France

The great Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark, Mother and Son) has made an eloquent anti-war film in which not a shot is fired. "Dream-like... a timely and humane film." — Sight and Sound

Cut-outs, paint-on-glass, puppetry, watercolour on tile, scratch films and hand-drawn work all feature in this year's selection of the best animated shorts from around the world.

A lost Egyptian band spends the night in a small Israeli town in this charming comedy. "Marries goofy deadpan comedy with a conciliatory spirit... you'll weep with laughter." — LA Weekly

This bittersweet comedy drama is filled with insight into women's lives in contemporary Lebanon. "Utterly entrancing and completely brilliant." — Film Comment

Director Manoel de Oliveira (born 1908) recreates the real-life search of Manuel Luciano da Silva and his wife Sílvia to prove that Christopher Columbus was actually Portuguese.

A stunning collection of recent international short digital animations from the dark edge of the creative spectrum.

Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu are superb in this adaptation of Balzac's tale of drawing room passion. "A nearly impeccable work of art – beautiful, true, profound." — NY Times

This evocation of Haiti is cinema poetry of intoxicating lyricism, a powerful allegory of the racial and sexual politics of colonial heritage.

This French collection of animated shorts enlist the fevered imaginations of six gifted artists to create an inventive take on our primordial phobias of all things dark.

Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien delivers a richly layered picture of life in Paris starring Juliette Binoche. "A movie of genius." — Village Voice

A gang of criminals take refuge in a hotel run by a family of degenerate Nazis. French cinema gets dragged kicking and screaming into the grindhouse in this gore-drenched debut.

Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) channels his anger with mainstream media depiction of violence into a horrific and highly entertaining piece of cinema. Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth.

Awash with the sights and sounds of the French city of Strasbourg, this lyrical tale of a young man's search for his lost love is a purely cinematic, virtually wordless treat for romantics and people watchers.

This taut, brooding crime drama plumbs the relationship between a dangerously immature, adrift father and his introverted son.

It's business as usual in the polished world of French farce, where it's open season on the tasteless and the clueless; and heartless cads have the best lines. Starring Daniel Auteuil.

Winner of France's Jean Vigo Award for the year's most remarkable debut, La France mixes genres – period romance, war movie and pop album – to confoundingly pleasurable effect.

What do kids think their parents do at work? French filmmaker Françoise Marie gets fascinating, often funny answers by having kids act out their parents' work days. "A real charmer." — Variety

Actress Arta Dobroshi is a revelation as a young Albanian woman inveigled into a treacherous scam in acclaimed Dardennes Brothers' new film. Best Screenplay, Cannes Film Festival 2008.

Cult director Béla Tarr's bizarre, ominous adaptation of a Simenon detective novel unfolds in amazingly choreographed mobile camera sequences. "Mesmeric." — The Guardian

This extravagantly mounted, endlessly inventive stop-motion puppet animation should appeal to admirers of films like The Nightmare Before Christmas or Wallace & Gromit's Were-Rabbit adventure.

A shy, uncannily philosophical country boy's view of a confused grown-up world is rendered with great charm and sensitivity in this beautiful film from Brazil.

A Norwegian bachelor faces retirement in this charming comedy, easily the best-loved film to debut at Cannes this year. "A small wonder... luminous and deliciously funny." — LA Times

From the director of The Spanish Apartment, a mult-character cavalcade of life and death and love and the lack of it in the City of Lights. "A rich and satisfying indulgence." — UrbanCinefile.com.au

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is one of the wonders of the year, an animated feature that's more richly populated, vigorous, succinct and shrewdly funny than many a flesh-and-blood drama.

The classic romance of a Parisian boy and his huge red balloon returns with the same director's equally honoured White Mane, the tale of a country boy's passion for a beautiful wild horse.

At 87, Eric Rohmer, lifelong connoisseur and satirist of the romantic misadventures of the young and self-absorbed, finds inspiration in a classic Arcadian romance.

This tale of adultery in a Mennonite community in rural Mexico has the power of a story from the Old Testament. "This is a film of grace and greatness." — Financial Times

A poetic meditation on solitude, this masterful debut frames its characters within the imposing, rugged setting of a rural coastal area in Chile.

This riveting documentary strips away the sensationalism that has accrued around the survivors of the 1972 Andean air crash to reinstate their experience as one of the great instances of heroic human endurance.

Fascinating portrait of the enigmatic lawyer who has defended the indefensible: Klaus Barbie, Carlos the Jackal, Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussain.

A fascinating, entertaining compilation of short films about movie-going by some of the world's greatest directors: Cronenberg, Lynch, Campion, Kitano, Salles, Kiarostami, Polanski etc etc...

Lively, affectionate portrait of graffiti-influenced 80s artist Keith Haring, who painted on every surface he could find, including cars, walls, T-shirts and the subway.

This extraordinary animated film captures director Air Folman's struggle to recover his lost memories of what he saw and what he did during Israel's ill-fated 1980s war in Lebanon.

Crisply observed drama of schoolgirl crushes, jealousies and sexual exploration on a synchronised swimming team. "Very provocative and stylish." — The Guardian

This affectionate satire of an urban trendy transferred to a provincial town is now the most successful French film of all time.