Modern Classics and Award Winning Cinematic Hits
Discover the best films of the year, featuring award winners, critical darlings, and box office hits from the most acclaimed directors in cinema.
To many film historians and casual moviegoers alike, 2019 feels like the last great year of the monoculture. It was a calendar marked by massive industrial milestones, the arrival of future classics, and a sense of creative abundance that seemed to peak just before the world changed. When we look back at the cinematic landscape of that year, it is not just the quality of the films that stands out, but the sheer variety of ways they managed to capture the global imagination.
On the broadest scale, 2019 was the year that the blockbuster reached its logical conclusion. Avengers: Endgame became a genuine cultural event, functioning less like a standard movie and more like a collective graduation ceremony for a decade of storytelling. It shattered box office records and proved that the theater could still serve as a communal Town Square. Yet, while Disney was asserting its dominance, the year provided something even more significant for the history books: the rise of international cinema in the American mainstream.
Bong Joon-ho delivered Parasite, a film so perfectly constructed and tonally agile that it felt like a bolt of lightning. Its eventual victory at the Academy Awards represented the first time a non-English language film won Best Picture, effectively breaking a glass ceiling that had existed for nearly a century. Parasite was not just a critical darling; it was a genuine hit that people talked about at dinner tables and on subways, proving that audiences were finally ready to look past the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles.
The year was also a playground for the masters of the craft. Martin Scorsese returned with The Irishman, a contemplative and mournful epic that utilized cutting-edge technology to explore the weight of a lifetime of regret. Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino gave us Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a sun-drenched love letter to a lost era of filmmaking that felt both nostalgic and subversive. We also saw Greta Gerwig breathe fresh, vital life into Little Women, while Safdie Brothers sent everyone into a collective panic attack with the frenetic energy of Uncut Gems.
What makes 2019 so memorable is how it balanced these prestige offerings with mid-budget triumphs that felt like they were becoming extinct. Knives Out proved that an original whodunit could still be a massive commercial success, and The Lighthouse showed that weird, black-and-white folk horror could find an enthusiastic cult following. From the haunting social commentary of Joker to the quiet intimacy of Marriage Story, there was a sense that every corner of the industry was firing on all cylinders.
Ultimately, we remember 2019 as a high-water mark for the theatrical experience. It was the final year of packed lobbies and midnight screenings before the pandemic shifted the paradigm toward streaming dominance. There was an electricity in the air that year, a feeling that movies were the primary language of our shared culture. It was a year where the blockbusters were huge, the indies were daring, and a South Korean masterpiece could become the biggest story in the world. For those who love the silver screen, 2019 remains a vivid reminder of what the medium can achieve when everything aligns perfectly.

Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.

Ever since US Diplomatic Security Service Agent Hobbs and lawless outcast Shaw first faced off, they just have traded smack talk and body blows. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton's ruthless actions threaten the future of humanity, they join forces to defeat him.

Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.

Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind.

The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.

The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest, most global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.

Elena Houghlin is a scientist, engineer and inventor of Calisto -- a sustainable energy source that will revolutionize the way people use power. It will be ready as soon as she works out the last issue, if not it could be turned into a dangerous weapon. But when the cutting edge technology is pushed to an investor before she can do that, Elena turns to the Townsend Agency for help. Now, it's up to the Angels -- Jane, Sabina, and the newly recruited Elena -- to retrieve Calisto before it can be transformed into a weapon of mass destruction.

Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.

A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed under severe strain by an unexpected tragedy.

Hilarious and outgoing, Brittany Forgler, is everybody’s best friend ― except her own. Her partying, underemployment and toxic relationships are catching up with her. She receives a startling wake-up call when a visit to the doctor reveals how unhealthy she is. Motivated to lose weight, but too broke for a gym and too proud to ask for help, Brit is at a loss, until her neighbor pushes her to run one sweaty block. Soon, she sets an almost unthinkable goal: the New York City Marathon.
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space – and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.

A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.

