For consistency’s sake, it’s best to stick to one definition of an “international film,” and be similarly hasty with saying what that definition is. Here, it might well be best to go with what the Academy Awards considers an international film, which is nice and broad, being “A feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America and its territories with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track.”
So, with that, some of the following movies might have some English dialogue, or could be set in the U.S. or other English-speaking countries, but if they’re potential competitors for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, then they can show up here. The following can only highlight so many films, and there are plenty of iconic ones missing. Consider the following to be the very best of the best; movies that everyone should go out of their way to see, no matter what language they do or don’t speak.
20 The Wages of Fear (1953) – Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
A French film that’s largely set in South America, The Wages of Fear can consider itself one of the most suspenseful and gripping thrillers in cinema history. It keeps things simple and squeezes every ounce of tension it can out of the straightforward premise at hand, which is, essentially, that a group of desperate men are hired to drive explosive material through incredibly rough terrain.
The Wages of Fear was also remade by William Friedkin as Sorcerer, which is a very good film in its own right, but this 1953 original is the superior one. It’s so ahead of its time, in so many ways, and it’s honestly astounding to watch something more than 70 years old and still feel this nervous the whole way through. It’s undeniably representative of the thriller genre at its purest and absolute best.
19 Come and See (1985) Director: Elem Klimov
Taking place in what’s now known as Belarus, and produced by the USSR, Come and See earns its reputation as one of the most harrowing and downbeat war movies of all time. It has nothing by way of excitement or action, really, instead being about a desperate fight for survival and the loss of innocence a young boy experiences when he joins some resistance fighters to combat German forces.
What starts surreal eventually becomes nightmarish, with the final act of Come and See being particularly terrifying, even though the film itself couldn’t exactly be called a horror movie. It all feels achingly authentic and appropriately distressing, with few films succeeding at making war look quite as miserable and destructive as Come and See ultimately makes it look.
18 Princess Mononoke (1997) Director: Hayao Miyazaki
It’s hard to talk about great films made outside of English-speaking territories without mentioning at least one movie directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. He’s been a pioneering figure in Japanese animation for decades now, and there’s an argument to be made that Princess Mononoke might well be his masterpiece (with honorable mentions going to… well, pretty much everything else, but especially Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and the more recent The Boy and the Heron). A fantasy/adventure movie that’s even more mature than most Miyazaki films, Princess Mononoke follows a young man trying to rid himself of a curse, only to find he gets wrapped up in a conflict between an industrial town and forces that reside in a nearby forest. It’s stunning to look at throughout, it’s amazingly scored, there are thought-provoking environmental themes, and the core story is a satisfying and layered one; it’s all good stuff, however you want to judge it, really.
17 – Bicycle Thieves (1948) Director: Vittorio De Sica
Bicycle Thieves is about as simple as filmmaking gets, with the whole movie intentionally feeling like a slice-of-life story that does so successfully enough that one feels they’re watching reality unfold. It was made in Italy not long after the end of the Second World War, exploring the desperation a father goes to in order to provide for his family, and the trouble caused when his bicycle – which he needs for work – is stolen.
In less than 90 minutes, Bicycle Thieves gets you to feel for its characters, puts two of them on a journey, and then proves tremendously moving in the end. If it counts as a tearjerker, then it’s not a sentimental nor emotionally manipulative one, by any means. Bicycle Thieves is a testament to the idea that sometimes, simplicity is best, and it’s hard to imagine someone watching this essential classic from Italy without being at least somewhat moved.
16 War and Peace (1967) Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
War movies don’t get much more epic than this adaptation of War and Peace, which was released in four parts, the last of which came out in 1967. It’s a USSR production that absolutely dwarfs the already quite big American version of War and Peace from about a decade earlier, because this War and Peace runs for about seven hours and truly spared no expense.
