The 12 Best Films of Cannes 2023

The Cannes Film Festival came to an end on Saturday night, this was the 76th edition of the most prestigious showcase for cinema in the world.

There was lots of rainy weather, but attendees didn’t seem to mind. After all, this was one of better editions of the fest in recent years, offering, what seemed like, one great movie after another.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s top newspaper, offered me the task of writing about the 10 best movies I saw at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had such difficulty narrowing a list of Cannes films down to just 10, and I’ve been attending the festival since 2013. Maybe 2016 came closest to the sheer quality of movies we had this year.

After 11 days of hopping from theater to theater, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that, despite the existential threat of streaming, moviegoing still has a mighty pulse.

The Globe and Mail article should be up later today, and I’ll update this post with it, I painstakingly chose ten films, but here is the shortlist of 12 great films that I’ll be supporting throughout the year:

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot-au-Feu, Todd Haynes’ May/December, Felipe Galvez’ The Settlers, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case