Cannes 2023 Movie Scorecard: Best Movies at the Film Festival

Critics Consensus: Dispassionately examining the ordinary existence of people complicit in horrific crimes, The Zone of Interest forces us to take a cold look at the mundanity behind an unforgivable brutality.

Synopsis: The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Medusa Knopf, Daniel Holzberg

Directed By: Jonathan Glazer

Critics Consensus: Gently devastating in its compassion, Monster is a masterpiece of shifting perspectives that surprises to the end.

Synopsis: When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sakura Andô, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Mitsuki Takahata

Directed By: Hirokazu Koreeda

Critics Consensus: A smart, solidly crafted procedural that's anchored in family drama, Anatomy of a Fall finds star Sandra Hüller and director/co-writer Justine Triet operating at peak power.

Synopsis: For the past year, Sandra, her husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz

Directed By: Justine Triet

Critics Consensus: A quirky tale of star-crossed lovers, Fallen Leaves is a life-affirming gem from Finnish filmmaker Kaurismäki.

Synopsis: In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a local karaoke bar. However, the pair's path to happiness is... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen, Alina Tomnikov

Directed By: Aki Kaurismäki

Critics Consensus: An absorbing slice-of-life drama led by a remarkable Kôji Yakusho performance, Perfect Days adds a quietly soaring gem to director/co-writer Wim Wenders' estimable filmography.

Synopsis: Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada

Directed By: Wim Wenders

Critics Consensus: If La Chimera is a wild, improbable pursuit, this marvelous and magical tale by Alice Rochrwacher is the pie in the sky to behold.

Synopsis: Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Josh O'Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Luca Chikovani

Directed By: Alice Rohrwacher

Critics Consensus: A near-masterpiece for director/co-writer Victor Erice, Close Your Eyes ends his long gap between films with a moving meditation on memory, identity, and cinema itself.

Synopsis: Set in contemporary Madrid, an aging filmmaker named Miguel Garay is called upon to recount his memories of working on his final and still unfinished... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Manolo Solo, José Coronado, Ana Torrent, Petra Martínez

Directed By: Víctor Erice

Critics Consensus: Capturing a historical moment in the claustrophobic confines of a courtroom, The Goldman Case is a riveting drama with a superb Arieh Worthalter at its center.

Synopsis: November 1975, Paris. The appeal hearing of Jewish far-left activist Pierre Goldman is set to begin. Sentenced to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié, Nicolas Briançon

Directed By: Cédric Kahn

Critics Consensus: A clever and stylish riff on the body horror that is puberty, Tiger Stripes is an exuberant allegory for personal agency as well as an impressive debut for writer-director Amanda Nell Eu.

Synopsis: The first amongst her friends to hit puberty, Zaffan, 12, discovers a terrifying secret about her body. Ostracized by her community, Zaffan fights back, learning... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Zafreen Zairizai, Deena Ezral, Piga, Shaheizy Sam

Directed By: Amanda Nell Eu

Critics Consensus: Joanna Arnow finds bleak humor in the struggle to connect with The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, a deadpan comedy that discomfits as confidently as it amuses.

Synopsis: Ann, a morose New Yorker in her 30's, feels stuck in all areas of her life. To her dismay, the years have gone by quickly... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Joanna Arnow, Scott Cohen, Babak Tafti, Michael Cyril Creighton

Directed By: Joanna Arnow

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Through her child’s eyes, Patpro will go through three periods of the history of her indigenous people, in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Francisco Hyjnõ Krahô, Luzia Cruwakwyj, Debora Sodré

Directed By: Renée Nader Messora, João Salaviza

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A widow pretends to be pregnant with a son in order to save her daughter and home from a relative exploiting Jordan's patriarchal inheritance laws.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Mouna Hawa, Haitham Alomari, Yumna Marwan, Salwa Nakkara

Directed By: Amjad Al Rasheed

Critics Consensus: Enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement, Killers of the Flower Moon is a sobering appraisal of America's relationship with Indigenous peoples and yet another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese and his collaborators.

