The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on 10 March 2017 by Focus World, and in France on 15 Raw tuna 2017 by Wild Bunch. Lifelong vegetarian Justine begins her first semester at veterinary school, the same one her older sister Alexia is attending and where their parents met.
On her first night, she meets her roommate Adrien, and they are forced to partake in a week-long hazing ritual, welcoming the new students. The next day, Justine begins having cravings for meat, which makes her feel ashamed. She and Adrien take a late-night trip to a gas station so no one will see her eating meat. Unsatisfied, she eats raw chicken in the morning, and later throws up a long bundle of her own hair she had been chewing on. The next morning, Alexia takes Justine to a deserted road, where Alexia jumps in front of a car, causing the two people in it to crash into a tree. Despite this, Justine’s craving for human meat grows and she starts lusting after Adrien. That night, she arrives at a party, where paint is thrown at her as part of another hazing ritual and she is forced to make out with someone.
At another party, Justine gets extremely intoxicated and Alexia takes her to the morgue. The next day, everyone in school stares at Justine, some avoiding her. Adrien shows her a video where Justine is crawling on all fours, attempting to take a bite out of the arm of a corpse as Alexia eggs her on, to boos and cheers from a crowd of watching party guests. Justine confronts Alexia and fights her, eventually biting each other until they are pulled apart by other students.
Alexia is imprisoned for the murder of Adrien, and Justine is sent back home. There, Justine’s father tells her that what happened is neither hers nor Alexia’s fault. He explains that when he first met their mother, he could not understand why she did not want to be with him. Her father says he finally realized when they kissed the first time, indicating a scar on his lip. Raw was screened in the International Critics’ Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. During a screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, some viewers received emergency medical services after allegedly fainting from the film’s graphic scenes.