"Julieta" had a warm reception at the Cannes Film Festival, which was followed by extremely positive reactions from French film critics. According to AlloCiné, based on 29 reviews from critics in France, "Julieta" received an average rating of 4.4 out of 5, making it one of the best reviewed films released in France in 2016. Numerous sources such as "Cahiers du Cinéma", "Le Monde", "Positif", "Ouest-France" and "Le Parisien" gave the film their highest five-star rating. "Le Monde" called it "a beautiful film of very pure sadness" and "La Croix" who thought the theme of guilt was a welcome new addition to Almodóvar's work, calling "Julieta" "a beautiful and intense film". "L'Express" thought Almodóvar had returned to the top of his game with "Julieta", calling it "a work constantly on the edge, never overwhelmed by its own emotions, deliberately cold [and] even austere". "Libération" gave a positive review, but felt the film was "too well-oiled" which prevented the drama of the story from "truly expressing all its power of emotional attraction". However, "L'Humanité" was largely negative, concluding that "the film is very narrative and severely short of breath".