3 You Must See

The troubled lives of four desperate people unfold over the course of a single day, in this melancholy masterpiece about the human condition.

Twenty-five years old and newly restored, Gary Oldman’s BAFTA-winning debut as writer-director remains a magnificent achievement.

Bridgett M. Davis’s comedy about an aspiring young Black actress who lands her first major role, but there’s a big problem: it requires a nude scene.

A young London-based writer begins a double life as a sex worker to research his debut novel, in this gripping psychological drama.

Bullied for her sexuality, Dublin schoolgirl Lily turns to her gay best friend for support in this vibrant coming-out, coming-of-age drama.

A British-Palestinian drag performer catches the eye of a strait-laced white man in Amrou Al-Kadhi’s stunning, semi-autobiographical debut.

Three expectant mothers on a maternity ward recall their personal and sexual experiences in Mai Zetterling’s bold, subversive debut.

In Mai Zetterling’s scathing rebuke of European entitlement, a man returns to his childhood home and confronts his repressed memories and desire.

Three stage actresses starring in Aristophanes’ classic play Lysistrata start to draw parallels with their own lives in Mai Zetterling’s feminist comedy.

Bresson’s superb final film and Cannes winner is a Tolstoy adaptation relating how a prank with a forged bank note leads to tragedy.

Luchino Visconti's final film is a brilliant and disturbing drama set against the opulent backdrop of decadent, late 19th-century aristocracy.

Yasujiro Ozu's elegiac final film charts the inevitable eclipse of older generations by irreverent youth.

Steven Soderbergh’s audacious debut, starring James Spader and Andie Macdowell, is an intimate exploration of sexual desire, and a landmark of 90’s American independent filmmaking.

Julianne Moore stars as a housewife who suffers from a mysterious illness in Todd Haynes’ blend of horror and existential Americana.

Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jared Harris star in Kelly Reichardt's acclaimed portmanteau of women's stories.

A fishing family tries to escape poverty and exploitation by becoming the owner of its own boat in Luchino Visconti's work of uncompromising realism.

Italian maestro Luchino Visconti’s epic drama follows a mother and her five sons who move from a small town to Milan, changing their lives forever.

Luchino Visconti's final film is a brilliant and disturbing drama set against the opulent backdrop of decadent, late 19th-century aristocracy.

The lives of ten strangers collide when a cleaner finds a bag stuffed with money in this slick, jet-black comedy that unspools like a Korean Pulp Fiction. Starring Academy Award winner Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari).

Bresson’s superb final film and Cannes winner is a Tolstoy adaptation relating how a prank with a forged bank note leads to tragedy.

Tom Tykwer’s breathtaking time-loop thriller, with a terrific Franka Potente as the titular runner attempting to save her boyfriend.

A hitman becomes the target in this ultra-stylish neo noir from Kim Jee-woon.

Kim Jee-woon’s hilarious comedy, starring Song Kang-ho (Parasite) as a wimpy bank clerk who turns his hand to competitive wrestling.

A disgraced ex-cop has twelve hours to stop the release of a serial killer in this acclaimed, multi award-winning cult classic.

A notorious 17th-century witch trial turns into a powerful allegory of life under totalitarian rule, in this chilling Czech political fable.

A hilarious, energetic musical parody of old-style westerns, full of twists and hidden identities, which boasts a considerable cult following in the Czech Republic.

Considered the first of the Czech New Wave, launching the career of Miloš Forman and showcasing his trademark use of non-actors, focusing on ordinary people in everyday life.

Ten-year-old Aisha courageously pursues her dream of becoming an actress in this exquisite coming-of-age tale from Kenya.

Rosine Mbakam’s feature debut focuses on a week in the life of a working-class Cameroonian who strives against all odds to make ends meet.

Luck Razanajaona’s feature debut is an illuminating drama about revolution, corruption, and a young man’s political awakening in Madagascar.

