The “one-inch-tall barrier” of subtitles has never seemed like such a small obstacle to discovering great films.
Ever since Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite won Best Picture back in 2020, more people than ever, it seems, have been looking to discover foreign-language films.
And given that streaming services are great places to discover new movies, with plenty of hidden gems tucked away, we have rounded up 20 of our favourites.
From terrifying thrillers to epic historical dramas, here are our picks of the best foreign-language films to watch now.
The Beast – MUBI
This incredible film written and directed by Bertrand Bonello muses on the value of human emotion in a future run by AI. The exquisite Léa Seydoux plays a woman in 2044 who opts to have her emotions muted so she can get a better job. As she goes through this process she revisits past lives and loves (all of which feature George MacKay as her star-crossed lover) and she is reminded of the beauty of a deeply-felt existence.
The Beasts – BFI Player
A terrifying, profound thriller which is not easy to shake off, it’s no wonder that Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts won nine Goya Awards (Spain’s Oscars) in 2023. It tells the story of a semi-retired French couple Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs) who move to the Galician countryside to grow and sell crops. Problems start to arise when a wind energy company offers inhabitants of the village a huge sum of money to move: Denis has no intention of accepting the offer and hostilities between the neighbours escalate.
Return To Seoul – MUBI
Davy Chou’s acclaimed drama stars Ji-Min Park as Freddie Benoît, a French woman who was adopted from Korea as a baby. Now, aged 25, Freddie finds herself in Seoul after her flight is diverted, and so decides to reconnect with her birth parents.
Roma – Netflix
Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is a stunning ode to Mexico, following a young housekeeper and the middle-class family that employ her in the early Seventies. It’s vast in scale, exploring both intimate relationships, family dynamics and expansive geopolitical themes. There’s a timeless beauty to the film, and it’s deeply moving and heartbreaking in parts.
Close – MUBI
Last year French-language film Close picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Lukas Dhont’s moving coming-of-age tale follows two young boys who are best friends whose relationship starts to change as they enter their teenage years.
Betty Blue – Amazon Prime Video
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This 1986 French film from Jean-Jacques Beineix is often heralded as one of the sexiest films ever made. Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a handyman and writer, and Betty (Béatrice Dalle), a feisty 19-year-old, start a love affair which ends up causing more harm than good.
The Quiet Girl – BFI Player
Set in 1981, Colm Bairéad’s Gaelic-language, Oscar-nominated coming-of-age story follows nine-year-old Cáit who is sent to a farm in the Irish countryside for a summer. The young girl starts to settle into her new life, but reality calls.
Atlantics – Netflix
Mati Diop's Cannes prize-winning debut tackles challenging topics including crime, employment and migration through a haunting and poetic love story between worker Souleiman and Ada, who is betrothed to be married to another man.
The Platform – Netflix
High-concept Spanish sci-fi The Platform takes place inside a prison, referred to as a "Vertical Self-Management Centre” which has more than 300 floors. Its occupants are fed by a platform, which is filled with food and slowly lowered from floor to floor. If you like your dramas dark and nihilistic, this is for you: the prisoners at the top devour the food, while those at the bottom get the last crumbs.
Toni Erdmann – MUBI
German comedy, anyone? This film, directed, written and co-produced by Maren Ade, became a surprise international hit in 2016 after winning over audiences around the world. It tells the story of Toni (Peter Simonischek), a divorced father with a penchant for practical jokes, who makes a concerted effort to reconnect with his daughter.
Monster – MUBI
This Japanese psychological mystery-thriller from Hirokazu Kore-eda (Like Father, Like Son; Shoplifters) made waves at Cannes in 2023: it was nominated for the Palme d'Or, and won the Queer Palm and the award for Best Screenplay. The story is about single mother Saori, whose son Minato starts to act strangely. As Saori investigates, she discovers her son had an intense friendship with another boy, who could be a bully, and a teacher may have also had a hand in her son’s unhappiness.
The Hunt – Amazon Prime Video
In this unsettling Danish movie, Mads Mikkelsen plays a kindergarten teacher who is falsely accused of sexually abusing one of the children in his class. The terrifying film, which was nominated for an Oscar, explores how one lie can cause an entire life to unravel.
Divines – Netflix
Multi-faceted French drama Divines from first-time director Houda Benyamina is part thriller and part romance, telling the story of two young women in love. Their relationship plays out against the tough streets of inner city Paris and the banlieues, with the couple harbouring dreams of making a life elsewhere.
Holy Spider
A fantastic thriller based on a terrible true case, this 2022 Palme d'Or contender, and Denmark’s 2023 Best International Feature Film Oscar entry, is about a serial killer in Mashhad, Iran, in the early Noughties. It follows Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), a Tehran-based journalist, who heads to the north-eastern city to investigate.
8 ½ – Amazon Prime Video
The first movie Fellini released after the monumental success of La Dolce Vita saw him embrace touches of the surreal, as he focused on the life of protagonist Guido Anselmi – an acclaimed director struggling with a creative drought.
I Lost My Body – Netflix
Animated French fantasy film I Lost My Body takes a sideways look at immigrant life in Paris with a unique narrative, focusing on a severed hand which escapes from a laboratory to be reunited with a young boy. The movie, which became the first-ever animation to win the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, tackles themes of alienation and identity in a truly original way.
A Hidden Life – Disney+
Terrence Malick’s ambitious films are philosophical offerings that ask questions about love, faith, power, morality and the universe. Here, the American director explores these themes once again through the true story of Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter (played by the captivating August Diehl) who loses everything when he chooses not to take the oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Netflix
This stunning movie emerged as one of the most compelling romances of 2020, with director Céline Sciamma creating something truly special. Noémie Merlant and Adele Haenal both deliver inspired performances as a young painter and her unruly subject, who enter into a passionate relationship.
Shéhérazade – Netflix
Zachary, a 17-year-old French boy, is released from prison and falls into the ganglands of Marseille – the crime capital of France – in this hard-hitting drama. The film sees him endure a life living on the streets, falling for a young prostitute, played by Kenza Fortas.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird – MUBI
This Korean Western-comedy directed by Kim Jee-woon and starring Jung Woo-sung (Cobweb), Lee Byung-hun (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Song Kang-ho (The Host, Parasite) is a brilliant take on Sergio Leon’s 1966 spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. While individually hunting down a treasure map, the three cowboys cross paths: there are horse races across deserts, rifle fights on trains, explosions, motorbikes, more explosions, and face-to-face duels. I.e., so much fun.
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