Stream 12 Cannes Favorites on Kino Film Collection
May is one of our favorite months of the year, and it’s largely because of the Cannes Film Festival. One of the most prestigious of its kind, Cannes brings together the crème de la crème of filmmakers and storytellers from around the world annually. It’s where we’ve discovered some of our most beloved films over the years, and where we’ll continue to convene each May to screen new favorites. We’re proud to have in our Kino Film Collection dozens of films that have competed at Cannes, many of which have taken home top honors like the Palme d’Or, Camera d’Or, and Grand Prix. Below, we’ve put together a curation of 12 standouts from past festivals, but you can stream all of our Cannes films on Kino Film Collection.
Tommaso (2020)
Abel Ferrara’s delicately surrealistic work of autofiction reteams the filmmaker and his frequent lead Willem Dafoe, who delivers a career-best performance as an older American expat artist living in Rome and wading through this late chapter of his life with an increasingly impaired grasp on reality as he prepares for his next film.
Underground (1997)
Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, Underground is a visionary masterpiece where hope, laughter and the joy of living overcome the difficulties of survival. In the midst of war, two opportunistic buddies attain riches and heroic praise dealing arms to the war's resistance fighters. But when things get too hot, they move into a cellar packed with refugees who manufacture the weapons.
Russian Ark (2002)
Filmmaker Alexander Sokurov broke boundaries with his dreamlike vision of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in the first feature-length narrative filmed in a single take. Russian Ark is shot from the point-of-view of an unseen narrator, as he explores the vast museum and travels through Russian history alongside a sarcastic and eccentric 19th century French Marquis.
Tip Top (2014)
Isabelle Huppert plays a fiercely authoritarian and deeply unethical detective with a kinky side in Serge Bozon’s witty absurdist political farce about two police inspectors who travel to a small village in order to solve the mysterious murder of an Algerian turned informant.
Beanpole (2020)
In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha, intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. Kantemir Balagov won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.
France (2021)
Léa Seydoux brilliantly holds the center of Bruno Dumont’s Cannes Palme d'Or nominated film, which starts out as a satire of contemporary news media before steadily spiraling out into something richer and darker. Set in contemporary Paris, France follows a journalist who's high-profile world is turned upside down after she injures a delivery man in a traffic accident.
Winter Sleep (2014)
Directed by cinema master Nuri Bilge Ceylan, this enthralling, brilliantly photographed film won the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was Turkey's entrant for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Set in the amazingly picturesque Cappadocia region, it follows a retired actor who has inherited a small hotel where he is ensconced with his recently divorced sister.
Aquarius (2016)
Clara (Sonia Braga), a vibrant former music critic, avid swimmer, grandmother, cancer survivor, willing lover and widow with flowing tresses, is the only remaining apartment owner in a beautiful older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. As the builders’ tactics to remove Clara become increasingly hostile, Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with.
Fatima (2015)
Winner of the 2016 Cesar Award for Best Picture and Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Fatima offers an uplifting and moving portrait of the immigrant experience. To ensure the best future for her daughters, Fatima works odd hours as a cleaning woman. Frustrated by her interactions with them, she begins to write in Arabic thoughts she has never been able to express in French.
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (2018)
Narrated by Jodie Foster, this full feature documentary rewrites film history, revealing for the first time the full scope of the life and work of cinema’s first female director, screenwriter, producer, and studio owner Alice Guy-Blaché.
Makala (2018)
Winner of the 2017 Grand Prize and Golden Eye Special Mention for Best Documentary at International Critics Week in Cannes, Makala is Emmanuel Gras' powerful testament to one man's commitment to his family and his endurance in working to provide them with a brighter future.
Li’l Quinquin (2014)
Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, French auteur Bruno Dumont's comedy Li'l Quinquin is an absurdist, metaphysical murder mystery set on the outskirts of the English Channel in northern France. The bumbling and mumbling Captain Van der Weyden is assigned to the crime, but he has to contend with a young prankster, the mischievous Quinquin, as he proceeds to investigate the case.