Best Festival Movies 2025: How International Cinema Dominated the Conversation

Best Festival Movies 2025: How International Cinema Dominated the Conversation

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26 Dic, 2025 07:10 | Sin comentarios

A personal, wide-ranging look at the international films that shaped the 2025 festival circuit—and why world cinema, more than ever, is driving the global conversation.

The Oscar nominations haven’t been announced yet, but all signs point to three or four “international” films sneaking into the main Best Picture lineup. What does that mean, and why do I think it actually matters—at least a little? To start with, there’s a fairly concrete reason: in recent years, the number of Academy voters who are not American has grown significantly, and that has clearly shifted the internal balance of the awards. But more broadly, the space occupied by international cinema in the United States—both in awards conversations and in media coverage—has been expanding. Curiously, this hasn’t translated into a dramatic change at the box office, which still mostly sticks to its familiar niches, with a few notable exceptions.

What has changed, and what ultimately matters most, is the space for discussion. These days, Brazilian, Norwegian, Spanish, or Iranian films are debated in the media and on social platforms right alongside American ones. That suggests either a genuine broadening of perspectives—or perhaps a growing fatigue with the formulas of an American cinema often constrained by commercial pressures or the algorithms of streaming platforms. Either way, it’s genuinely good news that the Cannes and Venice titles everyone is talking about aren’t just Hollywood pre-releases, but films by directors like Kleber Mendonça Filho, Jafar Panahi, Oliver Laxe or Joachim Trier. In fact, this may be the first time that my two annual film rankings—this one and my theatrical releases list—line up so closely with what will very likely end up Oscar-nominated.

To be clear (again): the Oscars themselves are not the point. What matters is the possibility of generating a broader conversation about other kinds of cinema—different narrative traditions, political histories from countries on the periphery, and themes that are more complex and more ambitious than the usual fare. Those of us who’ve been orbiting film festivals for decades know this terrain well. What’s new is that people who once looked at festivals and their programming with indifference are now paying real attention.

And it’s not that festivals have radically reinvented themselves. Yes, Panahi won the Palme d’Or, Jim Jarmusch took home the Golden Lion, and films like The Secret Agent, Sirat, or No Other Choice made a strong impression at both events. It’s also true that Cannes, Venice and Berlin have become somewhat more “accessible” in their programming overall. But the films driving the conversation right now aren’t necessarily the most obvious red-carpet titles. Hardly anyone is talking about Jay Kelly, Bugonia, The Smashing Machine, Die My Love or Eddington—all very photogenic premieres. No. The conversation has shifted elsewhere. And that, in bleak times like these, feels like a small victory worth celebrating.

What follows is a list of 70 films seen at festivals I attended in person (Cannes, Shanghai, San Sebastián, the Viennale, BAFICI, Mar del Plata), festivals I followed virtually via screening links (Berlin, Locarno, plus the odd title from Sundance or Rotterdam), and a handful of films encountered “out there” in the vast online world. Copy, paste, recommend, click the links (or don’t), and we’ll see each other next year—assuming the world keeps spinning more or less as it does now.

P.S. As proof that publishing these lists too early is never a great idea: Blue Moon ended up premiering as a VOD rental on several Latin American platforms just before the end of the year. But since I had already published my 2025 theatrical releases list, it landed here instead. Such is life.

Top 70:

  • 21. Sundays, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
  • 22. Zodiac Killer Project, by Charlie Shackleton
  • 23. Brand New Landscape, by Yuiga Danzuka
  • 24. The Portuguese House, by Avelina Prat
  • 25. A Useful Ghost, by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
  • 26. Heads or Tails?, by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis
  • 27. Resurrection, by Bi Gan
  • 28. We Believe You, by Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys
  • 29. Olmo, by Fernando Eimbcke
  • 30. Sirat, by Oliver Laxe
  • 31. Duse, by Pietro Marcello
  • 32. Nino, by Pauline Loquès
  • 33. Pillion, by Harry Lighton
  • 34. A Poet, by Simón Mesa Soto
  • 35. Sleepless City, by Guillermo Galoe
  • 36. The Seasons, by Maureen Fazendeiro
  • 37. Father, by Tereza Nvotová
  • 38. Last Night I Conquered Thebes, by Gabriel Azorín
  • 39. Lurker, by Alex Russell
  • 40. Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, Tell Her I’m Not Bad), by Joel Alfonso Vargas

  • 61. Vainilla, by Mayra Hermosillo
  • 62. Levers, by Rhayne Vermette
  • 63. Enzo, by Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo
  • 64. The Girl in the Snow, by Louise Hémon
  • 65. Short Summer, by Nastia Korkia
  • 66. & Sons, by Pablo Trapero
  • 67. Measures for a Funeral, by Sofia Bohdanowicz
  • 68. Six Days in Spring, by Joachim Lafosse
  • 69. The History of Sound, by Oliver Hermanus
  • 70. The Stranger, by François Ozon

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