Golden Global Best Foreign Language Films in Last 40 Years
by huqing208 | created - 06 Aug 2013 | updated - 06 Aug 2013 | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Amour (2012)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama
Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alexandre Tharaud
Votes: 105,412 | Gross: $6.74M
2. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 257,831 | Gross: $7.10M
3. In a Better World (2010)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
Director: Susanne Bier | Stars: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Markus Rygaard, Wil Johnson
Votes: 41,601 | Gross: $1.01M
4. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,441 | Gross: $2.22M
5. Waltz with Bashir (2008)
R | 90 min | Documentary, Animation, Biography
An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
Director: Ari Folman | Stars: Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ori Sivan
Votes: 60,285 | Gross: $2.28M
6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
PG-13 | 112 min | Biography, Drama
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.
Director: Julian Schnabel | Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny
Votes: 110,314 | Gross: $5.99M
7. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryô Kase
Votes: 169,731 | Gross: $13.76M
8. Paradise Now (2005)
PG-13 | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad | Stars: Kais Nashif, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Hamza Abu-Aiaash
Votes: 24,049 | Gross: $1.45M
9. The Sea Inside (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 126 min | Biography, Drama
The factual story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 28-year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Mabel Rivera
Votes: 85,106 | Gross: $2.09M
10. Osama (2003)
PG-13 | 83 min | Drama
After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a pre-teen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
Director: Siddiq Barmak | Stars: Marina Golbahari, Zubaida Sahar, Khwaja Nader, Mohammad Arif Herati
Votes: 9,515 | Gross: $1.13M
11. Talk to Her (2002)
R | 112 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Rosario Flores, Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling
Votes: 117,295 | Gross: $9.36M
12. No Man's Land (I) (2001)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1993 at the time of the heaviest fighting between the two warring sides. Two soldiers from opposing sides in the conflict, Nino and Ciki, become trapped in no man's land, whilst a third soldier becomes a living booby trap.
Director: Danis Tanovic | Stars: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis
Votes: 48,750 | Gross: $1.06M
13. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen
Votes: 281,083 | Gross: $128.08M
14. All About My Mother (1999)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedy-drama about a bereaved mother, and overwrought actress, her jealous lover, and a pregnant nun.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan
Votes: 102,581 | Gross: $8.26M
15. Central Station (1998)
R | 110 min | Drama
The emotive journey of a former schoolteacher who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Fernanda Montenegro, Vinícius de Oliveira, Marília Pêra, Soia Lira
Votes: 42,138 | Gross: $5.60M
16. Ma vie en rose (1997)
R | 88 min | Drama
Ludovic is an innocent seven-year-old child who provokes horror in his community when he dresses in girls clothes and insists he's a girl.
Director: Alain Berliner | Stars: Georges Du Fresne, Michèle Laroque, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Hélène Vincent
Votes: 9,019 | Gross: $2.28M
17. Kolya (1996)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A confirmed bachelor is in for the surprise of his life when a get-rich-quick scheme backfires and leaves him with a pint-sized new roommate.
Director: Jan Sverák | Stars: Zdenek Sverák, Andrey Khalimon, Libuse Safránková, Ondrej Vetchý
Votes: 16,188 | Gross: $5.73M
18. Les Misérables (1995)
R | 175 min | Drama, History
A variation on Victor Hugo's classic novel by means of the story of a man whose life is affected by and somewhat duplicated by the Hugo story of the beleaguered Jean Valjean.
Director: Claude Lelouch | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Martines, Salomé Lelouch
Votes: 3,995 | Gross: $1.04M
19. Farinelli (1994)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of castrato opera singer Carlo Broschi, who enthralled 18th-century European audiences under his stage name Farinelli.
Director: Gérard Corbiau | Stars: Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Elsa Zylberstein, Caroline Cellier
Votes: 7,334 | Gross: $2.12M
20. Farewell My Concubine (1993)
R | 171 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.
Director: Kaige Chen | Stars: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, You Ge
Votes: 32,935 | Gross: $5.22M
21. Indochine (1992)
PG-13 | 160 min | Drama, Romance, War
Eliane adopts Camille, whose Vietnamese parents were friends. In 1930, a French navy officer is interested in Eliane (owns 60km2 plantation) and later in Camille. There's an uprising in Vietnam against French colonial power.
