Your Passport to World Cinema
Beamafilm
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19/08/2026
Ready to travel the world without leaving the sofa?
From the bustling streets of Seoul and the sun-drenched landscapes of the Mediterranean to remote communities in Aotearoa, Australia and beyond, world cinema offers a ticket to places, cultures and perspectives we might never otherwise encounter.
Beamafilm’s World Cinema collection brings together compelling films, documentaries and series from across the globe, each offering its own window onto the people, ideas and experiences that shape our world.
See the world differently
World cinema does more than transport us to another destination. It invites us to experience life through someone else’s eyes.
A great international film can introduce us to unfamiliar traditions, reveal the humour hidden in cultural differences or remind us just how much people everywhere have in common. Love, family, ambition, injustice, belonging and the search for meaning may be universal, but every filmmaker tells these stories in a wonderfully different way.
That’s where the magic begins.
From festival favourites to hidden gems
Some of the most exciting filmmaking happens beyond the familiar Hollywood spotlight. Independent directors around the world are creating bold, inventive and deeply personal films that challenge expectations and expand the possibilities of cinema.
Beamafilm’s carefully curated collection includes acclaimed festival selections, award-winning dramas, fascinating documentaries, distinctive comedies and cinematic discoveries you may not find on mainstream streaming services.
Expect powerful performances, unforgettable locations and stories that stay with you long after the credits roll.
Let subtitles be your passport
If you usually scroll past subtitled films, consider this your invitation to take the plunge.
Within minutes, subtitles tend to disappear into the viewing experience, leaving you immersed in the rhythm, emotion and personality of another language. Watching films in their original language also preserves the nuances of each performance, something even the best dubbing cannot capture.
A world of stories through your library
World cinema is also a brilliant resource for students, educators and curious lifelong learners. Films can bring language, history, politics, anthropology, geography and cultural studies vividly to life while opening conversations about identity, migration, community and global change.
Best of all, members of participating libraries can stream Beamafilm free with their library card—and always without advertising.
So, where will you go first?
Choose a country you’ve always wanted to visit, discover a filmmaker you’ve never encountered or simply select a story that catches your imagination.
Your next great cinematic journey could be just one click away.
Explore World Cinema on Beamafilm and start streaming stories without borders.
Watch for FREE with a participating library card or on a 30-day trial. Also, you can rent a film for 72 hours.
A French chef helps a young girl win a culinary competition.
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Four high school teachers consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects their social and professional lives.
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Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
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After a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events about her stranded daughter.
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30-year-old Emilie runs a hairdressing salon where she provides an endless stream of advice to her clients and friends, but the only person she cannot seem to help in love is her own mother....and herself.
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A woman disappeared. After a snowstorm, her car is discovered on a road to a small remote village. While the police don't know where to start, five people are linked to the disappearance. Each one with his or her own secret.
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A seemingly simple taxi ride across Paris evolves into a profound meditation on the realities of the driver, whose personal life is in shambles, and his fare, an elderly woman whose warmth belies her shocking past.
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In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency - SOE - to recruit and train women as spies.
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After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.
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An exceptional sketch artist capable of "reading" people, and her three colleagues from the Investigation Unit of the Police Department work to solve sordid crimes.
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Victor, a disillusioned 60-something whose marriage is on the rocks, opts to relive the week of his life when, 40 years earlier, he met his true love through a company that allows customers to return to the time period of their choosing.
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After a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events about her stranded daughter.
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Asgeir and Ragna get entangled in a web of radical right-wing groups and followers - sending them on a journey from the fjords of Norway to a Berlin preparing for Germany's election.
A French postman dedicates 33 years of his life to building his daughter a stone palace.
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When a three year old boy tells a school psychologist that his mother is not his real mommy, he seeks the help of a police captain who's reluctant to take on the case as she's already occupied by a major robbery investigation.
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A suddenly widowed Parisian executive finds her zest for life returning when she begins a romantic relationship with an employee.
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested.
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In 1911, Roald Amundsen defies the ice and his rivals by leading a historic expedition to the South Pole.
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Set in a fictitious Sicilian seaside town called Vigata, Inspector Montalbano is a series of feature length films based on the writings of Andrea Camilleri.
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Three sisters live together in Kamakura, Japan. When theirabsent father dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral and meet their orphaned 13-year old half-sister, Suzu. Bonding quickly, they invite her to live with them.
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A film star comes face-to-face with a young rival.
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Johan, a loner with horses and explosives, is never accepted by the local community. We follow his struggle for belonging in the village and the lifelong, unrequited love for the girl next door, which he accidentally blew up in his...
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A taxi driver goes on the run after an attempt to carry out a hit on a professor goes terribly awry.
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Following a failed heist, Charles-Ingvar ‘Sickan’ Jonsson ends up in prison. Once released, his gang have become law-abiding citizens and Sickan has to continue on his own. Crime broker Anita tasks him with a simple burglary, but it turns...
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In a small estate on the West Bank border between Israeli and Palestinian territories, widow Hiam Abbass enjoys a modest, self-sufficient life tending a lemon grove.
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Using a Xhosa boy as a pawn, a White farmer sets up an incident of cruelty to turn the dog against him. Ten years later, both their lives hang in the balance at the mercy of the dog.
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Maryam, a 50 year old gallery owner seeks blessings from her father to marry her boyfriend from Sierra Leone, while at the same time she needs to overcome challenges from Sharia bureaucracy, which determines her ability to choose a...
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A road trip to Chile's past and present through the story of Sergio Contreras and his first return trip to Chile after 38 years of exile. Sergio, full of optimism, tells the eternal story of people being forced to leave their homes.
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A portrait of genius music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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The lakes of Italy’s far north are known for their enchanting allure. The series ‘Jewels of the Alps’ explores the five largest of them. Each film portrays one of the lakes, introducing us to a distinctive natural environment and to local...
A culinary lifestyle show with a royal difference. In stately homes and royal palaces we will learn about the fine tradition and glamour of the most distinguished kitchens and dining tables around the world.
A documentary heritage series that draws on treasures from the Auckland Council Libraries Heritage Collections.
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A compelling set of five work-life stories, filmed in Tamil Nadu (Southern India) featuring a fascinating microcosm of local heritage filmed by award-winning director Brian McKenzie.
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The personal story of a young woman in her early 20s who escapes society's expectations and becomes a sheepherder high in the French Alps for the summer season.
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Lola Montez, a feminist and famous royal mistress, was a strong-willed 19th-century Bavarian who fought for women's rights and is known to have caused the abdication of King Ludwig I.
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