A Decade of Films of Ale: The 2010s
The decade just past has brought more of the same from Hollywood - superheroes, young-adult fantasies, cheap found-footage horror, and "hip" kid's animated stuff, most of it in the form of endless sequels and remakes. Not that this hasn't been a prominent part of commercial filmmaking in the past - going all the way back, and certainly not restricted to America; but by 2019 we found the carefully packaged "product" aimed at the lowest common denominator steamrolling over anything with an ounce of creativity. In the 1930s the Charlie Chan and Tarzan flicks were b-pictures made cheaply and aimed at kids, while "A" films typically were made for at least a slightly more educated or older audience; today the b has become the A and vice versa - try to find a film aimed at adults in the months between February and September and you'll be SOL if you don't live in the largest of cities.
Fortunately we have video, and many of us do have other choices at the cinema if we seek them out and are willing to go a little further afield. The best films of this decade can stand toe-to-toe with the best of any previous decade in my opinion, and if they didn't make the kind of money that a Transformers or Fast and Furious sequel did, it wasn't for lack of effort on the parts of the filmmakers.
One filmmaker - now approaching 80 but showing few signs of slowing down - managed to make four films that deserved placement on my list: Martin Scorsese. Several others are represented with three: an indie pioneer from the 80s (Richard Linklater) having his most productive decade yet, a film-making polymath from Quebec (Xavier Dolan) barely into his thirties, a French filmmaker (Céline Sciamma) also under 40 tackling women's and LGBTQ issues, an American director in her 40s (Marielle Heller) exploring youth and old age, biography and fiction, scammers and saintly TV hosts, a German director (Christian Petzold) making new and thought-provoking work out of the ghosts of his country's last terrible century, and an Iranian radical (Jafar Panahi) willing to accept prison rather than compromise his independence - and somehow making all of these three films while under house arrest and barred from making films. That's commitment.
And with two films each on the list, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Terence Davies, Lav Diaz, Clint Eastwood, Robert Eggers, Asghar Farhadi, Greta Gerwig, Don Hertzfeldt, Jim Jarmusch, Abbas Kiarostami, Kenneth Lonergan, Guy Maddin, Chan-wook Park, Mohammad Rasoulof, Kelly Reichardt, Raoul Ruiz, Makoto Shinkai and Agnès Varda are some of the many other great filmmakers who I continue to follow and seek out. Kiarostami, Varda, and Ruiz are no longer with us, but the value of their significant (immense in the case of Ruiz) filmographies lives on and I suspect with loom larger in the future - if cinema and any kind of culture continue to exist.
First 68 films ranked, after that in chronological order.
Fortunately we have video, and many of us do have other choices at the cinema if we seek them out and are willing to go a little further afield. The best films of this decade can stand toe-to-toe with the best of any previous decade in my opinion, and if they didn't make the kind of money that a Transformers or Fast and Furious sequel did, it wasn't for lack of effort on the parts of the filmmakers.
One filmmaker - now approaching 80 but showing few signs of slowing down - managed to make four films that deserved placement on my list: Martin Scorsese. Several others are represented with three: an indie pioneer from the 80s (Richard Linklater) having his most productive decade yet, a film-making polymath from Quebec (Xavier Dolan) barely into his thirties, a French filmmaker (Céline Sciamma) also under 40 tackling women's and LGBTQ issues, an American director in her 40s (Marielle Heller) exploring youth and old age, biography and fiction, scammers and saintly TV hosts, a German director (Christian Petzold) making new and thought-provoking work out of the ghosts of his country's last terrible century, and an Iranian radical (Jafar Panahi) willing to accept prison rather than compromise his independence - and somehow making all of these three films while under house arrest and barred from making films. That's commitment.
