Variety‘s team of critics has been on the ground at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and other major film festivals, on the hunt for the best of the best. In December, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its shortlist of 15 films eligible for the second round of voting in the best international feature film category. Those Oscar contenders include “The Zone of Interest,” a United Kingdom-backed look at the Holocaust that’s received rave reviews, as well as searing dramas such as “Io Capitano,” Italy’s entry about two Senegalese migrants, and “Four Daughters,” a mixture of narrative and documentary from Tunisia.
Here are reviews of all of the movies eligible for the Oscar for Best International Feature.
20 Days in Mariupol (Ukraine) — Director Mstyslav Chernov and other AP journos document Russian Federation forces’ prolonged military assault on the Ukrainian port city last year.
Amerikatsi (Armenia) — Writer-director-actor Michael A. Goorjian crafts a timely metaphor for displacement.
Fallen Leaves (Finland) — A monosyllabic, minimalist love story has the charm of all Aki Kaurismäki films, but it’s a minor bauble.
Four Daughters (Tunisia) — The gripping true story of a mother whose two elder daughters joined ISIS is overlaid with fictional, self-analyzing elements in fascinating if not always convincing ways.
Godland (Iceland) — Gifted helmer Hlynur Pálmason interrogates the role of religion in the island nation’s past — but it’s really colonialism that’s at question.
Io Capitano (Italy) — Buoyed by a tremendous performance from newcomer Seydou Sarr, Matteo Garrone’s latest fashions a Senegalese teenager’s struggle to reach Europe as a traditional hero’s journey.
The Monk and the Gun (Bhutan) — Director Pawo Choyning Dorji is back, using the first elections in one of the world’s youngest democracies to comment on what is lost as his country modernizes.
The Mother of All Lies (Morocco) — Directed by Asmae El Moudir, the evocative doc brims with hand-crafted beauty as it reckons with memory, loss and forgiveness.
Perfect Days (Japan) — Wim Wenders hits the sweet spot with this simple, touching ode to working routine and everyday human connection.
The Promised Land (Denmark) — A commoner-turned-captain is locked in a grisly land battle with a dastardly nobleman in Nikolaj Arcel’s entertaining, broad-brush epic.
Society of the Snow (Spain) — Thirty years after ‘Alive,’ J. A. Bayona makes the case for an authentically Spanish-language telling of the story with his signature technical verve and full-volume sentiment.
The Taste of Things (France) — Starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as quietly besotted kitchen colleagues, this sensory banquet doesn’t complicate matters with plot or conflict — that would be like talking with your mouth full.
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany) — An idealistic teacher in a German school faces spiraling consequences when one of her students is accused of stealing in İlker Çatak’s tense social parable.
Totem (Mexico) — A farewell party for a terminally ill painter brings out the best and worst in his family, while his 7-year-old daughter tries to make sense of it all, in Mexican director Lila Avilés’ multilayered film.
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) — Jonathan Glazer delivers a profoundly chilling portrait of a Nazi family living next door to Auschwitz.
