Outlook바카라�s Watchlist: Ten Cannes Films That Moved Us In The Last Decade

The Cannes film festival has often been likened to world championships among film auteurs from across the planet. In a podcast with good friend and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, director Quentin Tarantino [who became a worldwide phenomenon when Pulp Fiction (1994) picked up the top prize at Cannes] once described it as similar to the 바카라�tournaments where Bobby Fischer would play chess.바카라� Despite its dazzling red carpet, garbled politics compared to the Berlinale or Venice, and some provocative press interactions, the festival has remained arguably prestigious through the decades. 

A large part of its significance has to do with filmmakers still valuing recognition over here, especially with many cinematic geniuses vying for a spot in the line-up with their most eccentric, big-swing films. Whatever the end result, it won바카라�t be wrong to say that Cannes has platformed some remarkably ambitious work conceived in the filmmaking world.  

As the 78th edition of the festival ended last week, here is a list of ten films that spoke to us, which have emerged out of Cannes: 

1. A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) 

Payal Kapadia바카라�s docu-fiction바카라�set against the backdrop of the 2015 Film and Television Institute of India protests바카라�plays out with a voice-over conversation between two lovers, bemoaning the state of a nation they no longer recognise. Among the most astutely political films of the Modi era, Kapadia바카라�s film also captures the idealism of campuses being browbeaten by a merciless system. Despite winning the L'Oeil d'Or (Best Documentary), the film remains unreleased in India till date.  

2. Joyland (2022) 

Saim Sadiq바카라�s feature debut, about a suburban family in Lahore, is one of the best films to have emerged from the subcontinent in the last decade. Set around a man바카라�s growing proximity with a transwoman바카라�as he becomes her back-up dancer in a performance theatre바카라�Sadiq바카라�s film lays bare the oppressive patriarchy typical to South Asia. The film won the Queer Palm at the fest. 

3. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 

Joel and Ethan Coen바카라�s paean to the striver shows a down-on-his-luck musician (Oscar Isaac) trying to keep his life in orbit, while balancing art and commerce. Used to seeing films about underdogs who succeed in the final act, what sets this film apart is its sheer indifference to its protagonist. Never has a film been colder and crueller to an artist. The film went on to win the Grand Prix that year.

4. The Zone of Interest (2023) 

In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the gimmick of this film would have been just that바카라�a gimmick. But in the hands of Jonathan Glazer, this Grand Prix winner became an urgent, shocking indictment. By invisibilising the Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps, Glazer바카라�s film showed us how easily we can dehumanise a sect, and how cruelty can seep into our most mundane choices. 

5. Perfect Days (2023) 

Palme d바카라�Or winner and a darling of Cannes, Wim Wenders returned with his first feature film in six years, about a middle-aged Japanese man living in Tokyo, who cleans public toilets for a living. Wenders바카라� film, supposed to be a multi-part PSA series around Tokyo바카라�s public toilets, became a staggering feature film, showing us the joy of the simple things. Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho)바카라�s smile, each time he steps out of his house every morning, is one of the most uplifting things I바카라�ve seen in a theatre recently. 

6. Happy As Lazzaro (2018) 

Alice Rohrwacher's film stands for the mournful beauty of unyielding goodness in a world that no longer recognizes or values it. It바카라�s a story about how innocence is not only rare, but radically out of step with the modern world바카라�and perhaps always has been. Rohrwacher won the 바카라�Best Screenplay바카라� for this film at Cannes. 

7. All That Breathes (2022) 

Shaunak Sen바카라�s film on two brothers in North-East Delhi 바카라�mending바카라� kites (the bird) falling from the sky, is probably among the top five most visually stunning films to have come out of India in the last two decades. Following the footsteps of Payal Kapadia바카라�s A Night of Knowing Nothing, Sen바카라�s film also picked up the L'Oeil d'Or, merely a few weeks after Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh바카라�s Writing with Fire (2021) earned an Oscar nomination for 바카라�Best Documentary바카라�. The well-deserved global recognition that these films have received shines the spotlight brightly on India바카라�s prolific non-fiction filmmakers and their craft. 

8. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) 

Director Mahmoud Rasoulof pulled off a heist by making a film in the midst of the 2022 Iranian revolution바카라�triggered by the custodial death of Mahsa Amini바카라�filming in secret for almost 70 days in late 2023. During production, Rasoulof learned of his renewed prison sentence, forcing him to flee the country. The footage was smuggled to Hamburg, and the film became Germany바카라�s entry for the Oscars, where it was nominated for Best International Film. A stinging film about how autocracy trickles down into a 바카라�normal바카라� family, it won a Special Jury prize. 

9. Close (2022) 

Lukas Dhont's film captures the delicate nuances of childhood innocence and the harsh realities of societal judgment. The film also explores themes of masculinity, identity, and the consequences of suppressing emotional intimacy. Close won the Grand Prix. 

10. Cold War (2018) 

Pawel Pawlikowski's black-and-white epic follows the lives of a composer Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and singer Zula (Joanna Kulig) in Poland, as a newly inducted part of the USSR. Spanning a couple of decades, the film follows the pair바카라�s tragic love story바카라�ending with the eerie lines 바카라�Let바카라�s go to the other side, the view will be better there.바카라� Years later, the film still sends shivers down the spine. Cold War won Pawlikowski the Best Director. 

Happy watching!