And with two films each on the list, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Terence Davies, Lav Diaz, Clint Eastwood, Robert Eggers, Asghar Farhadi, Greta Gerwig, Don Hertzfeldt, Jim Jarmusch, Abbas Kiarostami, Kenneth Lonergan, Guy Maddin, Chan-wook Park, Mohammad Rasoulof, Kelly Reichardt, Raoul Ruiz, Makoto Shinkai and Agnès Varda are some of the many other great filmmakers who I continue to follow and seek out. Kiarostami, Varda, and Ruiz are no longer with us, but the value of their significant (immense in the case of Ruiz) filmographies lives on and I suspect with loom larger in the future - if cinema and any kind of culture continue to exist.
First 68 films ranked, after that in chronological order.
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- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsRyan GoslingEmma StoneRosemarie DeWittWhile navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
- DirectorKenneth LonerganStarsAnna PaquinMatt DamonMark RuffaloA young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsAdriano LuzMaria João BastosRicardo PereiraThe tragic story of the many lives of Father Dinis, his dark origins and his pious works, and the different fates of all those who, trapped in a sinister web of love, hate and crime, cross paths with him through years of adventure.
- DirectorJacob KrupnickStarsAnne MarsenDai OmiyaJohn Clayton DoyleFollows a day in the life of the Girl as she dances her way through New York to Girl Talk's "All Day".
- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanEmma WatsonFlorence PughJo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
- DirectorIsao TakahataStarsChloë Grace MoretzJames CaanMary SteenburgenKaguya is a beautiful young woman coveted by five nobles. To try to avoid marrying a stranger she doesn't love, she sends her suitors on seemingly impossible tasks. But she will have to face her fate and punishment for her choices.
- DirectorGuy MaddinEvan JohnsonStarsRoy DupuisClara FureyLouis NeginIn this non-linear amalgamation, submarine crewmen and a woodsman wend their way through a voyage of odd experiences.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsEmma BellSara VertongenRose WilliamsThe story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
- DirectorMakoto ShinkaiStarsRyunosuke KamikiMone KamishiraishiRyo NaritaTwo teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.
- DirectorSarah PolleyStarsMichael PolleyJohn BuchanMark PolleyA film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.
- DirectorTom TykwerLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsTom HanksHalle BerryHugh GrantAn exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
- DirectorMasaaki YuasaStarsGen HoshinoKana HanazawaHiroshi KamiyaIn this comedy about one epic night in Kyoto, a college sophomore goes on a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife, all the while unaware of the romantic longings of her classmate Senpai.
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsDenis LavantEdith ScobEva MendesA man boards a limousine to be driven to his day's work: nine mysterious "appointments."
- DirectorLisandro AlonsoStarsViggo MortensenViilbjørk Malling AggerGhita NørbyA father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.
- DirectorShane CarruthStarsAmy SeimetzFrank MosleyShane CarruthA man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsJuliette BinocheWilliam ShimellJean-Claude CarrièreIn Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsPerry DizonRoeder CamanagHazel OrencioThe Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsLeila ZareFereshteh Sadre OrafaiyShahab HosseiniStory of a young lawyer in Tehran in search of a visa to leave the country, which is what Mohammad Rasoulof did during the winter of 2010/11.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsHaruka AyaseMasami NagasawaKahoThree sisters who live in their grandmother's home invite their thirteen-year-old half sister, whom they have just met, to join them.
- DirectorPatrick WangStarsSebastian BanesPatrick WangTrevor St. JohnWhen his partner Cody dies in a car accident, Joey learns that their son, Chip, has been willed to Cody's sister. In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are.
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsAdam DriverGolshifteh FarahaniNellieA quiet observation of the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.
- DirectorPatrick WangStarsTyne DalyElisabeth HenryJames MarstersAfter 40 years of running their community arts space, The Bread Factory, Dorothea and Greta are suddenly fighting for survival when a celebrity couple--performance artists from China--come to Checkford and build an enormous complex down the street catapulting big changes in their small town.
- DirectorPatrick WangStarsTyne DalyWayne FugateBela QuinesAt The Bread Factory, they rehearse the Greek play, Hecuba. But the real theatrics are outside the theater where the town has been invaded by bizarre tourists and mysterious tech start-up workers. There is a new normal in Checkford, if it is even really Checkford any longer.