Director: Régis Wargnier | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh-Dan Pham, Jean Yanne
Votes: 10,904 | Gross: $5.73M
22. Europa Europa (1990)
R | 112 min | Drama, History, War
A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Solomon Perel, Marco Hofschneider, René Hofschneider, André Wilms
Votes: 17,435 | Gross: $5.58M
23. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
PG | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, History
Famed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.
Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez, Jacques Weber
Votes: 25,885 | Gross: $15.14M
24. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
R | 174 min | Drama, Romance
A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili, Isa Danieli
Votes: 281,696 | Gross: $11.99M
25. Pelle the Conqueror (1987)
PG-13 | 157 min | Drama
When his wife dies, Lasse takes his 12-year-old son, Pelle, from their home in Sweden to Denmark in search of a better life.
Director: Bille August | Stars: Pelle Hvenegaard, Max von Sydow, Erik Paaske, Björn Granath
Votes: 11,810 | Gross: $2.05M
26. The Assault (1986)
PG | 144 min | Drama, History, Romance
A Dutch doctor, haunted by grueling childhood memories of World War II, struggles to find peace as he spends his life looking for answers about the tragic night that shaped him.
Director: Fons Rademakers | Stars: Derek de Lint, Marc van Uchelen, Monique van de Ven, John Kraaijkamp Sr.
Votes: 3,394 | Gross: $0.20M
27. My Life as a Dog (1985)
Unrated | 101 min | Drama, Comedy
In the late '50s, young Ingemar learns a lot about life and himself when he is sent away from his sick mother to live with his aunt and uncle in a town full of eccentrics.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén, Melinda Kinnaman
Votes: 22,473 | Gross: $8.35M
28. The Official Story (1985)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, History
During the final months of Argentinian Military Dictatorship in 1983, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.
Director: Luis Puenzo | Stars: Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, Chunchuna Villafañe, Hugo Arana
Votes: 10,808 | Gross: $0.03M
29. A Passage to India (1984)
PG | 164 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox
Votes: 20,614 | Gross: $27.19M
30. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
R | 188 min | Drama
Two young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson, Börje Ahlstedt
Votes: 67,339 | Gross: $4.97M
31. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 239,860 | Gross: $52.77M
32. Chariots of Fire (1981)
PG | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
Votes: 65,651 | Gross: $58.97M
33. Tess (1979)
PG | 186 min | Drama, Romance
A strong-willed young peasant girl attracts the affection of two men.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, John Collin
Votes: 18,185
34. La Cage aux Folles (1978)
R | 97 min | Comedy
The manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and his star attraction, are a gay couple. Madness ensues when his straight son brings home a fiancée and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
Director: Édouard Molinaro | Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Claire Maurier, Rémi Laurent
Votes: 11,864 | Gross: $20.42M
35. Autumn Sonata (1978)
PG | 99 min | Drama, Music
A devoted wife is visited by her mother, a successful concert pianist who had little time for her when she was young.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Björk
Votes: 37,627
36. A Special Day (1977)
Approved | 106 min | Drama
Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, Françoise Berd
Votes: 15,764
37. Face to Face (1976)
R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy
Two psychiatrists have their marriage tested when one suffers a mental breakdown.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Aino Taube, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 6,120
38. Lies My Father Told Me (1975)
PG | 102 min | Drama
A Jewish boy grows up in 1920s Montreal with a grandfather who tells stories and a father who won't work.
Director: Ján Kadár | Stars: Yossi Yadin, Len Birman, Marilyn Lightstone, Jeff Lynas
Votes: 577
39. Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
TV-PG | 283 min | Drama
Ten years within the marriage of Marianne and Johan.
Stars: Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom
Votes: 17,235
40. The Pedestrian (1973)
PG | 98 min | Drama
When a German businessman causes a car accident with deadly consequences, the papers start digging into his past to find scandals. What they find causes him to reevaluate his own past during WW2 when he was in Greece.
Director: Maximilian Schell | Stars: Gustav Rudolf Sellner, Peter Hall, Maximilian Schell, Gila von Weitershausen
Votes: 283
Tell Your Friends