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Best Movies of the 2010s That You Can Watch Right Now

Best Movies of the last decade streaming now

Here’s a chronological list of the best movies of the 2010s that you can stream right now with a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription, or for free using apps like Tubi, Vudu, Hoopla, and Kanopy (the last two might be free with your local public library membership). As we’re now based in the U.S. this list is customized for all of you living in the U.S. So, if you’re living in another country, head to JustWatch.com and search to find out where to watch the film where you are.

I Am Love – Tubi, Hoopla

Starting with 2010, you can watch Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love on Tubi for free with ads, or on Hoopla for free without ads (the app is free with most public library memberships). Like his Call Me By Your Name, this movie is also set in Italy, features a controversial romantic relationship, and is beautifully shot.

A Useful Life – Tubi

A Useful Life is a short feature (1h 7m long) about a single man that runs an art-house cinema in Uruguay. It’s an ode to cinema of the past and how it, and the single man, are being forced to adapt to a new digital world. It’s currently streaming for free on Tubi (with ads). Read our full review here.

A Separation – Netflix

A Separation was probably the most popular Iranian film featured in critic’s best of the decade lists. Great for those who enjoyed watching Marriage Story – this film is about a couple seeking a divorce – and it’s also great for anyone who has Netflix, where it’s currently streaming.

The Orator – Amazon Prime

For something different, check out The Orator. It features a Samoan little person who struggles to protect his wife and family honor from rival tribe members. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Read our full review here.

The Look of Silence – Netflix, Hoopla

Following on from The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence is an even more gut wrenching and unbelievable documentary. You’ll meet death squad killers as they boast and laugh about the people they killed. Slowly, in their re-enactments, they seem to gain an awareness of the atrocities they’ve committed. Does it change them? Find out by watching it on Netflix or Hoopla (free with most public library memberships). You can also read the full review here.

Force Majeure – Hulu, Hoopla, Tubi, Kanopy

This Swedish comedy, from the guy that won Cannes with The Square a few years later, is built of one of the most unlikely concepts. The fallout starts when a father runs from his family as an avalanche approaches their ski resort. However, when the avalanche turns out not to be deadly, he has to face the family he cowardly ran away from. Watch the drama on Hulu (subscription), Tubi (free), Hoopla (free with most public libraries), or Kanopy (free with some public libraries).

Under the Skin – Netflix, Kanopy

Watch this if you want to watch a film in which Scarlett Johansson is an alien that seduces and kidnaps men off of the streets in Glasgow. It’s currently streaming on Netflix and Kanopy (free with some public libraries).

Embrace of the Serpent – Amazon Prime, Vudu, Hulu, Kanopy

Embrace of the Serpent is many things at once. It is a beautifully shot film set deep in the Amazon jungle that delves into many themes, including Life and Death, Culture, Civilization, Religion, and Exploration. One of my personal favourites from the decade and it’s currently streaming everywhere. You can catch it on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu (free with ads), and Kanopy (free with some libraries). Read our full review here.

Under the Shadow – Netflix, Hoopla

Under the Shadow layers the context of the Iraq-Iran war and female oppression onto a potent horror narrative. It’s perfect if you want something more from the horror genre without skimping out on the scare tactics. This Iranian horror film is currently streaming on Netflix and Hoopla (free with most public libraries). Read our full review here.

Moonlight – Netflix, Kanopy

Moonlight is one of the strongest contenders for the best Floridian films of all time. It’s beautiful cinematography and vulnerability sets it apart. Plus it actually won the Best Picture Academy Award – a rare example of the Academy getting it right. Watch it now on Netflix or Kanopy (free with some public libraries).

Neruda – Netflix, Kanopy

If you’re a fan of the poetry of Pablo Neruda, you should give this film a watch. In the movie, the director (Pablo Larrain) fuses the work of Neruda with Don Quixote to turn this into something very meta. It’s not so much a celebration of Neruda’s work than a celebration of poetry and creativity in general. Plus it’s also a chase movie which takes place all across Chile. Watch it on Netflix or Kanopy (free with some public libraries). Read our full review here.

