爆料TV

25 international movies every film lover needs to see at least once

路Molly Pennington, Brianna Zigler

Barunson E&A
Barunson E&A

International cinema has always had a profound influence on American movies. Westerns, film noirs, and even romances tap into universal visual languages of movement, action, and emotion that draw in worldwide audiences. International films often add a political or philosophical bent (a rebel core), frequently exploring the human condition within histories of oppression.

This list of 25 must-see international movies includes the science fiction masterpiece of German expressionist style, "Metropolis," with its epic, futuristic city and iconic robot gone bad. You'll also find the smash hit "Parasite," a taut thriller from South Korea about two families from different classes.

We feature work from major auteurs like Jean Renoir, Luchino Visconti, and Ingmar Bergman, along with Japanese masterpieces from Akira Kurosawa, Yasujir么 Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi, and animated classics from Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

Some of the come from other countries, like Lee Chang-dong's Korean drama "," the Russian-language political thriller "," and the Japanese horror film "." And Norway's "Sentimental Value" was this year's at the Academy Awards, topping a field that included Brazil's "."

To find other noteworthy international films, 爆料TV compiled data, as of July 2023, on all international movies to come up with a 爆料TV score, a weighted index split evenly between and scores. To qualify, the film had to be primarily in a language other than English, produced primarily outside of the U.S., have a Metascore, and have at least 5,000 votes. Ties were broken by IMDb user votes, and IMDb user ratings have been updated as of November 2026. on this list, as they are across the international film festival circuit.

#25. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Mobra Films

1 / 25

#25. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

- Director: Cristian Mungiu
- 爆料TV score: 95.65
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Cristian Mungiu's searing, minimalist thriller-of-the-everyday became the first Romanian film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in 1987 in communist Romania, the story follows what two college-age women go through when one of them seeks an abortion in a country where it's illegal. Cinematography focuses on the stark details of an oppressive world seen through intimate long takes.

#24. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Lilies Films

2 / 25

#24. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

- Director: C茅line Sciamma
- 爆料TV score: 95.65
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 122 minutes

C茅line Sciamma's mesmerizing love story creates a new cinematic language, one that explores a female gaze that reinvents what it means for women both to look and be looked at beyond the conventions of male objectification. Set in late 18th-century France, an artist, Marianne (No茅mie Merlant), is commissioned to paint the portrait of H茅lo茂se (Ad猫le Haenel). The painting, meant for a groom whom H茅lo茂se has never met, becomes a subversive and romantic project for the two.

#23. Playtime (1967)

Specta Films

3 / 25

#23. Playtime (1967)

- Director: Jacques Tati
- 爆料TV score: 96.20
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 155 minutes

This film features director Jacques Tati's popular character Monsieur Hulot, whom Tati also portrays. In this picture (the most expensive French movie made at the time), Hulot finds himself bewildered by an increasingly technologized Paris as he stumbles through a world that seems alien to him. His journey mirrors that of an American tourist, whom he grows fond of as they sporadically meet.

#22. Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

Deblokada Produkcija

4 / 25

#22. Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

- Director: Jasmila Zbanic
- 爆料TV score: 96.20
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 101 minutes

In Bosnia in 1995, a schoolteacher and her family are displaced when the Bosnian Serb army takes over their town. Seeking shelter with many others at a U.N. camp, Aida proves a crucial component in untangling what future lies in store for her family and her people. "Quo Vadis, Aida?" dramatizes the events that took place during the Srebrenica massacre, led by a .

#21. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

British Film Institute/Rialto Pictures

5 / 25

#21. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

- Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
- 爆料TV score: 96.20
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 121 minutes

Using the stylistic tenets of the Italian neorealist film movement, "The Battle of Algiers" is shot in black-and-white with nonprofessional actors to achieve a sense of documentary reality in depicting the history of the Algerian War of Independence from the French government. It was a joint production between Italy and Algeria and was .

#20. The Rules of the Game (1939)

DPF

6 / 25

#20. The Rules of the Game (1939)

- Director: Jean Renoir
- 爆料TV score: 96.74
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 110 minutes

French director Jean Renoir's critique of French society follows multiple couples and the affairs that they're having, some aristocratic and some very much not. During a weekend getaway at a marquis' country chateau, these secret passions collide and are disquietingly laid bare.

#19. Rififi (1955)

Path茅 Consortium Cin茅ma

7 / 25

#19. Rififi (1955)

- Director: Jules Dassin
- 爆料TV score: 96.74
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 118 minutes

Jules Dassin, , directed the influential heist film "Rififi" in France. This bleak, dread-soaked caper includes a suspenseful play-by-play break-in that requires meticulous safecracking. The criminal gang, each member with their own expertise, looks to pull off that one final job, but nothing goes as planned.

