Most watched world cinema titles on Kanopy… so far!
Continuing our midyear check-in series: world cinema.
If one thing stands out this round, it’s overlap — The Worst Person in the World, Vermiglio, Perfect Days, and The Ugly Stepsister all landed in the top 10 across every region, pointing to a shared appetite for awards-recognized international cinema. Festival pedigree runs deep across the board: Cannes and Venice winners like Parasite, All We Imagine as Light, and Vermiglio itself all made an appearance. A quieter thread also emerged around food as a narrative device, with Trifole, Mid-August Lunch, and The Taste of Things all using meals and cooking to explore family, tradition, and connection.
Below, the top 10 most-watched world cinema titles in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and Canada.
United States
The Worst Person in the World
Watch The Worst Person in the World on Kanopy
Set in contemporary Oslo, this sharp romantic comedy follows Julie (Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve), a witty and impulsive woman in her thirties, as she ricochets between careers, lovers, and existential doubts. Torn between the stable, older Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) and the free-spirited Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), she stumbles through a whirlwind of breakups, hookups, and self-reinvention. With bursts of surreal humor and emotional honesty, her search for meaning becomes both chaotic and painfully relatable. Nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay at the 94th Academy Awards.
Vermiglio
The lush and breathtaking beauty of the Alps provides the physical and emotional backdrop for this singular portrait of a sprawling family, set in a remote village suspended in time by the customs of a fading era. Winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Maura Delpero’s visionary film conjures stories from her own family’s past to create a deeply personal and human tale.
The Beast
By 2044, artificial intelligence reigns, and human emotions must be surgically removed to produce a more pliant workforce. But this procedure triggers Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) to experience haunting memories of her past lives, as she encounters different incarnations of her paramour, Louis (George MacKay). As she once more undergoes the pains and pleasures of romance–and rediscovers what it means to be truly alive–Gabrielle awaits the erasure of her humanity with growing fascination and dread.
Butcher’s Stain
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Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket, is accused of tearing down the Israeli hostage posters in the break room. Samir sets out to prove his innocence in order to keep his job he desperately needs.
Parasite
Greed and class discrimination threaten the relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan in Bong Joon Ho’s darkly hilarious modern fairytale. Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film at the Academy Awards. Winner of Best Foreign Motion Picture – Foreign Language at the Golden Globe Awards. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Ugly Stepsister
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Facing desperate financial straits, wide-eyed and awkward Elvira (Lea Myren) prepares for the royal ball, where she must compete with her beautiful new stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) to capture the attention and riches of the handsome prince. Under her mother’s direction, Elvira subjects herself to dancing lessons, primitive plastic surgery, and much, much, worse, but her swanlike transformation comes at a devastating (and disgusting) price. With its Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, the film revels in transformation at a gruesome cost.
Perfect Days
Hirayama is content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Unexpected encounters reveal more of his story in a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the world around us.
Trifole
In Italy’s Piedmont region, the rare white truffle hides deep in the forests of Alba. Igor, an aging truffle hunter, faces failing health and vanishing woodlands while struggling to keep pace with the modern truffle market. Into his quiet, tradition-bound world comes Dalia, his 28-year-old granddaughter from London, disconnected from her roots and searching for direction. Tasked with caring for him, their awkward reunion softens as she’s drawn into his passion for truffle hunting, and his world. When an accounting oversight threatens Igor’s home, Dalia embarks on a quest to find a legendary “lightning-struck” truffle that could save everything. Guided by Igor’s notes and his faithful dog, Birba, she ventures into a magical forest, confronting rival hunters, unexpected danger, and her own awakening sense of purpose. Set against the earthly beauty of Piedmont’s autumn woods and the delirium of Alba’s centuries-old truffle fair, Trifole is a fantastical and profound adventure about family, tradition and finding one’s place in the world.
There’s Still Tomorrow
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In this moving comedic drama set in postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband. When a mysterious letter arrives, she discovers the courage to change the circumstances of her life. One of the ten highest grossing films ever in Italy and winner of six David di Donatello Awards (Italy’s equivalent to the Academy Awards).
The Old Woman With the Knife
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A legendary assassin in her sixties is targeted by a young killer seeking revenge. As her body betrays her and enemies close in, she unleashes decades of lethal skill in a final, explosive fight for survival.
Australia & New Zealand
Flow
The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as his home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.
The Worst Person in the World
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Julie is turning thirty and her life is an existential mess. She is struggling to find her career path and her older boyfriend, Aksel, is pushing for them to settle down. One night she crashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind. Soon she has broken up with Aksel and thrown herself into yet another new relationship. But she will come to realise that some life choices are already behind her.
Perfect Days
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.
The Count of Monte Cristo
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After escaping from an island prison where he spent 14 years for being wrongly accused of state treason, Edmond Dantes returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on the men who betrayed him.