When a widow gets swindled out of insurance money, her search for answers leads to two cunning lawyers in Panama who hide cash for the superrich.

A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a rush of panic, he steals 'The Goldfinch', a painting that eventually draws him into a world of crime.

When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.

Stéphane has recently joined the Anti-Crime Squad in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris, France, where Victor Hugo set his famed novel “Les Miserables”. Alongside his new colleagues Chris and Gwada – both experienced members of the team – he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When the trio finds themselves overrun during the course of an arrest, a drone captures the encounter, threatening to expose the reality of everyday life.

The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her romantic adventures, Eurídice finds in her older sister the encouragement she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional pianist.

Super-assassin John Wick returns with a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail. After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild, the High Table, John Wick is excommunicado, but the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn.

27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.

A young Scottish singer, Rose-Lynn Harlan, dreams of making it as a country artist in Nashville after being released from prison.

Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

In the sleepy town of Centerville, the lives of a number of interconnected characters are disrupted by the undead.

Trying to escape her broken past, Sarah O’Neill is building a new life on the fringes of a backwood rural town with her young son Chris. A terrifying encounter with a mysterious neighbour shatters her fragile security, throwing Sarah into a spiralling nightmare of paranoia and mistrust, as she tries to uncover if the disturbing changes in her little boy are connected to an ominous sinkhole buried deep in the forest that borders their home.

The charismatic Sir Lionel Frost considers himself to be the world's foremost investigator of myths and monsters. Trouble is, none of his small-minded, high-society peers seems to recognize this. Hoping to finally gain acceptance from these fellow adventurers, Sir Lionel travels to the Pacific Northwest to prove the existence of a legendary creature known as the missing link.

An irreverent comedy about the misadventures of Moondog, a rebellious stoner and lovable rogue who lives large.

Kate is a young woman who has a habit of making bad decisions, and her last date with disaster occurs after she accepts work as Santa's elf for a department store. However, after she meets Tom there, her life takes a new turn.

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where the group was forgotten.

A group of misfits encounter a young Yeti named Everest, and they set off to reunite the magical creature with his family on the mountain of his namesake.

A group of young boys on the cusp of becoming teenagers embark on an epic quest to fix their broken drone before their parents get home.

A selfish postman and a reclusive toymaker form an unlikely friendship, delivering joy to a cold, dark town that desperately needs it.

Phillip is a wealthy quadriplegic who needs a caretaker to help him with his day-to-day routine in his New York penthouse. He decides to hire Dell, a struggling parolee who's trying to reconnect with his ex and his young son. Despite coming from two different worlds, an unlikely friendship starts to blossom.

A boy is given the ability to become an adult superhero in times of need with a single magic word.
When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.
A kindhearted street urchin named Aladdin embarks on a magical adventure after finding a lamp that releases a wisecracking genie while a power-hungry Grand Vizier vies for the same lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true.

Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, Halloween night, 1968. After playing a joke on a school bully, Stella and her friends decide to sneak into a supposedly haunted house that once belonged to the powerful Bellows family, unleashing dark forces that they will be unable to control.

A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

Casey is attacked at random on the street and enlists in a local dojo led by a charismatic and mysterious Sensei in an effort to learn how to defend himself. What he uncovers is a sinister world of fraternity, violence and hypermasculinity and a woman fighting for her place in it.

A story of Naoufel, a young man who is in love with Gabrielle. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again.

England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.

The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.

Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.

Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.

The story of Daniel Jones, lead investigator for the US Senate’s sweeping study into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, which was found to be brutal, immoral and ineffective. With the truth at stake, Jones battled tirelessly to make public what many in power sought to keep hidden.

Thirty years after starring in "The Wizard of Oz," beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.

Still scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance faces the ghosts of the past when he meets Abra, a courageous teen who desperately needs his help -- and who possesses a powerful extrasensory ability called the "shine".

On a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow.

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.

The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.

The story of Rudy Ray Moore, who created the iconic big screen pimp character Dolemite in the 1970s.

Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

The beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that will leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance.

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf head far into the forest to learn the truth about an ancient mystery of their kingdom.

A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.

Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict. Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.
Peter Parker and his friends go on a summer trip to Europe. However, they will hardly be able to rest - Peter will have to agree to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of creatures that cause natural disasters and destruction throughout the continent.

Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.

Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it.

A crew of savvy former strip club employees band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.

Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.

Woody has always been confident about his place in the world, devoted to taking care of his kid—whether that's Andy or Bonnie. But after Bonnie creates a reluctant new toy called "Forky", a road trip adventure alongside old and new friends challenges everything Woody believes about loyalty, purpose, and what it truly means to be a toy.
After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos' actions and restore order to the universe once and for all, no matter what consequences may be in store.

An award-winning cynical journalist, Lloyd Vogel, begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write an Esquire profile piece on the beloved television icon Fred Rogers. After his encounter with Rogers, Vogel's perspective on life is transformed.

Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.

A charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family, and encroaching adversaries on all sides in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win.

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Greta Gerwig breathes fresh, meta-textual vitality into a foundational text by fracturing its chronology to emphasize the economic realities of female agency. The result is a spirited and intellectually rigorous reimagining that feels startlingly relevant to the modern creative struggle.
When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.
Rian Johnson revitalizes the stagnant whodunit with a razor-sharp wit and a subversive structural twist that keeps the audience perpetually off-balance. Beyond the star-studded ensemble, it acts as a biting sociopolitical critique disguised as a labyrinthine parlor game.

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Céline Sciamma crafts an exquisite visual language of the gaze, where every frame pulses with suppressed desire and artistic communion. It is a slow-burn triumph of intimacy that interrogates how we remember and are remembered through the transformative power of art.

Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.
Taika Waititi traverses a perilous tonal tightrope, balancing absurdist satire with a deeply sincere heartbeat. This anti-hate fable uses a vibrant, stylized aesthetic to dismantle bigotry from a child’s perspective, proving that whimsy can be a potent weapon against darkness.

American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.
Christian Bale transforms into Ken Miles with a wiry, grease-stained intensity that captures the volatile genius of a man who spoke to cars better than people. It is a defining pivot in his career, trading his usual brooding gravity for a kinetic, sharp-edged spontaneity that feels both dangerous and deeply human. Bale strips away the movie star artifice to find the soul of a pure racer, proving he can dominate a frame through restless energy rather than just quiet stoicism.

A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
Noah Baumbach captures the agonizing granular details of a relationship’s dissolution with startling empathy and surgical precision. The film functions as a searing double-act showcase, finding profound humanity in the bureaucratic coldness of the legal system and the messy wreckage of shared history.
Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.
Martin Scorsese delivers a somber, meditative postscript to the gangster genre that trades flashy bravado for the quiet weight of accumulation and regret. It is a monumental work of autumnal reflection, contemplating the hollow silence that awaits at the end of a life defined by violence.

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
Bong Joon-ho delivers a precision-engineered masterpiece that deconstructs class warfare with a tonal fluidity unmatched in modern cinema. It is a lacerating, genre-bending achievement that feels both urgently contemporary and instantly timeless.
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
This gritty, scorched-earth character study strips away comic book artifice to expose a haunting portrait of urban decay and psychological collapse. Joaquin Phoenix’s volcanic performance anchors a film that feels dangerously provocative in its nihilistic rejection of societal structures.

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
Sam Mendes transforms the visceral chaos of the Great War into a breathtakingly fluid sensory experience through seamless technical choreography. This immersive odyssey redefines the scale of the historical epic by trapping the viewer in the relentless ticking clock of the front lines.
Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
Quentin Tarantino’s sun-drenched elegy to a fading Golden Age is a sprawling, atmospheric hangout film that prioritizes mood and historical revisionism over traditional structure. It serves as a bittersweet love letter to the industry's fringes, anchored by a career-best kinetic chemistry between its leads.
Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts