A24 is an independent film studio, but don't call any of its movies "indie." Founded in 2012, A24 is the product of Hollywood vets Daniel Katz, John Hodges, and David Fenkel. With a vast library of critically acclaimed features, which ones actually stand out as the greatest the studio has ever released?
While critics panned its first theatrical release, Roman Coppola's 2013 film A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, the studio slowly but surely built positive momentum with movies like The Bling Ring (directed by Sofia Coppola) and The Spectacular Now (directed by James Ponsoldt). In 2013, A24 scored its first buzzy box office hit in Spring Breakers, a neon-colored, bikini-clad crime drama directed by Harmony Korine.
Today, A24 is one of the most prolific production and distribution entities in Hollywood, with its fingerprints also in television and music. It is synonymous with originality, known for launching the careers of artistically minded new directors like Robert Eggers, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, Ari Aster, and Yorgos Lanthimos, while also giving established filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky and Sofia Coppola a whole new canvas to create.
In celebration of A24's continuing legacy, here are 32 of the greatest A24 movies ever released.
32. After Yang (2021)
In this powerfully affecting sci-fi drama starring Colin Farrell and Jodie-Turner Smith, a family in the near future try to repair their malfunctioning android son, Yang (Justin H. Min), who was purchased from a reseller. In doing so, they discover Yang's wishes to be human, and themselves reckon with feelings of grief, loss, memory, and impermanence. Writer/director Kogonada expands upon similar themes from his acclaimed 2017 debut Columbus in this realistic yet speculative vision of our near future.
31. Midsommar (2019)
In Ari Aster's sun-drenched folk horror, a young woman named Dani (Florence Pugh in her breakout role) tries to grieve her way past the murder of her parents by embarking on a trip with her detached boyfriend (Jack Reynour) on a graduate study trip to a rural Swedish commune for a midsummer festival. When they are greeted with nightmarish rituals and unspeakable horrors, this research trip suddenly becomes a desperate fight to escape. Transplanting horror tropes abroad, Midsommar interrogates toxic relationships, trauma, and the allure of cults who attract the most vulnerable.
30. The Disaster Artist (2017)
The making of the infamous cult movie The Room from writer/director Tommy Wiseau unfolds in The Disaster Artist, a biopic based on Greg Sestero's memoir. James Franco stars as Tommy Wiseau, an eccentric immigrant dreamer who starts production of a movie that goes on to earn recognition as one of the worst movies of all time. James Franco's brother Dave Franco co-stars in the movie as Greg Sestero, an aspiring actor who aids Wiseau in making his dreams come true. In this story about unlikely friendships and managerial chaos, The Disaster Artist amounts to more in its exploration of what actually defines art.
29. A Prayer Before Dawn (2017)
A Prayer Before Dawn is what you get when sports movies like Rocky and The Karate Kid collide with The Deer Hunter. Joe Cole stars as real-life English boxer Billy Moore (whose memoir the film is based on) who is arrested in Thailand and is incarcerated in one of the country's most notorious prisons. To survive his unforgiving new surroundings, Billy takes up the brutal sport of Muay Thai kickboxing. An unflinching knockout of a gritty sports drama, A Prayer Before Dawn packs the meanest of punches.
28. The End of the Tour (2015)
Jesse Eisenberg conducts the interview of a lifetime in The End of the Tour. Based on Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky's 2010 memoir, The End of the Tour sees Lipsky follow celebrated author David Foster Wallace (played by a revelatory Jason Segel) at the end the book tour for his hit 1996 best-seller Infinite Jest. Over the course of several days, the two engage in ruminative conversations about fame, art, loneliness, and the pressures of making art in commerce, all against the backdrop of middle America. With graceful direction by James Ponsoldt, The End of the Tour comes off as a tribute to the late David Foster Wallace who died in 2008.
27. In Fabric (2018)
Peter Strickland combines vintage giallo with condemnations against Western capitalism in his underrated supernatural thriller In Fabric. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays a lonely single woman who purchases a bewitching red dress from a London department store. Almost immediately, patterns of tragedy and misfortune follow as the dress appears to possess sinister powers. Like a cross between Dario Argento's films and Stephen King's Christine, Strickland's In Fabric shows the high cost of high fashion.
26. Saint Maud (2019)
Not since The Exorcist has there been a religious horror as striking quite like Saint Maud, the freshman feature from Rose Glass. The Rings of Power star Morfydd Clark plays a deeply devout Catholic nurse named Maud who is assigned to care for Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a hedonistic dance choreographer who is now terminally ill. Maud believes it's her divine obligation to save Amanda's soul, but perhaps Maud is lost in her own heavenly delusions to recognize earthly reality. While the jumpscares of Saint Maud are few, the movie is altogether an unholy experience that needs to be seen to be believed.
