best films

Here’s our (very delayed) list of the best international films of 2023. One big learning from 2023 is that having two kids under 3 in the household is not conducive to a lot of film watching. This will probably change in the not too distant future, but until then, we’re focusing on a top 20 instead of a top 30.

The list captures films from 5 continents (sorry Australasia) and features a lot of recognizable names as film festivals and distributors have returned to films that attract a wider range of film fans. Some of these films are brilliant – the returns of Aki Kaurismaki and Hayao Miyazaki are most welcome and there are also returns for less established names, such as Lila Aviles and Rebecca Zlotowski. In among are a few debuts, including an interesting and highly personal documentary from Milisuthando Bongela. We’re hoping to find more debut filmmakers in 2024 amidst some highly anticipated international releases from Mati Diop, Abderrahmane Sissako, Alonzo Ruizpalacios, and Victor Kossakovsky.

20 Best International Films of 2023

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20. Milisuthando (South Africa)

Set in the past, present, and future of South Africa, Milisuthando is a memory-driven documentary that captures the South African experience with intimacy. Like the journal films of Jonas Mekas, it captures the feeling of a generation trying to put together the pieces of its past. In this case, an exploration of growing up through major political/historical events as South Africa ended apartheid.

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19. Rimini (Austria)

Richie Bravo, once a ‘successful’ Schlager singer and ladies man, is now a middle aged hustler funded by half-filled restaurant concerts and prostitution. His character is a hilarious leftover from the easy-going 90s that just doesn’t fit in todays world. Whilst he assumes a free-loving Italian identity – maybe to counter his Dad’s Nazi days – he outwardly disdains the immigrants/refugees in the background. He’s a mess – but at least a big hilariously harmless one.

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18. Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Uganda)

The inspiring leader battling political oppression road-show stops in Uganda after touring Russia (Navalny) and Kenya (Softie). In this documentary, our leader (Bobi Wine), is not just battling one of the worlds longest serving dictators, but continuing to release catchy reggae music. His fierce spirit and willingness to sacrifice himself for his country make this a captivating but difficult watch.

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17. Other People’s Children (France)

A teacher full of life falls in love with Ali and grows close to his 4-year-old daughter, Leila. She becomes like a mother to her, provoking a desire for a family of her own. A rarely considered relationship and some great performances, makes Other People’s Children feel very touching and genuine.

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16. The Blue Caftan (Morocco)

Touzani’s second feature follows the same style, setting, and structure as her first (Adam). It’s also filmed in close ups and a few mid distance shots to create a strong intimacy between the audience and her characters. The Moroccan setting is obvious but is subtly established through the close distance shots – we never see more than a few meters of streets, the tailor shop, or the bathhouse. Whilst many elements of the story follow Touzani’s debut, The Blue Caftan is another brilliantly warm portrayal of the battle between loyalty, friendship and love.

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15. Godzilla: Minus One (Japan)

The 2024 Academy Award winner for Best Visual Effects is one of the most epic films of 2023. Without Godzilla, the film might resemble the overly patriotic notes of the new Chinese blockbusters a bit too closely. With Godzilla, it helps to reinforce the apocalyptic feeling of a country destroyed by World War 2 – not just by the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also by the carpet bombing of Tokyo where this film is set.

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14. The Buriti Flower (Brazil)

2022 saw the release of National Geographic’s documentary The Territory, which followed the plight of indigenous people in the Brazilian rainforest. Whilst the documentary won awards for its coverage of deforestation and violence against indigenous people, The Buriti Flower tells it better. The Buriti Flower features the indigenous protagonists instead of processing their language and voices through mediators. In doing so, the Krahô are given a political voice and agency within their community and on the national scale.

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13. City of Wind (Mongolia)

City of Wind covers the classic ‘tradition vs. modernity’ trope pretty well through its high-school coming-of-age romance. The setting stands out – Ulaanbaatar – which combines a mass of urban development with its rural, undeveloped outskirts, visualizing the encroaching development on tradition. Tradition is represented in a young shaman, balancing school with his cultural role as a ‘modern’ woman pulls him out of his focused life and into modernity. Will he or won’t he be the end of his cultural lineage?

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12. Falcon Lake (Canada)

If there’s a genre that has a higher chance of landing on my best-of-the-year list than any other, it’s the summer vacation romance. The genre, especially when shot with grainy footage, always evokes a nostalgia for summer holidays filled with boredom-provoked spontaneity. Falcon Lake captures the summer vibes well and adds a layer of mystery fueled by lake based horror films.