#18. A Separation (2011)

Sony Pictures Classics

8 / 25

#18. A Separation (2011)

- Director: Asghar Farhadi
- 爆料TV score: 96.74
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 123 minutes

The first Iranian film to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is also one of the great films about divorce. Asghar Farhadi's drama opens with the broken couple (Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi) directly addressing both the camera and a family court judge. The audience is pulled into a tense and intimate world where it's impossible to choose sides in the complicated dispute that unfolds with the couple's young daughter, who is caught in the middle.

#17. Children of Paradise (1945)

Soci茅t茅 Nouvelle Path茅 Cin茅ma

9 / 25

#17. Children of Paradise (1945)

- Director: Marcel Carn茅
- 爆料TV score: 97.28
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 189 minutes

"Children of Paradise" was shot on soundstages during the restrictive Vichy regime during World War II and is considered an achievement in French studio filmmaking. The film is a long, epic costume drama set in the 1830s with a style that is traditional and straightforward with stagy, affected performances. It's filled with subversive subtext as it follows a beguiling woman with four suitors, each with their own agenda.

#16. The Conformist (1970)

Mars Film

10 / 25

#16. The Conformist (1970)

- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- 爆料TV score: 97.28
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Italian auteur Bernardo Bertolucci infuses his drama about conformity with stylish, color-rich cinematography that captures 1930s Italy, where an assassin, Marcello, is sent to kill his outspoken, antifascist former professor. Bertolucci's nonlinear narrative moves across Marcello's life to explore how his obsession with acceptance contributes to his fascist sympathies and easy betrayals.

#15. Ran (1985)

Kaku KURITA/Gamma-Rapho // Getty Images

11 / 25

#15. Ran (1985)

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- 爆料TV score: 97.28
- Metascore: 97
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 162 minutes

Akira Kurosawa reimagined Shakespeare's "King Lear" as a drama between a warrior king and his three sons in 16th-century Japan. "Ran" brings the conflict to the battlefield in sweeping combat spectacles that show the renowned director's technical prowess. The bleak themes of the original play become even more epic as the kingdom fractures with grand cinematic beauty.

#14. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Toho Company

12 / 25

#14. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

- Director: Isao Takahata
- 爆料TV score: 97.28
- Metascore: 94
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 89 minutes

"Grave of the Fireflies" is a haunting tearjerker revered for bringing human depth to animated characters. This Japanese film follows two siblings in the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe in the final months of World War II. The two struggle as they make their way through landscapes, both harsh and fantastical, to capture the tragic, heart-wrenching experience of its young heroes.

#13. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

Daiei Studios

13 / 25

#13. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

- Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 124 minutes

Set in the Heian period of feudal Japan, a governor is forced into exile. His wife and children are separated on their journey to join him. Along the way, the mother is forced into being a courtesan, and the children are sold into slavery. After a decade of growing up enduring a life of oppression and hardship, the children discover their mother may yet be alive. Kenji Mizoguchi's film is based on Mori 艑gai's 1915 short story, which was itself based on an old folktale.

#12. Army of Shadows (1969)

Les Films Corona

14 / 25

#12. Army of Shadows (1969)

- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 99
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 145 minutes

"Army of Shadows" was an obscure French masterpiece about resistance during World War II until it garnered a critical resurgence of attention upon its . Director Jean-Pierre Melville makes the proceedings unrelentingly bleak in this chilling depiction of betrayal and despair for those who resist the Nazi regime.

#11. The Leopard (1963)

Titanus

15 / 25

#11. The Leopard (1963)

- Director: Luchino Visconti
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 186 minutes

Opulent costumes and settings recreate 1860s Sicily, where an aristocratic family copes with the social changes threatening their dynasty. Burt Lancaster stars as the patriarch, a prince looking to protect his family's empire in an epic tale known for its sweeping scale and decadent beauty. Lancaster performed his lines in English, and for the film's Italian release, . U.S. audiences first saw a shortened, English-dubbed cut, with awkward results.

#10. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Soci茅t茅 G茅n茅rale des Films

16 / 25

#10. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

- Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 114 minutes

This silent era staple tells the classic story of the eponymous teenage warrior, Jeanne d'Arc, who faces trial for asserting that she spoke to God in 15th-century France. Subjected to horrific cruelty in order to change her story, Jeanne (mythologized as Joan of Arc) sticks to her truth and becomes a martyr in her execution. The film's resurgence is also . Its theatrical cut and a subsequent cut were both lost in separate fires. It wasn't until 1981, when a janitor was cleaning out a closet at a Norwegian mental hospital, that Dreyer's original version of the film was found in near-pristine condition after more than 50 years.

