Each year brings new book-to-screen adaptations, and we make it our mission to highlight the very best film and TV series for our readers. Last year’s picks included Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, a movie adaptation of Judy Blume’s middle-grade classic, which featured an award-worthy performance by Rachel McAdams; and American Fiction, the Oscar-winning film version of the novel Erasure by Kirkus Prize winner Percival Everett. Here are eight favorites from 2024:

Origin (streaming on Hulu)

Ava DuVernay’s compelling film offers a fictionalized retelling of how Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson came to write the 2020 nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (a Kirkus Prize finalist). The great Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, who grapples with her grief over the sudden loss of her husband (brilliantly played by Jon Bernthal) while traveling the world to interview people, including Indian scholar and activist Suraj Yengde, who tells Wilkerson of the oppression of the Dalit caste, and a white man who recalls when a young Black boy, Al Bright, was banned by a white lifeguard in 1951 from swimming with his Little League teammates. DuVernay expertly weaves together the personal and political in a moving and often breathtaking adaptation that explores how ingrained, complex systems of social hierarchy throughout history have resulted in horrific injustices.

Shōgun (streaming on Hulu)

The first season of this sweeping series adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of 17th-century Japan won a record 14 Emmy Awards, including one for outstanding drama series. The story follows an English ship pilot,John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis), who gains the trust of Yoshi Toranaga, a powerful feudal lord who eventually makes the newcomer a high-ranking samurai; Blackthorne also grows close to Toda Mariko, Toranaga’s vassal and translator. Although Blackthorne initially appears to be the main character, the story quickly reveals itself to be a far more ambitious ensemble drama about power struggles and culture clashes. The scope of the series’ first season is impressive; very few shows feature quietly poetic composition, blood-and-guts cannon-fire destruction, canny political maneuvering, and an earthquake. However, the riveting performances are this season’s biggest draw—particularly those by Emmy winners Anna Sawai as the fiercely loyal Mariko and Hiroyuki Sanada as the brilliant Toranaga.

3 Body Problem (streaming on Netflix)

Cixin Liu’s Kirkus-starred Remembrance of Earth’s Past SF trilogy inspired this streaming series, created by Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with The Terror’s Alexander Woo. Both the books and the show, which center on a very unusual alien invasion, begin in 1960s China, where young physicist Ye Wenjie is assigned to a secret government facility trying to detect extraterrestrial signals; her actions there have unimaginable consequences and connect to the strange deaths of several scientists decades later. The series expands and diversifies the cast of characters who investigate the deepening mystery, which eventually involves clandestine organizations, weaponized nanofibers, and 11-dimensional technology. At its best, the show is a compelling puzzle-box that recalls such classic fare as Lost, and the performances of Zine Tseng and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rosalind Chao, as the younger and older versions of Ye Wenjie, are standouts.

Young Woman and the Sea (streaming on Disney+)

In 1926, 20-year-old American swimmer Trudy Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Her time was the fastest ever—a record that stood for 24 years. This film adaptation of Glenn Stout’s 2009 biography of Ederle is a rousing tribute to a remarkable, now-forgotten athlete who set her first world record in swimming at age 12 and won three Olympic medals in her teens. It stars Daisy Ridley, who absolutely commands the screen in the lead role, and delivers a visual spectacle, especially during the final channel crossing, thanks to the fine work of director Joachim Rønning, cinematographer Oscar Faura, and production designer Nora Takacs Ekberg. Some viewers may take issue with how the film streamlines some events for dramatic effect, but it won’t keep them from being swept up in the excitement of Ederle’s amazing achievements.

Bad Monkey (streaming on Apple TV+)

This charming streaming series adapts Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 comic thriller, which centers on Andrew Yancy, a snarky Florida cop on suspension who becomes embroiled in a complex investigation into the origins of a severed arm found off Key West, which, oddly enough, has a raised middle finger. The lively cast of characters includes the titular monkey, who allegedly had a Hollywood career. This streaming series, created by Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence, is clever and sharp, largely due to the presence of Vince Vaughn, whose deadpan delivery fits Yancy perfectly. That’s not to take away from the talented and appealing supporting cast, which includes the delightful Natalie Martinez as thrill-seeking medical examiner Rosa Campesino, Meredith Hagner as ridiculously amoral criminal Eve Stripling, and Jodie Turner-Smith as the Dragon Queen, a possible sorceress who yearns for an ordinary life.

Salem’s Lot (streaming on Max)

Stephen King’s 1975 novel, about vampires invading a small town in Maine, is a leisurely affair that takes more than 200 pages to kick into gear. This new movie version, however, is built for speed. It’s written and directed by Gary Dauberman (who co-wrote It and It Chapter Two); he wisely deletes unnecessary subplots and side characters to give viewers the action-oriented fang fiction they crave. It centers the 1970s action on a small cast of reluctant vampire-hunters, including Ben Mears, a successful author (affably played by Lessons in Chemistry’s Lewis Pullman); Susan Norton, an assistant at a local real-estate office (a charming Makenzie Leigh); teacher Matt Burke (The Kitchen’s Bill Camp); and skeptical Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard, who’s clearly having fun). Horror fans will especially enjoy the film’s wild final scenes, set at a drive-in.

Small Things Like These (in theaters)

Claire Keegan’s short, Kirkus-starred 2021 novel tells the affecting story of Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant in the town of New Ross, Ireland, who discovers that the local convent’s “training school” for girls may, in fact, be a place of cruelty and abuse. However, his wife and an acquaintance urge him not to get involved; at the same time, he struggles with his own past as the son of a single mother who never told him who his father was. He eventually comes a decision that will change many lives. True to its title, the book tells a small, quiet story, and so does this film, which stars Oscar winner Cillian Murphy as Bill and a chilling Emily Watson as the convent’s mother superior; both deliver nuanced performances that command viewers’ attention and stay with you long after the final scene.

Nickel Boys (in theaters)

Colson Whitehead’s Kirkus Prize–winning 2019 novel, about the experiences of two Black teenagers in a horrific juvenile reformatory, provides the inspiration for this brilliant film adaptation by Oscar-nominated director and co-writer RaMell Ross. Elwood Curtis is a law-abiding teen who’s sentenced to Florida’s Nickel Academy after unwittingly accepting a ride in a stolen car; he befriends an inmate named Turner, who gives him advice for survival in a place where racist, corrupt, and abusive staffers sometimes take defiant kids “out back,” never to be seen again. Ross’ compelling film is mostly told from first-person perspectives—that is, viewers see the action through the eyes of Elwood (wonderfully played by Ethan Cole Sharp) or Turner (The Way Back’s Brandon Wilson). It makes for a stunningly immersive viewing experience, especially when Ross dwells on moments of quiet contentment, as when young Elwood silently watches his housekeeper grandmother work (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, once again great). It’s truly a must-see.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.