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11. Passages (France)

If a movie features Franz Rogowski, you can assume the acting is going to be worth watching, and Passages is no exception. He’s joined by a commanding Ben Wishaw and a naive Adele Exarchopoulos to make an electric love triangle that moves at Tomas/Rogowski’s whim.

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10. Unrest (Switzerland)

It’s not easy to describe or categorize Unrest. It’s not a documentary, but it is too realistic to be a drama. The pacing feels closest to slow film, but with a unique historic lens that captures an era in the Industrial Revolution where everything has become farcically dictated by clock time (using different clocks – train, factory, home). The conflict between these clocks triggers a mini anarchist stand within a watch making factory in the Swiss mountains.

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9. Chile 76 (Chile)

Chile 76 treads the same ground as a plethora of Chilean and Argentinian films which also cover their respective police states in the second half of the 20th Century. The red + blue paint scene is brilliantly memorable (if not a bit obvious), but this film stands out for its ability to drive anxiety like none of the films that preceded it. Thanks to a disruptive soundtrack, which turns mundane everyday scenes into ominously paranoid ones, we’re never allowed to settle.

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8. Return to Seoul (France/South Korea)

Don’t even think about mentioning adoption or biological parents to Freddie. Perhaps the switch moments are a bit obvious, but Park Ji-Min flips her character brilliantly every time they come up. She plays the unpredictable character scarily – see Alfredo Castro in Pablo Larrains Tony Manero – or even a more edgy version of Renate Reinsve’s Julie in Worst Person in the World. But it’s not all about the performance, as the script keeps us invested in the growing identity crisis with each time-jump.

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7. Fallen Leaves (Finland)

There’s no better film to break the anxiety-inducing Chile 76 and Return to Seoul than Fallen Leaves. It’s a beautifully simple love story featuring two down-to-earth lead characters, shot in an apparently ordinary style. Aki Kaurismaki makes filmmaking look easy.

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6. Full Time (France)

Strap in for an everyday thrill ride. In Full Time, Eric Gravel turns managing hotel rooms into a high-octane thriller through frantic editing. The camera, like the lead actress, is always on the move creating anxiety-inducing cinema that will likely make you feel that your job and daily commute are a breeze.

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5. Four Daughters (Tunisia)

Kaouther Ben Hania is back with more drama. Unlike her previous film, The Man Who Sold His Skin, Four Daughters is grounded in reality. Its authenticity and intimacy is granted by Olfa and her two daughters, who tell their family story with the help of actors playing their lost sisters within the confines of their four walls. Ben Hania encourages her cast to re-enact past trauma, like The Act of Killing, but on a more intimate scale, to create one of the most affecting movies of the year.

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4. Rotting in the Sun (Mexico)

The best meta-comedy of the year, Rotting in the Sun features Sebastian Silva and Jordan Firstman playing satirized versions of themselves. It somehow manages to cross partying on gay nudist beaches with the mundanity of housework in Mexico City to create a film which will keep you guessing. It’s the most original film you’ll see from 2023.

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3. The Delinquents (Argentina)

Argentina is the home of long, cosy, trivial mysteries. Our 2023 entry follows in the vein of El Pampero Cine, whose Trenque Lauquen was our favorite film of 2022. The Delinquents follows the stories of two men involved in a bank heist to escape unfulfilled lives as bank clerks. Their journeys take us to prison in remote Argentina, a beautiful riverside picnic spot, and famous pizza spots in Buenos Aires. If you have time for some indulgent storytelling – this is your best choice from 2023.

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2. Totem (Mexico)

5 years after The Chambermaid and Lila Aviles is back with another affecting Mexico City film. This one takes place entirely within the confines of seven-year-old Sol’s family house as the family gets ready for a birthday party. Like the brilliance of Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, Totem throws us into a family event and forces us to make ourselves comfortable. As we (the viewers) immerse ourselves in the family, the film becomes more and more emotional as the seriousness of the occasion becomes apparent.

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1. The Boy And The Heron (Japan)

Miyazaki is back, and this one feels like a departing film as it makes peace with all the existential angst of his previous films. It also comes to terms with a legacy that may not be continued. It’s a magnificent end to an incredible career and gives us all one more chance to enjoy his magic. This is one of his best, and will continue to grow in the next few decades.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL FILMS OF 2023:

Mami Wata (Nigeria), Smoking Causes Coughing (France), Suzume (Japan), The Eight Mountains (Italy), Godland (Iceland), Tiger Stripes (Indonesia), Society of the Snow (Chile), Terrestrial Verses (Iran), Los Colonos (Chile), El Conde (Chile)

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If you think we’ve missed a film from a list that you think is one of the best international films of 2023, please get in touch on Twitter or by email.