25. Ex Machina (2015)
Alex Garland's Ex Machina is one of the first truly great horror-thrillers of the 21st century to take on Silicon Valley's rampant misogyny. Domnhall Gleeson stars as a young programmer named Caleb who is invited to meet his company's revered but reclusive boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). While at his lavish remote estate, Nathan reveals his top secret project: a lifelike android named Ava (Alicia Vikander). As Caleb realizes the villainy of Nathan, he tries to help break Ava free, but maybe Caleb is but a pawn in this elaborate game of chess. Ex Machina follows in the tradition of classics like Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey, being a movie about the true nature of consciousness.
24. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Real-life childhood friends Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails team up for The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a majestic odyssey about the search for home. In this semi-autobiographical movie, Jimmie Fails plays a version of himself who hopes to reclaim the beautiful Victorian home his grandaddy built in the heart of San Francisco. As the city around them continues to change, Jimmie aims to have just one corner of it as a way to connect with his family and community. We all want to know our place in the world, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco – a heartfelt interrogation of community, heritage, and gentrification, is about recognizing what actually makes a house a home.
23. I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Jane Schoenbrun's sophomore film is a horror movie about millennial nostalgia, yes, but it's also so much more. In I Saw the TV Glow, Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine play two teenage outcasts in the late 1990s who bond over a young adult television show called The Pink Opaque. (Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Ghostwriter.) Over time and into their own actual adulthoods, the two find that the show may be more real than they believed. An elaborate metaphor for gender identity mixed with the liminal horror present in adolescent nostalgia, I Saw the TV Glow is tremendously unnerving, both as a horror about memory and the paralyzing unfulfillment of never living your true self.
22. Room (2015)
In the movie that won Brie Larson the Oscar for Best Actress, Joy (Larson) and her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) are held captive in a small room for nearly a decade. When they miraculously break free, they struggle to adjust to bigger places beyond the four walls they knew for too long. For Joy, it's grappling with all the time stolen from her. For Jack, it's opening his eyes to a more caring world. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Emma Donoghue, who adapts her own 2010 novel, Room has far too much heart to contain in a single space, possessed by the larger-than-life stars who anchor it down to Earth.
21. A Ghost Story (2017)
The on-the-surface absurdity of a ghost who haunts wearing a white sheet with black cut-out eyes feels like a joke, but director David Lowery weaves dimensions of depth into a comical Halloween costume. In A Ghost Story, Casey Affleck plays the ghost of a deceased man who wanders the home still occupied by his living wife (Rooney Mara). Powerless to console his wife and protect the home they shared, the man can only witness the cruel passing of time as life goes on. A Ghost Story is poetic and meditative, a moving portrait of restlessness of the soul.
20. The Farewell (2019)
In this profoundly tender and disarmingly funny drama from director Lulu Wang, a young woman (Awkwafina) learns that her beloved grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) has terminal cancer and only a few weeks to live. With Nai Nai oblivious to her diagnosis, the family rushes to stage a fake wedding to allow everyone in the family to say goodbye. While The Farewell is underscored by its differences between Western and Eastern values, it is still a universal tale about the lengths people go to for the sake of love and family, when even lies rest on the altars of truth.
19. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)
Originating from a series of stop-motion YouTube shorts, the mockumentary Marcel the Shell with Shoes On from director Dean Fleischer Camp is both a technical marvel and a poignant comedy about innocence and belonging. Jenny Slate voices Marcel, a tiny, talking seashell with a googly eye who meets a documentary filmmaker (played by Camp). Inspired by Marcel's wit and hope to reunite with her seashell family, Dean Camp uploads videos about Marcel to YouTube which turns the little shell into a major viral sensation. Beyond its legitimately impressive mixture of stop motion animation and vérité filmmaking, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is an all-ages celebration of never giving up hope while also accepting how to move on.
18. Eighth Grade (2018)
Comedian Bo Burnham gets behind the camera for Eighth Grade, his directorial debut. In this provocative and timely coming-of-age drama about the modern pitfalls of adolescence, Elsie Fisher stars as Kayla, an anxiety-ridden social media vlogger who tries to survive her final week of middle school. Brimming with alarm bells about how 21st century youth are inundated by toxic screens, Eighth Grade is relentless in its authenticity without sacrificing a sense of humor synonymous with the greatest teen movies.
