The 24 Best Movies From A24 Films

Director: Harmony Korine
Starring: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane
Release Date: March 15, 2013

Divisive, uncomfortable, and wildly hedonistic, Spring Breakers established the ethos of an independent film company destined to shake shit up. Harmony Korine’s debaucherous fairytale arrived on the festival scene as A24 was in its infancy mapping out their first year of programming and anxious to make a definitive mark. Spring Breakers was that opportunity. They got their first wide release and more importantly, made their introduction to pop culture at large.

Following a group of girls who fall prey to the riffraff in St. Petersburg, Florida, this beach jaunt has been accused of sexism, heralded as feminist, and criticized for its shamelessness all at once. It’s peak James Franco, and I mean that however you receive it. And regardless of where I or anyone else lands on Spring Breakers, it turned people’s heads, which has been A24’s MO ever since. —Ben Lester

Director(s): Sean Durkin
Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, Lily James
Release Date: December 22, 2023

You may want to spoil yourself on the real life tale of the Von Erich wrestling family that inspires this tearjerker. No matter where you stand on the theatrics that take place within the squared circle, The Iron Claw puts the real humans behind those larger than life characters on front street. Patriarch Fritz (Holt McCallany) is a stern man, focused on running his Texas-based wrestling promotion and having one of his offspring fulfill his dream of becoming a world champion. Matching the intensity of their ringwork with the impact of substance abuse and other struggles had on the family, The Iron Claw pulls the curtain back on one of the oldest businesses in the world, exposing the beating heart that ran the white-hot promotion during its peak era. —khal

Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, Mia Goth
Release Date: April 5, 2019

High Life ships Robert Pattinson into outer space for a morbid sci-fi study of the human condition and whether or not primal instincts will prevail over time. It centers on a group of criminals blinded by the promise of freedom in exchange for a suicidal mission to find alternative energy beyond a black hole. A fragmented screenplay reveals a hypnotic series of events that illustrates everyone’s eligibility to be on the doomed brick-shaped spacecraft, along with their grim fate.

Claire Denis’ work here is remarkable. With a modest budget, she’s captured the same awe-inspiring weightlessness of a Nolan or Kubrick epic while subverting the idea that all space missions are born out of optimism. It’s the antithesis of Ridley Scott’s The Martian and places a flaming hot question mark on our moral compass. Robert Pattinson delivers an engrossing performance and is supported by an equally enigmatic cast that includes Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, and Mia Goth.

High Life begins with Pattinson’s Monte teaching his daughter the word taboo, perhaps as a warning to viewers that nothing would prepare us for Claire Denis’ interpretation of the word. —Lester

Director: Olivia Wilde
Starring: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton
Release Date: June 26, 2026

An English-language remake of 2020’s The People Upstairs, this Olivia Wilde-directed comedy takes a realistic approach to the story of a sexually-open couple (played beautifully by Cruz and Norton) giving an, ahem, invite to the slightly frazzled neighbors downstairs. Instead of flinching, The Invite (written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack) explores a marriage looking for a spark…maybe not that kind of spark, but something. For a film that kicks off fairly quickly, and only has four people in it in one space, The Invite keeps viewers engaged, moving from cringey moment to contemplative conversation when needed. And hell, it’s just funny AF. Come for Rogen’s “fuck it, I’m down” attitude and stay for Norton giving a truly inspired performance, one of his best in a while. —khal

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini
Release Date: March 14, 2014

2013-14 was a momentous time for French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. More famously regarded for his recent work with Sicario and sci-fi gems such as Blade Runner 2049, he screened and released his first two English-language films back-to-back roughly five years ago. More impressive was his decision to cast one of Hollywood’s most affable leading men to star in two undeniably challenging projects.

