Abbas Kiarostami’s first feature made outside his native Iran is this sumptuous, brain-teasing romance, in which a deceptively simple relationship morphs into something more complex—and keeps the audience guessing. Cannes winner Juliette Binoche is enigmatic, vulnerable and perfect in the lead role.

Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, and Mia Wasikowska star in this bewitching fable from Mia Hansen-Løve. Shot on Fårö where Ingmar Bergman made some of his greatest films, this sun-kissed voyage sails across the past and the present, fiction and reality, probing the prickly yet romantic process of artmaking.

Olivier Assayas directed Kristen Stewart to a history-making César Award win in Clouds of Sils Maria, but it’s La Binoche who really steals the show: on career-best form as the fading star at the slippery center of this Bergmanesque tale of dualities, mirror reflections, and brooding power dynamics.

A profound reflection on personhood and identity, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come effortlessly brings the pleasures of philosophy into everyday life. In one of her most touching performances, Isabelle Huppert exquisitely conveys the tempestuous gap between one’s private and intellectual personas.

Criss-crossing between London and Paris, this haunting character study doubles as a ghost story that straddles the real and the supernatural. Boasting a soul-bearing performance from Kristen Stewart where grief is made bodily concrete, the film saw Assayas share the Best Director Award at Cannes.