Best Films of 2021
As the year comes to a close, it’s time for Offscreen’s inaugural best films of the year. After a year of virtual cinema, 2021 saw a somewhat return to normalcy with an oversaturated year of delayed films where franchises dominated the box office. Audiences returned to the cinema to experience the thrills and feel of films. This list reflects the 2021 state of cinema featuring festival darlings, international gems, and your occasional superhero flick. It features an array of the most exciting voices, debut directors, and performances that kept audiences all over the year entertained this year. Taking us from the Arrakis to 1920s New York.
Check out the complete list of Offscreen’s best of 2021.
Belle
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
A high school student becomes a globally beloved singer after entering a fantastic virtual world. She soon embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of a mysterious beast who's on the run from ruthless vigilantes.
Test Pattern
Director: Shatara Michelle Ford
An interracial couple's relationship gets put to the test when a man drives from hospital to hospital to find a rape kit.
Titane
Director: Julia Ducournau
A woman who, after being injured in a car accident as a child, has a titanium plate fitted into her head.
Coda
Director: Sian Heder
Ruby is the only hearing member of a deaf family from Gloucester, Massachusetts. At 17, she works mornings before school to help her parents and brother keep their fishing business afloat. But in joining her high school's choir club, Ruby finds herself drawn to both her duet partner and her latent passion for singing.
Bergman Island
Director: Mia Hansen-Love
Two American filmmakers retreat to Fårö island for the summer and hope to find inspiration where Bergman shot his most celebrated films. As the days pass by, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and the couple is torn apart.
Dune
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their own fear will survive.
The Green Knight
Director: David Lowery
King Arthur's headstrong nephew embarks on a daring quest to confront the Green Knight, a mysterious giant who appears at Camelot. Risking his head, he sets off on an epic adventure to prove himself before his family and court.
Passing
Director: Rebecca Hall
In 1920s New York City, a black woman finds her world up-ended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.
Petite Maman
Director: Celine Sciamma
Nelly, an 8-year-old girl, has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother's childhood home. One day, her mom abruptly leaves, and Nelly meets a girl her age as she's building a tree house in the woods.
Flee
Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
On the verge of marriage to his long-time boyfriend, a successful academic in Denmark is confronted with a secret from his past.
The Worst Person in the World
Director: Joachim Trier
Read Full Review: The Worst Person in the World works as a collection of moments in a young person’s life divided up into 12 chapters. It is a character study looking at someone trying to work towards their full potential, except they don’t know what that is.
Drive My Car
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
An aging, widowed actor seeks a chauffeur. The actor turns to his go-to mechanic, who ends up recommending a 20-year-old girl. Despite their initial misgivings, a very special relationship develops between the two.
Tick Tick Boom
Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Read Full Review: Based on the autobiographical one-man show by Jonathan Larson, Tick Tick Boom is a meta-musical that explores what we are willing to put ourselves to in order to achieve our dreams.
The Suicide Squad
Director: James Gunn
Read Full Review: While we are used to seeing the polished worlds of superheroes wrapping up all conflict in a nice little bow, The Suicide Squad takes a different approach fueled by cynicism and corruption of institutions other superhero films would dare not to critique.