France

Glorious highly imaginative animated images in myriad formats, selected with an eye to the giant screen, from the world’s best by NZIFF veteran/Melbourne International Animation Festival supremo Malcolm Turner.

By day Dino the cat lives with his young owner Zoé. By night he accompanies a daring burglar. A droll, action-packed animated adventure for kids of nine or so and up – with a cool hand-drawn style and a retro jazz soundtrack.

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of southern France, capturing the miraculously preserved, oldest known pictorial creations of humankind, maybe 32,000 years old.

“The world of sex, drugs, and underground nightclubs in Iran provides the backdrop for Maryam Keshavarz’s lusty, dreamy take on the passionate teenagers behind the hijabs.” — San Francisco Bay Guardian

This funny, perceptive tale of teenaged city boys let loose in the countryside imbues Stand by Me with sardonic social realism and shades of the Brothers Grimm. “Unselfconscious, endearing and completely believable.” — Screendaily

Searching for the brother they never knew they had, a brother and sister unravel the mystery of their Middle Eastern mother’s war-torn past. “A spectacular experience… a Greek tragedy delivered to modern times.” — Film Threat

Eye-opening doco about the Russian oil oligarch, widely seen as a challenge to Putin and now in a Siberian prison. “Thoroughly researched and highly entertaining… a pungent portrait of contemporary Russia.” — Variety

In this gripping Cannes Grand Prix winner from Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, a wild 11-year-old boy rebounds between the judicious care of a kind, single woman (Cécile de France) and the blandishments of a streetwise older boy.

A circus, two clowns, one ballerina, a blood-and-bullets-riddled love triangle, and lots of dark humour. The Tarantino-headed jury gave The Last Circus Best Screenplay and Best Director awards, Venice Film Festival 2010.

This tender French comedy by Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki was a huge hit at Cannes and winner of the Critics Prize. “Wonderful, big-hearted comedy… What a treat this film is.” — The Guardian

A teenage girl learns some lessons about sex, death and the love of Jesus in this award-winning French drama. "An auspicious debut... beautiful and unsettling" — Sight and Sound

Danish iconoclast Lars von Trier stages a disastrous society wedding in the face of interplanetary collision. “A magnificent apocalyptic fable… gorgeous, profoundly emotional and often very funny.” — Salon.com. Best Actress (Kirsten Dunst), Cannes Film Festival 2011.

A sumptuous immersion in the labyrinthine romantic intrigues and perfidies of 19th-century Portuguese nobility, priests and pirates. “Terrific costumed epic... Storytelling of breathtaking scale and grandeur.” — Empire

Danny Boon follows up his phenomenally popular Welcome to the Sticks with another hit comedy about parochial prejudice: when the EU dissolves the borders it can’t dissolve the rivalry between French and Belgian customs officers.

Sophie Fiennes’ documentary immerses us in the monumental wasteland being created by German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer – and shows us the artist at work. “Ravishingly hypnotic.” — Sight & Sound

Wim Wenders’ tribute to the late choreographer-dancer Pina Bausch stages some of her best-known pieces in thrilling 3D. “The camerawork is as sublime as the performances… It’s a beautiful and moving film.” — Time Out

This tense, provocative and surprisingly funny drama draws us into the ‘little brother’ scam by which a young black Swedish street gang successfully hustled other kids in plain sight, without physical violence.

This tense, exhilarating chase thriller takes you on a breakneck rush through the streets and subways of Paris. “One hell of an adrenalin rush… it’s something any fan of the genre needs to see.” — Twitch

Chocolate brings a pair of clinically shy people together in this delicious French romantic comedy starring Benoît Poelvoorde (Coco avant Chanel). “Packed with bittersweet humour and genuine charm.” — Screendaily

Moving, meticulously researched, controversial concentration camp drama. “Hailed as an important step in France’s acknowledgment of its complicity in the crimes of the Occupation.” — The Guardian

French 17th-century theatre is inventively spirited into the cinematic present in this delightful, thoroughly contemporary adaptation by Mathieu Amalric starring a great Comédie Française cast and set in the luxurious Hôtel de Louvre.

You don’t have to be a petrolhead to ‘get’ the legend of Formula One racer Ayrton Senna. Ask any Brazilian – or check out the most enthralling big-screen sports documentary since When We Were Kings.

A best-selling Italian novel about two bright, fiercely lonely misfits caught in a strange, life-long pas de deux is now a strange, fiercely unconventional love story – and a dazzling work of pure cinema. Starring Alba Rohrwacher (I Am Love).

Supinfocom is one of the finest animation schools in the world, with two campuses in France and one in India. The latest graduate films are so stunning that we have devoted an entire programme to the best of them.

This bold, luminous drama of childhood and gender identity centres on ten-year-old Laure, happily passing for a boy when her family move to a new neighbourhood. Superbly acted by a largely child cast.

Béla Tarr's final masterwork. “The Turin Horse is an absolute vision, masterly and enveloping in a way that less personal, more conventional movies are not. The film doesn't seduce; it commands.” — NPR

This slick, atmospheric thriller is packed with kinetic enery. "The first major motion picture to come out of Congo in decades happens to be one of the best neonoirs from anywhere in recent memory." — Time Out New York

In this breezy comedy an uptight middle-class couple (Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain) are snapped out of their tired routines by their Spanish maid and a houseful of her female relations.