Synopsis: Based on David Grann's broadly lauded best-selling book, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Critics Consensus: A powerful debut for Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex authentically captures female adolescence and friendship with sobering effervescence.

Synopsis: Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday -- drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.

Starring: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Samuel Bottomley, Lara Peake, Shaun Thomas

Directed By: Molly Manning Walker

Critics Consensus: A consistently amusing satire of modern American life, The Sweet East is so engaging from moment to moment that it's easy to forgive its somewhat hazy thesis.

Synopsis: The Sweet East is a picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the United States undertaken by Lillian, a high... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Talia Ryder, Earl Cave, Simon Rex, Jacob Elordi

Directed By: Sean Price Williams

Critics Consensus: Breaking through the genre wall, The Delinquents is an astute existential heist movie that will reward patient viewers with a humorous fable about freedom.

Synopsis: Buenos Aires bank employee Morán dreams up a scheme to liberate himself from corporate monotony: he'll steal enough money to support a modest retirement, then... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Germán de Silva, Laura Paredes, Margarita Molfino, Daniel Elias

Directed By: Rodrigo Moreno

Critics Consensus: Four Daughters' unique approach to documenting real-life horror is a formal gamble that only underscores the bravery and resilience of its subjects.

Synopsis: This riveting exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood reconstructs the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Hend Sabry, Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikahoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui

Directed By: Kaouther Ben Hania

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: After moving in with her boyfriend to their new home, Mila begins to realize her loss of desire lies deep within. She undergoes a self-exploration... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Alex Brendemühl, Cristina Colom, Carla Linares, Elena Martín

Directed By: Elena Martín

Critics Consensus: Swaddling its difficult fact-based story in a blanket of campy humor, May December is a seductively discomfiting watch.

Synopsis: Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, Gracie Atherton-Yu and her husband Joe (twenty-three years her junior) brace themselves for their twins... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Cory Michael Smith, Charles Melton

Directed By: Todd Haynes

Critics Consensus: About Dry Grasses keeps us warm with dark humor through its unhurried and verbose wintry meditation on the human condition.

Synopsis: Nestled away in wintry East Anatolia, public-school art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) yearns to leave the sleepy village for cosmopolitan Istanbul. Further disenchanted when he... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Deniz Celiloglu, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici

Directed By: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Critics Consensus: A beautifully filmed portrait of twentysomething ennui, The Breaking Ice explores interpersonal connections with a subtle, delicate touch.

Synopsis: Young urbanite Haofeng feels lost and adrift on China's northern border. By chance, he goes on a tour led by Nana, a charming guide who... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran, Chuxiao Qu

Directed By: Anthony Chen

Critics Consensus: Visually thrilling and refreshingly unconventional, Anselm pays mesmerizing tribute to a brilliant artist's life and legacy.

Synopsis: In Anselm, Wim Wenders creates a portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors of our time. Shot in... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Anselm Kiefer

Directed By: Wim Wenders

Critics Consensus: Undeniably impressive in its ambition, Eureka makes some thought-provoking statements about colonialism, although they'll likely be lost on less patient viewers.

Synopsis: Traversing time, space and genre, Argentinian filmmaker Lisandro Alonso (Jauja) presents an elliptical meditation on the experiences of indigenous communities across the Americas. Opening in... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Chiara Mastroianni, Rafi Pitts, Luisa Cruz

Directed By: Lisandro Alonso

Critics Consensus: Asteroid City is unlikely to win Wes Anderson many new converts, but those who respond to his signature style will find this a return to immaculately arranged form.

Synopsis: The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright

Directed By: Wes Anderson

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Khédidja works for a wealthy Parisian family who offered her to mind their children for a summer in Corsica. Bringing along her own two teenage... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, Denis Podalydès, Virginie Ledoyen, Esther Gohourou

Directed By: Catherine Corsini

Critics Consensus: Based on indefensible truths,Kidnapped tackles institutional abuse with cinematic pomp and political circumstance.

Synopsis: In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope's soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Fabrizio Gifuni, Filippo Timi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Paolo Pierobon

Directed By: Marco Bellocchio

Critics Consensus: Imbued with the fiercely humanistic spirit that has defined Ken Loach's filmography, The Old Oak serves as a fitting -- albeit somewhat sentimental -- finale to a remarkable career.