- DirectorCéline SciammaStarsNoémie MerlantAdèle HaenelLuàna BajramiOn an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
- DirectorThom AndersenA personal history of cinema, partially inspired by Gilles Deleuze, 'The movement-image' and 'The time-image.' All quotations are from Deleuze, unless otherwise attributed.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiChang ChenYun ZhouA female assassin receives a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in eighth-century China.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsJennifer LawrenceJavier BardemEd HarrisA couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsVicky KriepsDaniel Day-LewisLesley ManvilleSet in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.
- DirectorNacho VigalondoStarsAnne HathawayJason SudeikisAustin StowellGloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon.
- DirectorMarielle HellerStarsBel PowleyAlexander SkarsgårdKristen WiigA teen artist living in 1970s San Francisco enters into an affair with her mother's boyfriend.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsJános DerzsiErika BókMihály KormosA rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsLeonardo DiCaprioArmie HammerNaomi WattsJ. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. for nearly fifty years, looks back on his professional and personal life.
- DirectorMaren AdeStarsSandra HüllerPeter SimonischekMichael WittenbornA practical joking father tries to reconnect with his hard working daughter by creating an outrageous alter ego and posing as her CEO's life coach.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJoaquin PhoenixAmy AdamsScarlett JohanssonIn a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiNasrin SotoudehBanned from making movies by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about social challenges in Iran.
- DirectorBo HuStarsYu ZhangYuchang PengUvin WangFour people in a Chinese city live through a complicated day as their lives intersect.
- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsMiles TellerJ.K. SimmonsMelissa BenoistA promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsJohn HustonOja KodarPeter BogdanovichAt a media-swamped party to celebrate his 70th birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.
- DirectorAtiq RahimiStarsGolshifteh FarahaniHamid DjavadanHassina BurganIn a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.
- DirectorXavier DolanStarsMelvil PoupaudEmmanuel SchwartzSuzanne ClémentA drama that charts ten years in a transgender woman's relationship with her lover.
- DirectorRonit ElkabetzShlomi ElkabetzStarsRonit ElkabetzSimon AbkarianGabi AmraniAfter a lukewarm marriage of over twenty years, a woman appeals to her husband's compassion to obtain the desirable divorce document in front of a court, which proves to be more challenging than she would expect.
- DirectorChristian PetzoldStarsNina HossRonald ZehrfeldNina KunzendorfAfter surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsSid LuceroAngeli BayaniArchie AlemaniaAn embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.
- DirectorLee Chang-dongStarsYun Jeong-hieLee Da-witKim Hee-raA sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsAnonymousAnonymousM. Ali NazarianKhosrow and Morteza set out on a mission to kill someone. The assassination ought to be arranged as a suicide. At the last minute however, they are obliged to change their initial plans...
- DirectorJames GrayStarsMarion CotillardJoaquin PhoenixJeremy RennerIn 1921, an innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsKen BlackburnMark BonnarStuart BowmanThe daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsAndrew GarfieldAdam DriverLiam NeesonIn the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsMatt DamonCécile de FranceBryce Dallas HowardAn American construction worker, a French journalist and a London school boy set out on a spiritual journey after death touches their lives in different ways.
- DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsAleksey SerebryakovElena LyadovaRoman MadyanovIn a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
- DirectorLászló NemesStarsGéza RöhrigLevente MolnárUrs RechnA Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.
- DirectorBanksyStarsBanksyMr. BrainwashSpace InvaderFollowing the style of some of the world's most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixJosh BrolinOwen WilsonIn 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.
- DirectorBarry JenkinsStarsMahershala AliNaomie HarrisTrevante RhodesA young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsBehrouz VossoughiMonica BellucciYilmaz ErdoganKurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks him dead for over twenty years.