2024 was an impressive year for international films. With a lot of the 2023 festival circuit hitting theaters in 2024 and many more films from established, renowed international directors, we had our eyes fulfilled.

Whilst the Academy may celebrate the American Dirt of International Film, we’ve picked a list of 20 films that showcases talent from the 6 inhabited continents. Our list features returning maestros, including 84 year-old Victor Erice (after a 30-year absence), and modern virtuosos such as Alice Rohrwacher and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The list also welcomes impressive films from first-time filmmakers such as Sandhya Suri and Pham Thien An.

Explore the diverse list below and reach out to us with your thoughts. We’re always eager to find out what we’ve overlooked or missed!

20 Best International Films of 2024

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20. Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

With a number of brilliant films behind him, viewers understand what to expect from a Hamaguchi film. With Evil Does Not Exist, Hamaguchi plays with these expectations and defies them with an eco-parable that takes repeat viewings and time to unlock.

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19. The Practice (Argentina)

You either love or hate Martin Rejtman films. I love the way he manages to craft absurd situations from the everyday to turn life into a deadpan comedy. For comedy is all life is at times; a comedy that should produce more laughs than it usually does. The Practice is pretty similar to Rejtman’s previous films, so if you haven’t seen any, give this one a shot.

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18. Second Chance (India)

A low-key fish out of water story featuring a city girl at a home stay in the Himalayas. The gulf between her typical life and the life she adopts is clear, but the humble way of life in the mountains grounds her and gives her time to find herself. Feels realer than Academy Award nominee Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom and contains equally impressive scenery.

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17. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran)

Another classic from Mohammad Rasoulof; censorship in Iran has unintentionally created some of the best films of the 21st Century. This film is full of intense family drama which highlights the effects of government stoked fear. The metaphor of the sacred fig brilliantly bookends the film with a perfect final shot.

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16. Mother of All Lies (Morocco)

Asmae El Moudir painstakingly re-creates her Casablanca neighborhood by hand in Mother of all Lies. She invites her family and friends to view the set, forcing them to travel back in time to re-live the traumas from her childhood. Part The Look of Silence and part Four Daughters, this film is a reckoning for their community and their involvement in the atrocities of their past.

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15. Crossing (Turkey/Georgia)

A retired teacher from Georgia travels to Istanbul to search for her long-lost transgender niece with her unpredictable neighbor as a companion. Their odyssey into the underworld of the city carries them into unfamiliar places, but their journey brings forth a heart-warming inter-generational friendship that highlights that love might just be all you need in life.

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14. Santosh (India)

Santosh is a gripping thriller that follows the plight of a police widower that takes her dead husbands job to stay afloat and gets caught in a web of sexism and classism. She battles with the prejudices of others as well as her own, as she seeks to re-right the wrongs done to her. For fans of Nayattu and Serpico.

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13. About Dry Grasses (Turkey)

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the master of slow-burn narrative rich dramas. If you haven’t heard of him, put Once Upon a Time in Anatolia at the top of your list. About Dry Grasses follows a teacher aged and embittered by his assignment to a school in the remote regions of his country. We watch his futile attempts to strengthen his fragile ego. Highlights of the film include the best philosophical dialogue and the most unexpected Viagra pop of the year.

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12. Shayda (Australia)

A young Iranian woman living in Australia finds refuge at a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter Mona. She starts to build a new life until a judge grants her husband visitation rights. Shayda is one of two Iranian films on this list with unpredictable fathers. It’s buoyed by two brilliant performances from Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Selina Zahednia. For fans of Iranian family dramas.

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11. Twilight of the Warriors (Hong Kong)

In Twilight of the Warriors, Kowloon has been brilliantly reconstructed to create the perfect martial arts set: lots of props, lots of people to fight around, and many small rooms connected by thin alleys. The story is sustained by a nice buddy bromance that builds throughout the film. If you’re looking for action, you’re in the right place. This is the #1 action movie of 2024.

Read the full review here.

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10. Dahomey (Benin)

Dahomey and The Coconut Revolution are two African documentaries worth seeking out from 2024. Both feature conversation from university students of the plight of their respective countries in the modern world. Dahomey is the more neutral of the two, letting the images of royal artifacts of Dahomey do the talking as we follow their repatriation from France to Benin. We are left to watch and listen before joining the discourse.