It’s hard to know the exact budget, but there’s an argument to be made that no country/nation/territory in history has thrown so many resources at a single film project. War and Peace feels like the USSR trying to top the US when it comes to making epic movies, comparable to how the two nations wanted to out-compete each other during the Space Race. Intentions aside, the wild production of this movie can now be appreciated as one of the biggest, best, and most spectacular epics in the history of filmmaking, regardless of country.
15 Yi Yi (2000) Director: Edward Yang
Perhaps a little like War and Peace, Yi Yi could also be described as an unconventional epic, though the genres clearly differ, as do where the two films were produced. Yi Yi is a family drama, and was a Taiwan/Japan co-production. Some of it takes place in Japan, but most of it’s set in Taipei, following an extended family and spending time on their lives, showcasing moments of happiness and belonging alongside feelings of a less uplifting nature. The result is a tremendously bittersweet viewing experience, and even though Yi Yi is long and, technically speaking, slow, it ends up being far more engrossing and heartfelt than one could initially anticipate. It’s certainly something special, and easily one of the best foreign films made in the 21st century so far (Edward Yang’s other great work as a director, A Brighter Summer Day, does deserve an honorable mention, too).
14 Cinema Paradiso (1988) Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
If you ever find someone who feels hesitant about watching films that are in a language other than English, one of the most reliable films out there to win over such a skeptic is Cinema Paradiso. This is rightfully considered one of the best and most approachable Italian films of all time, and is sure to win over anyone who likes movies, considering the whole thing is one of the most tender and moving love letters to cinema in the medium’s history. Cinema Paradiso also works as a coming-of-age movie and a genuinely moving romance, too, balancing fun and light-hearted moments with harsher ones, overall reflecting both the bitter and the sweet that comes with feelings of nostalgia. Also, it’s a movie that’s impossible to talk about without also mentioning the brilliant score composed by both Ennio Morricone and his son, Andrea Morricone.
13 City of God (2002) Director: Fernando Meirelles
Though the gangster genre as it’s now recognized might’ve started in the U.S., by no means have all the great gangster movies been made there. City of God, for example, looks at gang-related crime in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and was a primarily Brazilian production with a story about various youngsters who come of age in challenging circumstances.
Some characters end up thriving within the criminal gangs around them, some meet tragic ends, and others long to escape the crime and violence they see around them. City of God is expansive in scope, but also succeeds in getting the viewer to understand a key number of characters intimately well. It’s a movie that throws you in the deep end and does a great deal throughout a very fast-paced 130-minute runtime, but every second is engrossing; it really does manage to do a little bit of everything, cinematically.
12 Tokyo Story (1953) Director: Yasujirō Ozu
Anyone who loves character-focused dramas – particularly ones revolving around members of a family – and hasn’t seen anything by Yasujirō Ozu yet needs to stop what they’re doing and check his stuff out. Ozu was a Japanese filmmaker who mastered the art of telling engrossing cinematic stories with what initially felt like limited ingredients. Tokyo Story, for instance, might not sound particularly interesting on paper.
But, paper’s overrated and misleading, in this instance. Tokyo Story is, more or less, about a generational divide in a family, seen mostly from the point of view of a pair of grandparents, but it’s not what it does necessarily; it’s how it does it. Tokyo Story is slow but rewarding, featuring beautifully still imagery, achingly believable performances, and a sense of pervasive, quiet sadness throughout that lingers in one’s mind long after the film itself is over.
11 Parasite (2019) Director: Bong Joon Ho
Pretty much everyone knows about Parasite, given the waves it made on an international scale back in 2019, and into early 2020, which is when it broke ground and became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s been praised to the moon and back, as a result, but yes, Parasite really is that good, and it already feels like the sort of movie that will age extremely well, or could even very well prove timeless. At its core, Parasite is about a wealthy family and a poor family, the latter working their way into the lives of the former to make a few bucks, but then discovering various secrets that change the direction of the film entirely. Parasite is a wild ride, functioning as a sometimes very funny satirical film that’s also a brutally effective drama, not to mention nail-biting from start to finish. It was made in South Korea, but the storytelling and themes explored ended up having a clearly universal appeal.
