Top 10 A24 Movies

How We Ranked the Top 10

We weighted each film against what actually makes an A24 movie worth your two hours: the strength of its story and screenplay, its direction and craft, its performances, how rewatchable it is, and its lasting cultural impact. A film that dazzles visually but leaves you cold drops fast; the winners pair bold craft with stories that stick. A24's house style — director-driven, unafraid of discomfort — runs through every entry. Where a film sits in the ranking reflects critical consensus and staying power rather than any single score, and streaming availability shifts constantly, so treat "where to watch" as a starting point and confirm current listings before you settle in.

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 🏆 BEST OVERALL

Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert | Year: 2022 | Runtime: 139 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

A laundromat owner named Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is dragged into an interdimensional war when she learns she can access the skills of her parallel-universe selves. Co-starring Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the film fuses kung-fu absurdity, googly-eyed nihilism, and a wrenching mother-daughter reconciliation. It dominated the Academy Awards — winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and supporting acting trophies for Quan's comeback and Curtis — and remains one of A24's commercial and critical high points.

Pros:

• A multiple Oscar winner, including Best Picture
• Michelle Yeoh's career-defining lead performance
• Endlessly inventive multiverse action and comedy
• A genuinely moving family story underneath the chaos

Cons:

• The sensory overload can exhaust first-time viewers
• The hot-dog-fingers universe is not for everyone

Verdict: The definitive A24 film — wildly original, deeply felt, and decorated with every major award.

2. Moonlight (2016)

Director: Barry Jenkins | Year: 2016 | Runtime: 111 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Barry Jenkins' triptych follows Chiron, a Black gay man in Miami, across three chapters of his life, played by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes, with Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris in support. Tender, restrained, and shot in luminous color, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture (after the famous envelope mix-up), along with wins for its adapted screenplay and Ali's supporting turn. It is widely cited as one of the defining films of its decade.

Pros:

• Best Picture winner and instant modern classic
• Mahershala Ali's Oscar-winning supporting turn
• Gorgeous, intimate cinematography and score
• A landmark of Black, queer coming-of-age storytelling

Cons:

• Its quiet pacing demands patience
• Emotionally heavy with little relief

Verdict: A24's most acclaimed drama — quietly devastating and impeccably crafted.

3. Hereditary (2018)

Director: Ari Aster | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 127 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Ari Aster's debut feature is a grief-soaked descent into family horror. After the death of her secretive mother, Annie Graham (Toni Collette) unravels as supernatural forces close in on her household, with Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, and Gabriel Byrne completing the family. Collette's anguished performance — passed over at the Oscars but beloved by critics — anchors a film of escalating dread and one of the most shocking mid-film turns in modern horror. It helped define the "elevated horror" wave A24 became known for.

Pros:

• Toni Collette's ferocious, unforgettable lead performance
• Unrelenting, expertly engineered dread
• A jaw-dropping mid-film shock
• Ari Aster announced as a major horror voice

Cons:

• Genuinely upsetting; not casual viewing
• The occult finale divides audiences

Verdict: The scariest A24 film — a masterclass in dread powered by a career-best performance.

4. Lady Bird (2017)

Director: Greta Gerwig | Year: 2017 | Runtime: 94 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut follows Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a Sacramento teen chafing against her mother (Laurie Metcalf) during a turbulent senior year. Warm, funny, and bittersweet, it earned multiple Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and drew near-unanimous critical praise on release. Co-starring Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges, it is one of A24's most rewatchable and universally beloved films.

Pros:

• Multiple Academy Award nominations including Best Picture
• Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf's electric mother-daughter chemistry
• Sharp, funny, deeply humane screenplay
• Endlessly rewatchable at a tight 94 minutes

Cons:

• Coming-of-age beats feel familiar to some
• Sacramento specificity won't land for everyone

Verdict: A24's most charming crowd-pleaser — funny, true, and easy to love.

5. The Witch (2015) 💎 BEST VALUE

Director: Robert Eggers | Year: 2015 | Runtime: 92 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Robert Eggers' debut strands a banished Puritan family on the edge of a New England wood in the 1630s, where paranoia and possible witchcraft tear them apart. Anya Taylor-Joy broke out as the eldest daughter Thomasin, in a meticulously period-accurate nightmare of candlelit dread and archaic dialogue. Eggers won the directing prize in its category at Sundance, and the film became a cornerstone of the studio's horror reputation. Lean, frequently in rotation, and richer on every rewatch, it is the smartest starting point on this list.

