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.

Christophe Honoré returns to his timeless themes of family, mortality, and sexuality in a gay coming-of-age story imbued with breathtaking poignancy. As a teenager trying to make sense of grief, newcomer Paul Kircher is devastatingly good—and shares the screen with none other than Juliette Binoche.

Family traditions are challenged by new attitudes in this restrained, exquisite film from Olivier Assayas: a filmmaker whose cinema covers a diverse range of genres and milieus, collectively transforming modern anxieties into engrossing drama. With the late Edith Scob, and a blonde-haired Binoche!

For the second feature to be shot outside of his native Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-hsien ventured to Paris for this lyrical masterpiece. Starring Juliette Binoche, and captured in swooning tracking shots by cinematographer Lee Ping Bing, The Flight of the Red Balloon is a work of warm and delicate wonder.