Bruce Lee plays the factory worker who takes on a drug-smuggling gang, in the breakthrough film that catapulted him to cinematic superstardom.

Jackie Chan takes inspiration from Indiana Jones as he becomes embroiled in a dangerous quest to retrieve a lost treasure.

Legendary martial artist Sonny Chiba stars in this cult karate classic that's revered by Quentino Tarantino.

A sleepy seaside town becomes beholden to a bloodthirsty cult, in this dreamy and atmospheric horror.

A widowed doctor has gruesome plans for his new wife in this lush, Hitchcockian Italian gothic horror.

A deadly liquor rips through a community of vagabonds living in the junkyards of Brooklyn, in this outlandish 80s body horror.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to Drive My Car is a hauntingly enigmatic eco-thriller. Winner of Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival.

Andrey Zvyagintsev delivers a caustic look at contemporary Russian society, a failed marriage and a child's disappearance.

Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jared Harris star in Kelly Reichardt's acclaimed portmanteau of women's stories.

Radu Jude’s follow-up to the Golden Bear-winning Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a pin-sharp, caustically funny critique of workplace culture and oppression.

Radu Jude delivers on the promise of his first feature, The Happiest Girl in the World, with this superb black comedy.

Berlin Golden Bear winner, Radu Jude’s scathing satire finds schoolteacher Emi threatened with dismissal when a private sex tape goes viral.

Christopher Walken is the dogged drug-lord determined to keep his empire together, in Abel Ferrara's brutally gritty crime thriller.

Barbie creators Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach hit their stride with this critical smash about an awkward girl and her complex passions.

Chantal Akerman reads letters sent to her from her mother in Belgium, against a tableau of shots of 1970s New York.

Powerful adaptation of Truman Capote’s true-crime novel about the massacre of a family in Kansas, and the manhunt for the killers.

Justin Kurzel's shocking dramatisation of Australia's most notorious serial killings.

Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.

With gripping set-pieces, Andrzej Wajda’s debut depicts the establishment of a teenage anti-German resistance group.

Andrzej Wadja’s clammy and nightmarishly claustrophobic depiction of the 1944 Warsaw uprising.

Andrzej Wajda’s best-known, visually remarkable film starring Zbigniew Cybulski.

A lavish trip to the Turkish Riviera goes horribly awry in this disturbing tale of power, exploitation and complicity from the writer of Border.

A young man witnesses a violent crime at a gay cruising ground and becomes obsessed with the killer in Alain Guiraudie’s acclaimed mystery-thriller.

The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack.

With his third feature, Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day) delivers a breathtakingly inventive and ambitious historical epic, set in mid-19th-century Iceland.

A peek behind the scenes at the homoerotic photography zine Kink, which has cultivated an intimate style employing non-professional models.

Dazzling document of Soviet life, by Dziga Vertov, showing a living city and the people and machines that propel it.

A gorgeous and colourful heart-warming gem from Charlotte Regan, one of the best new voices in British film.

Fires rage around a pompous novelist and his awkward desires in Christian Petzold’s sharp comedy drama.

Writer-director Paris Zarcilla’s debut film elegantly balances gothic horror and social drama, producing an unholy child of a film that provokes as much as it spooks.

Jenny Agutter plays the teenage girl reliant on a young Aboriginal for her survival, in Nicolas Roeg's stunning Australian outback drama.

A lone scientist in Portugal’s Douro region embarks on an unexpected transcendental journey. Beautiful, erotic and baffling.

This strikingly original and enthralling feature debut from Laura Samani details the odyssey of a young mother as she tries to save her baby’s soul.

Chantal Akerman's magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.

Bette Gordon’s groundbreaking, gloriously subversive neo-noir thriller is one of the very best American underground films.

Two deaf-mute dock workers eke out a humble East End existence in Lorenza Mazzetti's striking and poetic example of Free Cinema.

Technology and sexuality meet in head-on collision in David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s transgressive 1973 novel.

