France invented cinema in 1895 and has never stopped leading it.
From new wave to modern blockbusters, French films have a sophistication that’s hard to match.
These 10 films are the perfect introduction to French cinema.
1. Miraculous World: Tokyo, Stellar Force (2025) 8.5
Genre: Animation, Family, Action · Director: Jun Violet · Cast: Anouck Hautbois, Clara Soares, Claire Baradat
Kagami drags Marinette to Tokyo to help the Stellars defeat a new supervillain, but Marinette soon realizes her friend has another, untold reason for this trip to Japan.
2. Shooom’s Odyssey (2019) 8.4
Genre: Animation, Family · Director: Julien Bisaro · Cast: Oscar Pauleau, Thierry Desroses, Prune Bozo
Shooom, a baby owl, hatches just as a storm turns the bayou surrounding her tree upside down. No sooner has she fallen from her nest, then the little fledgling totters off into the mangrove, pushing a
3. Human (2015) 8.4
Genre: Documentary · Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
A collection of stories about and images of our world, offering an immersion to the core of what it means to be human. Through these stories full of love and happiness, as well as hatred and violence,
4. Terra (2015) 8.3
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Family · Director: Michael Pitiot · Cast: Vanessa Paradis
A visually stunning documentary that reflects human’s relationship to other species on Earth as humanity becomes more and more isolated from Nature.
5. Léon: The Professional (1994) 8.3
Genre: Crime, Drama, Action · Director: Luc Besson · Cast: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective “cleaner”. But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year
6. The Intouchables (2011) 8.3
Genre: Drama, Comedy · Director: Olivier Nakache · Cast: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
7. Notre-Dame de Paris (1998) 8.3
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance · Director: Gilles Amado · Cast: Hélène Ségara, Daniel Lavoie, Bruno Pelletier
A musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel “Notre Dame de Paris” which follows the gypsy dancer Esmeralda and the three men who vie for her love: the kind hunchback Quadimodo, the twisted priest Frol
8. Mommy (2014) 8.2
Genre: Drama · Director: Xavier Dolan · Cast: Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Antoine Olivier Pilon
A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.
9. Memorable (2019) 8.2
Genre: Animation, Drama · Director: Bruno Collet · Cast: André Wilms, Dominique Reymond
Aging painter Louis and his wife Michelle struggle to cope with Louis’ advancing dementia.
10. Et les mistrals gagnants (2017) 8.1
Genre: Documentary · Director: Anne-Dauphine Julliand · Cast: Ambre, Camille, Imad
French cinema is elegant, provocative, and endlessly rewarding. These 10 films are where to start — and then you’ll never stop exploring.