Makala – Amazon Prime, Kanopy

This documentary film is on another level. You’ll rarely get this close to a life completely different to the one you’re used to. Not just because you probably have no idea about the lives of charcoal miners in DR Congo, but because you rarely get films that are this intimate. There are so many close ups and shots where Kabwita’s emotion is so clearly visible that you’ll feel like you’re there right beside him. The only problem is that you’ll feel even worse for not being able to help him up those hills. Experience it on Amazon Prime or Kanopy (free with some public libraries). Read our full review here.

Roma – Netflix

If you want to be guided around 1970s Mexico City, you’ve come to the right place. The stream of consciousness narrative in Roma feels like life and memory, and the acting and cinematography is a visual treat. Open your mind and immerse yourself in it. Watch it now on Netflix. Read our full review here.

Burning – Netflix, Hoopla

Burning is both a love triangle film and a mystery – nothing is ever clear and transparent. It’s a slower, eerie, and more subtle version of the class boundaries of Korean society than those depicted in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. It’s also probably one of the better adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s work. Watch it on Netflix, or for free with Hoopla (free with most public libraries).

Happy as Lazzaro – Netflix

Happy as Lazzaro may look like your typical Italian movie, but it features time traveling and magic in small doses. It centers on Lazzaro, a share cropper that doesn’t realize he’s oppressed by the rich people he serves, even after he wakes up from a long coma. It may sound strange, but it never feels unbelievable. Watch it now on Netflix.

Shoplifters – Hulu, Hoopla

If you’re looking for a heart-warming family to guide you around contemporary Japan, check out Shoplifters. Everyone is welcome in this oddball family to find beauty and wonder in life’s simple pleasures. It’s currently streaming on Hulu and on Hoopla (free with most public libraries). Read our full review here.

Border – Hulu

This is one of the weirdest films from the last decade. It’s hard to describe it without giving away any spoilers, so if you like weird, give it a watch on Hulu.

Atlantics – Netflix

What happens to a community in Senegal when the young men (half of the future of the country) take to the Atlantic Ocean in search of better opportunities in Europe? Watch Atlantics on Netflix now to find out.

A Guide to the 2020 Pan African Film Festival (PAFF)

As the film industry recovered from the surprises from the Academy Awards and started preparing trips to the European film market in Berlin, I took some time out to cover the 28th edition of the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF). Taking place in Black History Month, PAFF is the largest black film festival in the United States. It’s also one of the largest film festivals in Los Angeles, and it’s situated just under 7 miles south of Hollywood in Baldwin Hills. If you’re looking for a wide range of black films from around the world, this is the festival you need to attend.

Whilst it doesn’t have the star status of Cannes, Venice, or Toronto, the Pan African Film Festival did have an incredibly wide range of African and Afro-Latin films in its 225 film schedule. This is exactly why PAFF had been on my calendar for the last few months. Where else can you see films from so many African and Caribbean countries without hopping on a plane?

Anyway, let’s get into it. You’ve probably read some of the reviews posted on the PAFF page, but what was the festival actually like?

The Audiences

Whilst the audience at SBIFF was old and white, I didn’t notice more than a handful of old white viewers throughout the entire 12 day schedule at PAFF. The audience at PAFF was mostly Black. I guess this isn’t surprising given that this is the largest Black film festival in the United States happening in one of the oldest Black communities in Los Angeles. However, it was disappointing to see a lack of support for Black films from the rest of Los Angeles. Especially as these films are almost always overlooked in favor of big Hollywood releases and European art-house films every year.

It was also nice not being the youngest person in the audience for every screening. The majority of the audience was middle aged, but there were a few young faces in almost all of the screenings; either young kids brought by their parents or college students. That being said, the percentage of viewers under 25 was much lower than what I’ve seen at the BFI London Film Festival. To bring it up again, the BFI’s program for offering discounted tickets to anyone under 25 just before the screenings start, would be a great way to fill empty seats whilst boosting a younger audience.

The City

The Pan African Film Festival takes place in Los Angeles, but, if you’ve visited Los Angeles before, you’ll know that it’s a place made up of many small cities. Instead of spreading out from a center like London, Berlin, and Toronto (other big cities with big film festivals) Los Angeles doesn’t have a definitive center. As a result, there isn’t a focus to the city or a center that you can walk from sight to sight on a sightseeing tour. So whilst the Pan African Film Festival takes place in Los Angeles, it’s more helpful to say that it takes place in Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles.