Pros:

• Anya Taylor-Joy's star-making breakout role
• Obsessive period authenticity and atmosphere
• A Sundance directing award winner
• Short and rewards rewatching

Cons:

• The archaic dialogue is hard to parse
• Deliberate slow burn frustrates some

Verdict: The best value on the list — a lean scare that gets better every time.

6. Uncut Gems (2019)

Director: Josh & Benny Safdie | Year: 2019 | Runtime: 135 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

The Safdie brothers strap you to Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a Manhattan jeweler and compulsive gambler whose life spirals over a rare opal and a high-stakes bet. Co-starring Kevin Garnett (as himself), Idina Menzel, Lakeith Stanfield, and Julia Fox in her breakout, the film is a relentless anxiety attack of overlapping dialogue and a pulsing score. Sandler's celebrated dramatic turn made it an instant cult favorite.

Pros:

• Adam Sandler's revelatory dramatic performance
• Unbearably tense, propulsive filmmaking
• Julia Fox's electric breakout role
• A singular, sweat-soaked New York energy

Cons:

• The constant stress is exhausting by design
• Overlapping shouting overwhelms some viewers

Verdict: A24's most stressful thriller — a panic attack you'll want to feel again.

7. Midsommar (2019)

Director: Ari Aster | Year: 2019 | Runtime: 148 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Ari Aster's daylight horror follows grieving Dani (Florence Pugh) to a Swedish commune's midsummer festival that curdles into a folk-horror nightmare. Co-starring Jack Reynor and Will Poulter, it trades darkness for blinding sunlight and flower-draped pageantry, turning a toxic relationship into ritual catharsis. Pugh's raw performance and the film's lurid imagery earned it a devoted following, and an extended director's cut runs even longer for the truly committed.

Pros:

• Florence Pugh's harrowing, empathetic lead turn
• Stunning, sun-drenched folk-horror imagery
• A bold, cathartic breakup metaphor
• Endlessly dissected, deeply rewatchable

Cons:

• The long runtime tests patience
• Graphic ritual violence is hard to watch

Verdict: The most beautiful A24 nightmare — gorgeous, disturbing, and unforgettable.

8. Ex Machina (2014)

Director: Alex Garland | Year: 2014 | Runtime: 108 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Alex Garland's directorial debut is a sleek chamber-piece sci-fi thriller. A young coder, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), is invited to a reclusive tech CEO's (Oscar Isaac) estate to Turing-test Ava (Alicia Vikander), a strikingly humanlike AI. Tense, cerebral, and morally slippery, it won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects — notably achieved on a modest budget — and Vikander's eerie performance and the film's prescient questions about machine consciousness make it one of A24's smartest releases.

Pros:

• Oscar-winning visual effects on a modest budget
• Alicia Vikander's uncanny, magnetic performance
• Tight, ideas-driven sci-fi thriller
• A prescient look at AI and consciousness

Cons:

• Talky and slow for action-seekers
• The cold tone keeps viewers at a distance

Verdict: A24's sharpest sci-fi — a lean, brainy thriller that only gets more relevant.

9. The Lighthouse (2019)

Director: Robert Eggers | Year: 2019 | Runtime: 109 min | Rated: R | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Robert Eggers' black-and-white descent into madness traps two lighthouse keepers — grizzled Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and surly Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) — on a remote 1890s rock as storms, drink, and isolation unhinge them. Shot in a boxy vintage aspect ratio on film, it is a hypnotic two-hander of salty monologues and mythic dread. It earned an Academy Award nomination for its cinematography, with Dafoe and Pattinson both delivering ferocious work.

Pros:

• Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's titanic two-hander
• Stunning black-and-white, vintage-ratio cinematography
• Oscar-nominated for its imagery
• Darkly funny beneath the dread

Cons:

• Dense dialect and surrealism alienate some
• Claustrophobic and intentionally unpleasant

Verdict: A24's most hypnotic oddity — two giant performances in glorious black and white.