Yorgos Lanthimos' scary, witty tale of a dysfunctional Greek family is original, ingenious and sadly relevant as a study of parent-child relationships

Andrey Zvyagintsev delivers a caustic look at contemporary Russian society, a failed marriage and a child's disappearance.

Jayne County, Angie Stardust and Tara O'Hara star in Rosa von Praunheim's trans-punk groteskes-musical.

Fleeing a scandal in his hometown, rancher Casey heads to Sydney in search of shelter and connection. He meets Tib, in this erotic drama.

A beautifully textured study revealing the rich and troubled private life of the writer behind Carol.

From director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure) comes a satire on the hypocrisy of the art world, starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West. Winner of the Palme d'Or.

Set against the backdrop of 50 years of Yugoslavian history, this moving tragic-farce by Emir Kusturica earned him his second Palme d'Or.

The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.

Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of Italian neorealism often cited as one of the greatest films ever made.

Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.

Roberto Rossellini's acerbic but finally very moving masterpiece about marital crisis boasts great performances from Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders

Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool.

Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone are members of a criminal gang that tears itself apart after a heist goes wrong, in Antonia Bird’s stylish thriller.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke star as criminal brothers whose botched heist leads to escalating turmoil, in Sidney Lumet's twisty thriller.

Francisca Alegría brings together family trauma and ecology into a poetic journey of rebirth. A mysterious and poetic tale on our collapsing ecosystem and finding balance.

Mark Jenkin follows Bait with this chilling, endlessly mysterious folk horror tale, beautifully shot on grainy 16mm.

Tilda Swinton narrates this visually stunning lament for humanity by acclaimed composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (Sicario, Arrival).

Juliet Bashore’s queer docufiction, starring Tigr and real-life girlfriend Sharon Mitchell, celebrates the the San Francisco underground in the 1980s.

Miguel, a young married fisherman with a baby on the way, struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions.

A conservative family in Pakistan is torn apart when a son falls in love with a transgender erotic dancer, in Saim Sadiq’s riveting queer drama.

A neglected girl lives a joyful summer in Colm Bairéad's Academy Award-nominated debut that combines outstanding beauty and heart-wrenching performances.

Twenty-five years old and newly restored, Gary Oldman’s BAFTA-winning debut as writer-director remains a magnificent achievement.

This Oscar-nominated, Almodóvar-produced anthology of six tales of ordinary madness is the most riotously enjoyable portmanteau film since Pulp Fiction.

Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jared Harris star in Kelly Reichardt's acclaimed portmanteau of women's stories.

Steven Soderbergh’s audacious debut, starring James Spader and Andie Macdowell, is an intimate exploration of sexual desire, and a landmark of 90’s American independent filmmaking.

Julianne Moore stars as a housewife who suffers from a mysterious illness in Todd Haynes’ blend of horror and existential Americana.

Dario Argento's protégé, Michele Soavi, made his directorial debut with this deliriously stylish slasher opus.

A librarian discovers an ancient evil lurking underneath a cathedral, in this spectacular gothic horror co-written and produced by Dario Argento.

Michele Soavi's delirious and surreal satanic horror follows a teacher drawn into the schemes of an evil cult.

A bureaucrat’s life finds new meaning in Kurosawa’s classic original, the source for Bill Nighy’s brilliant drama, Living.

In director Wim Wenders' (Paris, Texas) most metaphysical work, a guardian angel desires nothing more than to be human.

Abel Ferrara's disturbing character study of a corrupt N.Y.C. cop and his slide into insanity, starring Harvey Keitel in a career-best performance.

Albert Serra’s opulent exploration of the limits of the erotic imagination is realised in this radical and subversive cinematic experience.

The last days of the Sun King, evoked with sombre beauty by Albert Serra. The legendary Jean-Pierre Léaud brings ineffable presence to the title role.

