Here now are my ten Best Picture winners for the last calendar year. A reminder that films that count towards the Movie Odyssey are movies that I saw in their entirety for the first time over that calendar year. Rewatches don't count.

In other words, these are my top ten "new-to-me" films from my 2024 viewings. I name all ten as "Best Pictures" in alphabetical order. I don't rank them. Any links in the titles take you to my write-ups... regrettably, there are only two:

Adam's Rib (1949; dir. George Cukor)

George Cukor's legal comedy comes with the tagline: "It's the hilarious answer to who wears the pants!" Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were long-unmarried romantic partners, and their professional partnership included nine films from 1942-1967. Here, he plays a prosecutor; she plays a defense attorney. While in court, Hepburn will claim that a woman’s (Judy Holliday) attempted murder of her adulterous husband is justified. Despite that crazy premise, Adam’s Rib sizzles: this is an ideal movie to watch if you want to know what the comedic and romantic chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn was like.

Awaara (1951, India; dir. Raj Kapoor)

In only his third feature film, Raj Kapoor directed himself, Nargis, and Rithviraj Kapoor (Raj’s father) in a gorgeously made Bollywood movie unafraid of asking questions of class, crime, capitalism/socialism, and personal redemption. The title, which can be translated to “tramp”, is only the first of several aspects in this film reflective of Raj Kapoor’s admiration of Charlie Chaplin’s silent films – humor, pathos, and social consciousness colliding, poetically, into a deeply human work. One of the few ‘50s Bollywood movies to achieve widespread popularity beyond India's borders: it's a touchstone in the former USSR nations, the Balkans, and China. You can watch it here.

The Big Heat (1953; dir. Fritz Lang)

One of two films noir here, this one by German director Fritz Lang (whose film M, from 1931, heavily influenced the creation of noir). Homicide Det. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the death of a fellow cop when he receives word from “upstairs” to stop. He suspects a conspiracy, and turns in his badge (but not his .38) to get to the bottom of it. How far will he go? The Big Heat benefits from a cavalcade of excellent supporting actors – including Lee Marvin and especially Gloria Grahame. Don’t read reviews or other pieces before viewing this film: The Big Heat contains one of the most vicious moments in film history – unforgettable to anyone who sees it, not just to noiristas.

Detour (1945; dir. Edgar G. Ulmer)

Film noir #2 among this year’s Best Pictures. Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour was made by “Poverty Row” studio PRC (derisively nicknamed “Pretty Rotten Crap”) and does so much with so little. Unemployed piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is the unreliable narrator recounting how his life was destroyed after hitch-hiking cross-country to reunite with his girlfriend (Claudia Drake) and his encounter with maybe the meanest woman in film noir history, Vera (Ann Savage; what a surname). Detour’s tawdry, yet brilliant, filmmaking and unreliable narration subconsciously creates its own internal logic. This 68-minute film has the tone and rhythm of a nightmare. In the public domain. Best watched in the dead of night, half-asleep. Did you watch or dream this movie?

Dinner at Eight (1933; dir. George Cukor)

Ten years ago? George Cukor’s Dinner at Eight (Cukor again!) doesn’t make this list. I’ve taken a while to come around to comedies of manners. Based on the play of the same name with an adapted screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Dinner at Eight sees a socialite (Billie Burke, Glinda in The Wizard of Oz) organize a dinner party for all her friends. Also starring Marie Dressler, John Barrymore (whose fallen silent film actor character is alarmingly prescient), Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, and especially a fantastic Jean Harlow, this is a racy, elegantly-costumed witty comedy of high society figures deceiving themselves about their stations in life.

Flow (2024, Latvia/Belgium/France; dir. Gints Zilbalodis)

One of two animated features this year. In only his second feature, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis delivers a dialogue-free animated feature that follows a black cat and their companions in a boat while they navigate the world, which has been destroyed by water. Made with free software Blender, this is a remarkable production that, like Detour, succeeds beyond its paucity of resources. Zilbalodis – who also was co-producer, co-writer, co-composer, cinematographer, editor, and art director – will tell you not to sweat plot details. This is a movie that is about how one learns to trust and work with others – something that Zilbalodis, usually a one-man show, learned himself while making Flow.

One Way Passage (1932; dir. Tay Garnett)

Along with Dinner at Eight, this is one of two pre-Code films among the Best Picture winners. Tay Garnett’s romantic drama stars two major figures from the pre-Code era: William Powell and Kay Francis. On a monthlong ferry from Hong Kong to San Francisco, Francis plays a terminally ill woman (not that you could tell she was terminally ill) who falls for a murderer (Powell) who has escaped authorities and is bound to be hung. Despite what might appear to be a morbid premise, One Way Passage has a romantic delicateness to it, mixing light comedy with unsentimental gestures for a most curious concoction. Fantastic ending.

Son of the White Mare (1981, Hungary; dir. Marcell Jankovics)

As some of you may know, one of my cinematic blind spots that I am most aware is a blind spot and would like most to address is Eastern bloc animation. Marcell Jankovics’ Son of the White Mare is a mythological movie that takes elements of the creation myths of the ancient nomads of the Eurasian steppe. Our main character is Treeshaker, the third human son of a mare, who has superhuman strength. He later meets his two similarly strong older brothers, Stonecrumbler and Ironrubber. Our trio journey to defeat three dragons spreading evil across the world. Jankovics’ film may be standard folklore, but its visual splendor – bright and bold colors, representational character animation – has never been imitated.

​A Special Day (1977, Italy; dir. Ettore Scola)

No other Italian actors could fit the idea of glamor as much as Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. And in Ettore Scola's Una giornata particolare, the two inhabit roles far away from their public and on-screen personas. On the day of Hitler's arrival in Rome on May 3, 1938 to citywide celebrations, a housewife (Loren) and a recently-sacked radio announcer (Mastroianni) have a chance encounter. With everyone else in the apartment complex away to watch the pomp and circumstance, the two discuss their lives, their disappointments, and the expectations hoisted upon them by others. Both actors tap into their wartime experiences to deliver performances among the best of their careers.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023, Ukraine; dir. Mstyslav Chernov)

Nightmare sequence from Awāra (Raj Kapoor, 1951, English title: The Vababond)