The Best Movie Posters of 2021

Fold-out poster for Leos Carax's Sparks musical, illustrated by Amélie Vappereau, included in the 'Cannes Edition' vinyl release of the soundtrack. The title page of the screenplay would've made a great poster.

Spanish theatrical poster for Almodóvar's latest, designed by Javier Jaén, briefly banned from Instagram. In situ with the man himself. Jaén has prints available on his website.

Key art used for festival screenings (top) and theatrical one sheet (bottom) for Joel Coen's Shakespeare adaptation, designed by Edel Rodriguez. The black and white version is giving Basquiat vibes, I spotted one physical print at the NYFF opening night screening, hoping A24 does an art print or something 🤞

Advance (top) and regular (bottom) one sheets. The blue advance one sheet is an image of a screenprinting plate, which is why it's a negative/reverse image. The pink one sheet is ostensibly the resulting print (however the actual poster is not screenprinted).

Limited edition (and long sold out) Mondo screenprint by Akiko Stehrenberger. Stehrenberger has a solo show on now at Show Gallery in L.A. Check out her other work, she does not miss.

French theatrical poster for Julia Ducournau's Palm d'Or winner by Pascal Witaszek. Witaszek also designed the poster for Ducournau's previous film Raw.

Mondo screenprints by La Boca. La Boca created the staggeringly brilliant U.K. theatrical quad for Parasite

The first visual for Gaspar Noé's new film starring Dario Argento, one of my favorite films I saw this year, releasing in 2022. This poster design, sans billing block, was created for the film's premiere at Cannes. Noé has collaborated with graphic designer Laurent Lufroy throughout his career, and this is the first poster to eschew their iconic sans serif title treatments in favor of handwriting.

Fold-out poster included in the new Indicator Series blu-ray of Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. The blu-ray includes the 2020 'Straight Cut'—a new edit of the film in chronological order. The poster is two sided, Irreversible on the front and Irreversible reversed on the back.

Theatrical one sheet for P.T. Anderson's instant classic illustrated by Kat Reeder (top) and the logo for the eponymous 1970s L.A. record store chain (bottom).

Theatrical one sheet for Sean Baker's latest, in which, to quote John Waters "fuckin’, fightin’, and frontal nudity are back on the art-house screen where they belong". The artwork is by the iconic 80s poster artist Steven Chorney who created posters for Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and P.T. Anderson's Inherent Vice. I like Reeder's Licorice Pizza poster and Chorney's Red Rocket poster for their visual immediacy and effortlessness in evoking an era.

New Yorker style promo posters (top) designed by Erica Dorn and Javi Aznarez and 12 character posters (bottom) for the new Wes Anderson. Character posters in situ during NYFF. Aznarez has prints for sale on his website.

Theatrical one sheet designed by Cinema Guild’s Brian Hung, one of seven Hong Sang-soo posters Hung has designed. Read Adrian Curry's interview with Brian Hung for MUBI Notebook.

Another banger from Brian Hung for one of my favorite films of the year.

Love this alternate one sheet by Caspar Newbolt, prints for sale here.

Theatrical one sheet for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's new film with Tilda Swinton. NEON is releasing Memoria in theaters one city at a time (it will not become available on streaming platforms or physical media), sending it on a never-ending theatrical tour which starts on Sunday December 26 at IFC Center.

Theatrical advance one sheet by Empire Design

Theatrical one sheet for Magnolia Pictures release of Radu Jude's Romanian comedy. Roland Topor's Empire of Passion poster but minmalist.

Sgt. Pepper-esque one sheet for Sergei Loznitsa's incredible doc, streaming on MUBI.

Trypophobe-triggering teaser one sheet from A24, releasing 2022.