Maverick auteur Albert Serra’s imagines a meeting between the ageing Casanova and Count Dracula in this deliciously eccentric baroque reflection on pleasure and erotic desire.

Abel Ferrara's disturbing character study of a corrupt N.Y.C. cop and his slide into insanity, starring Harvey Keitel in a career-best performance.

Christopher Walken is the dogged drug-lord determined to keep his empire together, in Abel Ferrara's brutally gritty crime thriller.

Tom Berenger, Melanie Griffith and Billy Dee Williams star in this tough crime thriller about a talent agent who takes the law into his own hands when his strippers are targeted by a serial killer.

The first part of Ingmar Bergman's 'Faith Trilogy', about a writer (Björnstrand) who joins his daughter, son and son-in-law on holiday, where tensions soon arise.

Two sisters, one ailing, the other with her young son, check into a hotel in a foreign city readying itself for war, in Ingmar Bergman's nightmarish vision of emotional isolation.

Ingmar Bergman's highly personal treatise on the torments of faith, in which a widowed village pastor struggles to deal with his parishioners and ex-lover.

A stylish, sensuous film about a young man’s journey into an unusual form of escort work.

Gripping account of repressed sexual desire in a masculine environment, with British newcomer Harris Dickinson as a virulently macho Brooklyn teen.

Blistering thriller of a teen groomed to work for a brutal, organised drugs network.

François Truffaut’s French New Wave landmark is one of the greatest movies about adolescence.

François Truffaut’s hugely popular classic depicts one of cinema’s most captivating love triangles

Happily married Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) has his life is thrown into turmoil when Mathilde (Fanny Ardant) - an old flame - moves into the house opposite.

With a blazing star performance from Hanna Schygulla in the title role, this was the greatest critical and commercial success of Fassbinder’s career.

Jeanne Moreau plays a jaded brothel madam caught up in the violent sexual awakening of Brad Davis' naïve young sailor.

Fassbinder’s international breakthrough, this unconventional love story combines lucid social analysis with devastating emotional power.

Ingmar Bergman’s best-known film is a brilliant allegorical drama starring Max von Sydow as a knight trying to elude his own death.

Victor Sjöström is magnificent as the crabby professor taking a nostalgic road trip with his daughter-in-law, in Ingmar Bergman's elegiac masterpiece.

Ingmar Bergman’s scandalous tale of two lovers enjoying the freedom of youth.

Ryan Gosling takes on Bangkok’s criminal underworld in this kaleidoscopic revenge fantasy from cult director Nicolas Winding Refn.

Kristen Stewart plays a celebrity's personal shopper, who keeps receiving strange text messages from an unknown source.

Roberto Rossellini's acerbic but finally very moving masterpiece about marital crisis boasts great performances from Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders

Jenny Agutter plays the teenage girl reliant on a young Aboriginal for her survival, in Nicolas Roeg's stunning Australian outback drama.

Gillo Pontecorvo’s masterpiece about the last years of French colonial rule in Algeria, seen from the perspective of both the revolutionaries and the French authorities.

The story of a gay icon is brought to life in Dome Karukoski’s handsome biopic of Touko Laaksonen, the artist whose homoerotic drawings gave visual expression to a growing gay culture.

Ophuls’ exquisite, imaginative adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s play about a carousel of erotic encounters involving characters of different social status.

Academy Award and Palme d'Or-winning adaption of the Orpheus myth, incorporating the music, costume and dance of Brazil’s Rio Festival.

Based on the story of Moulin Rouge founder Charles Zidler, Jean Renoir’s tale of an impresario’s commitment to his art is a masterpiece of Technicolor brilliance.

Academy Award and Palme d'Or-winning adaption of the Orpheus myth, incorporating the music, costume and dance of Brazil’s Rio Festival.

A young Rastafarian toaster (rapper) aims for success at a Reggae Sound System competition.

Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) shines a light on the music genre often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’; a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems.