Now that we’ve spotlighted our audience picks and our staff picks, we’re rounding out our Best of 2024 coverage with films that the critics' loved! Our team puts an enormous amount of thought into every title they curate, with the goal of bringing the highest-quality stories from around the world to our audiences, so it’s rewarding to see Kino Film Collection titles land on critics’ own best of 2024 lists. We’ve also been incredibly humbled to be recognized by critics for providing an alternative to the main stream (pun intended). We’ve had an expectation-exceeding year doing just that, and we plan to bring you even more acclaimed films you can’t find anywhere else in 2025.
Without further ado, here are our three standout films that have made the top critics’ lists of 2024, along with some honorable mentions.
Green Border
Three-time Oscar® nominated director Agnieszka Holland has left an indelible mark on both film and global politics with her urgent and affecting film Green Border. Shot in striking black and white, the film is an unflinching exposé on the migrant crisis along the Poland-Belarus border and the horrific inhumanity that plays out every day in the densely forested exclusion zone. Holland dissects the crisis from multiple angles, following the perspectives of the refugees, conflicted border guards, and activists trying to intervene. With visually striking cinematography and a timely story that will boil your blood and stir your humanity, it’s no surprise that Green Border has been lauded as one of the year’s best.
Green Border has received Best International Feature nominations from the Spirit Awards and Gotham Awards, and here are all the outlets who have named it one of the best films of 2024:
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a energetic collision of jazz, Cold War politics, and anticolonial resistance. This documentary traces the events surrounding the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, in the postcolonial chaos following Congo’s “independence.” Grimonprez sheds light on all the key global players, including a damning revelation of the role of the U.S. goverment, who sent jazz legends like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nina Simone to Congo to spread the message of democracy as a diversion tactic for the CIA-backed assassination. Editor Rik Chaubet masterfully stitches together government memos, archival footage, and swinging jazz performances to create quite possibly the most energizing historical essay of all time.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat has been shortlisted for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, won three IDA Awards, and has received nominations from the Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, European Film Awards, and the Cinema Eye Honors. Here are all the outlets who have named it one of the best films of 2024:
COMING SOON
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
After winning the Camera d’Or prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Pham Thien An’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell went on to garner praise from critics and audiences alike. Featuring technically deft and dreamlike cinematography, the film follows 30-something Thien’s journey back to his rural hometown in Vietnam after his sister-in-law dies in a car accident and leaves her five-year-old son behind. Through Thien’s wandering, we are immersed in a meditation on existentialism, spirituality, and regret, and by the end we might even see our own worlds in a different light.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell has received nominations from the Spirit Awards and Gotham Awards and here are all the outlets who have named it one of the best films of 2024:
Honorable Mentions:
The Old Oak
Set in a once-thriving mining town in northern England, The Old Oak explores loss, fear, and the difficulty—but not impossibility—of finding hope. When a group of Syrian refugees move into the struggling town, anger and resentment arise among the community, fueled by prejudice. But when the owner of the local pub, The Old Oak, strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Syrian woman, a spark of hope forms for the divided village.
The Old Oak was given an honorable mention of 2024 by Screen Crush and has been selected as one of the best films of 2024 by individual ballots for Screen Slate and Film Comment.
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Banel & Adama
Some have compared Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s Senegalese love story to Romeo and Juliet, but Banel & Adama is far more layered. Following the perspective of Banel, who is one of the most complex and fascinating female characters in recent memory, the film follows the young married couple as they dream of a life beyond their stifling village. But what starts out as a blissful and dreamlike love story slowly unravels into a tale of obsession and cosmic retribution.
Banel & Adama was Senegal's official submission to the 96th Academy Awards® has been selected as one of the best films of 2024 by individual ballots for Film Comment.
On the Adamant
Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, On the Adamant takes viewers aboard the titular vessel, which serves as a daycare center for people with mental illnesses, where they can partake in art therapy, counselling, and community. Moored on the Seine River in Paris, The Adamant has become a floating haven for its visitors and legendary documentarian Nicolas Philibert gives audiences a firsthand look with warmth, empathy, and a celebration of the human spirit.
On the Adamant has been selected as one of the best films of 2024 by individual ballots for Screen Slate and Film Comment.