The 10 best films produced by the A24 studio

It's the cool studio in New York, the Maison Kitsuné of cinema. They distribute, they label, they embellish. And when they produce it themselves, like with Civil War, what does it look like? It looks like this.

10 – Moonlight by Barry Jenkins (2016)

The very first production: sense of the era, nice dealers, black gays in love, Wong Kar-Wai treatment of the camera, cottony close-ups and glam everywhere. At the Oscars, the film wins over the (misleading) Technicolor of La La Land. It all starts here.

9 – The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers (2019)

If Bergman had loved Lovecraft, he could have filmed this lighthouse, this seagull and the mustaches of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Typical label strategy: after having distributed The Witchthey recover the second Eggers currently in production.

8 – Earth Mama by Savanah Leaft (2023)

A single mother fights for custody of her children in the face of a system so nitpicky that it will push her back into drugs. The only time that A24 played neither the chic nor the cool card. Here, it's harsh and hard. Don't be fooled, we won't be taking them back anytime soon.

7 – Everything Everywhere All at Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (2022)

The film has as many detractors (what are these talking stones?) as fans, but that's the game when you go far into anything goes. The multiverse will never be the same after this.

6 – Beautiful is Afraid by Ari Aster (2023)

The first hour of post-Polanski paranoia is like Tex Avery on acid, but shot live. The sequel, Terry Gilliam filmed by PTA. A psychoanalytic odyssey sometimes on the verge of emptiness, often a hair's breadth from overflowing, but always astonishing.

5 – Civil War by Alex Garland (2024)

The move to the next stage (budget + success) could have been Beautiful, it will instead be Civil, an invasion of the White House being (still?) more effective than a giant penis. Immersed with its reporters, the film lines up pieces of unbreathable bravery.

4 – Val by Leo Scott and Ting Poo (2021)

Dad Val Kilmer had a tracheotomy, so his son fills in for one of the most moving voiceovers in biographical docu history. On the screen, young Val's home movies, filmed with his missing brother. A family film like no other.

3 – Midsommar by Ari Aster (2019)

A sunny folk horror by in-house author Ari Aster. Anthological first twenty minutes, constant unease, blinding performance from Florence Pugh. Without the initials of Aster, the company would be called A22.

2 – Uncut Gems by Benny & Josh Safdie (2019)

A24 having chosen not to be based in LA, they could not fail to bring back the Safdie brothers, heroes/heralds of the New York industry, for more than 135 minutes of film noir in surge, with Adam Sandler in Ashkenazi version from Pacino 70s.

1 – Iron Claw by Sean Durkin (2023)

Great film, (melo)dramatic power, thousand-star cast, everything is there, except (bizarrely) the Oscar campaign which was essential. The most beautiful film about the toxicity of “white patriarchy” has been the one that shows what it does to little white people themselves.