From Sean Baker’s direction on Anora to Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera script, Wonderland celebrates eight key contributions in film this year.

Best film contributions

Sean Baker’s Direction in Anora

2024’s Palme d’Or winner Anora is a genre-bending, imminently seminal masterwork that is rightly among the favourites for this season’s big awards. Director Sean Baker, best known for his air-tight realism in depictions of sex workers in the likes of Tangerine and Red Rocket, offers his strongest work yet. Moving the tonal intricacies from romantic comedy to subtle thriller through to the climatic existential drama with the deft touch and a sombre warmth, Baker expertly nurtures three star-making performances from Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov and Mark Eydelshteyn.

Best film contributions

Alice Rohrwacher’s Script Writing in La Chimera  

Sprinkled with magic yet grounded in its sensibility, director and screenwriter Alice Rohrwacher’s latest haven of humanism, La Chimera, is touching, rich and philosophical. The narrative is tenuous, and gorgeously so, with Rohrwacher’s script keeping both the arch of the story and the grander meaning of the film enchantingly elusive, instead focusing on the minutiae moments and the carving of characters who feel effortlessly complex. 

Best film contributions

Sebastian Stan’s Acting in A Different Man

A Different Man, Aaron Schimburg’s excellent black comedy, is idiosyncratic in its storytelling and piercing in its thoughtfulness. Much of its excitement and impact comes from the engrossing lead performance from Sebastian Stan, best known for his past Marvel endeavours. This year though, the quality of his work has been quite remarkable, expertly biographing the world’s most famous man in The Apprentice, as well as this itchy, layered turn as an individual with a facial condition who is miraculously cured but then loses himself to identity. Stan’s chemistry with Under The Skin’s Adam Pearson (who is also brilliant) is scintillating and peculiar, a standout component of one of the year’s must-see flicks. 

Best film contributions

Saura Lightfoot-Leon’s Acting in Hoard 

Hoard, Luna Carmoon’s odd and uplifting directorial debut, challenges through its obscurity. It’s a seamlessly off-kilter feature, stitched together by a tapestry of brilliant acting performances from its mostly relatively unknown cast (this Joseph Quinn seems promising). The paragon though, is Saura Lightfoot-Leon, the Dutch-born, London-based newcomer who absorbs your attention. Raw, dynamic and utterly unique, the rising star’s full-throttle showing is as nuanced as it is committed.

Best film contributions

Makeup and Prosthetics in The Substance 

The cinematic equivalent of BRAT, satirical body horror The Substance proved itself to be the cult hit of the year. There’s lots about Coralie Fargeat’s film to cheer about—from the towering leading duad of Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley to the razor sharp wit of the script—but it’s in the makeup and prosthetics department where the film is truly peerless within the annum’s canon. With nods aplenty to classic horror films, whilst staying grounded in its own grotesque vision of its protagonist’s physical atrophy, the dedication to detail from the team is dazzling. 

Best film contributions

J.W. Anderson’s Costume Design in Challengers

Sexy and stinging, Luca Guadagnino’s sporty romance drama bursts with backstabbing thrills, gorgeous mise-en-scene and steamy glances. But it is through fashion’s current poster boy J.W. Anderson’s costuming that the film excels most vivaciously. A snapshot of a time that captures the mood of the film and the core essence of each character, Anderson’s deft work absorbs you ever deeper into his director’s intoxicating tale of two sides. Doubles, anyone? 

Best film contributions

Volker Bertelmann’s Composition in Conclave 

Oscar-winner Edward Berger’s latest opus Concalve is a mysterious papal thriller that magnificently oscillates entertainment with intelligence. At the crux of the film’s acclaim lies Volker Bertelmann’s unassumingly dramatic orchestral score. It’s a fifth collaboration between composer and director, and this might be their best entry yet, majestically manufacturing a symphonic spectacle of heart-stopping levels of suspense and gorgeous slices of sorrow.

Best film contributions

Simon Astall’s Music Supervision in Bird

Andrea Arnold’s fantasy-drama Bird—starring breakout talent Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, and Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan—is one of 2024’s boldest offerings in British independent cinema, a visceral, myth-laden reimagining of the coming-of-age story. Yet, under Simon Astall’s curation, its soundtrack transcends mere mood-setting, emerging as a character in its own right. From Keoghan serenading Coldplay’s “Yellow” to a hallucinatory toad scene scored by Blur’s Britpop, to a standout collaboration with Fontaines D.C.—who shot the video for “Bug” on Arnold’s set, with the film also marking guitarist Carlos O’Connell’s acting debut—Bird’s cinematic sonic journey stands out as a high point of 2024.