we recap a monumental serving of spicy blockbusters and scrappy indie gems • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

For those keen to understand how a small team of Wisconsin artists wearing giant animal suits managed to bag the highest-rated comedy crown over the likes of Anora or A Real Pain or A Different Man, it’s pure math. The Year in Review is calculated from the community’s combined ratings as of January 1, 2025.

Eligible films are those that had a first national release in any country between January 1 and December 31 2024, and received a minimum of 2,000 ratings following release (minimum ratings requirements differ in some categories with lower overall viewership numbers).

Films that had direct-to-streaming releases, TV movies, and films with limited theatrical releases are included, while films with film festival screenings but no national release yet are not (they are included in the Year in Review relevant to the year in which they receive a national release).

We exclude short films, TV shows and specials, filmed concerts, visual albums and stage shows from the main narrative and documentary categories; where appropriate, we give those their own categories.

As on the platform, differentiates between popular films (a measure of the activity a film receives regardless of rating) and highly rated films (computed from a weighted average of all ratings cast by members during the period).

And that’s all, folks! As promised, a treat for those who stayed: our 2024 Cinematic Needle Drops playlist (and the list of films they feature in). Bye bye bye.