#9. Rashomon (1950)

Daiei

17 / 25

#9. Rashomon (1950)

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 88 minutes

One of the most influential Japanese films of all time, "Rashomon," is most famous for its narrative structure and the way it calls point of view into question. Locals try to make sense of a crime in feudal-era Japan, with details that emerge in vignettes seen from four different perspectives.

#8. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Estudios Picasso

18 / 25

#8. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

- Director: Guillermo del Toro
- 爆料TV score: 97.83
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 118 minutes

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's resplendent and bizarre fairy tale for adults brims with surreal intrigue and nightmare scenarios involving a child-eating creature known as the Pale Man with eyes in his palms. Taking place in Spain during World War II, "Pan's Labyrinth" mixes realistic history with a fantastical descent into the underworld to depict the horrors of wartime.

#7. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Cinematograph AB

19 / 25

#7. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

- Director: Ingmar Bergman
- 爆料TV score: 98.37
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 188 minutes

Known for arthouse classics "Persona" and "Wild Strawberries," Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman may be most acclaimed for this sprawling family drama with supernatural elements set in the early 1900s. Two children (the plot is semi-autobiographical) must contend with the brutal bishop their mother marries after the death of their beloved father. Bergman's characteristic themes of psychological mayhem play out through the children's dreams and desperation for escape.

#6. Three Colors: Red (1994)

MK2 Productions

20 / 25

#6. Three Colors: Red (1994)

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- 爆料TV score: 98.37
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors Trilogy" and thematically tethered to its mottos three artsy, interlinked dramas that were co-produced by France, Poland, and Switzerland. The final "Red," after "Blue" and "White," stars Ir猫ne Jacob as a student and model whose life intersects with a retired judge. Critics hailed "Red" as the best of the three (it has a ) due to its atmospheric beauty and interconnected themes.

#5. Metropolis (1927)

Universum Film (UFA)

21 / 25

#5. Metropolis (1927)

- Director: Fritz Lang
- 爆料TV score: 98.37
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 153 minutes

Fritz Lang's iconic science fiction classic is a masterwork of German expressionism and silent cinema. In "Metropolis," elites frolic on garden rooftops while workers toil in the depths below, subdued by monstrous machinery. The iconic, art deco-inspired robot Maria suggests a fear of technology in this highly influential film known for its vast scale and striking visuals.

#4. Parasite (2019)

Barunson E&A

22 / 25

#4. Parasite (2019)

- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- 爆料TV score: 98.37
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 132 minutes

The affluent home in "Parasite" becomes a setting for nightmarish conflicts between a rich household and the poor family they hire as servants. Bong Joon Ho entwines domestic class struggles with a dark, surrealist edge. "Parasite" became the first foreign-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar, while also winning Best International Feature Film. It was the .

#3. Tokyo Story (1953)

Sh么chiku Eiga

23 / 25

#3. Tokyo Story (1953)

- Director: Yasujir么 Ozu
- 爆料TV score: 98.91
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 136 minutes

This film () follows an elderly Japanese couple on their journey from their rural seaside home to visit their two adult children in Tokyo: their doctor son and hairdresser daughter. Though the children prove too busy to spend time with their parents, the widowed wife of their deceased second son takes it upon herself to keep them company.

#2. Spirited Away (2001)

Studio Ghibli

24 / 25

#2. Spirited Away (2001)

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- 爆料TV score: 98.91
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 125 minutes

This coming-of-age adventure is a wondrous masterpiece of Japanese animation from acclaimed writer-director Hayao Miyazaki. In this brilliantly original fairy tale, a 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, loses her parents and finds herself adrift in a world filled with strange gods and creatures. Vivid worldbuilding and glorious visuals make this a family film that transcends the usual fare with heartfelt depth and mesmerizing intensity.

#1. Seven Samurai (1954)

Toho Company

25 / 25

#1. Seven Samurai (1954)

- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- 爆料TV score: 100
- Metascore: 98
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 207 minutes

Akira Kurosawa's battle-heavy masterpiece remains one of the most influential films ever. In 16th-century Japan, a ragtag group of seven fighters band together at a village outpost as plunderers surround them from all sides. The tense and prolonged final battle, as well as the "team of heroes against impossible odds" narrative, show up again in countless combat and action films that obsess over honor and what makes a hero.

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Data reporting by Lucas Hicks. Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire.