The 2025 Oscars Best International Film shortlist contains 15 movies with brave politics, exemplary creative visions, and stand-out performances.
Author: Jason Flatt
Jason Flatt
Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is singular, but it’s also built on the strength of many legendary Iranian films that came before it.
A Complete Unknown makes all the modern movie mistakes while never really getting to the heart of what makes Bob Dylan interesting.
Mufasa: The Lion King is part of a long chain of movies ruined by the errant belief that IP is king, betraying its own morals along the way
All We Imagine as Light is a deceptively quiet drama with a loud point of view as three women help each other fight daily injustice.
Moana 2 has a buried heart, if you an find it beneath the bad songs and annoying new characters Moana takes with her to find other peoples.
No matter how many strange twists or turns the movie takes, Transmitzvah is a coming-of-age journey well worth taking.
While its perspective is limited and its plot is procedural, Joy (2024)’s filmmakers’ reverence for the people who made IVF possible is clear.