Drive My Car
Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theatre festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900.
Last Summer
Anne, a brilliant lawyer, lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight-year-old daughters, in a house on the heights of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually discovers that his presence stirs a desire that oversteps legal and familial boundaries.Watch
The Ugly Stepsister
Watch The Ugly Stepsister on Kanopy
Facing desperate financial straits, wide-eyed and awkward Elvira (Lea Myren) prepares for the royal ball, where she must compete with her beautiful new stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) to capture the attention and riches of the handsome prince. Under her mother’s direction, Elvira subjects herself to dancing lessons, primitive plastic surgery, and much, much, worse, but her swanlike transformation comes at a devastating (and disgusting) price. With its Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, the film revels in transformation at a gruesome cost.
Three Colours: Blue
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Julie (Juliette Binoche) loses her composer husband and their child in a car crash and, though devastated, she tries to make a new start, away from her country house and a would-be lover. But music still surrounds her and she uncovers unpleasant facts about her husband’s life. Slowly Julie learns to live again, as music and the gift to create it prove to be a healing force.
Anatomy of a Fall
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For the past year, Sandra, a German writer, her French husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he committed suicide or was killed. Samuel’s death is treated as suspicious, presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect. Little by little, the trial becomes not just an investigation of the circumstances of Samuel’s death, but an unsettling psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel’s conflicted relationship.
Oldboy
Based on the Japanese Manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, OLDBOY tells the story of Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik), an average man who is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without any explanation. Eventually he is released, equipped with money, a cell phone, expensive clothes, and only five days to exact his vengeance against his those responsible for his incarceration.
Canada
The Worst Person in the World
Watch The Worst Person in the World on Kanopy
Julie is turning thirty and her life is an existential mess. Several of her talents have gone to waste and her older boyfriend, Aksel – a successful graphic novelist – is pushing for them to settle down. One night, she gatecrashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind. Before long, she has broken up with Aksel and thrown herself into yet another new relationship, hoping for a new perspective on her life. But she will come to realize that some life choices are already behind her.
Vermiglio
The lush and breathtaking beauty of the Alps provides the physical and emotional backdrop for this singular portrait of a sprawling family, set in a remote village suspended in time by the customs of a fading era. Winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Maura Delpero’s visionary film conjures stories from her own family’s past to create a deeply personal and human tale.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Watch The Count of Monte Cristo on Kanopy
The target of a sinister plot, young Edmond Dantes is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Chateau d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him.
I’m Your Man
A scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot (Dan Stevens) created to make her happy.
Mid-August Lunch
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An utterly charming tale of good food, feisty ladies and unlikely friendships during a very Roman holiday. Broke, and armed with only a glass of wine and a wry sense of humor, middle-aged Gianni resides with his 93-year-old mother in their ancient apartment. The condo debts are mounting, but if Gianni looks after the building manager’s mother, all will be forgiven. Then the manager also shows up with an auntie, and then a doctor friend appears with his mother in tow… Can Gianni keep these lively mamas well fed and happy in these cramped quarters? Winner of four prizes at the Venice International Film Festival. “A simple and endlessly charming look at a weekend in the life of an uncomplicated middle-aged man living with his aging mama.” – Linda Barnard, Toronto Star
The Ugly Stepsister
Watch The Ugly Stepsister on Kanopy
Facing desperate financial straits, wide-eyed and awkward Elvira (Lea Myren) prepares for the royal ball, where she must compete with her beautiful new stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) to capture the attention and riches of the handsome prince. Under her mother’s direction, Elvira subjects herself to dancing lessons, primitive plastic surgery, and much, much, worse, but her swanlike transformation comes at a devastating (and disgusting) price. With its Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, the film revels in transformation at a gruesome cost.
The Quiet Girl
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Set in rural Ireland in 1981, this film tells the story of a young girl, Cait, who is sent away for the summer from her dysfunctional family to live with her mother’s people. These are Sean and Eibhlin Cinnsealach; a middle-aged couple she has never met. Slowly, in the care of this couple, Cait blossoms and discovers a new way of living, but in this house where affection grows and there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.
The Taste of Things
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An esteemed chef (Benoit Magimel) lives with his personal cook and lover (Juliette Binoche), sharing a long history of gastronomy and passion with her, but when she refuses to marry him, he decides to start cooking for her.
All We Imagine as Light
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Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Payal Kapadia’s revelatory fiction feature debut explores and celebrates the lives and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai. Centering on three women who work together at a city hospital, Kapadia’s radiant film is a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness.
Köln 75
In 1970s Germany, up-and-coming promoter Vera Brandes uses her youthful, rebellious and energetic spirit to organize a concert for jazz pianist Keith Jarrett at the Cologne Opera.
That’s a wrap on world cinema. Next week, we’ll share the most-watched Kanopy Kids titles of 2026 so far.