Wendy Ide is Screen International’s senior international critic, and chief film critic for The Observer.
Best film
1. Sirât
Dir. Oliver Laxe
From the moment the soundtrack kicks in — visceral, battering ram techno that rattles your brain against the inside of your skull — it is clear Laxe’s desert-rave road movie is a journey to dark and dangerous places. But it is not until the most audacious and shocking tonal swerve of the year that we appreciate just how dark and dangerous is the fate that lies before Sergi Lopez’s father on his quest to find his missing daughter. A film that genuinely shocked the Cannes audience.
2. Sorry, Baby
Dir. Eva Victor
Droll, intimate, profound and painfully honest: Victor’s directorial debut, which they also wrote and star in, is a film that deals with the aftermath of a sexual assault. But, like the character at the heart of the story, the film is not defined by the rape. Rather, it is a celebration of the formidable force of female friendship, conveyed in the conversational shorthand between Victor and co-star Naomi Ackie, and of the healing power of stray kittens.
3. The Mastermind
Dir. Kelly Reichardt
A Reichardt heist movie was never going to hit the usual beats and conventions of the genre. For a start, the heist, crisply edited and meticulously planned by Josh O’Connor’s aspiring art thief, comes near the start of the piece, with the main body of the film taken up with the aimless, unravelling aftermath. It is a dryly funny and perceptive character study of a man who has failed to come to terms with his own mediocrity. Rob Mazurek’s skittish jazz score is sublime.
4. Sound Of Falling
Dir. Mascha Schilinski
An ambitious and accomplished debut from Schilinski, the film weaves together the lives of women living in a farmhouse in four time periods over the course of a century. Through evocative visuals and use of sound, the picture explores how historical trauma bleeds from the fabric of a building into the lives of those who inhabit it. A rigorous and substantial work.
5. My Father’s Shadow
Dir. Akinola Davies Jr
Lagos, 1993. During a single day, a father who has been largely absent from the lives of his two sons takes the boys on a ride through a restless city as sparks of discontent begin to ignite. A rich and immersive child’s‑eye view of a moment of political uncertainty.
6. The Secret Agent
Dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho
7. Marty Supreme
Dir. Josh Safdie
8. Die My Love
Dir. Lynne Ramsay
9. One Battle After Another
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
10. Oslo Stories: Dreams
Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
Best documentary
1. The Tale Of Silyan
Dir. Tamara Kotevska
Themes of migration, the erosion of tradition and a connection to the earth are woven together with a North Macedonian folk tale and a farmer’s bond with an injured stork. This is a subtly profound work, and the most exquisitely photographed non-fiction film of the year.
2. A Want In Her
Dir. Myrid Carten
Carten’s feature documentary debut is a wildly inventive collage that captures the knotty bond between Myrid and her mother Nuala. Shot, in part, during a troubled period in which Nuala relapsed into alcoholism and went missing, it is as intimate as it is boldly cinematic and ambitious.
3. Sanatorium
Dir. Gar O’Rourke
As war rumbles on, the staff and clients of a crumbling health spa near Odessa, Ukraine find comfort in the therapeutic mud of the nearby lake. The spirit of the people is captured with wit, warmth and lots of swearing.
Performance of the year
Leonie Benesch in Late Shift
Dir. Petra Volpe
Ever since her electrifying performance in Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Benesch’s name on the credits of a film elevates it to immediate must-see status. Her performance in Volpe’s Late Shift — Switzerland’s submission for the international Oscar category — is one of her very best. She is a dynamic, authentic presence as an overstretched, idealistic nurse on an understaffed hospital ward. The emotional intelligence and the sheer effort she brings to the role is shattering to behold.
