Diabel review – canine sidekick along for ride as dour war veteran biffs bad guys
A Polish ex-soldier returns to his home town and takes on local gangsters in an exhausting barrage of violence in humourless action film
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies review – tear-jerking Oscar contender from Thailand
A dropout’s burgeoning affection for his gran makes him rethink his plan of benefiting from her fortune in a shamelessly sentimental crowd-pleaser
And the 2024 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year
Now the Guardian’s Top 50 countdown, as voted for by the whole film team, has announced its No 1, here are our chief critic’s personal choices, in no particular order
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies review – sad but sweet Thai inheritance tale
The premise – a young man cosies up to his grandmother for the sake of her will – sounds cynical, but this is actually a tear-jerker with an important point
The Universal Theory review – beautiful, wigged-out German multiverse mystery
Gorgeous images and a lush score intrigue in Timm Kröger’s 60s-set noir thriller about a postgrad student’s alpine adventures
Sujo review – slow-burning Mexican drug cartel drama
A young man struggles to escape his bloody birthright in Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s elegant Sundance winner
Sujo review – Mexican coming-of-age drama in the shadow of a cartel killing
A story about a boy deciding whether to enter the criminal underworld or become a student that lacks enough passion and anger to really hit home
The Universal Theory review – chilly German sci-fi noir splices genres with style
Ambitious feature by Timm Kröger moves from lurid colour to stark black and white following an academic’s Alpine adventures in the metaverse
Remembering Every Night review – drifting drama follows three Tokyo women living their lives
Yui Kiyohara’s film of long shots and silences could be deeply boring or oddly fascinating depending on your point of view
All We Imagine As Light review – Cannes prize-winning Indian drama is a quiet, tender marvel
Payal Kapadia’s poetic, everyday tale of three women who work at the same hospital is all the more remarkable for being her fiction feature debut
Snow Leopard review – striking Tibetan drama about one big cat’s fate
A rare snow leopard becomes the centre of a tense family dispute in the late Pema Tseden’s final film
Memories of a Burning Body review – Costa Rican older women talk about sex and desire in deft docudrama
The vivid recollections of three women who grew up in the repressive 1950s and 60s are elegantly re-enacted in Antonella Sudasassi’s prize-winning drama
The Last Dance review – the Chinese funeral home comedy you’ve been waiting for
A wedding planner turned undertaker struggles to win over a Taoist priest in writer-director Anselm Chan’s drama with hidden depths
‘I felt this film was my duty’: director Mati Diop on Dahomey, about the return of looted African treasures
The French-Senegalese film-maker on winning the top prize at Berlin for her otherworldly new work, cultural identity and her beef with Beyoncé
The Goldman Case review – compelling real-life French courtroom drama
The 1970s appeal hearing of far-left activist and armed robber Pierre Goldman is mined for all its showboating excitement in Cédric Kahn’s film