The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a 1964 musical romantic drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music and lyrics by Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo star as two young lovers in the French city of Cherbourg, separated by circumstance. The film's dialogue is entirely sung as recitative, including casual conversation, and is sung-through, or through-composed, like some operas and stage musicals. It has been seen as the middle part of an informal "romantic trilogy" of Demy films that share some of the same actors, characters, and overall look, coming after Lola (1961) and before The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). The French-language film was a co-production between France and West Germany.
Black Orpheus is a 1959 romantic tragedy film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which is itself an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the modern context of a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. The film was an international co-production among production companies in Brazil, France and Italy.
Toto the Hero is a 1991 Belgian film by Belgian film director and screenwriter Jaco Van Dormael. It won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and the César Award for Best Foreign Film in 1992. The film was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Macario is a 1960 Mexican supernatural drama film directed by Roberto Gavaldón and starring Ignacio López Tarso and Pina Pellicer. It is based on the novel of the same name by B. Traven, loosely based in an old border legend, set in the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
The White Balloon is a 1995 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi, with a screenplay by Abbas Kiarostami. It was Panahi's feature-film debut as director. The film received many strong critical reviews and won numerous awards in the international film fairs around the world including the Prix de la Camera d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The Guardian has listed this film as one of the 50 best family films of all time. The film is on the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a 1970 Italian crime drama film directed by Elio Petri, starring Gian Maria Volonté and Florinda Bolkan. It is a psychological, black-humored satire on corruption in high office, telling the story of a top police officer who kills his mistress, and then tests whether the police would charge him for this crime. He begins manipulating the investigation by planting obvious clues while the other police officers ignore them, either intentionally or not.
Darrell James Roodt is a South African film director, screenwriter and producer. He is probably most well known for his 1992 film Sarafina! which starred actress Whoopi Goldberg. Also regarded as South Africa's most prolific film director, Roodt has worked with the late Patrick Swayze in Father Hood, James Earl Jones in Cry, the Beloved Country and Ice Cube in Dangerous Ground.
The Class is a 2008 French drama film directed by Laurent Cantet, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau's experiences as a French language and literature teacher in a middle school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, particularly illuminating his struggles with "problem children": Esmerelda, Khoumba, and Souleymane. The film stars Bégaudeau himself in the role of the teacher.
Le Havre is a 2011 comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. The film was produced by Kaurismäki's Finnish company Sputnik with international co-producers in France and Germany. It is Kaurismäki's second French-language film, after La Vie de Bohème from 1992.
Carancho is a 2010 Argentine crime film directed by Pablo Trapero and starring Ricardo Darín and Martina Gusmán. It was entered into the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.
Life, Above All is a 2010 South African drama film directed by Oliver Schmitz. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the South African entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards and made the final shortlist announced in January 2011. The film was adapted from the 2004 novel Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a 2011 internationally co-produced drama film, co-written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan based on the true experience of one of the film's writers, telling the story of a group of men who search for a dead body on the Anatolian steppe. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on 23 September 2011, premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it was a co-winner of the Grand Prix.
Miss Bala is a 2011 Mexican action thriller film written by Gerardo Naranjo with Mauricio Katz and directed by Gerardo Naranjo. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. An American remake was made in 2019.
Winnie Mandela is a 2011 South African-Canadian historical drama film starring Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard as Winnie and Nelson Mandela. Based on Anne Marie du Preez Bezrob's biography Winnie Mandela: A Life, the film is directed by Darrell Roodt and co-stars Wendy Crewson, Elias Koteas and Justin Strydom. Image Entertainment released the film in theaters on September 6, 2013. It received generally negative reviews.
Timbuktu is a 2014 Mauritanian-French drama film directed and co-written by Abderrahmane Sissako. The film centres on the brief occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine, and is partially influenced by the 2012 public stoning of an unmarried couple in Aguelhok. Shot in Oualata, Mauritania, Timbuktu was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the François Chalais Prize. It was chosen as Mauritania's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and went on to be nominated for the prize at the 87th Academy Awards; it was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 69th British Academy Film Awards. Timbuktu was named Best Film at the 11th Africa Movie Academy Awards, where it was nominated for ten further awards. In 2017, The New York Times ranked it the twelfth best film of the twenty-first century so far.
Son of Saul is a 2015 Hungarian historical drama film directed by László Nemes, in his feature directorial debut, and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer. It is set in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, and follows a day-and-a-half in the life of Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando.
Deon Lotz is a South African film, television, and theatre actor. He is perhaps best known internationally for roles in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Beauty (Skoonheid). He has appeared in both English- and Afrikaans-language productions.
Oliver Hermanus is a South African film director and writer. His films include Shirley Adams (2009), Beauty (Skoonheid) (2011), The Endless River (2015), and Moffie (2019). His film Beauty won the Queer Palm Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Dogman is a 2018 Italian crime drama film inspired by real events involving Er Canaro, and directed by Matteo Garrone. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, Marcello Fonte won the award for Best Actor. Although selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, it was not nominated.
Border is a 2018 Swedish fantasy film directed by Ali Abbasi with a screenplay by Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf and John Ajvide Lindqvist based on the short story of the same name by Ajvide Lindqvist from his anthology Let the Old Dreams Die. It won the Un Certain Regard award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards but was not nominated. However, it was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
