France

Arman, a 33-year-old Parisian slacker (and self-deprecating livewire), is out running when he collides with the stunning, oddly impassive Amelie. There’s a seductive undertow of gravity to this engagingly self-aware romcom.

This year’s programme is designed for the entertainment pleasure of audiences aged 7-10.

Diversity is always one of the aims we embrace in the process of putting our annual Animation Now programme together.

Soprano Natalie Dessay, acclaimed for her dramatic brilliance, rehearses La Traviata in intense creative collaboration with director Jean-Franois Sivadier. “Ravishing... Time with Dessay is worth treasuring.” — Village Voice

In a heartbreaking performance, Juliette Binoche portrays the great French sculptress consigned by her family a century ago to a mental asylum; for reasons neither she nor we can understand.

Our ultimate post-Closing Night extravagance is a special one-off NZ screening of surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky’s gloriously entertaining and frequently funny new film. “Has cult potential in every baroque, eye-popping frame.” — Screendaily

Four stories of contemporary Italian life, love and politics are expertly interwoven in Marco Bellocchio’s sweeping, eagle-eyed drama of social upheaval and personal crisis. With Isabelle Huppert.

A gruff bear and an artistically inclined mouse become the best of friends in this exquisitely drawn animated feature based on the children’s stories and watercolour illustrations of Belgian artist Gabrielle Vincent.

A young woman on holiday in Nice tries to befriend her absent lover’s haughty teenage kids in this crisply observed drama. “A cerebral snapshot of the moneyed, cultured, multilingual bourgeoisie at play.” — Hollywood Reporter

Former leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service agency talk frankly about terrorism, torture, war and Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this Oscar-nominated documentary. “Exemplary enterprise journalism.” — Wall St Journal

Claudia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale await the return of a prodigal son in an adapted play from the world’s oldest director. “A grand piece of cinematic chamber music for a cast of mighty soloists.” — New Yorker

When hard-working Maria and Jose inherit a handsome property in Portugal, should they leave behind the lives they’ve made in Paris? A funny, warm-hearted and hugely entertaining upstairs-downstairs comedy.

In Paolo Sorrentino’s intoxicating cinematic fresco of contemporary Rome, Toni Servillo plays Jep, a long-stalled writer and wealthy bon vivant whom we first meet turning 65 in grand style. A visit from the widower of an old girlfriend provokes unexpected invigoration of his dormant creative instincts.

The violence and brutality of a Kazakh high school explored in this daunting first feature penetrate far beyond the classroom. “Stark and surreal, strange and beautiful; it’s entirely riveting.” — Hollywood Reporter

Mexican Amat Escalante’s controversial, terrifying picture of innocents drawn into an inferno of drug-gang violence won him the Best Director laurel at Cannes. “Winningly provocative and always compelling.” — Time Out

Nicolas Philibert’s funny, affectionate doco about dedicated individuals at work in Paris’s massive Maison de la Radio is an audio-visual hymn to broadcasting artistry, and a resounding endorsement of French public service radio.

Fabrice Luchini and Kristin Scott Thomas star in a juicy black comedy-drama by François Ozon. “A witty, naughty, insight-packed provocation which never takes its seriousness too seriously.” — Time Out London

In this hit romcom the age difference that has characterised a century of French cinema is reversed: 38-year-old fashion editor Alice (Virginie Efira) is romanced by 20-year-old architecture major Balthazar (Pierre Niney).

The stirring true story of French show jumper Pierre Durand, his amazing little black gelding Jappeloup and their long ride to the Seoul Olympics. So expertly told it will have Kiwi audiences cheering for the French equestrian.

The cinema becomes an immersion chamber in this intensely visceral account of commercial fishing aboard a New England fishing trawler, from the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard. “A watery knockout.” — Village Voice

Iranian maestro Kiarostami (Certified Copy) proves uncannily at home in Tokyo. His tantalising drama of uneasy romantic illusions explores the encounter of a young student and the elderly professor who pays for her company.

Passionate romance, brutal treachery and selfless nobility are set against Napoleon’s 1810 invasion of Portugalin the late Raúl Ruiz’s epic follow-up to Mysteries of Lisbon, completed by his widow Valeria Sarmiento.

Now here's one for the head-scratcher file: a remake of an infamous 80s slasher flick with sweet, innocent Elijah Wood in the role once played by the late, great, bloated and sweaty Joe Spinnell.

Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh’s perennial project is to bear witness to the history that the Khmer Rouge, with terrible effectiveness, systematically consigned to oblivion. In this remarkable new film, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes this year, he enlists a mix of narration, propaganda footage, music, photos and tiny carved models.

Michel Gondry’s eye-popping film is a surreal romantic tragedy set in a retro-futurist Paris, with Romain Duris, Audrey Tatou, Omar Sy. “Gondry builds a beautifully busy alternate universe full of surprises.” — Screendaily

A disillusioned city cop finds romance and trouble in an Iraqi-Turkish border town in this black comic Kurdish Western. “Over the top from start to finish, a delightful, poker-faced take-off on the cowboy movie.” — Hollywood Reporter

Direct from Cannes, the latest entry from Jim Jarmusch, past master of punk cool. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are Adam and Eve, blood-sipping lovers since time began. “Passionate and consummately chic.” — Screendaily

Abrasive lampoon of one woman’s hysterical love of Jesus. “I laughed uproariously throughout this horrifying portrait of a religious fanatic, and if there’s something the matter with you, you will, too.” — John Waters

A sardonically observed but compassionate tale of a 13-year-old girl’s diet camp crush on a much older doctor. “A bracing antidote to all the manufactured triumphalism of weight-loss reality shows.” — Hollywood Reporter

An Austrian woman in Kenya plays 'Sugar Mama’ to assorted beach boys in this provocative take on exotic romance.

The great Iranian director Asghar Farhadi turns his attention to a Parisian household in a drama as intimate and gripping as his A Separation. Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) in the pivotal role took the Best Actress Award at Cannes.

A visually ravishing, palpably sensual autobiographical feature from Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (Japon, Silent Light), winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes in 2012. “A perverse, dreamlike masterpiece.” — Salon.com

A sensation at Cannes, and anywhere else it plays we’d imagine, Alain Guiraudie’s film is a seductive blend of beauty, eroticism and suspense in which multifarious desires are played out on a secluded, idyllic gay beach – and adjacent forest

In a Chinese mountain village a family of remarkable sisters aged ten, six and four, sustain themselves with minimal adult support in this remarkable doco. “A work of sustained observation and exquisite empathy.” — Cinema Scope

In May 1971, Roman Polanski went to Monaco with documentarian Frank Simon to shadow the world’s greatest Formula One racer, Jackie Stewart. The resulting film was praised by racing enthusiasts but considered too specialised for wide release.