8 Great Films We Saw at NYFF 2024

Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton are a great leading duo as two old friends who reconnect while one is living with a terminal illness. As they rekindle their friendship, Martha (Swinton) asks Ingrid (Moore) for an extreme favor that takes their relationship to new depths. Like all things Pedro Almodóvar, The Room Next Door weaves a beautiful story of female friendship and, as the director said at the NYFF press conference, a message of “empathy in a time of hate.” It’s a visually gorgeous one, too, from the bold coats to the stunning green kitchen cabinets to the wilting tulips in Martha’s hospital room. And it’s darkly funny (which is probably needed as both characters grapple with death and their mortality). The film is partially based on Sigrid Nunez’s book What Are You Going Through.

Opens in New York and L.A. December 20, expanding on December 25, and releasing nationally in January 2025.

It’s no wonder why Payal Kapadia’s film won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. (It was also the first Indian film to compete at the festival in 30 years.) Rich and beautiful, it centers on three women in Mumbai: Prabha, a nurse whose husband lives in Germany; Anu, her younger roommate and coworker who’s secretly seeing a Muslim man against her parents’ wishes; and Parvaty, the hospital cook and a widow fighting to keep her home against eviction threats. Amid an immersive, bustling, and sweaty portrait of the city, Kapadia delivers a heartfelt portrayal of sisterhood. The film involves magical, dream-like details—the final scenes especially will have you questioning reality—and declares Mumbai as a “city of illusions,” but the friendship between these three women is very real.

Opens in theaters November 15.

I’ve been thinking about Nickel Boys for weeks now. RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s same-name book is both deeply intimate and transcendent. It follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two boys who meet at Nickel Academy, a reformatory school in the Jim Crow South, and forge a unique bond amid the school’s abusive conditions. The film is literally told from their perspective, alternating between the view from Elwood’s eyes and Turner’s. Maybe in any other film, such a creative decision would come off as over-the-top or unserious, but here, it works brilliantly; it really plants you into the boys’ inner lives and makes you feel their humanity. Ross’s background in documentary filmmaking shines through too, as the film weaves in real historical footage and photographs. (Whitehead himself based the book on the real-life Dozier School for Boys in Florida.) Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor delivers another impeccable performance.

Opens in New York December 13 and in L.A. December 20, with a further expansion to follow.

Shula (Susan Chardy) is driving home from a party (and dressed like Missy Elliott) when she finds her uncle lying dead in the road. Though she’s surprisingly apathetic to the loss, the ensuing funeral services and family gatherings slowly reveal why. Despite her uncle’s dark history, and the trauma Shula shares with her cousins Bupe and Nsansa, their family still remembers him as an honorable man, in fear of tarnishing his reputation, even in death. Zambian-Welsh director and screenwriter Rungano Nyoni, who won a Cannes prize this year, shows the harm that kind of secrecy can do to a family, especially to young women. She also challenges that blind loyalty: What if we didn’t ignore the things someone has done just because we’re kin? What if we held them accountable? Nyoni’s film (which has been acquired by A24) is surreal yet relatable, infuriating yet inspiring.

No release date yet.

Set in 1970s Brazil, in the midst of a military dictatorship, I’m Still Here centers on the remarkable true story of Eunice Paiva. After her husband, a former congressman, is kidnapped, she seeks out answers in a dangerous political environment while also trying to be strong for her five children. Directed by Walter Salles, the film wowed crowds at Venice and TIFF and is now Brazil’s entry to the 2025 Academy Awards. At the heart of the historical drama is not only Eunice’s personal resilience but also the perseverance of family. Grounded by a superb performance by lead actress Fernanda Torres.

No release date yet.

Best friends Yuta and Kou are music-lovers and high-school troublemakers in near-future Tokyo. They disguise themselves as busboys to crash a DJ set and trick their school security guard to sneak into the music room with their crew in the middle of the night. But their biggest prank, targeting the principal and his precious sports car, results in a surveillance system getting installed at school. Meanwhile, nationally in Japan, the looming threat of a destructive earthquake leads to a heightened police presence and racism. The rising political unrest both in and beyond campus sends Kou and Yuta in different directions; the former picks up student activism, while the latter tries to remain blissfully ignorant. Neo Sora (Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus) shows what it’s like not just for friends to grow up together, but also to grow apart. It’s thoughtful but funny (their high school shenanigans are relatable and hilarious). The techno score, from the label Sea Cucumber and composer Lia Ouyang Rusli, is pretty sick too.

No release date yet.

In baseball, an eephus pitch is slow and high-arched, meant to throw the hitter off-guard—not unlike Carson Lund’s film. The director focuses on two recreational baseball teams playing their last game at the local field before construction takes it down. As the game unfolds over the course of a day—from a sunny afternoon well into the night—it becomes a revealing portrait about this community: the players and their bonds, rivalries, ambitions, and insecurities; and the characters beyond the dugout, from the hot-dog vendor in the parking lot to the pot heads heckling the athletes. It’s a cinematic take on “guys being dudes” with a looming sadness as they come to terms with the fact that something they cherish is about to end. A love letter to the sport, Eephus is another great addition to the baseball movie canon.

Opens in theaters in New York March 7, with a national rollout to follow.

One of the more abstract films on the list, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April follows Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili), an obstetrician in Eastern Georgia who works at a maternity hospital but also quietly performs abortions in the villages outside of town. She often takes long drives to rural communities at night and makes house visits to patients who lack access to proper health care. When a difficult birth at her day job results in the infant’s death, an investigation puts Nina under intense scrutiny and threatens to uncover her secret work. Surreal touches show the monstrous way Nina is viewed by her peers, but she’s undoubtedly a good doctor; she cares for her patients, even giving one free birth control, because she didn’t know how to prevent pregnancy. With haunting, lingering shots, April is an arresting and staggering watch—brought to life with real details from Kulumbegashvili’s research at maternity hospitals—but it’s one that proves the importance of having safe abortions and access to women’s health care. Luca Guadagnino produced this one, too.

Coming to theaters in 2025.