17. The Florida Project (2017)
Darkly named after Walt Disney World's code-name during its original planning stages, Sean Baker's The Florida Project zeroes in on the impoverished souls who dot the margins just outside the so-called "Happiest Place on Earth." Child actress Brolynn Prince stars as Moonee, the daughter of a former stripper (Bria Vinaite) who staves off homelessness while living in a budget Florida motel. (Willem Dafoe co-stars as the exhausted but caring motel manager.) The grit of their daily struggles are juxtaposed by nearby Walt Disney World, and Baker's camera fixes on the children who make the most out of life in spite of harsh realities boxing them in. Empathetic and absorbing, The Florida Project is quintessential American cinema, offering an extraordinary experience no theme park would ever dream.
16. Lady Bird (2017)
Before her billion-dollar smash hit Barbie, Greta Gerwig helmed one of the finest coming-of-age movies of the 2010s in Lady Bird. The movie, which competed for Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards, follows a Sacramento teenager (Saoirse Ronan) who navigates the turbulence of her senior year in high school and her relationship with her overbearing mother (Laurie Metcalf). Beyond its nostalgic perspective of the early 2000s zeitgeist, Lady Bird soars in its hilarious look at first loves and first heartbreaks, first rebellions and the last gasps of childhood.
15. C'Mon C'Mon (2021)
In this delicate picture about connections and caregiving from director Mike Mills, Joaquin Phoenix plays a radio journalist who looks after his young nephew (Woody Norman) while embarking on a cross-country road trip interviewing young people. Phoenix and Norman's characters forge a deep bond throughout the ordeal, allowing Mills to explore themes like emotional intimacy, parenthood, and the uncertainty of the future. Although C'mon C'mon bombed at the box office, the movie won acclaim for its tender filmmaking, chemistry between its multigenerational leads, and transcendence over typical mawkish trappings.
14. Talk to Me (2022)
Years after cutting their teeth with YouTube videos, brothers Danny and Michael Phillippou – formerly known as RackaRacka – unleashed the hair-raising supernatural horror Talk to Me in 2022. Sophie Wilde stars as a teenaged girl, Mia, who attends a house party where an embalmed hand is used as a vessel to talk to spirits. Mia uses the hand to attempt contact with her late mother on the second anniversary of her passing. But these thrill-seeking teens quickly find that dabbling with darkness is playing with fire. One of the most popular Australian-made horror exports since The Babadook, Talk to Me surpasses genre expectations to deliver legitimately frightening scares (with impressive practical effects) and a touching story about grief.
13. Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Katy O'Brien flexes her muscles as a breakout star in Love Lies Bleeding, the sophomore effort from director Rose Glass. Kristen Stewart stars as a reclusive gym manager trying to obscure herself from her family and their criminal enterprises. She falls for Jackie (O'Brien), a bodybuilder passing through to Las Vegas for a competition. As their love affair swells, violence creeps in which forces these two lovers to fight against fate in a heart-pumping thriller where calloused hands are held tight.
12. The Eternal Daughter (2022)
Tilda Swinton checks in for double duty in the revered Gothic mystery The Eternal Daughter, written and directed by Joanna Hogg. Swinton plays both a filmmaker named Julie and her elder mother as they return to an oversized mansion that used to be a childhood home and is now a hotel. But there's an awful lot of secrets and mysteries behind every door, and in this beguiling thriller, the whispers of memories can be deafening. Swinton is a chameleon in two separate roles where you easily forget that they're the same person.
11. You Hurt My Feelings (2023)
Writer/director Nicole Holofcener invites audiences on a deliriously funny exploration of honesty and authenticity in modern love with the help of Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In You Hurt My Feelings, a middle-age writer (Dreyfus) overhears her husband (Tobias Menzies) pan her latest novel. Her eavesdropping sends her into an emotional spiral, inspiring her to question everything about their marriage. Although we never want to be dishonest to our partners, You Hurt My Feelings shows how much the little white lies we tell anyway adds up to something bigger.
10. Uncut Gems (2019)
"This is how I win." Adam Sandler has never been more captivating or more dangerous than in Uncut Gems, a heart-racing crime masterpiece from Josh and Benny Safdie. Sandler stars as a Jewish-American gambling addict and jeweler in New York's Diamond District who is in a race against time to retrieve a priceless gem to pay off debts to loan sharks. Sandler is in extremely rare form as a self-destructive man on the edge, with Uncut Gems serving as a rebuke to Sandler's popular image as a studio comedy clown.
