What makes a great poster? It’s about a lot more than just being visually striking. The most memorable posters for films and television series manage to capture the atmosphere and energy of what it’s like to experience the works themselves, not just visually express a character or plot element. That brings us to the best posters of the 2021. Whether it was Warner Bros. capturing the awe-inspiring scale of “Dune” or HBO channeling its inner slime puppy and playing into one of the most delicious relationships on “Succession,” the best posters of the year didn’t just sell the hell out of their titles. They managed to capture what makes watching those titles so special.
Below is IndieWire’s full collection of the best film and television posters of 2021.
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“The Tragedy of Macbeth”
Spoiler alert: “The Tragedy of Macbeth” ends with Macduff decapitating Macbeth. Anyone going into Joel Coen’s solo directorial outing knows this, which is why A24 took this iconic, climactic moment from Shakespeare’s play and used it to create the official poster for Coen’s film. Rendering Shakespeare in an abstract style, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” poster is a great primer for what the movie sets out to do.
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“The Underground Railroad”
Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad”remains a critically underseen series but the posters are all so beautiful. This one looks like a watercolor painting, fantastically showing off its powerhouse cast. —KL
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“Licorice Pizza”
Image Credit: MGM/UAR Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” got an illustrated poster that channeled the nostaglic vibes of its 1970s setting. It’s an appropriately retro poster with a giant Alana Haim front and center. Her breakout performance, the first acting role of her career, is one of the year’s most magical. —ZS
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“Succession”
Image Credit: HBO We couldn’t talk anything year-end without discussing HBO’s “Succession,” a show nearly everyone has opinions about. This poster took the social media world by storm, showing everyone’s favorite non-couple Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) and Geri (J. Smith-Cameron). The intimacy in this poster alone makes it sizzle. —KL
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“Shiva Baby”
Image Credit: Utopia “Shiva Baby” is one of the year’s most impressive directorial debuts, and this poster for the indie is flatout genius. Leading star Rachel Sennott is front and center wearing a dress made up of cream cheese and bagels, a laugh-out-loud nod to the Jewish anxiety and neurosis that fuels everything about this skin-crawling and claustrophobic drama. —ZS
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“Brand New Cherry Flavor”
Image Credit: Netflix You might not know what the plot of “Brand New Cherry Flavor” is, but it seems terrifying if this poster is indicative of anything. The series has been described as unlike anything on television ,and you certainly believe that when you see a girl holding a bloody eyeball in her mouth. “Go into this series with a strong stomach” should be the tagline. —KL
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“Spencer”
Image Credit: NEON Another poster for a film starring a beloved actress that completely hides her face. For Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer,” Neon went with this stirring image of Kristen Stewart’s Diana weeping and turned away from the viewer. The image feels as if Diana is drowning in her opulent dress, a pitch-perfect metapor for Diana’s place in the Royal Family. —ZS
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“Midnight Mass”
Image Credit: Netflix Mike Flanagan’s “Midnight Mass” continued the director’s penchant for finding horror in unique places. With Flanagan already hailed as the modern-day directorial Stephen King, it makes sense that the series’ poster would feel like a King book cover. The handdrawn quality makes it eye-catching, while laying out all the craziness and fear that will pop up over the episodes. This is one to hang on your wall. —KL
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“The Great”
Image Credit: Hulu This season of Hulu’s “The Great” saw Queen Catherine of Russia (Elle Fanning) preparing to give birth to the next czar. While living up to that “Holy mother” tagline, this poster brilliantly showcases the opulence (that headdress!) with the sexiness the series is shown for. The dual meaning of Peter (Nicolas Hoult) being trapped under the cage of Catherine’s hoop skirt is also amazing. —KL
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“Old”
Image Credit: Universal Pictures M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old” divided critics and audiences, but everyone can agree this official poster for the time-bending horror movie is a perfect image to sell the project. The film is set on a beach where visitors begin aging at a rapid rate, a concept that’s brilliantly telegraphed in this creepy, surreal image. —ZS
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“Nomadland” IMAX Poster
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” was the big Oscar winner of 2021, taking home Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. Searchlight Pictures gave the drama an exclusive limited release in select IMAX theaters (at a time during the pandemic when many theaters were still closed) and published this gorgeous, postcard-inspired poster to tout the release. —ZS
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“Yellowjackets”
Image Credit: Showtime Another great poster that gives just a taste of what to expect, and if you’ve seen the pilot than you already know “Yellowjackets” is a wild ride. The actual yellowjacket on the cheek of a maybe dead girl? That sets a tone for sure! —KL
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“Blood and Water”