Synopsis: The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a once thriving mining village in northern England, a gathering space for a community that has... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Dave Turner, Debbie Honeywood, Reuben Bainbridge, Rob Kirtley

Directed By: Ken Loach

Critics Consensus: A tantalizing glimpse of the bond between two people, the well-acted Strange Way of Life adds a brief but still rewarding chapter to Pedro Almodóvar's filmography.

Synopsis: A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, José Condessa, Manu Rios

Directed By: Pedro Almodóvar

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Ryô Kase, Shido Nakamura

Directed By: Takeshi Kitano

Critics Consensus: Occupied City is an impressively ambitious attempt to connect the past with the present, although its repetitive approach and overwhelming length will be too much for many viewers.

Synopsis: The past collides with our precarious present in Steve McQueen's bravura documentary Occupied City, informed by the book Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945)... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Melanie Hyams

Directed By: Steve McQueen

Critics Consensus: The New Boy bites off more than it can comfortably chew, but this heady exploration of faith and cultural tensions has an ethereal allure.

Synopsis: From acclaimed filmmaker Warwick Thornton, The New Boy takes place in 1940s Australia at a remote monastery with a mission for Aboriginal children run by... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair

Directed By: Warwick Thornton

Critics Consensus: If not the most memorable tome in Michel Gondry's surreal repertory, Book of Solutions still delivers visual flair to casual fans and is a touching ode to creativity.

Starring: Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Frankie Wallach, Camille Rutherford

Directed By: Michel Gondry

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In a small mining town in Mexico, Emiliano searches for those responsible for the disappearance of his activist mother. Receiving no help from the police,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Juan Daniel García Treviño, Ester Expósito, Bárbara Mori, Fernando Bonilla

Directed By: Amat Escalante

Critics Consensus: Elemental may not satisfy as fully as the greatest Pixar pictures, but it remains a solid story told with dazzling visual flair.

Synopsis: Disney and Pixar's "Elemental," an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together. The story introduces Ember,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi

Directed By: Peter Sohn

Critics Consensus: Heavily coiffed and perfumed as to cover up its plebeian status, Jeanne Du Barry waltzes aimlessly through a noble attempt at vindicating its eponymous femme.

Synopsis: Jeanne du Barry follows Jeanne Vaubernier (Maïwenn), a working-class woman determined to climb the social ladder, using her charms to escape her impoverished life. Her... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Maïwenn, Johnny Depp, Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Richard

Directed By: Maïwenn

Critics Consensus: Divorced from the historical record with little to show for it, Firebrand is a period piece whose revisionist aims are at odds with its stultifying approach.

Synopsis: In blood-soaked Tudor England, twice married, accomplished, and educated Katherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), reluctantly agrees to become the sixth wife of the tyrannical King Henry... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Sam Riley, Eddie Marsan

Directed By: Karim Aïnouz

Critics Consensus: It isn't as thrilling as earlier adventures, but the nostalgic rush of seeing Harrison Ford back in action helps Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny find a few final bits of cinematic treasure.

Synopsis: Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, he soon... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies

Directed By: James Mangold

Critics Consensus: Although Hypnotic isn't without glimmers of inspiration, the ultimate effect of this often clunky crime caper will be to leave you feeling rather sleepy.

Synopsis: Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin detective Danny Rourke finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole investigating a series of reality-bending crimes where he... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, JD Pardo, Hala Finley

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez

Critics Consensus: With Club Zero, writer-director Jessica Hausner uses satire to explore an array of ambitious ideas, and the results are fitfully striking even if they don't consistently cohere.

Synopsis: At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on "conscious eating."... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Sam Hoare, Amanda Lawrence

Directed By: Jessica Hausner

Critics Consensus: Asphalt City can be commended for trying to highlight the unforgiving nature of EMT work, but the unrelentingly grim end results prove a punishing watch.

Synopsis: Asphalt City follows Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan), a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky (Sean... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Pitt

Directed By: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire