[4][5][6] Released in the United States on 22 December 2017 by Sony Pictures Classics, it was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

Pierre goes to an apartment building in the banlieue where he is confronted and badly beaten by a young man, who is later identified as the son of the construction worker injured in the accident.

At a large party at a beach restaurant in honor of Anne's engagement, Pierre arrives late with several refugees from the Calais Jungle in tow.

In December 2015, French media reported that Michael Haneke would reunite with Amour actors Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant for his newest project Happy End, with the European migrant crisis potentially forming the backdrop of the film's plot.

[8] On 12 February 2016, Haneke's longtime producer Margaret Ménégoz confirmed that the project would begin filming in northern France in the summer of 2016.

"[12] In a five-star review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film "as stark, brilliant and unforgiving as a halogen light", praising Haneke's visual composition and noting how the narrative "sometimes takes insidious little leaps forward, allowing us to register with a lurch the awful things that have been passed over.

"[13] Eric Kohn of IndieWire was also highly positive, arguing that "rather than smothering the material in bad vibes, the filmmaker uses them to gradually reveal a fascinating world in which anger and resentment becomes the only weapon any of these people know how to wield.

"[14] Conversely, Tim Robey wrote in The Telegraph that the film felt "shockingly familiar", stating, "Haneke’s style is less cumulative and more detached than ever.

The film steadfastly refuses to coalesce, as thesis, thriller, winking satire on European wealth, despairing family soap opera, or any of the modes it suggests.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Happy End is far from Haneke's best work, yet it still succeeds in forcing audiences to confront—and uncomfortably consider—the dark side of human nature.