This year, three foreign-language movies are up for the Best Picture Academy award: Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest. Usually, films not in English are relegated to International Feature, so this is an unprecedented move on the Academy’s part. To be sure, there’s still a lot to be done for full and fair representation, but it’s an encouraging step in the right direction, one that will hopefully lead to more people appreciating the diverse beauty of world cinema.
And so, on that note, we’re compiling a list of the best foreign-language movies that have come out this 2024. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled and updating this article as we move along the year, but for our money, these are the most enjoyable so far.
1. Lolo and the Kid (2024)
8.5
Country
Philippines
Director
Benedict Mique
Actors
Alfred Vargas, Euwenn Mikaell, Iza Calzado, Joel Torre
Moods
Dramatic, Emotional, Heart-warming
They did it. They took advantage of Pinoy movies’ penchant for sappy writing and used it to deliver on its premise. Coming into it blind more-so, you see the violent shift in writing and energy, with everything feeling more relaxed, organic, and truthful after the premise sets in. But they take that subversion a step further by unironically sticking with the sappy elements and not drowning in them; using dramatic backstories, catchphrases, and the staple recurring ’80s theme song to tease and anchor the drama throughout. By Filipino drama standards, it might be an unconventional family film, but with how well they used the tropes, it might also be the quintessential Filipino family film.
2. Drawing Closer (2024)
8.5
Country
Japan
Director
Takahiro Miki
Actors
Fumino Kimura, Mayuu Yokota, Natsuki Deguchi, Nene Otsuka
Moods
Dramatic, Emotional, Lovely
Through dreamlike colors and tears clouding my eyes, Drawing Closer paints a painful depiction of persistence in love and death. Initially, a number of coincidences and significant details about our main characters Haruna (Natsuki Deguchi) and Akito (Ren Nagase) and their interconnectedness seem to sprout up conveniently, without much weight behind them. But once the ball gets rolling, the film is feel-good in the worst way, an emotional deathtrap, and the most dangerous movie in the world for those who believe in love, and those perpetually afraid of dying in an expensive deathbed. Just thoroughly devastating and beautiful. A 10 in my heart.
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3. Goyo (2024)
Country
Argentina
Director
Marcos Carnevale
Actors
Balthazar Murillo, Cecilia Roth, Diego Alonso, Nancy Dupláa
Moods
Character-driven, Discussion-sparking, Heart-warming
This film is immediately charming and spends ample time taking you through the mind of Goyo, to where you see where the wheels start turning in his head for each new interaction. It captures his infatuation, obsession, discomfort, and panic, without overdoing or over-explaining anything. Goyo himself (Nicolás Furtado) is an excellent heart of the show with his friendliness and sincerity, but stealing the show alongside him are his and Matute’s (Pablo Rago) solid sibling dynamic and Saula’s (Soledad Villamil) ice cold confrontation skills when you get to see it. It’s a very sweet film that avoids being cheesy, and I imagine Goyo himself would find this movie to be decent if he saw it.
4. Housekeeping for Beginners (2024)
7.8
Country
Australia, Croatia, Kosovo
Director
Goran Stolevski
Actors
Aleksandra Peševska, Alina Serban, Anamaria Marinca, Bislim Muçaj
Moods
Emotional, Heart-warming, Lovely
Only a few people in Dita’s house are related by blood, but you wouldn’t know that by how they move. They’re tight-knit but argumentative, loving at times but spiteful in other instances. In other words, they’re complicated just like any other family. Housekeeping for Beginners makes a compelling case for the validity—and at times necessity—of found families like Dita’s, who all found each other after being shunned by their race and sexuality. As in his previous works, Director Goran Stolevski paints a realistic and relevant portrait here, one tinted with striking pain and poignancy, bound to leave your heart aching long after the credits roll.
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5. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024)
7.8
Country
Thailand
Director
Pat Boonnitipat
Actors
Himawari Tajiri, Pongsatorn Jongwilas, Putthipong Assaratanakul, Sanya Kunakorn
Moods
Sunday, Sweet, Tear-jerker
Grandparents are often depicted as innately loving, especially towards their grandchildren, so it’s a delight to see someone like M’s Amah, who is testy and tenacious, and quite proud to be doing her own thing even in her old age. She runs her house alone and sells congee in her neighborhood, and even when presented with the worst possible news, she refuses pity, only allowing M back in her life after he proves his motives are sincere. M, to his credit, is believably selfish and sensitive as a young school dropout. Together, the two and their crackling push-and-pull chemistry are a blast to watch. It’s tender, but never overly saccharine, and no matter how much you resist you’re sure to shed a few tears. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies may not have the most original plot (I’m sure you’ll be able to guess the ending just by reading the premise alone), but it’s thoroughly engaging, not only because of the two leads, but because of it’s relatable messages about family dynamics (especially Asian family dynamics), money, and legacy. The gentle, unobtrusive cinematography by Boonyanuch Kraithong makes it extra easy on the eyes too. I only wish the movie explored the misogyny of tradition more, instead of merely touching upon it (“Sons get the goods, daughters only get the genes” is such a brilliant line), but I suppose that would need a female writer/director at the helm.
