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Lukas Dhont’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 debut, Girl, is a sentimental drama about an intense friendship between two 13-year-old boys that is suddenly disrupted.

A favorite in Cannes — where it won the runner-up grand prix honor for Dhont — Belgium’s Oscar contender features an astounding debut from first-timer Eden Dambrine and is unabashedly direct in its straight-to-the-heart emotional story of childhood wonder and poignant tragedy.

Argentina, 1985

Santiago Mitre’s contender uses the mode of the legal thriller to tell the true story of a team of heroic lawyers that took on the leaders of the country’s bloody military dictatorship in an effort to bring justice to the victims of the regime and to establish the principle of the rule of law.

It features another standout performance from Argentine star Ricardo Darín (The Secrets in Their Eyes, Wild Tales).

Corsage

Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) picked up the best performance honors in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for her turn as Austria’s tortured 19th century Empress Elisabeth in this fictional and cerebral account from director Marie Kreutzer.

The film begins on Christmas Eve in 1877, as Elisabeth, once idolized for her youthful beauty, turns 40 and tries to maintain her public image against claims she that she is now too old.

Bardo

Netflix is clearly hoping Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first Mexican feature since his 2000 breakout, Amores Perros can repeat the Oscar success of Roma (from Iñárritu’s directing amigo Alfonso Cuarón). Iñárritu’s technicolor, satirical epic — about a famous Mexican journalist living in Los Angeles who faces an existential crisis upon his return home — is packed with big ideas of family relationships, cultural identity and the price of fame.

EO

A loose retelling of Robert Bresson’s 1966 masterpiece Au Hasard Balthazar, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, which won the jury prize in Cannes this year, follows a much-abused donkey in his travels and travails across modern Europe. More comic and absurdist, as well as visually much more experimental, than Bresson’s religious allegory, this latest feature from the 84-year-old Polish director protests with rage human greed and cruelty.

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook’s film noir finds the Korean maestro at the very peak of his powers. Equal parts mood piece and police procedural, the film follows an upstanding detective (Park Hae-il) as he falls for a mysterious widow (Tang Wei) after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation. The film won the best director award at Cannes and is the frontrunner to continue Asian cinema’s recent hot streak at the Oscars, after Parasite and Drive My Car.

Holy Spider

One of the most critically acclaimed — and controversial — movies of the year, this serial-killer thriller from Iran-born, Danish director Ali Abbasi, inspired by a true story of a man who murdered sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad, premiered in Cannes, where lead Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the best actress award. The Iranian government has condemned the film as “fake, hateful and disgusting,” a review that can only help the film’s Oscar chances.

Saint Omer

After Julia Ducournau’s divisive Cannes winner Titane was put forward for the 2022 Oscar race — then rejected by Academy voters — France overhauled its selection process, a move that resulted in a more mainstream choice for 2023.

Alice Diop’s courtroom drama, about a French Senegalese woman accused of infanticide, won the grand jury prize and the award for best first feature in Venice this year and has been hailed by critics as the debut of a major talent.

All Quiet on the Western Front

The first-ever German adaptation of the World War I anti-war classic (Lewis Milestone’s film won the 1930 Oscar for best picture), Edward Berger’s Netflix epic starring Daniel Brühl, Albrecht Schuch and newcomer Felix Kammerer is a rebuke to the more heroic depictions of conflict seen in recent Oscar contenders 1917 and Dunkirk, refusing to allow the audience to fool itself into seeing a grander purpose in the slaughter of young men for vague political goals.

Plan 75

Chie Hayakawa’s feature debut imagines a future Japan in which euthanasia is aggressively marketed to the country’s aging population. Chieko Baishô gives a stirring performance as an elegant, elderly women who contemplates partaking of the service as her options in life dwindle, generating a meditation on the inherent value of life.

The film received a Camera d’Or special mention honor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Alcarras

Carla Simón’s Berlin International Film Festival winner tells the story of a family of peach farmers in a small village in Catalonia who learn that their summer harvest will be their last.

It uses nonprofessional actors from the Spanish region and a deft touch to evoke a fading past and comment on the clash between traditional agriculture and encroaching industry that is transforming rural communities all over the world.

Cairo Conspiracy

Tarik Saleh’s film spins an espionage drama out of real-life corruption and conflict in Egypt between the forces of church and state. Set inside Cairo’s historical Al-Azhar mosque and university, it follows an ambitious young Muslim scholar recruited by corrupt state security officer (Fares Fares) to be their spy inside, helping to ensure the government’s man gets named the new imam.

The film premiered in Cannes, where it won best screenplay honors for Saleh.

Klondike

Maryna Er Gorbach’s Sundance award winner concerns the 2014 tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over the Donbas region of Ukraine.

The incident is used as a backdrop to tell a broader story of the personal and political turmoil that preceded the current war. It looks like an undeniable favorite for this international race. The visually striking film depicts the severe impact of the conflict on the region’s civilians through a powerful performance by Oxana Cherkashyna.