Specifically, PAFF takes place at the Cinemark by the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall. It’s a perfect location for a film festival in Los Angeles because: there’s a lot of free parking, there’s a lot of cheap food options in the mall food court, and it’s easy to drive to (yes Los Angeles is a car city). You can also get there on public transport by taking the train to the Expo/Crenshaw metro stop and walking south along Crenshaw. It’s only a 15 minute walk. Although as mentioned, this is Los Angeles, so you’ll probably be the only person walking.

One of the best things about the mall, besides the cheap food options, is the art festival that takes place as part of the film festival. It features a lot of stalls selling African art, clothes, and beauty products. Perfect if you’re looking for a souvenir.

The Experience

Unlike the mess of lines that plague other film festivals, PAFF was pretty well managed. This was probably because it took place in one of Cinemark’s most popular theaters in the country. It has the capacity to accommodate over 3,000 people in it’s 16-18 screens (where all the screenings took place). Plus, buying tickets was a breeze thanks to the ticket selling screens and many box office assistants. PAFF was convenient and stress free; buying tickets, queuing, and getting to your screening was easy.

The proportion of talent attendance was also probably higher than any other festival I’ve attended. Approximately 50% of the screenings were complemented by Q&A’s featuring key talent from the films. This was an even more impressive figure given that most of these artists had traveled from Africa with their first U.S. visas.

The Films

Last, but not least, how were the movies?

Firstly, the selection at PAFF was impressively diverse even though if focused solely on black films. It featured 225 films from 52 countries in 26 languages. To put that into perspective, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival had films from 50 countries, 2 countries behind PAFF. That being said, the quality of the films was pretty erratic. There were a handful of gems from first time filmmakers (see below) which was a welcome surprise, but also a handful of films that appeared to still be in the developmental stage or stuck in clichés.

The feature Films

As mentioned, the feature film selection at PAFF was very hit or miss, which I guess is to be expected from countries without established film industries. I was lucky enough to see 14 feature films during my time at the festival. Here’s how they stacked up. Click the links to read the full reviews.

The Mercy of the Jungle
Tenere
Right Near the Beach
Verde
Black Mexicans
Kings of Mulberry Street
Redemption
Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret
Bigman Wahala
Desrances
Subira
Gonarezhou: The Movie
Kijiji Changu
Ekoua

PAFF’s Best: 1

With a great look, an easy to follow but intelligent story, and two great characters, The Mercy of the Jungle was the best film I saw at PAFF. It was a faultless all rounder that I hope gets a U.S. release in the not too distant future.

The Runner Up: 2

In second place was Tenere a feature documentary from a first time filmmaker. The incredible footage of the migrant journey across the desert on a Mad Max-esque truck is what makes this documentary so awesome.

The Art-House Gems: 3-5

Following up the top two, Right Near the Beach, Verde, and Black Mexicans were three great art-house films that should be welcome at film festivals worldwide. I’m particularly excited to see what the debut filmmakers behind the first two do next.

Popular Films Done Well: 6-10

Kings of Mulberry Street and Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret were two entertaining coming of age stories that all audiences should be able to appreciate. Redemption and Desrances were two thrillers set in bad times – the former an ex-con struggling with a corrupt system and the latter set in a post-revolution post-apocalyptic Cote d’Ivoire. Lastly, Bigman Wahala was the best mainstream comedy that I saw at PAFF, sparked by the rapport between the two main characters.

The Not So Good: 11-14

Subira was the best of the rest, but it was let down by an un-empowering and cheesy story-line. Gonarezhou: The Movie, Ekoua, and Kijiji Changu all suffered from a lack of production quality and the lack of a well thought out script.

The Short Films

In contrast to the feature films at PAFF, the short films from the Pan African and Films in Paradise short series were consistently good. Here’s our rankings for what we saw:

Conclusion

If you live in Los Angeles, you need to add PAFF to your film festival calendar. It’s schedule of African and Black film is unparalleled in the United States. The programmers also obviously made an effort to seek out films from debut filmmakers. Their risks paid off, as there were a bunch of gems that I wouldn’t have had the chance to see otherwise. So put in some effort and come to PAFF in 2021.