- DirectorJonathan GlazerStarsScarlett JohanssonJeremy McWilliamsLynsey Taylor MackayA mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsAsa ButterfieldChloë Grace MoretzChristopher LeeIn 1931 Paris, an orphan living in the walls of a train station gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsYalitza AparicioMarina de TaviraDiego Cortina AutreyA year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
- DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsBrontis JodorowskyPamela FloresJeremias HerskovitsIn a little Chilean town, the son of an uprooted couple formed by a rigorous communist father and a loving but weak mother tries to pave his own path in a society that does not understand their Jewish-Ukrainian origins.
- DirectorJafar PanahiKambuzia PartoviStarsKambuzia PartoviMaryam MoghadamJafar PanahiIn a secluded house by the sea with the curtains shut, a screenwriter hides from the world with only his dog as company. The tranquility is abruptly broken one night by the arrival of a young woman fleeing from the authorities. Refusing to leave, she takes refuge in the house. But come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsJack BlackShirley MacLaineMatthew McConaugheyIn small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsRobert PattinsonJuliette BinocheSarah GadonRiding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.
- DirectorAlex GarlandStarsNatalie PortmanJennifer Jason LeighTessa ThompsonA biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
- DirectorTodd HaynesStarsOakes FegleyJulianne MooreMichelle WilliamsTells the tale of two children separated by fifty years. In 1927, Rose searches for the actress whose life she chronicles in her scrapbook; in 1977, Ben runs away from home to find his father.
- DirectorMohamed DiabStarsNilli KarimBushraMaged El-KidwaniUnfolds the poignant story of three women and their search for justice from the daily plight of sexual harassment in Egypt.
- DirectorXavier DolanStarsXavier DolanMonia ChokriNiels SchneiderThe story of three close friends who are involved in a love-triangle.
- DirectorYorgos ZoisStarsIris PonkinaHara AgaMichalis AinatzoglouAll kinds of people are waiting in seven different queues. The first person of each queue becomes the last of the next one, thus creating an enormous human line. But at the end of the line, it all begins backwards again.
- DirectorHenry JoostAriel SchulmanStarsNev SchulmanAriel SchulmanHenry JoostYoung filmmakers document their colleague's budding online friendship with a young woman and her family which leads to an unexpected series of discoveries.
- DirectorPeter TscherkasskyA sunbathing woman has a phantasmagoric vision of ecstasy, derived from various found footage sources.
- DirectorChristopher MorrisStarsWill AdamsdaleRiz AhmedAdeel AkhtarFour incompetent British terrorists set out to train for and commit an act of terror.
- DirectorRafi PittsStarsRafi PittsJavad NazariMitra HajjarIn an act of vengeance, a young man randomly kills two police officers. He escapes to the forest, where he is arrested by two other officers. The three men are surrounded by trees, the woods. They are lost in a maze, a desolate landscape, where the boundaries between the hunter and the hunted are difficult to perceive.
- DirectorSylvain ChometStarsJean-Claude DondaEilidh RankinDuncan MacNeilA French illusionist finds himself out of work and travels to Scotland, where he meets a young woman. Their ensuing adventure changes both their lives forever.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsThanapat SaisaymarJenjira PongpasSakda KaewbuadeeDying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.
- DirectorKelly ReichardtStarsMichelle WilliamsBruce GreenwoodPaul DanoSettlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
- DirectorMark RomanekStarsKeira KnightleyCarey MulliganAndrew GarfieldThe lives of three friends, from their early school days into young adulthood, when the reality of the world they live in comes knocking.
- DirectorJoe MorfordAnimated story of compassion in poverty.
- DirectorEdgar WrightStarsMichael CeraMary Elizabeth WinsteadKieran CulkinIn a magically realistic version of Toronto, a young man must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes one by one in order to win her heart.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioEmily MortimerMark RuffaloTeddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
- DirectorLuc MoulletStarsGiacomo AbbruzzeseBalthazar AuxietreMarion BillyA short film which focuses on the increasing automation of once human tasks.