Under A24’s banner, Villeneuve released the psychological thriller, Enemy. It centers on Jake Gyllenhaal pulling double duty as Adam and Anthony, doppelgängers with more in common than either of them would care to admit. The discovery of each other’s existence puts them at odds with one another and ignites a disruptive rivalry. Villeneuve elicited polarized responses over its abstract ending, but for anyone watching with an open mind, Enemy’s sticky finish will have you retracing your steps trying to make sense of it all. —Lester

Director: Lulu Wang
Starring: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shu-zhen
Release date: July 12, 2019

Beautiful, poignant, specific and universal, Lulu Wang’s Chinese-American family drama hits every note. The Farewell marries progressive worldviews with traditionalism to explore familial dynamics in a modern age. Cultural and generational differences pull at Billi Wang and her family as they debate how to handle their matriarch’s terminal illness. Do they tell her as Billi pleads? Or do they continue to shroud her fate in secrecy? There’s nuance here that brings understanding to all perspectives, which Wang balances out with charming quirks and an abundance of love. It’s a touching journey supported by heartfelt performances from Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen aka Nai Nai, but I should mention the cast runs deep as does their talent. Wang’s work as writer-director is magnificent and fits squarely within the ethos of A24. —Lester

Director: Bo Burnham
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Fred Hechinger
Release Date: July 13, 2018

No matter how much time passes, I will always remember the sting of unbridled humiliation in middle school. It’s a right of passage seemingly designed for all but truly felt by those on the outskirts of the cool kid table. For this writer, Bo Burnham’s first time in the director’s chair results in a sweet, sweet ode to all the times grade school reared its ugly head. But it also serves as an empathetic North Star for young girls trying to figure life out in a hyperconnected world riddled with anxiety-inducing standards.

Eighth Grade is a success in that it understands deeply personal experiences shared by generations of young kids who ever felt awkward and out of place. Elsie Fisher captures those uncomfortable truths so earnestly and with such clarity that we can distinctly recall similar moments in our own lives. Like most of the films A24 has distributed, Eighth Grade is the byproduct of a sharp connection between director and lead. There’s an undeniable synergy there that lets Kayla Day’s story progress authentically and gracefully, ugly moments and all. —Lester

Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lois Smith
Release Date: November 3, 2017

Greta Gerwig’s poignant coming-of-age drama was a long time coming. She spent years developing the screenplay before securing financing to produce the film, and the finished product is a complicated depiction of teenage angst and the incessant longing for more that we carry well into adulthood. At its center is Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson and her mother Marion. They share a general disdain for each other’s outlook on life, which leads to regrettable distance, and ultimately a deeper love between the two.

Gerwig possesses a strong understanding of where she wanted Lady Bird to go, and it gracefully sews empathy into what can be a very puzzling and often deflating chapter in a young person’s life. It’s a reflection of Gerwig’s truth as a creator, one that reverberates throughout her opus and signals more profound work ahead as she readies the release of her all-star period drama, Little Women. —Lester

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw
Release Date: May 13, 2016

Did I mention how funny Yorgos Lanthimos is? He’s an auteur with few fucks to give and a lot to say about the inane societal norms we confine ourselves in. Here Colin Farrell stars in a ridiculous dystopian satire where single people must find companionship within 45 days or turn into an animal of their choosing. Lanthimos gleefully explores absurdist ultimatums in his films with a strange fascination for the preposterous suffering that comes as a result.

The Lobster is a unique experience designed to kick open viewers’ minds with heavy-handed ideas about partnership and the questionable sanctity of our established social institutions. And yet, it’s a wholly enjoyable film made more accessible by a talented cast led by Farrell and Rachel Weisz. —Lester

Director(s): Danny and Michael Philippou
Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen
Release Date: July 28, 2023

Like most things in young life, the subjects of Talk to Me stumble upon a stiff hand that, when grasped, gives the grasper access to communicating with spirits, which has been all the rage on the party circuit. Everything goes well; it feels like there’s a euphoric aspect to this spiritual communication, and if you break contact before 90 seconds have passed, everything appears to be good. Of course this means that someone utters “I let you in” and then literally lets the spirits into the world of the realm of the living, causing all hell to break loose. The frighteningly awesome thing about Talk to Me is that the film goes down the logical path, giving you grotesque displays of possessed teens being forced to destroy themselves to allow the demon within them to really take over their hosts. Sophie Wilde plays Mia, a woman who becomes addicted to this high, blindly chasing the spirit of her mother in what feels like the most logical way possible. A modern horror film that does what it’s supposed to. —khal

Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson
Release Date: February 19, 2016

Before helming his feature film debut, Robert Eggers worked as a designer for various short films and stage productions. That’s what makes The Witch’s attention to detail equal parts expected and impressive. Eggers tells a laborious story about a Puritan family on the edge of sanity as troubling events lead to a missing baby and an uninhabitable plot of land. Banished from their colony and threatened by dark forces in the woods, William and his family turn against each other allowing supernatural forces to take hold.

