Vergil Vernier: MERCURIALES (20140

This French filmmaker starts with employees of a huge twin tower building outside Paris, follows nubile young women around using documentary elements. Perhaps a cutting-edge style, but felt too random to me and borderline sexually exploitive as well.

Sarah Leonor: THE GREAT MAN/LE GRAND HOMME (2014)

In one of the most moving and conventionally successful features of the series, Leonor uses technique reminiscent of Claire Denis to explore the bond between two French Foreign Legion fighters in Afghanistan and themes of statelessness, machismo, and the need for a father.

Myroslav Slabospytskiy: THE TRIBE (2014)

Reportedly a sensation at Cannes, this Ukrainian film depicts young deaf mute people behaving badly (violence, prostitution, drug dealing) at a very rough bording school for the deaf, all in sign language, with no heard voice communication, and no subtitles. It is one of the series' biggest provocations, but leaves you cold because it's not believable, moving, or fully communicative.