10 La Dolce Vita (1960) Director: Federico Fellini
It’s a testament to La Dolce Vita that it still feels somewhat unique and unusual all these decades on from release, though it must’ve been even fresher a breath of air back in 1960. This is a lengthy and ambitious film that looks at celebrity, religion, and the meaning of life… or lack thereof in an increasingly strange, surreal, and unpredictable 20th century.
It’s an episodic film, with a single character – a journalist – drifting through life and being like a Rolling Stone in that he can’t get much satisfaction (he certainly tries, he tries, and he tries). This premise is used as a springboard to explore a variety of things, sometimes comedically and sometimes with a sense of tragedy. It is a dizzying experience of a film, and much of what La Dolce Vita has to say still feels relevant. Even if it didn’t, the sheer style and creativity on offer on a technical front would be more than enough to make it worth watching.
9 An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) Director: Hu Bo
An immensely challenging film in every way, An Elephant Sitting Still runs for a few minutes shy of four hours and aims to be unrelentingly downbeat throughout. It was a film made in China by a director, Hu Bo, who only ever made this one feature-length film, and tragically took his life before it was released. Certainly, the true story behind the production and the filmmaker casts an additional shadow over the film.
Even without the subtext, An Elephant Sitting Still is nonetheless haunting and quite spectacular in its own quiet way. It follows four people over a short period of time, observing their hardships and tracking the way things slowly get worse for most of them. It is an intense and honestly quite miserable film, but there is a beauty to the bleakness here that makes it impress in a way few other films ever have.
8 Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Director: Guillermo del Toro
Pan’s Labyrinth is a film where you get the best of both worlds… well, you get the best of two worlds… actually, you get the best of two genres. That was a failure of a comparison, but do you know what doesn’t fail in any conceivable way? Pan’s Labyrinth, because it’s absolutely perfect, no matter what genre you want – or don’t want – to categorize it within.
Pan’s Labyrinth shows the horrors of war and fascism alongside some dark fantastical sights, telling the story of a young girl doing whatever she can to escape the horrible life she’s been living under a cruel and unapologetically violent stepfather. It’s a tremendously creative movie, taking familiar fairytale ideas and twisting them into something dark and original, all the while also being – as mentioned before – a compelling war drama. Guillermo del Toro outdid himself here, and Pan’s Labyrinth is undoubtedly one of the current century’s best films so far.
7 The Human Condition (1961) Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Similarly to how the aforementioned War and Peace was one epic story told in several parts, so too is The Human Condition an immense epic far longer than most ordinary movies, this one being released in three parts. It is technically a trilogy, but one film leads into another so seamlessly that it’s hard to separate them. Also, they’re all of a very high quality, so they’re difficult to differentiate in that way. Broadly, The Human Condition is a World War II movie about a pacifist, following how he avoids the war in its early stages, is forced to participate as things go along, and then finds himself fighting for survival after Japan surrenders. Any film of the trilogy on its own is powerful (and effectively epic, given each part is around three hours long), but when taken together, The Human Condition feels unparalleled and genuinely monumental within the war genre.
6 Oldboy (2003) Director: Park Chan-wook
A revenge movie as unusual as it is gripping, Oldboy is a South Korean film that might well have been the most well-known to Western audiences before being usurped by the aforementioned Parasite. Beyond their country of origin, the two films are difficult to compare, though. Oldboy is unnerving, gripping, suspenseful, and jaw-dropping, but in ways that are generally different from the (also amazing, of course) Parasite.
Oldboy features some visceral action alongside a fascinating mystery-heavy narrative that involves a man being imprisoned for many years before being suddenly released, and then going on a determined mission to find out who was responsible for that imprisonment. It’s a movie that barrels forward and feels uncompromising in what it shows as well as in how many rugs it’s willing to pull out from under the viewer’s feet. It can be very confronting at times, but it’s undoubtedly worthwhile for anyone okay with something getting a little extreme.