6. A Part of You (2024)
7.5
Country
Sweden
Director
Sigge Eklund
Actors
Alva Bratt, Edvin Ryding, Felicia Truedsson, Ida Engvoll
Moods
Character-driven, Dark, Emotional
This story involves a jealous sister and a boy, which is enough of a foundation for a suspenseful story. Though a bit lacking in depth, onscreen interactions carry a lot of emotional weight and strike the balance of having enough said and unsaid. The upbeat pop hits and casual banter throughout goes a long way to at least break up the film’s heavy atmosphere. At its heaviest, it is raw and glorious in its unraveling, placing the ugly side of grief next to the alluring side of envy. But throughout it all, it treats the plot with enough respect to not just be some cheap glorified fantasy.
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7. Grave Torture (2024)
7.5
Country
Indonesia
Director
Joko Anwar
Actors
Ahmad Ramadhan Alrasyid, Arswendi Nasution, Christine Hakim, Egy Fedly
Moods
Discussion-sparking, Slow, Suspenseful
A sappy expository start like that only makes you suspicious how quickly all hell breaks loose, and boy does that distrust get rewarded. Grave Torture firmly blends religion and the supernatural, with the overarching theme being an exploration of the guilt-inducing belief that questioning faith is tantamount to having no faith, and having no faith leads to punishment. Getting from point A to point B is not the one of the film’s strengths, sometimes feeling like it’s just floating disjointedly. Even then, it nails every violent landing with visceral, satisfying impact. Religion isn’t just some distant theme, it’s our final monster.
8. Amar Singh Chamkila (2024)
7.4
Country
India
Director
Imtiaz Ali
Actors
Anjum Batra, Anuraag Arora, Apindereep Singh, Diljit Dosanjh
Moods
Challenging, Character-driven, Discussion-sparking
At times of great societal turmoil, sometimes stars are born, not just to entertain the masses but to challenge the way things are done. Amar Singh Chamkila is one such star, and his music captivated all of Punjab in part due to his brash lyrics. His assassination remains unsolved, but director and co-writer Imtiaz Ali takes the event, and uses it to frame his life– the ways Punjab remembered him after death, the ways Chamkila showed his light as well as the ways he was limited by studio oversight and state censorship. The film isn’t a perfect contemplation of artistic freedom, nor is it the most comprehensive take on the singer’s life, but Ali’s direction challenges the way we view the artist and acutely recognizes the way stardom reveals the society’s conflicting desires.
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9. You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack (2024)
7.3
Country
Spain
Director
Almudena Carracedo, Female director
Actors
Carolina Yuste, Natalia de Molina
Moods
Depressing, Discussion-sparking, Emotional
After the La Manada rape case in 2016, it was necessary to document this event, especially since the widespread national outrage and demonstrations managed to move the country to change the way Spain defines consent. You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack documents this arduous journey. While it’s done through the familiar Netflix true crime approach, there’s some respect given to the victim that hasn’t been given previously by the media. The film sticks to the actual verbatim words used by the victim, albeit edited for clarity, but they ensured that their words were not accompanied with photos or similar looking actors, keeping the truth of their words without risking their safety. While the documentary’s direction isn’t new, the outrage is still felt, as well as the genuine hope of a country that came together to ensure justice.
10. Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron (2024)
7.3
Country
Japan
Director
Kaku Arakawa
Actors
Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Kenshi Yonezu, Masaki Suda
At first, you wonder, couldn’t this behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Boy and The Heron just be a DVD special? But a few minutes in, it becomes clear how rich the material is. It’s not just about Miyazaki and the making of a movie, it’s about him grappling with grief and transforming it into art. A surprising chunk of this documentary is about death. Miyazaki’s friends and colleagues are passing away, it seems, every month, and the only way Miyazaki can mourn and honor them is through his (their) art. The Boy and The Heron itself is a fulfillment of a promise Miyazaki made to his closest friend, Isao Takahata, or Pak-san, as Miyazaki lovingly calls him. It’s Pak-san whom he mourns the most in the movie, but almost everyone who’s passed makes an appearance both in the documentary and the film. The lines between the two are often blurred by Miyazaki, in his failing memory, and by documentary director Kaku Arakawa. Arakawa’s editing is chaotic, if not experimental. He cuts between reality and fiction—documentary footage and Ghibli clips—faster than you can make sense of it all. “I opened my brain way too far for this project,” Miyazaki claims, and you can feel the exhilaration and fear in every second of this brilliant film.
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