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9. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Vietnam)

You can’t have a top 20 list without a slow film. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is a wonderful debut feature from Pham Thien An with shots that feel like they’ve been composed by a master. It follows Thien as he bounces around the country searching for his purpose and life’s meaning.

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8. No Other Land (Palestine/Israel)

Israel’s encroachments on Palestinian territory date back to the country’s formation. However, the encroachment is typically overshadowed by developments in the conflict in the international news. No Other Land intimately documents Basel Adra’s lifelong protest against Israeli settler encroachment. In the film, Basel is joined by a sympathetic Israeli that helps to publicize their struggle. The footage places you within their struggle, which is at times shocking and appears increasingly hopeless. However, Basel’s calm words encouraging patience for activists worldwide is the message everyone should take away from this enlightening documentary.

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7. Sujo (Mexico)

Sujo starts with narco-violence in remote Michoacan, so I was expecting this to become the latest pessimistic and bleak narco-flick that festivals have been gobbling up over the last ten years. However, this film explores an alternative narrative, in which Sujo (the son of a hit-man) is carefully guided away from his father’s fate despite all the temptations. His journey is posed as an allegory for the history of modern Mexico, in a similar way to Innaritu’s Bardo from 2023. It presents a hopeful future, despite a traumatic recent history and the plans of fate, with the help of dreams and magic.

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6. All We Imagine As Light (India)

Payal Kapadia’s debut feature – a poetic critique of the Indian governments crackdown on student activists was a brilliant and powerful, political documentary. Her second film is very different. All We Imagine as Light evokes a mix of the Taiwanese New Wave (Yi Yi) and the similarly slow burning romances of Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express). This type of film is my comfort food, and I loved how this version creates the chaos of the Mumbai to contrast with the calm of a home village. Every city-dweller needs this kind of release!

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5. Close Your Eyes (Spain)

Close Your Eyes starts with a film within a film. An eccentric Marlon Brando-esque protagonist pulls you in by setting up a quest. However, just before we depart on an international search, we’re pulled into another mystery; a re-opened case of a missing actor (the same actor in the starting film). Close Your Eyes is a slow burn movie that gently unfolds into a story about friendship, community, and meaning of life.

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4. La Chimera (Italy)

Time-travel is a key ingredient of some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. It holds an unnatural power to change the future and the past, adding the driving plot behind the Back to the Future and Terminator series from the 1980s and a few modern Christopher Nolan films. Over in Italy, Alice Rohrwacher has mastered the ability to use time-travel naturally. Instead of using it as the driving force of the plot and drama, it is the icing on the cake. She has combined time-travel with wholly Italian influences; De Sica’s Neo-realism and Fellini’s Surrealism, to make her own fantastic style.

Read the full review here.

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3. Perfect Days (Japan/Germany)

It’s not often that you watch a movie that makes you yearn for a simple life cleaning toilets. Hirayama is perfectly content with his simple, structured life. His work is balanced by analog, everyday, time consuming hobbies such as photography, listening to cassettes, and reading books. The calm pace of his life, allows him (and us, the viewer) to step away from the rush and find beauty in the simple things. Perfect Days is a reminder to slow down and appreciate the life we have.

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2. Green Border (Poland)

Green Border is the most powerful protest feature film of 2024. It’s brutal depiction of migrants inhumanely bounced between the Belarus/Poland border should shock all viewers. However, we’re not left without hope, as we can identify with a range of protagonists that take action (subtle or not). The clincher is the final scene. Green Border further establishes Holland as one of the best, and most overlooked, filmmakers out there.

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1. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Romania)

Radu Jude is no stranger to controversy or satirizing contemporary society. His previous feature, the Golden Bear winning Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, took aim at sexism, nationalism, and consumerism with COVID-19 and sex as a backdrop. Before that, he highlighted his country’s hidden involvement in the holocaust in I Do Not Care if we Go Down in History as Barbarians. Both of these films packed a strong punch of humor and cynicism, but Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is his most potent critique of the world today and a movie that will define the 2020s for later generations.

Read the full review here.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL FILMS OF 2024:

Yannick (France), Flow (Lithuania), Omen (Belgium/Democratic Republic of Congo), Io Capitano (Italy), Coconut Head Generation (Nigeria)

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If you think we’ve missed a film from a list that you think is one of the best international films of 2024, please get in touch by email.