Image Credit: Netflix Netflix’s original series set in South Africa is still flying under the radar of most audiences, but Netflix knows how to make a poster! The series focuses on two recently reunited sisters and the poster emphasizes that divide. —KL
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“1883”
Image Credit: Paramount “1883” is the new, fur-wearing spin-off of Paramount’s big hit series “Yellowstone.” The show, set to star Sam Elliott and Tim McGraw, will focus on a group of characters living through the 1800s. The poster’s burning wagon handily conveys the uncertainty and danger of the time period. —KL
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“The Last Duel”
Image Credit: Fox/Disney Ridley Scott’s star-studded “The Last Duel” was one of the year’s biggest box office bombs, which has led many to wonder just how effective the movie’s marketing. Whatever you think of the film’s trailer, this teaser poster made a bold first impression for the historical drama, with an optical illusion that gets at the core of the film’s moral dilemma. —ZS
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“Halston”
Image Credit: Netflix This is a great example of a poster selling a reality the show doesn’t deliver on. “Halston” sold itself as a lookback at the eponymous fashion designer, played by Ewan McGregor, with all the excess and fashion you’d expect. Looking at this poster you can almost hear the disco as you prepare for an evening at Studio 54. The show might not have lived up to that, but we’ll always have this poster as a nice “what if.” —KL
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“Acapulco”
Image Credit: Apple TV+ IndieWire’s Steve Greene hyped the charms of this Apple TV+ series focused on a Mexican resort in the 1980s and starring Eugenio Derbez. The poster appropriately sets that vibe up with bright colors, 1980s font, and good food. You definitely want to visit a place like this. —KL
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“Dune” Real D 3D Poster
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Warner Bros. took the more standard character-centric route for the official “Dune” poster, but the studio got more creative with this one-sheet for the Real D 3D release of Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic. Turning the desert sands of Arrakis into a pop art graphic is visually stimulating, but it’s the scale of the desert that hints at how big Villeneuve’s “Dune” vision is on the big screen. —ZS
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“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures If you’re going to have a movie headlined by Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain and then hide her face on the official poster, then it better be for a damn good reason. Such is the case with Searchlight’s one-sheet for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” starring Chastain as the eponymous televangelist icon. In choosing this pose, the poster effectively communicates Tammy Faye’s shame, embarassment, and heartbreak. —ZS
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“Only Murders in the Building”
Image Credit: Hulu The love for Hulu’s murder-mystery series remains strong. That could be because it’s impossible not to love Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as a trio of amateur sleuths attempting to find out who murdered their neighbor. This poster is just as perfect as the series, with Saul Bass inspiration in the color strips and the silhouettes in the center. Simple, but so beautiful to look at. —KL
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“Loki”
Image Credit: Disney “Loki” was a series people loved or hated, but you can’t deny the marketing was as kooky and inventive as the series tried to be. This poster in particular is especially weird, with cute character Ms. Mittens warning you not to mess up the sacred timeline. It’s a perfect bit of marketing that makes you believe this would be hanging in an office akin to the DMV. —KL
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“Emily in Paris”
Image Credit: Netflix “Emily in Paris” knows what the people want and it’s candy-coated fun in a gorgeous locale. The color scheme here certainly shows off Emily’s (Lily Collins) vivaciousness and how she’s now enmeshed in the Parisian world she was an outsider in during Season 1. And while the Paris locales are beautifully represented, it’s apparent the upcoming Season 2 is all about Emily gaining the independence to take the city by storm. —KL
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“Titane”
Image Credit: Cannes Julia Ducournau made history at Cannes with “Titane” after becoming only the second woman filmmaker to receive the Palme d’Or. IndieWire called the film one of the most shocking Cannes winners in history, so it’s only right for the poster to be bold and unforgettable. The neon colors make the “Titane” hard to ignore, but it’s the image of the protagonist’s scar and metal plate that raises a ton of questions about the film in question. —ZS
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“The Sandman”
Image Credit: Netflix Netflix won’t debut their take on Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series till next year, but in the meantime we have an amazing poster of Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer to look at. The color palette here says everything, and I love how the shadows on the side of her head look like devil horns. Evil never looked so good. —KL
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“The Matrix Resurrections”
Image Credit: Warner Bros. “The Matrix Resurrections” marks one of the biggest film reunions of the year as Lana Wachowski returns to her iconic action franchise and re-teams original stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. Everyone’s expecting a mind-warping trip back to “The Matrix,” which is sort of the vibe one gets from this poster for the film’s theatrical and streaming release. —ZS
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