Clouds of Sils Maria

Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) competed for the Palme d'Or and made history when Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to win a César, for her supporting role. A reflexive drama about acting, ageing and female rivalry, it is among the most admired works of Assayas's career.

Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, the star confronting her own mortality through the role reversal of the play that launched her, with Stewart as Valentine, the assistant whose rehearsal-room sparring with her grows ever more charged, and Chloë Grace Moretz as a scandal-prone young Hollywood actress. Assayas sets much of the film amid the shifting mists of the Swiss mountains — the title refers to a real meteorological phenomenon — and lets the lines between performance and life dissolve, particularly in the electric two-handers between Binoche and Stewart.

Critics praised its intelligence and the chemistry of its leads, with Stewart's performance widely seen as the moment she was reassessed as a serious actress. Cerebral, ambiguous and beautifully played, Clouds of Sils Maria is a film about performers that doubles as a meditation on time and self. It confirmed Assayas as a master of the talky, idea-rich European drama at its most absorbing. Stewart's César win marked a turning point in her critical reputation, and the film's electric two-handers with Binoche stand among the most absorbing screen depictions of acting, ageing and the rivalries between women.