Cinema that takes risks: Eight films to watch on MUBI this spring
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There is a certain kind of film that stays with viewers long after the credits roll—one that trusts its audience to sit with discomfort, beauty and ambiguity. MUBI has always been home to that kind of cinema.
This spring, the platform brings together a remarkable slate of films that do exactly what great cinema should: challenge perspectives, champion bold voices and invite deeper engagement with stories from around the world.
Below are eight films streaming on MUBI that every design-minded, visually curious viewer should have on their radar.
Arco
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu | France, 2025
Streaming on MUBI from May 22 — In 2075, Iris, a 10-year-old girl, sees a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. It's Arco. Iris will take him in and help him, by any means possible, to get home. Co-produced by Natalie Portman and Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Feature, Ugo Bienvenu's epic adventure whizzes through time and space with dazzling handcrafted visuals. Eco-conscious yet hopeful, Arco soars with its heartfelt vision of friendship and utopia, drawn in a kaleidoscope of colours.
Atropia
Directed by Hailey Gates | USA, 2025
A beautifully modulated turn from Alia Shawkat complicates the broader fun of this zany war satire, co-starring Callum Turner. A playfully shot debut feature, Atropia lands its different strands skillfully: touching human drama, tangly undercover romance and confrontational send-up of US militarism.
Mitski: The Land
Directed by Grant James | USA, 2025
Channelling influence from the movies into her mesmerizing movements, Mitski gives live performances that find kindred spirits in cinema. Playing with speed, colour and freeze frames to an electrifying effect, her first concert documentary embraces the transformative power of both film and music.
My Father's Shadow
Directed by Akinola Davies Jr. | UK, 2025
The first Nigerian film ever to screen in the Official Selection at Cannes, this prize-winning debut feature from Akinola Davies Jr. is steeped in feeling and lyrical imagery. Bathing the father-son bond in a tender glow, this vibrant coming-of-age tale gathers up precious things amid political tumult.
No Other Choice
Directed by Park Chan-wook | South Korea, 2025
Desperate times call for desperate measures in this wild satirical ride from Korean master Park Chan-wook, starring Lee Byung-hun as a trampled worker with nothing to lose. An unruly blend of ingenious visuals and twisted humour, No Other Choice delivers a brutal takedown of the cutthroat job market.
Sirât
Directed by Oliver Laxe | Spain, 2025
A man and his son arrive at a rave lost in the mountains of Morocco, searching for Marina, their daughter and sister, who vanished months ago at another party. Driven by fate, they follow a group of ravers in hopes of finding her. Laxe turns the search into something elemental: a hypnotic, spiritually charged journey where loss and longing dissolve into landscape and sound.
Sound of Falling
Directed by Mascha Schilinski | Germany, 2025
Cascading through time, Mascha Schilinski's incomparable Cannes prize-winner orchestrates echoes of past experience into transcendent poetic cinema. Surfacing evocative, gilded imagery from the shadows of femininity, Sound of Falling confirms the tremendous talents of its ambitious writer-director.
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Directed by Diego Céspedes | Chile, 2025
As an unknown disease spreads through a small mining town in the Chilean desert, gay men are accused of transmitting it through their eyes. Eleven-year-old Lidia, the only girl in the community, sets out in search of the truth. A quietly devastating debut, Céspedes crafts a fable about fear, scapegoating and the courage it takes to see clearly.
