“Seven of the movies on my top-10 list come from first- and second-time filmmakers, a supermajority that augurs well for 2025 and beyond,” writes Amy Nicholson, The Times’ new film critic.

“Though Hollywood — post-pandemic, post-strike, post-whatever — has been in something of a slump, somehow great TV keeps happening,” TV critic Robert Lloyd writes.

We asked three critics to share their favorites of the year, and they served up diverse offerings heavily weighted toward fiction.

“Two decades after digital downloading was supposed to disintegrate the full-length LP, musicians seem as eager to collect and to sprawl — and sometimes to tighten up — as they’ve ever been,” according to pop music critic Mikael Wood.

In a year of exuberance and dread, songs came from every which way to comfort, to amuse, to haunt, to tantalize. These are the 30 best of the year.

“Lots of impressive art turned up in 2024 museum exhibitions, whether or not the entire show was any good,” art critic Christopher Knight writes. Here are 10 memorable examples from shows at seven area museums.

“In Southern California, the post-pandemic malaise finally started to lift. And the theater, quite unexpectedly, turned out to be 2024’s silver lining,” theater critic Charles McNulty writes.