A Guide to SBIFF, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Whilst many of you were getting ready to cover the International Film Festival in Rotterdam or the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, I went to Santa Barbara to cover the 35^th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). Attracting around 100,000 attendees across 11 days of films, SBIFF is one of the largest film festivals in California running just after the equally prestigious Palm Springs Film Festival. It’s also one of the closest to Los Angeles, a city which surprisingly doesn’t have a single big film festival in the way that San Francisco, New York, and many cities around the world do, despite being the home of Hollywood. (More on Los Angeles’ film festivals later this year). Because of its proximity to Hollywood, and the fact that it takes place a few weeks before the Academy Awards, it’s always a stop for many of the directors and actors campaigning for Oscar glory.

That being said, I wasn’t there to interview A-list celebs on the red carpet or catch re-runs of some of the Academy Award contender. I was at SBIFF to sample its lineup of films from 50 countries, in particular, the films screening for their International and Spain/Latin American competition.

So how was it? You’ve probably read some of the quick reviews we’ve been posting from the films we’ve seen on the SBIFF page, but what was SBIFF actually like?

The Audiences

One thing I noticed during my first day at SBIFF – a Saturday – was that I was the youngest person in the theater for every screening. By a long way. Most of the audience were 50+ with most of them being seniors. One lady that sat next to me for one screening even commented that it was nice seeing a young folk at the festival. I’m 28, so not being the oldest isn’t new to me, but I’ve never felt so young in a movie theater. They also mentioned that they didn’t see a person under 40 at the Palm Springs festival which they attended the week before. Maybe it’s a small city thing. Maybe it’s a U.S. thing as the audiences at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles weren’t young either.

However, this definitely isn’t a Film Festival thing as the BFI London Film Festival has a lot of young cinema goers. The BFI do a great job at getting students and people in their 20’s into their screenings. They offer cheap tickets to anyone 25 and under 30 minutes before the screenings start if there’s still space available (I’ve never been turned away as film guest seats are always freed up). As a result, most of their screenings are full or close to it. It would be great to see similar initiatives to boost younger audiences at SBIFF to ensure the loyal older audience is still there in 40 years’ time.

The City

Santa Barbara is a great small city. If you’re there for the week reviewing films, you have plenty of options for places to eat State Street. It’s also just nice wandering around the mission style buildings – the place is pretty. You can even walk to the southeastern end of State Street if you want to chill on the beach, which is a rarity at a major film festival. Plus, those of you in Rotterdam and Sundance would no doubt appreciate the warm sunny weather that’s almost guaranteed daily in Santa Barbara.

However, one of the main downsides to Santa Barbara is that it isn’t cheap. The food options were more expensive than many areas of Los Angeles as well as London and Berlin. For those on a budget, I’d recommend living off the Ralph’s deli at West Carrillo Street/Chapala Street and bringing your own water if you don’t want to spend $10+ per meal. Accommodation also was expensive for the MLK day weekend, so I was relived that one of my relatives was able to host me from just outside the city (thanks Javi).

The Experience

Just like all the other film festivals I’ve attended, the queuing situation at SBIFF was organized chaos. Before every block of screenings at the Metro 4 theater on State Street there were at least 5 lines full of people. The lines would spill onto the streets and completely block the sidewalk on that side of the road, so anyone not attending the festival has to cross the road to walk past it. However, I never saw or heard anyone complaining, apart from one guy cycling along the sidewalk blasting music that should have been on the road anyway. So even though it appeared chaotic, it did work. People queued up for the films they wanted to see and appeared to get to see them thanks to the many lines.

There were a lot of Q&A’s too, which is what helps a film festival to stand out. At SBIFF they had a lot of special stand-alone Q&A’s with Hollywood celebrities, but they also had roughly a 40% turn out for crew and/or cast member Q&A’s for all the international films which is a pretty good turnout for a small city like Santa Barbara. All of them were managed pretty well, even though, unfortunately, no film festival is immune from bad audience questions.

The volunteers were all great too, so it was a nice touch that SBIFF included a slide saying “Please give a round of applause for all the volunteers at SBIFF” before the start of every film.

The Films

Last, but not least, how were the movies at SBIFF?

Overall, I thought the selection of films could have been better. As soon as I saw the schedule, I was a disappointed in the lack of diversity in the films selected for the festival. There were over 70 World Premieres and films from 50 countries, but almost all of the international films were from Europe and the Americas. Most noticeably was a distinct lack of African films; I only noticed one feature film from North Africa (Papicha, the Academy Award submission from Algeria) meaning there were zero sub-Saharan African films. There was also a very slim selection of films from Asia, apart from the odd Turkish film and screenings of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite.

