All We Imagine As Light leads Barack Obama’s 2024 recommended movies list

A still from ‘All We Imagine As Light’

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light has topped former US president Barack Obama’s list of recommended films for the year 2024.

Obama has made it an annual tradition to share his favourite books, movies, and music of the year, a habit that began during his presidency and continues post-office.

The former US president shared the latest list on his social media pages on Friday evening.

“Here are a few movies I’d recommend checking out this year,” Obama wrote in the caption.

All We Imagine As Light, a Malayalam-Hindi film that marks Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, was listed on the top, followed by Ralph Fiennes-starrer Conclave; The Piano Lesson by Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm Washington; Mads Mikkelsen’s Danish film Promised Land; and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof.

The curated list, which often leads to public interest and discussions, also includes Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two; Anora, which won Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival; Dìdi, a coming-of-age movie by Taiwanese American film director Sean Wang; documentary Sugarcane; and A Complete Unknown, filmmaker James Mangold’s biopic on country music legend Bob Dylan.

An official India-French co-production, All We Imagine As Light charted history by becoming the first Indian title from India to win the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The film follows two nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) from Kerala navigating life and love in Mumbai along with their friend and cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam).

The movie was recently named the Best International Film by New York Film Critics Circle and won an award in the same category at the Gotham Awards.

At the Golden Globe Awards 2025, the film has received nominations for Best Motion Picture Non-English Language and the Best Direction (Motion Picture) for Kapadia. It has also bagged a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Critics Choice Awards.

The film is being distributed in the US by Janus Films and Sideshow. Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media released the film across India in November.

Besides the list of recommended movies, Obama has also shared his favourite music and books of 2024.