Stylized as The VVitch, Eggers’ morbid debut challenged moviegoer expectations on what horror can do. Without the use of CGI and jump scenes, this pre-Salem Witch Trial affair builds on unnerving atmosphere and one sinister billy goat. It plays out like a tragedy you shouldn’t be watching and lingers long after the credits roll.

Anya Taylor-Joy shines as a young genre star on the rise, and Eggers, he’s earned himself the right to direct just about anything. It’s clear at this point that A24 has a sixth sense for recognizing talent. And living deliciously, of course. —Lester

Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
Release Date: April 10, 2015

It’s been 11 years since novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, and I’ve yet to shake its final scene. Garland helms a slick and devious thriller that dissects the increasingly dubious relationship between man and machine. He asks all the right questions and proposes some hauntingly realistic outcomes. Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, and Sonoya Mizuno are entirely in sync here and expertly play off their character’s motives.

Ex Machina’s success is a lesson that many of A24’s films have in common. Garland’s story was distributed internationally by Universal Pictures, but the studio and its specialty division Focus Features passed on releasing it in the US. A24 swooped in to support the film, which became widely regarded as one of the best movies that year, landing on several year-end lists and picking up many trophies along the way. Even better, it became a hit at the indie box office as film writers and general audiences analyzed the film’s ominous ending.

Only time will tell how prophetic Garland’s sci-fi masterpiece really is, but he presents such a convincing reality that it’s impossible not to consider a future where man crosses one too many lines with artificial intelligence. —Lester

Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson
Release Date: October 18, 2019

With The VVitch, Eggers used natural light and a perfectly-utilized location to transport viewers to New England in the 1630s, where witches apparently lurk in the woods. For his next film, Eggers jumps to the 1890s to document what happens when two lighthousekeepers stop being polite and start…sorry. Willem Dafoe’s Thomas Wake is the tenured employee you hate to see made boss, talking down to his charges, though, because of their line of work, that means that with every fart, every drunken tirade, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) grows angrier and angrier with his current situation. With a small incident likely dooming his stay in the lighthouse, of which Wake won’t even let him see, this one lurches on the side of hysteria before diving into full-blown pandemonium. The Lighthouse was shot in 1.19:1, which allows for a more square frame, further enhancing the boxed-in feeling Winslow experiences. It showed that Eggers was far from a one-trick pony; his ability to create stories and construct intricate ways to deliver on the presentation practically is a skill his peers should study. —khal

Directors: The Safdie brothers
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Buddy Duress, Taliah Lennice Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi
Release Date: August 11, 2017

Over the last decade, Robert Pattinson has redefined the legacy of a YA star. Dreaded Twilight references have become few and far between as he stacks up auteur-driven work from bold visionaries. And what better way to really screw with people’s heads than to star in an engrossing tour de force crime thriller set in the underbelly of Queens, New York?

Josh and Benny Safdie’s Good Time runs at breakneck speed keeping up with Connie, a degenerate thief who recruits his disabled brother Nick for a bank heist. When the escape plan goes south, Nick lands behind bars and Connie stops at nothing to set him free. I remember feeling overwhelmed by a potent blend of disgust and admiration as the credits rolled. It’s another divisive showing, depicting very real and ugly choices people make when clouded by greed and desperation. Even worse when you consider the state of 45’s America. Lace those elements with an intoxicating score by Oneohtrix Point Never and Sean Price William’s dizzying cinematography, and you’ve got yourself a new age crime classic. —Lester

Director: Sean Baker
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Kimberly Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, Caleb Landry Jones
Release Date: October 6, 2017

The Florida Project is an utterly heartbreaking look at the wonders of childhood trapped inside the grim reality of adulthood. Following up on his 2015 standout dramedy Tangerine, Sean Baker helms a stirring feature about a young girl named Moonee, played by the infectiously charming newcomer Brooklynn Prince. Moonee lives a fantastical life that rightfully ignores the hardships her wreckless mother puts them through. It’s not an easy watch, and for some, The Florida Project may be too difficult to digest more than once. But it’s essential. A film born out of empathy and destined to share its lessons for years to come. —Lester

Director: Josh Safdie
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher
Release Date: December 25, 2025

Though Chalamet came up short at the Academy Awards, his effort in bringing Marty Supreme to that grand stage perfectly defined the “think big” ethos of Marty Mauser, the table tennis hustler looking to become the next sports star. Mauser’s problem is that instead of helping those who assist him, he’s quick to push them aside, accepting their help without reciprocation. For two-and-a-half hours, Mauser proceeds to screw over everyone he encounters, hustling himself into a dead-end which, ironically, may have saved his life. Like all Safdie projects, we’re given a genuinely interesting yet truly repulsive individual to shadow, forced to ride shotgun as they destroy everything in their way. And, for those keeping score, this not only scratched the “1950s table tennis hustler” itch that seemed to have been annoying Josh Safdie for a long time, but it received nine Oscar nominations, cementing Mauser’s moment in history. —khal

Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Patrick Stewart
Release Date: April 15, 2016

Jeremy Saulnier’s bleak backwoods thriller is a lot to stomach. It’s premise centers on a punk band quite literally starving for their next gig. When they score a show at a neo-Nazi bar in the woods, they use their talents to send a very defiant “fuck you” during their set. It’s a surprisingly minor offense to walk away unscathed from. Stumbling in on a murder committed by those same ruthless skinheads, however, is decidedly not.

Green Room takes a rather simple idea and elevates it with inspired cinematography, brilliant writing, and brutal execution. It’s brass, in your face, suffocating, and fucking grim. It also brings the best out of Stewart and the late, great Anton Yelchin. Saulnier illustrates his technical prowess and taut direction through claustrophobic scenes of absolute terror and hard-hitting violence that makes us wish we’d look away sooner. Of course, we never do. —Lester

Director: Lance Oppenheim
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers
Release Date: September 25, 2026

One of Robert Pattinson’s greatest theatrical performances was inspired by the host of To Catch a Predator, Chris Hansen, in Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, which examines the child predator-catching TV series making its mark on the primetime television landscape. (Hansen has been on the warpath since the film was announced, calling it “bizarre” and “detached from reality” while buying ad space before the film and sending Pattinson an open invite to his podcast.) Pattinson, in particular, was spot-in, diving into the To Catch a Predator archives to nail Hansen’s demeanor and “have a seat” catchphrases. Recreating footage from the hit series, Primetime digs into the predatory nature of TV production and the real-life stakes behind the quest for ratings supremacy. —khal

Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, Will Poulter
Release Date: July 2, 2019

Ari Aster didn’t invent daylight horror, but with Midsommar he took an already unnerving concept and dressed it up with flowers, smiles, and joyous pagan rituals. It’s a flip of the light switch for this acclaimed director, who broke into the scene last year with his wildly dark and imaginative debut feature film, Hereditary. This time around, he brings similar excruciating trauma and a doomed relationship into the light for a presumably idyllic festival in Sweden.

Midsommar is a deeper dive into Aster’s psyche as he sharply marries personal experience with nightmarish folk-horror. It revels in uneasy moments, expertly balancing taboo humor and unforgettable dread. Here it’s Dani, played by the rising Florence Pugh, who grapples with severe family loss and a crummy boyfriend while contending with an ancestral commune devoted to its uber-rare and fatal midsummer festival. Pugh glows in the absurdity of it all and Aster’s creative affinity for the macabre makes for a beguiling viewing experience. May he terrorize our summers for years to come. —Lester

Director(s): The Daniels
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis
Release Date: March 25, 2022

It’s not hyperbolic to say that Everything Everywhere All at Once really does all of the things. At a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was starting to suffer from superhero fatigue in the midst of their Multiverse Saga, an A24 film plays with the same conceit—one person being tasked with saving the multiverse—and wraps it around a family drama centered on a Chinese immigrant woman (Michelle Yeoh in one of her best performances) struggling with an IRS audit, maintaining the family laundromat, marital issues with her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and coming to terms with her daughter’s relationship and meeting her girlfriend. Those issues morph in the multiverse, which means that the film morph as well, becoming a sci-fi fantasy that breaks out into full martial arts moments while getting as stonerfied as you could with the way this multiversal aspect develops. It took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Yeoh), and Best Original Screenplay. Currently, the only A24 film to gross higher than Everything at the box office is Marty Supreme, which shouldn’t be a surprise when you remember how hard Chalamet worked in the lead-up. —khal

Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne
Release Date: June 8, 2018

To know his work is to understand that Ari Aster has a lot on his mind when it comes to family, death, and the trauma that comes with both. His short projects have rocked the film community and challenge the idea of what’s deemed palatable. With Hereditary, he takes his perverse ambitions to the extreme while simultaneously carving his name into horror’s famed lexicon. Whether it’s Milly Shapiro’s abrupt decapitation or Toni Collette’s self-induced beheading, Aster forces us to fully see and realize increasingly dark realities bestowed upon the Graham family.