The International Competition

The lack of diversity was most obvious in the International Competition, in which 10 of the 12 films were European. The other two were Canadian, leaving 4 of the 6 movie producing continents left unrepresented.

Nevertheless, here’s my rankings of the 9 films I saw that competed in SBIFF’s International Competition:

The top three stood out, whilst the bottom 4 disappointed.

Spain/Latin American Competition

The Spain/Latin American competition made up for some of the diversity woes of the International competition with 11 films from 3 different continents (ironically one more than the international competition).

Of the 7 films I saw from the competition, there was a distinct split between Art-house festival fare and cheesy heartwarming films. The bottom two fell into the latter whilst the top 4 fell into the former. The top 4 were 4 of my favorite films I saw at the festival, showing that the Spain/Latin American competition didn’t just trump the International competition on diversity but quality as well.

Best of the Rest

The International and Spain/Latin American competitions weren’t the only films I managed to see thanks to some screeners sent out early by the filmmakers. The two best screeners I received were for Out Deh, a documentary about three inspiring young men from Jamaica and Song Sparrow, a short film depicting refugees being trafficked in the back of a refrigerated truck. The other short films I saw were all interesting too even if they weren’t perfectly executed.

Whilst it didn’t go as far as Palm Springs, which screened every single Academy Award submission for Best International Feature Film, SBIFF also screened a few submissions that haven’t received U.S. distribution yet.

Conclusion

Overall, SBIFF is a festival worth attending. Whilst you may not find a program that’s as diverse or weird as some of the other film festivals in California, you will at least get to be in a beautiful small city by the beach.

If you’re based near Santa Barbara, make sure you leave time to attend in 2021. Or, if you’re based in Los Angeles or further afield, it’s definitely worth making a long weekend trip and mix International films with mountain hikes and strolls along the sea.

Train to Busan (South Korea)

Train to Busan Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

This is the best Zombie Train film there is. If you love zombies (think Walking Dead, 24 days later, or World War Z) you’ll love this film. If you love train films (Snowpiercer, Transsiberian) you’ll love this film. Finally, if you love a great thriller film, you’ll also love this film. Need I say more?

As usual, best to only watch 40secs of the trailer to avoid any spoilers!

Why Watch Train to Busan?

It’s one of the good zombie films out there
It’s also a great train movie (on terms with Snowpiercer, another great South Korean film)
There’s plenty of glorious action
All complemented by some great action cinematography (mostly shot within the confines of the train carriage)

The Breakdown

Train to Busan, like many great horror movies starts with a prelude of what’s to come. A farmer drives his truck through a quarantine zone. His truck is sprayed and ushered through the quarantine. On the other side, he runs over a young deer, curses his shitty day, and drives off. The camera stays fixed on the dead deer in the road, and after a few seconds, comes back to life and limps off into the bush.

Following the dramatic opening, the film introduces us to Seok-woo, a cold office boss who doesn’t really care about his little daughter. He treats his mum like a maid and messes up his kids birthday. He even stands up his daughter when she is singing a song at a concert especially for him. What a guy! Will it take a train full of zombies to make him care for his daughter?

Conclusion

This is the best zombie train movie that I have ever seen (it’s also a great thriller). It has the typical range of characters, the genre faithful story-line, and doesn’t take it self too seriously.

What caught my eye was the great camera work within the small space of the train carriage. Most of the action is shot from within the carriage with a mix of handheld shots. But the director creates space by mixing in tracking shots from outside the train carriage (where the camera moves alongside the train) and shots looking at the other carriages. Check it out for yourself!

Best International Films of 2021 So Far – From Cote d’Ivoire to Thailand

5 months into the year and we’ve already had a bunch of great international films premiere at film festivals and virtual cinemas across the world. With film festivals such as Sundance and the Berlinale going virtual, viewers have had the chance to watch World Premieres that they might not have otherwise been able to see if the premieres were confined to theater screenings. It’s a bittersweet plus for film fans. Read on to find 10 of the best international films from 2021 so far. Some are already available at cinemas physically and virtually, and look out for the rest in the near future.

10 Best International Films of 2021 So Far

1. Night of the Kings (Cote d’Ivoire)

Night of the Kings follows Roman, the latest arrival to an Abijan’s infamous MACA prison as he is forced to engage in a storytelling ritual with his life on the line. It’s got high stakes, theater, and even an appearance from shapeshifter Denis Lavant. But the focus is always on the story – a story that Roman has to keep telling to survive. It’s brilliantly original and beautifully simple, whilst offering plenty to analyze.

