Redmond Bacon - Journey Into Cinema

From Anora to Sterben to The Wild Robot, here are Redmond Bacon and Jared Abbott’s picks for the 10 best films and first-time watches of 2024.

Thoughts of food and Medieval architecture permeate a curious second day at Cottbus, with a Kazakh Western and a Lithuanian comedy.

Serbian stories take centre stage at Cottbus, with Dwelling Among the Gods and When The Phone Rang, as well as the Croatian Good Children.

Depictions of the end of communism intermingle with character studies of anxious men on an uneven day at the documentary festival DOK Leipzig.

From feminine rage to mysterious dancing to intimate animal representation to deconstructing a famous image, DOK Leipzig splits the body apart.

Marie-Magdalena Kochová’s debut feature acutely captures the Glass Children phenomenon: being overshadowed by your sibling with more complex needs.

A slyly inventive reflection of owning the most generic name in the United Kingdom, Being John Smith finds a novel way to tackle the big questions.

A quarter-life crisis meets political critique in Valentina and the MUOSters, depicting the life of one woman living under an American radio base.

Flowers of Ukraine is a touching tribute to individual resistance that acts as a metaphor for an entire country under Russian aggression.

An EU-funded cousin of Megalopolis, The Opera! is a baffling and bad film that astounds with its incredibly basic classical music choices.