A tense rural thriller that recalls films by John Boorman or Sam Peckinpah, but with a modern twist and a surprising narrative structure, The Beasts swept nine prizes including best film, director, and original screenplay at 37th Goya Awards (Spain’s Oscars). –Alissa Simon

Recommended ages 9+

Take a trip through time with exquisite animation from Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Dilili in Paris). Three magical tales celebrate the power of love and ingenuity, featuring a Sudanese nobleman, a mysterious orphan living in the wild, and a young beignet-maker doing all he can to meet the Rose Princess. –Deb Girdwood

Best of Fest Encore Screening

After his well-received feature debut Lynn + Lucy, Fyzal Boulifa, a UK director of Moroccan heritage, combines melodrama, neo-realism and sexual frankness to compelling effect in the story of a single mother and her teen son on the fringes of society. Winner, New Voices New Visions, Palm Springs Film Festival –Alissa Simon

A thrilling and lush coming-of-age tale of first crushes, heartbreaks, and loss. Thirteen-year-old Bastien gets paired up with a reluctant Chloé (16) when their families come together for a summer holiday in a cabin by the lake. But with teenage hormones and ghost stories in the mix, lines get crossed. –Alissa Simon

A deliriously different take on the super-hero and Holocaust genres, dubbed by one critic “A Shoah-reversing fantasy of liberation and revenge.” In Fascist Rome, four circus artistes with special talents fall into the clutches of Nazi impresario Franz. Delightful and spectacular. Winner, Audience Award, Rotterdam. –Alissa Simon

From Mounia Meddour, the director of the international, Cesar-award-winning Papicha (2019) comes Houria, featuring an astonishing performance from Lyna Khoudri as a dancer who must fight a devastating injury to join Algeria’s National Ballet.  

Best of Fest Encore Screening

This is a bold, disquieting and psychologically complex study of a 12-year-old girl suddenly freed from years of captivity and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. Winner, FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes –Alissa Simon

French auteur Dominik Moll’s newest thriller debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and mesmerized audiences. Based on a true story, The Night of the 12th is a powerful police procedural that will haunt you for days. A six-time César Award winner, including Best Film and Best Director.

Best of Fest Encore Screening

Do you miss Claude Chabrol’s sly, twisty thrillers? Then you will love this suspenseful, blackly funny tale of family fortunes and squabbling relatives where nothing is as it originally seems. Call My Agent’s Laure Calamy is the first among equals in a powerhouse cast. –Alissa Simon

When dedicated high school teacher Rachel (Virginie Efira) falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), it’s not long before she also falls for his 4-year-old daughter Leila. Rachel must decide whether to embrace the inherent entanglements of her current situation, including the looming presence of Ali’s ex-wife Alice (Chiara Mastroanni) or strike out again on her own. Other People’s Children becomes a soulful, sexy, and resolutely grown-up story of the elusive quest for agency and belonging.

Marie Cissé lives in peace. Working at a retirement home in rural France, she spends time with her best friend and loves her job. But when Father Patrick arrives from her homeland, Marie’s life is about to come completely apart. Babetida Sadjo puts in “simply the best performance of the year, blowing everything else out of the water.” –Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

From writer/director Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), this gripping drama set in rural Transylvania looks at the ethnic conflicts, economic resentments and personal turmoil roiling a Romania still in thrall to some dangerous traditions and beliefs. The arrival of Sri Lankan migrants adds fuel to the fire. –Alissa Simon

After an idyllic date night full of red wine and a late-night motorcycle ride home, Mia (Virginie Efira) stops at a Parisian bistro to take shelter from a downpour. Her reprieve is shattered when a gunman opens fire. Inspired by her brother’s surviving the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, director Alice Winocour’s moving and meditative Revoir Paris is a moving meditation on grief, healing, and the importance of connections forged in tragedy.

Faced with a setback on one of her own films, Mitra Farahani works as a sort-of cinematic matchmaker, orchestrating a correspondence between beloved Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan and the legendary Jean-Luc Godard. “Like a drink with an old friend who never stopped thinking onscreen.” –Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times

This film is part of Young French Cinema, a program of Unifrance and Villa Albertine. 

Eleven-year-old Tori and 16-year-old Lokita are vulnerable African migrants, trying to make their way In contemporary Belgium, but their already precarious circumstances grow more complicated when the government refuses to give Lokita residence papers. From the acclaimed Belgian filmmaking duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

Three of international cinema’s greatest actresses–Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte and Oscar-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas–unite for this crowd-pleasing tale of friends taking the trip of a lifetime, which doesn’t go at all as planned. 

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews from Aix-les-Bains travel to Calabria to harvest citrons for their Sukkot celebrations. Fatefully, the rabbi’s daughter and the farm owner realize they are kindred souls, both bound by tradition and family, while longing for self-realization. –Alissa Simon