The collaboration between Isabelle Huppert and Claire Denis the world had been dreaming of, arrived with this powerful story about the death throes of white colonialism. Denis—who grew up in French Africa—returns to her roots with this sublime, poetic yet nightmarish exploration of racial conflict.

A Claire Denis romcom? We’re sold! Subverting fairytale tropes with fine irony, this wonderfully unpredictable take on middle-age female desire and the volatility of emotions stars an exquisitely mercurial Juliette Binoche—searching for love, encountering mostly disappointment. Oh, and that ending!

The third of a very fruitful on-going collaboration between French director Benoît Jacquot and young actress (and great director in her own right) Isild Le Besco, this gorgeous black and white paean to a post-New Wave era is an excited and poetic exploration of a youthful, searching free spirit.