It was an audacious move for a directorial debut, but fitting nonetheless considering his record. This is Aster’s wheelhouse. And don’t be fooled, Hereditary’s strength lies beyond shock value. For starters, Collette delivers an all-time performance earning just as much praise for her impassioned monologue at dinner as she does during the film’s shocking final moments. Resonant themes about the destructive toll grief takes on a family are sewn together with haunting pieces of pagan lore and rituals. Even further, watching Annie’s descent into madness from the perspective of her husband Steve adds subtle, yet equally devastating layers.

Hereditary is crafted to stand the test of time. Aster rolled the dice and brought something fresh to the genre. He’ll be known as that auteur who will go to places few dare to go and actually flourish in the process. A dark, beautiful, twisted fantasy, indeed. —Lester

Director(s): The Safdie brothers
Starring: Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian
Release date: December 25, 2019

Who does white-knuckled cynicism better than The Safdie Bros? Good Time may have put this coveted New York City duo on the map, but it’s Uncut Gems that’s made them the destination. A beacon for gripping, anxiety-inducing cinema. Pulling inspiration from their own lives, Benny and Josh Safdie set Adam Sandler up for a career-best performance with their signature grit and sound.

Howard Ratner: two-bit jeweler, gambler, family man...elite trainwreck. It’s Howie’s reckless ambitions, a perverse commitment to score big, that makes Uncut Gems so engrossing. A thrill ride that’s more or less elicited the same reaction from audiences across the country. Sandler is all-in here, willingly possessed by the Bros’ sharp intent to bring this chase of euphoric highs and crushing lows to a startling finish. It’s not just him, either. LaKeith Stanfield proves why he’s one of today’s brightest stars. And with NYC nightlife pulsing through her veins, Julia Fox’s convincing debut is sure to go down as one of the most memorable on-screen breakthroughs of the last decade. Career-defining and star-making efforts all around. —Lester

Director: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali
Release Date: October 21, 2016

Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight isn’t just A24’s best release to date—it’s one of the greatest films to come out of the 21st century. It wields compassion as a shield that drives this intimate, yet mighty coming-of-age drama through three stages of a young Black man’s life. Based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play, Moonlight is an unflinching look at sexuality, love, abuse and discovering oneself in a complicated and unjust world.

Moonlight gives voice, sight, and context to a journey often misunderstood and neglected by traditional Hollywood standards. It’s gorgeously shot, thoughtfully scripted, and delivered with extreme care by a top-tier cast. Barry Jenkins sees the world through a beautiful lens despite its ugly imperfections, and it’s that unmatched level of empathy that allows his work to flow so gracefully.

A24 set out to disrupt the landscape of filmmaking and usher in a generation of storytellers who are not only able to grab our attention but who can also create long-lasting impact on the artform. To create change. To be of consequence. Barry Jenkins and his historic Academy Award-winning masterpiece did that and more. —Lester

Director(s): Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim
Release Date: October 16, 2026

Before September of 2026, no one knew that an almost-three-hour documentary on the infamous Elizabeth Holmes even existed; once word came that it was being released by A24 Films and featured Nathan Fielder trying to get to the bottom of Holmes, most folks were sold.

Initially, Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, wanted to “humanize” Holmes while she was on the road to serving time for her fraud conviction; they didn’t know what they were getting into when they struck a deal with A24 to have Fielder and Oppenheim start filming them. As things progressed, Fielder went from an off-camera documentarian to, frankly, an on-camera subject in this complex web. And interestingly enough, things only get more interesting once Holmes goes to prison and Fielder still has questions.

It’s a documentary that looks unlike any documentary you’ve seen before, and behaves vastly differently to boot. It’s a rewarding three-hour experience, a film so good that it rivaled DC’s Clayface during the 2026 Halloween weekend. Your favorite documentary could never! —khal