9. Green Room (2016)
In Jeremy Saulnier's white knuckle horror-thriller Green Room, a penniless punk rock band reluctantly accepts a gig playing at a remote neo-Nazi bar. When they bear witness to a murder backstage, the band fights to survive from the bar's owner and skinhead gang leader (played by Patrick Stewart). With muscular direction from Saulnier, an against-type performance from Stewart, and one of the last onscreen performances by the late Anton Yelchin, Green Room utterly and completely shreds.
8. Past Lives (2023)
Celine Song's acclaimed romantic drama Past Lives isn't about the happily ever afters, but instead, it's about the what-could-have-beens. The movie stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoon as childhood friends who grow up in Korea and, over 20 some odd years, weave in and out of each other's lives before a decisive meeting in New York City. Shattering but moving, Past Lives occupies itself with romantic possibilities that have long passed by but still haunt us deep down. It's one of A24's romantic movies ever made, not because the romance is a storybook but because it feels like real life.
7. First Cow (2019)
From celebrated director Kelly Reichardt, First Cow is a tender portrait of friendship and the destructive chase for the American dream. Set in 1820 Oregon, two unlikely friends – a quiet chef (John Magaro) and a Chinese immigrant on the lam (Orion Lee) – hatch a plan to milk a cow owned by a wealthy trader without permission. Using the cow's milk, the men bake and sell delicious biscuits. But success comes at a cost, and soon enough the jig is up and the men are left running for their lives. First Cow is precious and bitterly sweet, a movie where nothing really happens but still says so much about who we are by nature.
6. The Witch (2015)
Wouldst thou like to live deliciously? In Robert Eggers' acclaimed folk horror The Witch, a Puritan family in 1630s New England move to a secluded farm. Though they believe they are alone, a witch resides in the forests nearby, and soon the family falls victim to her witchcraft. An impeccable folk horror characterized by its close attention to period detail, The Witch put both Eggers and its young star Anya Taylor-Joy (as lead protagonist Thomasin) on the map. Spend one dark and stormy night with it and you'll understand why.
5. Aftersun (2022)
In Charlotte Wells' debut feature Aftersun, a semi-autobiographical drama, a young woman named Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) reflects back on memories of a precious vacation she spent with her father (Paul Mescal in an Oscar-nominated performance) at age 11; Frankie Corio stars as a younger version of Sophie. Through careful study of the vacation – partially captured through a handheld video camera – Sophie reckons with her childhood happiness juxtaposed with her father's visible signs of depression. Aftersun is a gorgeous, emotionally transcendent picture about the difficulties in fostering childhood happiness.
4. The Zone of Interest (2023)
Jonathan Glazer's harrowing 2023 film The Zone of Interest places in center frame a German military family living an idyllic home life… in 1943, at the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by the Nazis. Glazer's quietly maddening movie juxtaposes the banal routine of a family with the unseen but very real (and very audible) atrocities taking place just beyond the literal backyard. While The Zone of Interest revisits familiar World War 2 grounds, the movie is regrettably timely in how people everywhere normalize genocide, either by willful ignorance or plain acceptance.
3. Minari (2020)
Lee Isaac Chung's powerful multilingual drama follows a Korean-American family – headed by patriarch Jacob, played by Steven Yuen – move to rural Arkansas to start a farm. The adorable Alan S. Kim stars as young David, whose youthful perspective and wide eyes invite audiences to see the ups and downs of family, belonging, and home. The American dream is inclusive but by no means easy to achieve, and Chung's sweeping semi-autobiographical picture captures the universal challenges of planting roots.
2. Moonlight (2016)
Its Oscars mishap notwithstanding, Moonlight was and remains one of A24's finest films ever made. Written and directed by Barry Jenkins and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Moonlight follows a young man named Chiron who figures out his identity amid crack epidemic Florida. Chiron is portrayed by three different men at different stages in his life: Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes. Mahershala Ali co-stars as Juan, a dealer who ends up becoming a father figure to Chiron. Moonlight is a moving film about Black male masculinity, queer sexuality, and the lasting bruises of abuse. Its numerous accolades may be blinding, but Moonlight is as breathtaking as the stars at dusk.
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
At a time when the multiverse felt like the exclusive domain of Marvel, directing duo The Daniels unleashed a sci-fi odyssey unlike any other. Everything Everywhere All at Once follows a middle-aged immigrant woman, mother, and laundromat owner (Michelle Yeoh) who is suddenly thrust into the role of a multi-dimensional hero to save the multiverse from a malevolent force. In this elaborate metaphor for family, love, and understanding in a chaotic world, writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert tap into science fiction metaphysics, classic Shaw Brothers bangers, and filthy potty humor to serve up a true 21st century classic – in this universe and any other.
