As it comes to a close, 2023 has proved to be an incredible year for movies. From tearjerker dramas to eye-popping blockbusters, the year’s best films have won over the hearts of audiences all around the world. Although there have been many outstanding representatives of a wide variety of genres, one has stood above most: Fantasy.

With richly constructed worlds of magic and wonder, talking animals, imaginative stories, and endless creativity, the best fantasy movies of 2023 range from acclaimed arthouse masterworks like Poor Things to surprisingly high-quality blockbusters like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. There’s nothing like a good fantasy movie for some fun escapism at the movies, and 2023 has offered plenty of that for fans of the genre.

10 ‘Suzume’

Director: Makoto Shinkai

The great Makoto Shinkai has been making outstanding anime films since the late ’90s, but it was 2016’s Your Name. that really put him on the map for international audiences. Eagerly awaiting his latest outing, fans had all their expectations met in 2023 with the release of Suzume. The film is a fantasy road trip movie where a 17-year-old girl helps a young man close doors all over Japan, lest the calamity that lies on the other side enter her world.

Suzume is charming and funny, moving and creative. An absolute delight for those who enjoy exceptional animated fantasy, it’s an absorbing adventure that feels quite distinct from the rest of Shinkai’s filmography. Still, it undeniably keeps the spark of wonder, ambition, and jaw-dropping visuals that make his work so consistently engaging. Suzume might not earn Shinkai any more fans, but those already hooked will be on Cloud 9.

Watch in theaters

9 ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’

Directors: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Dungeons & Dragons has been the king of tabletop role-playing games for decades, so it was only a matter of time before Hollywood made a fantasy epic that lived up to the name. That’s precisely what Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was, thanks to its fun and charming story centered on a band of unlikely adventurers who embark on a quest to retrieve a lost relic.

Packed with easter eggs and witty little winks to fans to keep them smiling throughout the whole runtime, it’s also entirely welcoming for newcomers who can’t tell their HP from their XP. D&D benefits from a strong star-studded cast, lively directing, and a script that’s clearly very passionate about the genre and the subject matter. With some of the best magic fight scenes in 2023 cinema, Dungeons & Dragons is a must-see for fantasy lovers, whether they dabble in the game or not.

Watch on Amazon Prime

8 ‘Nimona’

Directors: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane

Netflix has been stepping up its game in feature film animation lately, and Nimona arrived in mid-2023 as proof of that. With a highly stylized animation style that lends it lots and lots of personality, it shows a knight in a futuristic, medieval world who’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Struggling to clear his name, he must recur to the one person who can help him – Nimona, the mischievous, shapeshifting teen he’s sworn to destroy.

Chloë Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed‘s voice performances in the film are fantastic, imbuing their already pretty well-written characters with even more emotional layers and nuances. While the colorful animation and dazzling action delight the eye, Nimona‘s real star is the deeply compelling story and complex themes, which effortlessly warm the heart. Bold and visually dazzling, Nimona wows and marvels like few other outings in the genre can.

Watch on Netflix

7 ‘Dream Scenario’

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

The world is currently going through the Cageaissance, wherein the legendary Nicolas Cage is bringing his career back on track with roles that prove he’s in an acting category of his own. At the height of this thrilling era comes Dream Scenario, a dark comedy about a hapless family man whose life is turned upside down when millions of people around the world start seeing him in their dreams.

At once hilarious and scary, hopeful and dark, Dream Scenario is one of the best movies about dreams that have come out in recent times. It explores its dreamscapes in surprisingly subdued ways, forsaking cheap thrills for character-driven storytelling. Nicolas Cage does a fantastic and understated job in service of a refreshing story about fame and masculine midlife crises in this ever-more-interconnected modern digital world. Dream Scenario is odd, surreal, and challenging yet undeniably rewarding and endlessly entertaining, a fantasy film like no other.

Watch in theaters

6 ‘Wonka’

Director: Paul King

Putting a fresh spin on its beloved source material while paying homage to it every chance it gets, Wonka is a prequel to the 1971 classic, exploring the background and origins of the eponymous chocolatier, a gleeful Timothée Chalamet. Mixing comedy, fantasy, and great musical numbers, it’s a heartwarming return to form for the franchise while never losing the darker, creepier facets of the original.

With the same Paul King who directed the first two Paddington movies at the helm, it’s no wonder Wonka is such a colorful crowd-pleaser full of childlike wonder and delicious creativity. Wonka is surprisingly earnest and as sweet as the products its protagonist makes, adding a very welcome air of freshness to the story of Willy Wonka. It might lack the outright, bold bravura of Gene Wilder‘s original, but Chalamet creates an enchanting take ideal for the 21st century.