5 Ran (1985) Director: Akira Kurosawa
Though the very best Akira Kurosawa movie will be mentioned a little later, there’s a good argument to be made that his second-best is Ran. This one came fairly late in his filmmaking career overall, and saw the Japanese director at perhaps the height of his powers. Everything comes together immensely well in Ran, which takes the premise of King Lear and has it play out in Japan during the 1500s.
In Ran, there is an aging warlord who wants to divide his kingdom up among his sons, but those sons have other plans, and once the conflicts/betrayals/deaths start coming then they don’t stop coming. Somebody might have told you it’s Kurosawa’s best, and… look, maybe it is. It’s Ran or it’s the other soon-to-be-mentioned epic. What can be agreed upon is that Kurosawa was one of the best filmmakers of all time, and Ran is a film that shows him at his most artistic, ambitious, and intense.
4 Fanny and Alexander (1982) Director: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman is a director well known for making some dark and emotionally intense dramas, and perhaps his greatest film – Fanny and Alexander – certainly has its fair share of downbeat moments. It’s a movie that begins with great happiness, only for a family tragedy to throw various lives out of balance, particularly the two titular children, who have to contend with one of their parents marrying someone who turns out to be kind of a monster. There are hopeful moments in Fanny and Alexander, though, and the film certainly uses its lengthy runtime of three hours to explore various emotional highs and lows. That it does this while also having an element of low fantasy to the whole thing just makes the film all the more intriguing. It’s beautiful, unique, moving, and visually stunning throughout. Like with Kurosawa and Ran, Fanny and Alexander feels like Bergman taking much of what he’d learned over his decades of filmmaking and pouring it all into one immense – and near-perfect – late-career epic.
3 Harakiri (1962) Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Though it’s classifiable as a samurai movie, Harakiri is not concerned with action until its final act, instead choosing to be an immensely engrossing drama that’s heavy on mystery. A good deal of the story is told in flashback, with a troubled man speaking to a clan of samurai about why he’s chosen to commit the act of seppuku.
There is a great deal more to Harakiri than that, but the fascinating structure is best left not talked about, because giving away too much means sacrificing the impact the film can eventually have. It is a slow-going film at times, but there’s always a purpose to the pacing. It’s never boring, but it is always quietly intense, at least until it reaches a point where it’s more than a little tense, but instead genuinely nerve-wracking. Anyway, it’s great. It’s one of the best Japanese films of all time, without a doubt.
2 Metropolis (1927) Director: Fritz Lang
Within the realm of essential science fiction movies, few are as old and as potentially timeless as Metropolis. Sure, the future world shown here isn’t the same as what it is now, or has ever been, and perhaps the theatrical acting (kind of par for the course, with silent cinema) might take some time getting used to. But what the film is really about – class inequality – is still just as regrettably relevant as ever.
In Metropolis, the wealthy live in an amazing city, while below, the workers are the ones who sweat, hurt themselves, and sometimes even die for the wealthy to enjoy what they do. It looks at revolution in the future in a way that is somewhat simplistic, but the core shines through; Metropolis still matters. And that’s before talking about how amazing it all looks, how well-paced it is for such an old film, and how influential it ended up being. Fritz Lang made plenty of classics, but none are quite as classic as Metropolis.
1 Seven Samurai (1954) Director: Akira Kurosawa
Arguably one of the greatest epic movies of all time (you could even argue it is the greatest), Seven Samurai is just excellent in every single way. Its narrative is told efficiently and it’s paced expertly, being a long film that doesn’t feel drawn-out in any way. It follows a team of (generally) reluctant and unlikely heroes being assembled to defend a small town from ongoing bandit attacks. That’s all there is on paper, but Seven Samurai does a great deal with the straightforward premise, largely thanks to having such great characters, an appropriately methodical build-up to the final act, and plenty of intense action when that final act does eventually come around. Seven Samurai pretty much defined what epic action/adventure movies could be, and for remaining so compelling all these decades later while being so influential, it is, perhaps, the greatest international film ever made.