For 17 million film fans on Letterboxd, Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two was the spice of 2024.
The popular movie-reviewing app has published its annual year in review, a ranking of the most popular and beloved films of the past 12 months, as determined by user ratings. Villeneuve’s sci-fi blockbuster topped the charts as the highest-rated, most popular, and most obsessively rewatched film of 2024. Unsurprisingly, the Canadian helmer was also Letterboxd’s most-watched director of the year. The site’s users ranked the sequel to Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune: Part One even higher than the original, giving Dune: Part 2 a 4.4 out of 5 average rating, compared to 3.9 for the first movie.
“I’m gonna sleep well tonight,” said director Denis Villeneuve in response to the news. “The idea that there’s a community, the Letterboxd community of film lovers, cinephiles, that are sharing film lists and their love and their passion, it brings me hope for the future of cinema.“Frankly what I love about that is it’s coming from people who don’t give a shit about me. They’re just talking about the movie, you know? Thank you everybody. It goes straight to my heart.”
Zendaya was the most watched actress among the site’s users for the second year running, thanks both to the Dune sequel and Luca Guadagnino’s sexy sports drama Challengers. Her Dune: Part 2 co-star Timothée Chalamet, however, was knocked off the top perch as the most-watched actor by workaholic Willem Dafoe who featured in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Kinds of Kindness, Saturday Night and Nosferatu last year.
Letterboxd’s compiled its year in review list from some 96.4 million reviews on it site. Alongside Dune: Part 2, users picked several smaller, scrappier movies as year-end faves. The second-highest ranked feature of 2024 was Brazilian’s Oscar contender I’m Still Here, starring Fernanda Torres — who pulled off a surprise best actress, drama win at the Golden Globes for her turn in Walter Salles’ true-life drama set during Brazil’s military dictatorship of the 1970s. Third highest was another best international Oscar contender, Pat Boonnitipat’s crowd-pleasing Thai dramedy How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which also topped the charts in the highest-rated directorial debut category.
“It’s far beyond my expectation,” said Boonnitipat in a statement. “As a filmmaker and also as a cinephile, growing up I always liked to watch movies from smaller countries and smaller film industries. It gave the feeling that everything is so new and so fresh.”
Mike Cheslik’s DYI delight Hundreds of Beavers beat out more mainstream competition to take the crown for highest-rated comedy of the year, squeezing past Sean Baker’s Cannes winner Anora, which came third (but was Letterboxd’s highest-rated romance of 2024). The second slot went to another low-budget laffer: Rap World from director Danny Scharar and YouTube sensation Conner O’Malley. The highest-rated European film was Bille August’s new take on French revenge classic The Count of Monte Cristo.
“The highest-rated and most popular films of 2024 span the gamut: blockbusters from Denis Villeneuves impressive Dune continuation through to France’s reclamation of its own classics, to micro-budget DIY delights by new generational talent who are paving their own way in this ever-evolving industry,” said Letterboxd co-founder and CEO Matthew Buchanan.
Other movies in this season’s awards conversation that broke through with the Letterboxd crowd include the Palestinian documentary No Other Land, which was the highest-ranked doc among the site’s users last year, and Josh Greenbaum’s Netflix doc Will & Harper, named most-popular documentary of the year.
There was less consensus among Letterboxd users over the flops of 2024. Marvel’s much-maligned Madame Web was both the lowest-rated and most-loved movie of the year, with fans trashing the Dakota Johnson superhero movie while giving it the highest ratio of hearts (the site’s equivalent of “likes” alongside their low ratings. Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft was named the most divisive film of 2024, receiving the greatest spread of five-star to half-star ratings, followed by Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.
Looking ahead, Letterboxd members have Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 as their most anticipated film of 2025.
You can check out the full 2024 Letterboxd year in review below.
Highest Rated Film — Dune: Part Two
Most Popular Film — Dune: Part Two
Most Popular Documentary — Will & Harper
Highest Rated Documentary — No Other Land
Highest Rated Directorial Debut — How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
Highest Rated Animation — Look Back
Highest Rated Action/Adventure — Dune: Part Two
Highest Rated Comedy — Hundreds of Beavers
Highest Rated Drama — I’m Still Here
Highest Rated Horror — Nosferatu
Highest Rated Romance — Anora
Highest Rated Science Fiction — Dune: Part Two
Highest Rated Sports — Challengers
Highest Rated Film by a Woman Director — Laapataa Ladies
Highest Rated Directorial Debut by a Woman Director — All We Imagine As Light
Highest Rated Documentary by a Woman Director — No Other Land
Most Popular Film by a Woman Director — The Substance
Highest Rated African Film — Flight 404
Highest Rated Asian Film — How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thailand)
Highest Rated European Film — The Count of Monte Cristo (France)
Highest Rated North American Film — Dune: Part Two (USA)
Highest Rated Oceanian Film — Memoir of a Snail (Australia)
Highest Rated South American Film — I’m Still Here (Brazil)
Highest Rated Malayalam-language Film — Aattam (India) (NEW CATEGORY)
Highest Rated Live-Action Short — Coreys
Highest Rated Animated Short — Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin
Most Popular Limited Series — Baby Reindeer (NEW CATEGORY)
Highest Rated Limited Series — Samuel
Highest Rated Documentary Series — DJ Mehdi: Made in France
Highest Rated Comedy Special — Stand Up Solutions
Highest Rated TV Special or Movie — One Piece Fan Letter
Highest Rated Music Documentary — RM: Right People, Wrong Place
Highest Rated Concert Film — The Pop Out: Ken & Friends
Most Watched Actress — Zendaya
Most Watched Actor — Willem Dafoe
Most Watched Director — Denis Villeneuve
Most Watched Woman Director — Coralie Forgeat
Most Watched First-Time Director — Arturo Perez Jr. & Samantha Jayne
Most Anticipated Film of 2025 — Mickey 17
Most Obsessively Rewatched — Dune: Part Two
Most Hearts to Views (highest ratio of likes to watches) — I’m Still Here
Low Rated, Most Loved — Madame Web
Most Divisive — Aggro Dr1ft
Ones to Watch — Her Story
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