These are Barack Obama’s favourite films of 2024

21 December, 2024

Barack Obama has published his annual list of his favourite films for 2024 – check out his picks below.

The former President has long been publishing his personal lists of favourite music, films and books at the end of every year. In a post on X/Twitter, Obama introduced his 2024 edition by writing: “Here are a few movies I’d recommend checking out this year.”

Featuring this year are Sean Baker’s Anora, the Timothée Chalamet-starring Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and the mystery thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini.

Elsewhere, he spotlighted Dune: Part Two, The Piano Lesson and All We Imagine as Light, directed by Payal Kapadia. Check out the full list below.

Barack Obama’s full list of favourite 2024 films is as follows: 

All We Imagine As Light
Conclave
The Piano Lesson
The Promised Land
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Dune: Part Two
Anora
Dìdi
Sugarcane
A Complete Unknown

Obama also shared his favourite music of the year, with Kendrick Lamar, Fontaines D.C., Beyoncé, Shaboozey and Billie Eilish all featuring on the list. You can check out all his picks here.

Last year, the former president’s list of favourite films included Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, BlackBerry – the film that charts the rise of the mobile phone brand – and the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.

Back in 2023, he also refuted any suggestion that he does not compile these lists himself. When asked, he said: “I do! Listen, I am so glad that I have this opportunity. People, they believe the books and the movies, but the playlists, they somehow think — and this is mostly coming from young people like you — somehow, y’all think you invented rock ‘n’ roll. You invented hip-hop.”

“And so the fact that my lists are, you know, pretty incredible — people seem to think, well, he must’ve had some 20-year-old intern who was figuring out this latest cut. No, man! It’s on my iPad right now.”
Still from ‘Kneecap’, photo by Curzon Film 2024
Credit: Curzon Film 2024
NME‘s own Best Films of 2024 list saw Kneecap, the biopic of the Northern Irish hip-hop group directed by Rich Peppiatt, take the top spot. The entry read: “Inspired by the three’s experiences growing up in post-Troubles Belfast – as well as their wit and endless imagination – this dark comedy cum docudrama cum fictionalised origin story follows low level drug dealers Móglaí and Mo as they bumble through life getting beaten up by Republicans and Loyalists alike.
“Eventually, via a drug-induced creative bender, they discover a love for making music and form Kneecap with a local schoolteacher. Cue the funniest and most exciting band biopic since, well, ever. Even Noel Gallagher’s a fan – and he hates everything.”
Other films on our list were Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers and Sean Baker’s Anora. Find our full top 20 here.

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