CATALYST PLANET - Lights, Camera, Action: 7 of the Best International Films from 2024

With the 2024-2025 movie awards season in full swing, let’s take a look at what filmmakers had the world watching — and discussing — last year.

Film is a powerful medium to promote understanding, as foreign cinema may offer a window into another country’s customs and cultures. This list highlights seven international films from the past year, each transcending borders and language barriers to tell untold stories, raise global awareness and reveal universal truths.

1. The Girl with the Needle

Set in post-World War I Copenhagen, “The Girl with the Needle” is loosely based on the true story of Dagmar Overbye, a Danish serial killer who murdered unwanted children left in her care. But rather than focus on Overbye (Trine Dyrholm), the film instead centers on Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), “an elaborately backstoried fictional woman,” as Peter Bradshaw describes her. Karoline attempts to perform an abortion on herself before Overbye intervenes and convinces her to put her baby up for adoption, effectively roping the woman into her clandestine operation.

The film’s synopsis notes its “profound contemporary resonance.” As Bradshaw writes, the film is “a world in which women’s lives are disposable and in which the authorities are disapproving of and disgusted by their suffering,” a world not so unfamiliar to modern women. “In some parts of America,” Gregory Ellwood noted, “restrictive abortion laws have been enacted, and lower-income women have been forced to, like Karoline, take matters into their own hands.” In the words of critic Catherine Wheatley, the film is “viscerally suggestive of the effects on society when children are born to mothers who don’t want them.” “The Girl with the Needle” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Golden Globes and is up for the Best International Feature Film award at this year’s upcoming Academy Awards.

2. The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Set during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” focuses on an Iranian judge (Missagh Zareh) living in Tehran who is forced to impose harsh sentences on protestors. As the protests intensify, so does the judge’s paranoia concerning the women in his family, especially his teenage daughters, who secretly follow the protests on social media. Interspersed throughout the film are real images and clips from Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations.

Director Mohammad Rasoulof, known for violating Iranian censorship regulations, has faced prison sentences for his films in the past. Filmed entirely in secret, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” was no exception. In 2024, Rasoulof successfully escaped Iran, fleeing to Europe on foot. But even though he’s no longer in Iran, Rasoulof wants to keep telling “Iranian stories,” no matter what that looks like or if he agrees with it. “This is not our aesthetics. It’s not our choice,” Rasoulof said. “It’s the aesthetics of totalitarianism.” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Golden Globes and is up for the Best International Feature Film award at the upcoming Academy Awards.

3. I’m Still Here

Walter Salle’s biographical drama focuses on Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), a woman grappling with the loss of her husband, Brazilian dissident politician Rubens Paiva, after he — like hundreds of other government critics — is forced into disappearance by the country’s military dictatorship in 1971. Based on their son Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir, “I’m Still Here” is not the first Brazilian movie to depict the two-decade-long dictatorship, but it’s one of the few that looks at its disruptions from the bottom-up perspective of the people rather than the top-down viewpoint of the powerful.

“In shining a light on insidious injustice,” critic Manuel Betancourt wrote, “[the film] becomes a balm to warn and warm its audiences in equal measure.” Indeed, like a warning, “I’m Still Here” is living proof of what censorship provokes — Brazil’s far-right attempted to boycott the film shortly after its release. “It’s proof that the page hasn’t been turned on this part of history — that it hasn’t been overcome [...] So long as these things are not punished, our democracy will always be under threat,” said Marcelo Paiva. At the 82nd Golden Globes, “I’m Still Here” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, while leading actress Fernanda Torres won Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her portrayal of Eunice Paiva. The film is up for the Best International Feature Film, Best Actress (for Torres) and Best Picture awards at the upcoming Academy Awards.

4. Santosh

“A discerning, resonant case study,” Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh” focuses on a young widow (Shahana Goswami) in India as she investigates the rape and murder of a low-caste teenage girl. Although “technically a crime drama,” as critic Alissa Wilkinson writes, the film is “bigger” than its genre. “‘Santosh’ is equally about the methods by which the poor and oppressed are kept in their place, and about what it means to be [a] woman among men who aren’t at all interested in sharing their power,” Wilkinson said.

Set in a country facing high rates of gendered violence, the film deals with the inequalities that linger long after systemic injustices have been entrenched, or even dismantled. From the caste system, patriarchal expectations and a corrupt justice system, “every element of the story demonstrates a deck stacked against someone: the Dalit community, the Muslim boy, the girl who was murdered, the female police officers,” per Wilkinson. But the unequal, stratified society found in “Santosh” is a setting that’s relatable for women far beyond rural north India. As director Sandhya Suri said, “That is by no means only an Indian narrative.”

5. From Ground Zero

This Palestinian anthology film is more a mosaic than it is a movie. Comprised of 22 short films, “From Ground Zero” features documentaries, dramatic fictions, experimental narratives and animated features combined to tell 60 minutes worth of stories from the Israel-Hamas War that go beyond the headlines.

The film was originally slated to premiere at the 77th Cannes Festival but was pulled by the organizers, who wanted to keep the event apolitical. In protest, Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi projected the film outside of the festival to remind those watching and beyond that art endures in the face of destruction. “I will not allow the festival to decide that we do not exist, and to exclude our voices,” Masharawi said. “I decided to force them to see us and hear us. The world must hear us. We want our voice to be heard, because we exist.”

6. Didi

According to director Sean Wang, “[At 13] you’re old enough to know better and young enough to not care.” Indeed, his film “Didi” (the Chinese term for “little brother”) depicts just that, focusing on the adolescent experiences of 13-year-old Taiwanese-American Chris (Izaac Wang) as he deals with his internalized racism and the intergenerational disconnect within his immigrant family.

Notably, “Didi” captures the turbulent experience of growing up in the age of social media, especially as a non-white youth. As Wang expressed, the film’s story is ultimately about “the way that shame manifests itself within this young boy’s life.” We’re more likely now to call out the racist microaggressions Chris experiences than we were in 2003. But the secondary world of social media is more fleshed out than it was 22 years ago, and as “Didi” reminds us, no matter our age, there’s always more to learn about the world around us — both real and digital. At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, “Didi” won the Audience Award: US Dramatic and the US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble.

7. Dahomey

Mati Diop’s documentary blends fact and fiction, following the homecoming of 26 artifacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Benin) after being stolen away to the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris for more than a century. The film is told from the perspectives of the artworks, who recount their memories of Africa, and through Beninese university students, who debate the merits of repatriating the treasures. As critic Carlos Aguilar writes, “‘Dahomey’ brims with plenty of perspectives on what the restitution of these ancient treasures symbolizes and the dicey political implications around it.”

Even in today’s seemingly postcolonial age, many former colonial powers still house thousands of stolen artworks. It’s worth noting that the Musee du Quai Branly has only returned 26 of the 7,000 non-French artifacts it holds. But like “careful packaging,” director Mati Diop’s camera films each artwork with intention, dignity and feeling, ultimately crafting a compelling argument for artistic repatriation. At the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, “Dahomey” won the Golden Bear, the festival’s top prize.