1. The Red Turtle (La tortue rouge)
The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.
It has an average vote of 7.477 on TMDB.
2. The Illusionist (L'Illusionniste)
A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.
It has an average vote of 7.235 on TMDB.
3. Bent
Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
4. The Humans
Erik Blake has gathered three generations of his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare.
It has an average vote of 6.13 on TMDB.
5. Under the Hawthorn Tree (山楂树之恋)
The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
It has an average vote of 7.7 on TMDB.
6. Royal Space Force - The Wings Of Honneamise (王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼)
On a future Earth, war between the Kingdom of Honneamise and its rival, The Republic, is inevitable. As evolving technology creates new ways to wage war, a small group seeks to propel mankind into space in their world’s first spaceflight program. For astronaut candidate Shirotsugh Lhadatt, it’s a personal odyssey as he grows from an aimless young man into a leader willing to put everything on the line in order to move the human race forward and away from the brink of Armageddon.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
7. The Thief of Bagdad
When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.
It has an average vote of 7.101 on TMDB.
8. Alien Xmas
A young elf mistakes a tiny alien for a Christmas gift, not knowing her new plaything has plans to destroy Earth's gravity — and steal all the presents.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
9. The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse)
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
It has an average vote of 7.636 on TMDB.
10. Nocturna
An orphan boy named Tim is afraid of the dark. However, when the stars start going out in the sky, he finds himself exploring the world of the night, alongside his new friend, the Cat Shepherd.
It has an average vote of 7.2 on TMDB.
11. Olla (Olla)
After answering an ad on a dating website for Eastern European women, Olla leaves Ukraine and heads to French suburbia to move in with Pierre, who lives with his elderly mother. However, the suburbia cannot temper her desires, and nothing goes as expected.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
12. On Guard (Le Bossu)
France, 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIII. When a dear friend, the Duke of Nevers, is treacherously assassinated by a powerful relative, a skilled swordsman, the noble Henri de Lagardère, seeks his rightful vengeance as he tries to protect the innocent life of the duke's last heir.
It has an average vote of 6.714 on TMDB.
13. Zarafa (Zarafa)
Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously animated and stirring adventure, and a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping CinemaScope vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of darkness a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him – as well as the nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
14. The Ideal (L'Idéal)
Octave Parango, the former concept creator/editor of 99 francs has become a model scout in Moscow. This cynical hedonist leads a very pleasant life in the arms of young Russian models and in the private jets of his oligarch friends... until the day that he is contacted by The Ideal, the world's leading cosmetic's firm, embroiled in a huge media scandal. Our antihero has seven days to find a new muse by traveling through the confines of post-Communist Russia, under the orders of Valentine Winfield, a hard and authoritarian visual director.
It has an average vote of 5.274 on TMDB.
15. Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca)
A deeply disturbed and epileptic young man benignly decides to murder other members of his dysfunctional family for altruistic reasons.
It has an average vote of 7.82 on TMDB.
16. From Me to You (君に届け)
Sawako Kuronuma looks miserable on the outside, but is actually a positive-minded girl, who looks up to Shota Kazehaya, a sociable and friendly boy. Perceiving Sawako's good intentions, he secretly has feelings for her. Sawako meets Kazehaya and makes her first friends, Chizuru and Ayane but in comes Kurumi proclaiming her love for him... Will Sawako and Kazehaya ever find out about each other's feelings?
It has an average vote of 7.216 on TMDB.
17. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
It has an average vote of 7.133 on TMDB.
18. Shepherds and Butchers
A lawyer takes on a case of a prison guard in South Africa who is traumatized by the executions he's witnessed.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
19. Orphan (Orpheline)
A young woman moves to Paris and has a brush with disaster. Grown-up at last, an accomplished woman thought she was safe from her own past. Gradually, these characters come together to form a single heroine.
It has an average vote of 5.408 on TMDB.
20. Céline and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau)
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives pre-empted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality. An undisputed classic of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating is a delightful movie about the spiritual journey of a pair of young women, told with a playful approach to the cinematic form. A masterpiece of cinematic creativity, Rivette, the same mind behind 1969’s L’amour fou, effortlessly draws the viewer into the whimsical world of the titular protagonists.
It has an average vote of 6.713 on TMDB.