Watch in theaters

5 ‘Beau Is Afraid’

Director: Ari Aster

Ever since he took the world by storm with Hereditary, Ari Aster has been cementing himself as one of the most exciting new voices in modern horror cinema. His latest work, Beau Is Afraid, is one of the weirdest surrealistic movies of the year. It tells the story of an anxiety-ridden man, afraid of everything, who must confront his darkest fears as he embarks on an odyssey back home after his mother’s death.

Philosophically complex, intricately written, and as unsettling as it is scary, Beau Is Afraid playfully juggles fantasy tropes and Kafkaesque elements to deliver a potent character study with lots of staying power. For those who enjoy Aster’s unique style and movies so off-the-wall crazy that they inevitably make them laugh, Aster’s newest venture into horror should be a treat. However, beyond those enchanted by the auteur’s vision, Beau Is Afraid is a fascinating and brave fantasy tragicomedy and a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

Watch in theaters

4 ‘The Boy and the Heron’

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

When acclaimed auteur Hayao Miyazaki, one of the best Japanese filmmakers of all time, announced that 2013’s The Wind Rises would be his final movie, the world cried in disappointment. But when he announced that he’d be coming out of retirement to make the fantasy epic The Boy and the Heron, fans wept tears of joy and relief. Mature and deeply moving, it’s about a young boy who ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.

The Boy and the Heron isn’t only worthy of the Miyazaki name, but even one of the anime master’s best works. Exploring topics like youth and grief in gorgeously complex ways that are compelling for kids without talking down to grown-ups, The Boy and the Heron truly feels like the culmination of Miyazaki’s work in the fantasy genre. Mesmerizing and alluring, the film has something for everyone—even for those who aren’t usually into his films.

Watch in theaters

3 ‘Barbie’

Director: Greta Gerwig

As it moved through its tumultuous production history, no one quite knew what to expect from Barbie. As soon as it landed on Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig‘s hands, however, movie fans knew that they were in for something truly special. Special indeed is this colorful and energetic high-concept comedy, as it explores Barbie going through an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her purpose.

Far and away, one of the best comedies of 2023, the film benefits from Gerwig’s elegant yet humorous directing style. Her complex and emotionally stirring screenplay, co-written with her partner Noah Baumbach, plus Robbie and Ryan Gosling‘s career-best work, further elevates the film. Barbie‘s fantasy world feels like it pops right out of the screen with its rich colors and funny details, serving as the perfect backdrop to this moving tale of girlhood and equality.

Watch in Max

2 ‘All of Us Strangers’

Director: Andrew Haigh

Acclaimed director Andrew Haigh delivers arguably the most powerful film of his career with 2023’s All of Us Strangers. Andrew Scott stars as Adam, a lonely writer who forms an unexpected connection with his mysterious neighbor, Harry. Simultaneously, Adam’s melancholy leads him to his childhood home, where his parents are seemingly living just as they were when they died 30 years prior.

A remarkably poignant, thought-provoking, and breathtaking exploration of grief, forgiveness, and love, All of Us Strangers is a heart-wrenching yet incredibly rewarding cinematic experience. Deftly supported by a career-best Andrew Scott, the film is an insightful, quietly devastating exploration of human connection and the closest thing to visual poetry in modern cinema. All of Us Strangers is nothing short of a life-changing film, capturing universal themes while remaining firmly grounded on the queer experience.

Watch in theaters

1 ‘Poor Things’

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Visually staggering and full of the quirky creativity that has come to characterize Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things is definitely among the weirdest movies made in quite some time. A dark fantasy comedy, the film follows Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the unorthodox scientist Godwin Baxter. A twisted adaptation of Alasdair Gray‘s hilarious novel, the film basically functions as a gender-swapped retelling of Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein while adding more than enough of its own spice to stand on its own two feet.

Emma Stone is beyond brilliant as the messy and curious (often harmfully so) Bella, with Mark Ruffalo complementing her performance perfectly. Lanthimos’s use of mise-en-scène here is undoubtedly the best of his filmography, perfectly complemented by lush, lively production values. With a brilliantly written story exploring themes of feminism and the weirdness of human connections, Poor Things stands tall as one of the most powerful and inventive fantasy films of the year.

Watch in theaters

NEXT: The Best Studio Ghibli Movies Ranked by IMDb