100 Best Foreign Movies on Kanopy Right Now

100 Best Foreign Movies on Kanopy Right Now

March 31, 2025

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The best thing about a library is access. Like a library, Kanopy provides access to plenty of classic films that you would otherwise not be able to see, but unlike other streaming sites, Kanopy provides that access for free with your library card or university log-in.

But another great thing about Kanopy is that its selection isn’t just limited to Old Hollywood films– Kanopy also includes plenty of foreign films in their library as well. We’ve previously listed the 100 best movies on the platform, but if you’re looking to jump out of your comfort zone, here’s the same list without any film made in the English language.

91. Chinese Odyssey 2002 (2002)

7.5

Genres

Action, Comedy, Romance

Director

Jeff Lau Chun-Wai, Jeffrey Lau

Actors

Athena Chu, Athena Chu Yan, Chang Chen, Eric Kot Man-Fai

Moods

Dramatic, Easy, Funny

While produced by Wong Kar Wai, Chinese Odyssey 2002 isn’t a moody, melancholy drama that we’re used to. Instead, the Ming Dynasty-set adventure directed by Jeffrey Lau comically spoofs plenty of the beloved genres that captivated Chinese audiences– wuxia epics, musical dramas, and historical romances. The ludicrous crossdressing plot is played in such an over-the-top way, with Lau visually delivering his jabs, with a narrator providing droll commentary on the events, and with intercuts of faux interviews and excerpts from everyone, even including the disgruntled innkeeper spying on the crossdressing princess and the confused restaurant owner. It’s actually quite impressive how the ridiculous plot leads to such a wholesome, moving conclusion.

92. Memories (1995)

7.5

Genres

Animation, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Director

Katsuhiro Otomo, Koji Morimoto

Actors

Ami Hasegawa, Gara Takashima, Hidetoshi Nakamura, Hideyuki Hori

Moods

Action-packed, Challenging, Character-driven

Best known for landmark cyberpunk anime Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo crafted strange and terrifying visions of a world that has not yet come, imagining technology that surpassed that of today, but in much pessimistic light compared to that of the genre. Three of his manga short stories are depicted in Memories, with Otomo partnering with Kōji Morimoto and Tensai Okamura to direct each segment, and with Satoshi Kon in writing, just before Kon’s own iconic surrealist films. Kon-written Magnetic Rose has been universally acknowledged as the best of them, being much more emotionally poignant, but the other two does have its charms, as Stink Bomb takes a relatively silly premise to its fairly logical, but scary conclusion, and Cannon Fodder takes the beauty of Otomo’s art into such a hollow and ugly world. All three deliver terrifying omens of death through technology used against the everyday man, whether by accident or design.

93. Faust (1994)

7.5

Genres

Animation, Drama, Fantasy

Director

Jan Švankmajer

Actors

Antonín Zacpal, Jan Kraus, Jiří Suchý, Petr Čepek

Moods

Challenging, Discussion-sparking, Intense

With many iterations of Faust, Jan Švankmajer’s own take on the deal with the devil isn’t absolutely terrifying, and can feel bizarre, sometimes even goofy, to those unfamiliar with the animation director. However, Lekce Faust is quite creepy, as he brings the legend to modern day Prague with a mysterious map and visually disturbing puppets that brilliantly mixes live action with stop-motion and claymation into folklorish cinematic magic. It’s not the most faithful rendition of the classic tale, but it’s one of the most inventive, proving that while the deals like this pop up only in past folklore, the devil still lingers in fairly absurd ways.

94. Güeros (2014)

7.5

Genres

Comedy, Drama

Director

Alonso Ruizpalacios

Actors

Adrián Ladrón, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Bernardo Velasco, Ilse Salas

Moods

Character-driven, Easy, Raw

Modern day coming-of-age ennui isn’t a new subject at all, but there’s a charm to the way this was presented in Güeros. In his first film, Alonso Ruizpalacios beautifully shoots each scene in black and white, forming striking images of what the capital used to be and taking new approaches in depicting certain scenes (for example, that panic attack with the POV shot covered in feathers!). The cast also excellently portray this millennial emotion well, with their eyes glazed over as they try to seek moments of connection and grounding, as they try to make sense of it all. While some of the politics might fly under the radar to people outside the country, Güeros nevertheless serves as an interesting portrait of the time, as well as an interesting debut for one of Mexico’s avant-garde filmmakers.

