benediction (Terence Davies)
15. Glass Onion (Rian Johnson)
16. Nope (Jordan Peele)
17. Terra Femme (Courtney Stephens)
18. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
19. Nobody’s Hero (Alain Guiraudie)
20. Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Dominik Graf)

–
The best from the previous five years, watched this year:

1. The Beatles: Get Back (Peter Jackson)
2. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Old (M. Night Shyamalan)
4. The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski)
5. The Timekeepers of Eternity (Aristotelis Maragkos)
6. Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro)
7. Social Hygiene (Denis Côté)
8. Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
9. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen)
11. Procession (Robert Greene)
12. Madame Hyde (Serge Bozon)