Read the full review here.

2. Pebbles (India)

In Pebbles one angry father takes his young son out of school to visit his mother’s village. However, when they find out his mother has already left, they begin a long walk home under the burning sun. It’s simple storyline is hard to look away from as the camera brilliantly captures both the inhospitable landscape as well as the tension between the unpredictably violent father and his cautious son. So, if you’re looking for a film which compacts pure cinematic energy with a hot and arid environment in 75 minutes, you need to watch this film.

Pebbles premiered at the 2021 edition of the Rotterdam International Film Festival where it won the Tiger Award.

3. Softie (Kenya)

If you’re looking for an observational documentary that follows a political activist trying to change a corrupt system by running for government whilst showing the effects this has on their family, Softie is the film for you. Boniface “Softie” Mwangi was drawn to political activism during his time photographing the post election violence in 2007. Now, he’s running for office in a regional Kenyan election. To succeed, he has to radically change a democracy tainted by corruption, violence, and mistrust.

Read the full review here.

4. Taming the Garden (Georgia)

Taming the Garden is a slow documentary about a billionaire’s project to create a garden of the grandest trees in his country. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire, and former Prime Minister of Georgia, is the invisible villain of this film, as we follow his construction teams uproot trees from around the country to be transported across the seas to his home. The focus is not on his garden though, but the sublime images of the trees being transported and how they happened; the huge efforts of the construction teams and the locals caught in-between.

Read the full review here.

5. The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Argentina)

Dogs are everywhere. Before the pandemic, ownership seemed to be rising. Everyone either had a dog or knew someone who did, whether it was a neighbor or a colleague who brought their dog into work. Now, with everyone mostly still stuck at home, they’ve become even more popular. It’s within this context that The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet is set, a perfectly relevant, quietly funny Argentinian satire along the lines of Martin Rejtman.

Read the full review here.

6. The Pink Cloud (Brazil)

If there’s ever a movie that perfectly envisions the pandemic and quarantine, it’s The Pink Cloud. Made before COVID times, it follows Giovanna and Yago as their one night stand turns into a lifetime stuck together indoors as a poisonous cloud descends on the world. It’s probably one of the best portrayals of a relationship in lockdown.

Read the full review here.

7. Writing With Fire (India)

If you’re looking for an inspirational documentary that features a group of trailblazing women in India, watch Writing with Fire. It follows a group of Dalit women – Dalits being the lowest caste in the Indian caste system – that start a newspaper in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s largest and most politically important states. The newspaper, Khabar Lahariya, stands out from others both because its written only by women and because of the emphasis on seeking out the truth no matter the stakes. It’s a great documentary for anyone interested in learning a bit about the current state of India and how to run a newspaper.

Read the full review here.

8. Stateless (Dominican Republic)

If you’re looking for a documentary that examines racism in the Dominican Republic’s past and present through two women campaigning at either end of the political spectrum, Stateless is the film you’re looking for. Like Softie, it’s another observational documentary that captures an activist outside the system fighting against corruption. However unlike Softie, it shows both sides of the fight against racism to highlight the contradictions of the ‘nationalists.

Read the full review here.

9. Come Here (Thailand)

Come Here is not the easiest film to follow. It’s slow art cinematic style isn’t conducive to a firm storyline. However, this doesn’t really matter as this is a film which you experience more than you follow. The unique soundscape and stylish black and white contrasts gives it a meditative tone. It feels like you’re just a dreamy fly on the wall following these four friends on holiday.

Come Here premiered at the 2021 edition of the Berlin International Film Festival.

10. Emptiness (Ecuador)

Emptiness is not a new story. The themes of the immigrant experience and human trafficking have been portrayed before in films such as I’m No Longer Here, Buoyancy, and Maria Full of Grace. However, the story in Emptiness just feels more authentic. There’s less melodrama and no violence or gangs which are intertwined into the stories of the films above. The immigrant’s experiences in Emptiness look less threatening, which highlights the invisible ordinariness of many human trafficking cases.

Emtpiness was selected as the Ecuadorian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.

Let us know what your favorite films are by getting in touch with us on Twitter or by email.