95. Alice (1988)

7.5

Genres

Adventure, Animation, Fantasy

Director

Jan Švankmajer

Actors

Kristýna Kohoutová

Moods

Challenging, Dark, Quirky

While Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is widely considered a classic, there’s just something inscrutable, mysterious, and even a bit weird about the tale. Czech director Jan Svankmajer’s version takes a distinctly unsettling approach, with everything but normal-sized Alice animated into creepy stop-motion, including, but not limited to, cards, puppets falling apart, and actual dead animals, and with every dialogue coming literally from Alice’s mouth, but it’s through this approach that makes the fantastical novel more like a strange dream rather than the Disney-fied fairy tale we’ve come to know. Něco z Alenky is a refreshing take that finally acknowledges the dark side of Alice in Wonderland.

96. The Innocents (2016)

7.5

Genres

Drama, History

Director

Anne Fontaine, Female director

Actors

Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Anna Próchniak, Eliza Rycembel

Moods

Challenging, Character-driven, Discussion-sparking

When depicting war and faith, it seems like men are the only ones that have to undertake these challenges, at least it seems, in the stories made available about these topics. But that simply isn’t true. The Innocents is one of the few reminders that, while women might have been kept from the front lines, war has spared no one. Through stark and wintry shots, and a solemn direction, writer-director Anne Fontaine crafts tense conversations between an atheist doctor and her nun patients, making all of them reckon with the ways trauma has shifted their present principles and future actions, in a sensitive way that has rarely been seen before. While the resolution can come across as a bit too sudden, The Innocents nonetheless is a compelling study of faith.

97. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

7.5

Genres

Action, Drama, Thriller

Director

Park Chan-wook

Actors

Bae Doona, Han Bo-bae, Im Ji-eun, Ji-Eun Lim

Moods

Challenging, Dramatic, Emotional

The first in famed Korean director Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance trilogy (after cult films Oldboy and Lady Vengeance), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance follows a Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), a deaf-mute man who resorts to crime when his ailing sister is in need of a kidney transplant. He decides to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy man named Park Dong-jin (Parasite’s Song Kang-ho) for ransom, but he underestimates how, like him, Dong-jin will stop at nothing to save a loved one. Thanks to its rich characterization, dazzling editing, and fearless experimentation, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance makes for a thrilling (if violent) watch, one that will hit you hard and leave your mouth agape by the end. Here, you’ll see traces of the head-turning twists that will come to define Park’s stunning filmography, which apart from Oldboy includes the much-celebrated The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave.

98. All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)

7.5

Genres

Crime, Drama

Director

Shunji Iwai

Actors

Yu Aoi

Moods

Challenging

In About Lily Chou-Chou, two school teens, Yūichi (Hayato Ichihara) and Shūsuke (Shugo Oshinari), start out as friends who are obsessed with the music of Lily Chou-Chou. But when tragedy strikes, Shūsuke unexpectedly joins a gang and harasses his classmates, including Yūichi and their female friends. It’s a dark and challenging film, one that isn’t afraid to explore the graphic depths of things like gang violence, sexual abuse, prostitution, and suicide among young people. But if you can sit through it, it’s a rewarding watch. It has rough and bitter aftertaste, but you’ll remember it for long regardless. The film won awards at the Berlin International Film festivals and various other festivals in Asia.

99. War Witch (2012)

7.4

Genres

Drama, War

Director

Kim Nguyen

Actors

Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Cornelius Keagon, Mizinga Mwinga, Rachel Mwanza

Moods

Depressing, Discussion-sparking, Intense

War Witch is depressing to watch. Having to choose between killing your parents yourself versus having them killed in a worse fashion by someone else is a cruel selection no child deserves to make, and War Witch poses that selection literally within the first five minutes, inspired by the real life recruitment mechanisms of child soldiers in Africa. But what makes the film still worth watching is the way writer-director Kim Nguyen focuses on how, despite everything, Komona clings to her humanity, albeit through the supernatural vision manifesting from a mix of hallucinogens and grief. War Witch won’t be an easy watch for most viewers, but it’s a unique story that has to be told, and we’re glad Nguyen rose up to the task.

100. Monsieur Lazhar (2012)

7.4

Genres

Comedy, Drama

Director

Philippe Falardeau

Actors

André Robitaille, Brigitte Poupart, Daniel Gadouas, Danielle Proulx

Moods

Depressing, Dramatic

After the sudden death of a teacher, 55-year-old Algerian immigrant Bachir Lazhar is hired at an elementary school in Montreal. Struggling with a cultural gap between himself and his students at first, he helps them to deal with the situation, revealing his own tragic past. A strong portrait without any weird sentimentality. 11-year-old actress Sophie Nélisse makes her brilliant debut.

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