10. Past Lives (2023)

Director: Celine Song | Year: 2023 | Runtime: 105 min | Rated: PG-13 | Where to watch: rotates across major streaming and rental services

Celine Song's debut traces childhood sweethearts Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), separated when her family emigrates from Korea, who reconnect across decades and continents. Quiet, aching, and built on the Korean concept of *in-yun* (fated connection), it co-stars John Magaro as Nora's husband and earned Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Original Screenplay. It is one of the most graceful romances A24 has ever released.

Pros:

• Academy Award nominations including Best Picture
• Greta Lee's subtle, luminous lead performance
• A mature, restrained take on love and what-ifs
• One of the most accessible PG-13 picks on the list

Cons:

• Its quiet melancholy lacks big dramatic peaks
• The understated style feels slight to some

Verdict: A24's most graceful romance — a tender, grown-up heartbreaker.

What Makes a Great A24 Movie

• A singular directorial voice — A24 backs auteurs like Eggers, Aster, the Daniels, and Jenkins, letting personal vision drive the film over formula.
• Discomfort with purpose — The best A24 films sit in unease — grief, dread, longing — and trust you to stay with it.
• Craft you can see — Distinctive cinematography, sound, and production design are signatures, from candlelit horror to neon panic.
• Performances that swing big — A24 gives actors room to take risks, yielding career-best turns from Yeoh, Collette, Sandler, and Pugh.
• Stories that reward rewatching — Layered themes and ambiguous endings make these films grow on a second viewing.

What matters less than the hype: the "A24 logo" alone is not a quality guarantee — the studio releases duds too. Judge each film on its own craft and story, not the brand.

Which One Should You Watch Tonight?

FAQ

What is the best A24 movie? Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) tops our list — it dominated its Academy Awards year, winning Best Picture, and represents A24's creative peak in ambition, heart, and sheer invention.

Which A24 movies won Best Picture? Two A24 films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture: Moonlight (2016) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Both marked turning points that lifted the label from indie curiosity to major awards player.

What is the scariest A24 horror movie? Hereditary (2018) is widely considered the scariest, though Midsommar, The Witch, and The Lighthouse all rank among A24's finest horror or horror-adjacent films depending on the kind of dread you prefer.

Where can I stream A24 movies? Availability shifts constantly as licensing deals change, so no single service carries everything at once. A24 titles rotate across major subscription platforms and digital rental storefronts — search the specific film on a streaming aggregator to see where it's currently available.

Are A24 movies good for casual viewers? Some are — Lady Bird and Past Lives are accessible and warm — but many A24 films are intense or slow-paced, so check the tone before pressing play.

Who are the key A24 directors? Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, the Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert), Barry Jenkins, Greta Gerwig, and the Safdie brothers have all made signature A24 films.

Bottom Line

For A24's catalog, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is our Best Overall — a multiple-Oscar winner that captures everything the studio does best. The Witch (2015) is our Best Value, a lean scare that rewards every rewatch and makes an ideal entry point. If you want something else tonight — a prestige cry, a panic-attack thriller, or a brainy sci-fi — use the decision tree above to route yourself to Moonlight, Uncut Gems, or Ex Machina. Judge each film on its craft and story, and A24's best will stay with you long after the logo fades.

Related on PULSE

• [Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time](/knowledge/mv0001)
• [Top 10 Movies on Netflix 2027](/knowledge/mv0015)
• [Top 10 Movies on Max 2027](/knowledge/mv0016)
• [Top 10 Musical Movies of All Time](/knowledge/mv0014)
• [Top 10 Fantasy Movies of All Time](/knowledge/mv0012)

Sources

• IMDb — A24 films database
• Rotten Tomatoes — A24 movie ratings
• Metacritic — A24 reviews and scores
• Letterboxd — A24 studio page
• RogerEbert.com — A24 film reviews
• Academy Awards — Oscars database
• A24 Films — official site

*A24 movies review — best A24 films, rankings, ratings, where to stream, and a review of the top A24 picks.*

People also search for: best a24 movies · top a24 movies · top rated a24 movies · top ranked a24 movies · highest rated a24 movies · a24 movies reviews