My Favourite Books and Films Of The Last Year

and a peek into my 2025 reading list.

Happy New Year! Hope you slid into 2025 in style, landed on the comfiest cushion and are now ready to take on every challenge life nudges your way.

Last year, I read thirty books and watched fifty-three films/TV series.

I thought it might be fun to put together a list of some of my favourites and share it with you. Kind of like an Ingrid’s ‘Best Of’ List. Warning: I may have gotten a little carried away. Pick what you want off the list, and fingers crossed it makes it onto one of your 2025 favourites.

Most Anticipated Film That Lived Up To All My Expectations

goes to Dune: Part Two, whose release date got postponed several times due to the strike and who knows what else, but which I think was really fate bending itself to my favour, because in the end I got to watch an early release screening on my birthday. Along with Dune, this was probably my favourite Timmy film to date.

Favourite Debut Novel

goes to Talking At Night by Claire Daverley. It’s a love story about two people, kept apart by the aftermath of a tragedy, who can’t help but be drawn back to each other over and over again. It reminded me a little of One Day. Which brings me to ↴

Runner-Up For Favourite TV Mini-Series

goes to One Day, starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall, which premiered in February on Netflix. I loved the film with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, but maybe loved this Mini Series adaption even more. The book is waiting patiently on my TBR pile.

Best Dialogue In A Novel

goes to Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Ok, maybe it helps that he’s a poet.

Best Written Love Triangle

goes to Long Island by Colm Tóibín. Shame on me for getting halfway through the book before realizing it was actually a sequel, especially since I’d heard of the first one. My thoughts on this brilliant book are neatly stored here.

Favourite Love Triangle On Film

goes to Challengers, with Zendaya. If you love tennis, you’ll probably love this one.

Best Film That Kept Me Theorizing

goes to Anatomy of a Fall, starring the brilliant Sandra Hüller. My favourite theory was that it was actually the dog who did it.

Most Fun Watch

goes to The Idea of You, with Anne Hathaway. Ok, I know, I know— but I got to watch it at TIFF Lightbox on the big screen before it was released on Netflix, and the whole theatre was oohing and aahing, and it was just such a fun experience.

Most Fun Read

goes to Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan. The book is a humorous memoir about the introverted author’s attempt at trying to live like an extrovert for an entire year. After reading it, I felt like there was hope for me yet.

Favourite Memoir

goes to Stay True by Hua Hsu. It’s a trip back to the 90s, but more than that, it’s a raw tribute to a beautiful friendship.

Favourite Memoir on Film

goes to The Making of Priscilla, a short documentary by Liv McNeil who was 17 years old when she got a chance to shadow Sofia Coppola on her thirty day shoot of the film Priscilla. Liv McNeil was present at the screening of the documentary which made it extra special. Plus I went for pizza to my favourite pizza place in the city right after to discuss.

Best Friendship Novel

goes to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. If there’s one book that captured the ups and downs of a friendship this one was it. I shared my thoughts here.

My Favourite Film I Watched at the Toronto International Film Festival

goes to We Live In Time with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.

Favourite Literary Thriller/Mystery

goes to All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. It also has some of the best prose I read this year, and the love story is one of those beautiful heartbreaking kinds.

Favourite Crime Thriller Film

goes to To Catch a Killer, starring Shailene Woodley. I’m not a thriller kind of person; I don’t have the nerves for it to be honest, so I’m pretty picky with my thrillers.

Most Heartwarming Film

goes to Sing Sing, with Coleman Domingo, which is based on real-life events about a theatre group of incarcerated men.

Best Film That Made Me Cry The Most Sob

goes to Anora, directed by Sean Baker. There was an undercurrent of emotion that started building almost right from the beginning of the film and didn’t let up until the end.

Best Children’s Book

and Book That Made Me Cry The Most, goes to The Eyes and The Impossible by Dave Eggers, about a free dog named Johannes who lives in an urban park by the sea and who is the reporter of all things that happen in said park.

Best Animated Film

goes to The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders. I was at the world premiere and got to see Lupita Nyongo on stage, and I may have shed a tear or two at that. She is brilliant.

Favourite Romance Novel

goes to How To End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang. Okay, considering I read a few EmHens this year, and I haven’t picked one under this category, may be controversial to some. But— allow me to explain: I have a controversial opinion that her novels could do with just a tad more conflict. I like my romances with conflict. Otherwise what’s the point? Anyhoo… Yulin Kuang is directing the screen adaption to a couple of Emily Henry’s books, so I guess that counts too?

Favourite Romance Film

goes to What’s Love Got To Do With It, starring Lily James and Shazad Latif. This one was a re-watch and possibly my favourite rom-com film of all time. Nostalgic too, as the world premiere was my first ever TIFF film. Also an FYI, Shazad Latif, the lead male, is marked as one of the actors in the 2026 release of Wuthering Heights. And if that isn’t third-degree-of-separation enough for you— also marked as an actor in Wuthering Heights is Alison Oliver who stars, and is amazing in the TV adaption of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends.

Sound the trumpets 🎺 🎺

Best TV Mini Series I Ended the Year With

goes to Conversations With Friends. As mentioned two sentence ago, it’s the TV adaption of Sally Rooney’s first novel and…

Best Novel Written in First Person

goes to Conversations With Friends. I started and finished reading it on Boxing Day (it was a Christmas Gift). What can I say; I’m a Sally Rooney fan.

Best Overall Watch

goes to— by now, it probably won’t surprise you— the TV adaption of Normal People, starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones which you can watch for free on Kanopy.

Best Overall Book of the Year

goes to Normal People by Sally Rooney. The book was also my favourite reading surprise of the year. Sally Rooney’s marvellous writing has been around since 2017, and I have no idea why I didn’t get hooked until now. Needless to say, I’m binging.

Your turn now— what were some of your favourite books and films in 2024? I’m getting out my pencil and paper and taking notes, so please share in the comments.

Until next time,

XO Ingrid

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P.S I almost forgot, as promised, here’s a peek into to some of what I plan to read this year.

We’ll have to wait a year to see how good I am at sticking to it 😛