WATCH GREAT CINEMA

Cascading through time, Mascha Schilinski’s incomparable Cannes prizewinner orchestrates echoes of past experience into transcendent poetic cinema. Surfacing evocative, gilded imagery from the shadows of femininity, Sound of Falling confirms the tremendous talents of its ambitious writer-director.

The first Nigerian film ever to screen in Official Selection at Cannes, this prizewinning debut feature from Akinola Davies Jr. is steeped in feeling and lyrical imagery. Bathing the father-son bond in a tender glow, this vibrant coming-of-age tale gathers up precious things amid political tumult.

Instincts both maternal and carnal clatter like shards of glass in a blender in this uncompromising portrait of a woman on the edge from director Lynne Ramsay. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in a frenzied pas de deux, Die My Love inflames the exposed nerves of delirium and desire.

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor star in this nostalgic, aching romance, lifting a profound story of yearning in exquisitely tender performances. Interweaving timeless folk tunes with sumptuous, autumnal images, director Oliver Hermanus chronicles a love whose reverberations are felt for a lifetime.

Approaching Irish history through the lens of overblown tabloid fodder, Saipan dissects one of world football’s most infamous punch-ups. Comedy legend Steve Coogan deploys his prodigious powers of mimicry with droll aplomb, punctuating this farcical media satire with deft moments of pathos.

Despite being banned in its country of origin, Rafiki dazzled audiences in Cannes and became the first Kenyan film to premiere at the festival. Vibrant and sizzling with the excitement of first love, this lesbian teen romance takes a stand against homophobic laws while remaining utterly joyful.

Winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Diego Céspedes’s debut feature pays luminous tribute to human resilience in inhumane times. Equal parts Chilean Western, dark fairy tale, and chosen-family hangout movie, this gorgeous work of queer magical realism finds love thriving amid sickness and hatred.

Society’s redlines map onto the white lines of the soccer pitch in this urgent examination of bigotry on and off the field. A delicately wrought examination of uneven social progress, Mario is an impassioned retort to homophobia, steeped in the tender pleasures of budding romance.