This feature debut from writer/director Laura Piani, with a star-making turn from Camille Rutherford (Anatomy of a Fall), is a cinematic treat that manages to be a full-on rom-com, a Jane Austen appreciation session, and a love-letter to the very idea of books and letters.

Arguably the most famous Hong Kong martial arts film of the post-Bruce Lee, pre-Jackie Chan period, this independently-produced classic featuring fantastical face-offs and a cosmic Krautrock soundtrack is undoubtedly a film worthy of losing your head over!

This is the film that started the kung fu movie craze in the U.S., which saw 13 different Hong Kong action movies top the weekly box office. You can’t really claim to be knowledgeable in the field of Hong Kong action if you haven’t seen Five Fingers of Death.

A wild riff on Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Christian Petzold’s Phoenix is like no other film about post–World War II Jewish-German identity. Set in a devastated, ruined Berlin, the film hones in on Nelly, a former cabaret singer who returns with a reconstructed face to seek out the husband who may or may not have betrayed her.

The release of Lucrecia Martel’s debut heralded the arrival of an astonishingly vital and original voice in Argentine cinema. With a radical and disturbing take on narrative, beautiful cinematography, and a highly sophisticated use of on and offscreen sound, Martel turns her tale of a dissolute bourgeois extended family into a cinematic marvel.

The feature debut of director Sarah Friedlander earned Best First Feature honors at the Venice Film Festival. It tells the story of Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant, giving a titanic performance that should be in the Oscar conversation, who must come to terms with life in an assisted living facility.

A character study, a social drama, a musical, a tale of overcoming obstacles… Everybody Loves Touda packs a lot into its running time. As Touda, Nisrin Erradi’s incendiary performance fuels the film. Not a singer by trade, she trained with professional Sheikhats for a year, learning voice, dance, and percussion.

Set in the vibrant city of Maputo, Mozambique, Era Oculta (Hidden Era) centers on Rastafari artist Phambi. When his newest work, a semi-nude portrait of Paula, becomes a symbol of activism in the community, Phambi sees a path forward to making a living.