2021 in film is an overview of events, including award ceremonies, film festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, and movie programming.

Evaluation of the year

In his article highlighting the best movies of 2021,

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' said, "From an artistic perspective, 2021 has been an excellent cinematic vintage, yet the bounty is shadowed by an air of doom. The reopening of theatres has brought many great movies—some of which were postponed from last year—to the big screen, but fewer people to see them. The biggest successes, as usual, have been superhero and franchise films. ''

The French Dispatch ''The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun'', or simply ''The French Dispatch'', is a 2021 American anthology comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo Gui ...

'' has done respectably in wide release, and ''

Licorice Pizza ''Licorice Pizza'' is a 2021 American comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in their film debuts, alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Sean Penn, Tom Wait ...

'' is doing superbly on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, but few, if any, of the year’s best films are likely to reach high on the box-office charts. The shift toward streaming was already under way when the pandemic struck, and as the trend has accelerated it’s had a paradoxical effect on movies. On the one hand, a streaming release is a wide release, happily accessible to all (or to all subscribers). On the other, an online release usually registers as a nonevent, and many of the great movies hardly make a blip on the mediascape despite being more accessible than ever."

Highest-grossing films

2021 box office records

* Worldwide, the global box office ended the year at $21.4 billion, a figure 78% higher than 2020. * China was the highest-grossing country of 2021 with $7.3 billion. * In the United States and Canada, theaters earned an estimated $4.55 billion throughout 2021, a statistic 100% higher than 2020's $2.28 billion and 60% lower than 2019's $11.4 billion.

Film records

* The

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...

became the first film franchise to gross $23 billion, $24 billion, and $25 billion with the releases of '' Black Widow'', ''

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' is a 2021 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Shang-Chi. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 25th film ...

'', '' Eternals'', and '' Spider-Man: No Way Home''. Additionally, the MCU became the first film franchise to have ten films gross over $1 billion with the release of ''Spider-Man: No Way Home''. * '' Spider-Man: No Way Home'' became the 48th film to gross $1 billion worldwide, the first film to do so since the beginning of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the first since 2019's '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'', and became

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing '' Spider-Man: Far From Home''. ** Also, is the third film to surpass the $800 million mark in North America. ** In

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, ''No Way Home'' became the all-time highest-grossing film in Mexico (), and the second all-time highest in Brazil (),

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

() and Ecuador (). * ''

The Battle at Lake Changjin ''The Battle at Lake Changjin'' () is a 2021 Chinese war film co-directed and co-produced by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam, written by Lan Xiaolong and Huang Jianxin, and starring Wu Jing and Jackson Yee. It was commissioned by the ...

'' became the highest-grossing non-English film of all time as well as highest-grossing Chinese film of all time. ** ''The Battle at Lake Changjin'' also became the second highest-grossing film in a single market, after '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015) in the United States. * '' Hi, Mom'' became the highest-grossing film by a solo female director, surpassing the record set by ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

'' (2017). * ''

Detective Chinatown 3 ''Detective Chinatown 3'' () is a 2021 Chinese comedy mystery buddy film directed and written by Chen Sicheng, starring Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran. It is a sequel to ''Detective Chinatown 2'' (2018) and is the third installment in the ''Det ...

'' set the record for the biggest opening weekend in a single territory, surpassing the record set by '' Avengers: Endgame'' in 2019, and had the tenth highest-grossing opening weekend on release. * ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

'' became the highest-grossing film of all time again after a re-release in China increased its gross past $2.8 billion. * The

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

film '' Demon Slayer: Mugen Train'' (2020) released in North America in April 2021, with its opening weekend gross of setting the record as the biggest opening for any foreign-language film released in North America.

Events

Award ceremonies

Film festivals

List of some of the film festivals for 2021 that have been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

Awards

2021 films

By country/region

* List of American films of 2021 *

List of Australian films of 2021 This is a list of Australian films that have been released in 2021. Feature films Short films See also * 2021 in Australia * 2021 in Australian television * List of 2021 box office number-one films in Australia {{2021 films 2021 ...

* List of Bangladeshi films of 2021 * List of British films of 2021 * List of Canadian films of 2021 * List of Chinese films of 2021 *

List of French films of 2021 A list of French-produced films scheduled for release in 2021. Films Notes External links French films of 2021at the Internet Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:French films of 2021 Lists of 2021 films by country or language 2021 Films ...

* List of Hong Kong films of 2021 * List of Indian films of 2021 *

List of Japanese films of 2021 This is a list of Japanese films that are scheduled to release in 2021. Highest-grossing films The following is a list of the 10 highest-grossing Japanese films released at the Japanese box office during 2021. Film releases January – March ...

List of Nigerian films of 2021 This is a list of Nigerian films scheduled for release in 2021. 2021 January–March April–June July–September October–December Unknown release dates * Window Bird See also * 2021 in Nigeria * List of Ni ...

* List of Philippine films of 2021 * List of Russian films of 2021 * List of South Korean films of 2021 *

List of Spanish films of 2021 A list of Spanish-produced and co-produced feature films released in the country in 2021. When applicable, the domestic theatrical release date is favoured. Films Box office The ten highest-grossing Spanish films in 2021, by domestic box ...

* List of Sri Lankan films of 2021

By genre/medium

List of animated feature films of 2021 This is a list of animated feature films that were released in 2021. Highest-grossing animated films The following is a list of the 10 highest-grossing animated feature films first released in 2021. : Notes References {{DEFAULTSORT: ...