Career highs for Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage, a delicious Frederick Wiseman doc, a poignant gay ghost story and two knockout dramas about the refugee crisis in Europe are among THR critics’ 15 faves from Venice, Telluride and Toronto.

Telluride

Telluride

Toronto

Hayao Miyazaki emerges from retirement with a profoundly personal swan song — a rumination on love, loss and the intersection between life and death in a world spinning out of control. Centering on a grieving boy and the bird who offers to lead him to his late mother, the film looks astonishing even by Miyazaki’s soaring standards. — D.R.

Toronto

Venice

Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows his Oscar winner Drive My Car with this haunting, slow-burn drama about the conflict created when a Tokyo company’s project to build a luxury camping retreat threatens the purity of a village’s spring water supply. The film builds a hypnotic momentum, along with a quiet sense of dread that sneaks up on you. — D.R.

Venice