We screened them; you rated them! After a successful run of screenings in 2024, it was over to you, our membership, to select what you enjoyed the most. Over 200 of you picked your top three films of the programme, and now that the data is compiled, it’s time to reveal that the top film of 2024 was…
Barry Lyndon!
Kubrick’s underappreciated masterpiece made it to the top of our rankings, with nearly a third of the respondents placing it somewhere in their top three. General opinion was that Barry Lyndon was the perfect pick for a WFS screening – so nice we screened it twice!
Not too far behind was our closing night film, All About Eve, which twenty of you chose as your top pick overall. Judging from the comments, the witty script made this film a real crowd-pleaser.
No matter how we weighted the responses, these two films were miles ahead of any other choices, but then things got far more competitive. Joyland and Joint Security Area took third and fourth places, respectively – two films that, in the words of our members, “epitomise what movies can do” (Joyland) and present us with stories that are “unexpectedly tender” (Joint Security Area). The top five was rounded off by Memories of Murder… but The Devils was only one point behind, and An Angel at My Table was only one point behind that!
2024’s programme was marked by some polarising films. Our survey was definitely taken as an opportunity to advocate for the films that you thought didn’t get enough love in the theatre. For every comment wondering what possessed us to show Possession (pun very much intended), there was someone who pinned it with great enthusiasm in their number-one spot. India Song received an unexpectedly high number of votes, too, so it’s clear that some of you are coming along on Mondays for challenges as well as entertainment.
One pleasant surprise from the results is that, of the 37 films we screened, 36 of them were chosen by at least one person in their top three for the year. Yes, that means that there was only one film left unchosen when all the results were in. Sorry to any superfans of Tod Browning’s The Unknown, but at least there’s more Lon Chaney coming in 2025 for you!
The top five films (with number of first-place votes):
- Barry Lyndon (32)
- All About Eve (20)
- Joyland (17)
- Joint Security Area (11)
- Memories of Murder (10)