- DirectorDebra GranikStarsJennifer LawrenceJohn HawkesGarret DillahuntAn unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuhammet UzunerYilmaz ErdoganTaner BirselA group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJodie FosterKate WinsletChristoph WaltzTwo pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsMichael FassbenderKeira KnightleyViggo MortensenA look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
- DirectorGuy MaddinStarsJason PatricIsabella RosselliniUdo KierGangster and deadbeat dad Ulysses Pick embarks on an unusual journey through his home.
- DirectorYong-ki JeongStarsKim Ju-hyukLee Yoon-jiLee Si-youngYoo-Suk (Ju-hyuk Kim) looks for a girlfriend who disappeared. Ae-Yeon (Yun-ji Lee) has a fake diamond which her ex-boyfriend gave to her. Ae-Yeon was dumped by her ex boyfriend. Byung-Chan (Kong Hyung-Jin) does not believe in love. Bok-Nam (Oh Jung-Se) is in love with a friend of a friend.
- DirectorSean DurkinStarsElizabeth OlsenSarah PaulsonJohn HawkesHaunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
- DirectorJulia LeighStarsEmily BrowningRachael BlakeEwen LeslieA haunting portrait of Lucy, a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.
- DirectorJeff NicholsStarsMichael ShannonJessica ChastainShea WhighamPlagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
- DirectorHomayoon Ass'adianStarsNegar JavaherianBehrouz ShoaybiJavad EzatiA Tehran mullah-in-training struggles to take care of his ailing wife and their children in this profoundly moving melodrama. A film of near-universal appeal, it puts a human face on Iran's Muslim clergy with its unusual tale of a man forced by hardship to become a better husband and father. Seyed Reza has just moved with his family to Tehran so he can study the Koran, and he relies on his lovely wife Zahra to look after their two young children and weave the intricate rugs that earn them a living. But one evening Zahra collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she's diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scarcely able to process the tragedy, Seyed is left to cook, change diapers, walk his daughter to school and take his toddler son with him to his classes, where peers and elders treat him with scorn. But Seyed eventually learns to cope, his prayers and devotional studies taking on deeper meaning as he attends to the hard nightly work of rug weaving, getting through with a heavy assist from friends, neighbors and kind strangers.
- DirectorCéline SciammaStarsZoé HéranMalonn LévanaJeanne DissonA family moves into a new neighborhood, and a 10-year-old named Laure deliberately presents as a boy named Mikhael to the neighborhood children.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsBrad PittSean PennJessica ChastainThe story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.
- DirectorHung-i ChenStarsYile ChangHsiuchin ChiPrince ChiuOverwhelmed by loss after her boyfriend mysteriously vanishes, overnight radio DJ, Vicky (Tseng Peiyu), drifts through her life like it's a dream, fixated on stories of the missing and the lost-stories she shares with her audience between moody selections of classical music. Stories like: "On Earth, a lot of bees have disappeared. The strange thing is we can't find the bodies of the dead bees, not even one." As she attempts to solve the mystery of her boyfriend's disappearance, she stumbles across an online community where her boyfriend, going by the handle "Dog," was a regular participant. The site is a digital sanctuary where users contribute lyrical evidence about all the things that have gone missing, from buildings to people. The conspiracy theory that binds them together is the belief that all these missing objects are slipping over into a parallel world.
- DirectorChristian PetzoldStarsNina HossRonald ZehrfeldRainer BockA doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
- DirectorBenh ZeitlinStarsQuvenzhané WallisDwight HenryLevy EasterlyFaced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
- DirectorBenedek FliegaufStarsKatalin ToldiGyöngyi LendvaiLajos SárkányUnknown racist murderers have already attacked four families. Some of them died. Who will be the next on this ordinary day? Inspired by a true story.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsGreta GerwigMickey SumnerAdam DriverA New York woman apprentices for a dance company and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.
- DirectorAnurag KashyapStarsManoj BajpayeeNawazuddin SiddiquiTigmanshu DhuliaA clash between Sultan and Shahid Khan leads to the expulsion of Khan from Wasseypur, and ignites a deadly blood feud spanning three generations.