Don’t be fooled by the bright colors and exotic parrots, Nicolas Keppens brings out the pain and poignancy of a toxic male friendship in this idiosyncratic animated short—a big hit at Berlinale. Imagine Beavis and Butt-head as despondent Belgian hipsters with big dreams, and you’re getting close.
Now showing here.
A ravishing 1980s time capsule, François Ozon’s queer romance whisks us off to the French coast where the sun shines bright and earworms from The Cure and Bananarama are on at full blast. Like the changing ocean tides, the wistful fleetingness of youth only intensifies the passions of first love.
Now showing here.
French animator Sylvain Chomet (Belleville Rendezvous) fashioned this exquisitely crafted hand-drawn animation, bearing more than a passing debt to the genius cinema of Jacques Tati. Adapted from an unproduced script of Tati’s, this wistful father-daughter drama is a magical homage to a master.
Now showing here.
Émilie Aussel’s stunning debut feature shows how a blissful, lethargic summer is suddenly interrupted for a group of carefree teenagers, faced with grief and the loss of innocence. Our Eternal Summer offers a poignant reminder that—just like the euphoria of adolescence—nothing lasts forever.
Now showing here.
With a year at home with his children suddenly on his hands, Icelandic rising star Hlynur Pálmason forged his own microcosmic utopia with this warm and whimsical short. Exquisitely capturing the changing seasons on 35mm, Nest is a tactile wonder charged with the untamed energy of its young cast.
Now showing here.
Ahmed El Maânouni’s kinetic concert film is an unforgettable documentary portrait of Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane. Offering reflections on Moroccan musical traditions, trance states, and the power of political theater, the pioneering group lead their audience—and us—to an encounter with ecstasy.
Now showing here.
The quest for perfection reaches new levels of paranoid surrealism in this pastel-colored satire of the American nuclear family. With nods to David Lynch, Todd Solondz and The Stepford Wives, this deadpan debut turns soccer-mom suburbia into the stuff of nightmares.
Now showing here.
Peering behind the iron curtain of 1950s Poland, Paweł Pawlikowski’s melancholic, jazzy period piece ruminates on the possibility of borderless love in an ideologically polarized world. An exquisitely shot, black-and-white gem nominated for 3 Academy Awards® including Best Director.
Now showing here.
Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, and Mia Wasikowska star in this bewitching fable from Mia Hansen-Løve. Shot on Fårö where Ingmar Bergman made some of his greatest films, this sun-kissed voyage sails across the past and the present, fiction and reality, probing the prickly yet romantic process of artmaking.
Now showing here.
Turning to the grounding powers of nature and artistic solidarity, Lucrecia Martel’s documentary short carves a soulful reprieve from the uncertainties of the outside world. Vibrating through the woodlands of Salta, songs of freedom and resistance create a sonic haven against conservative doctrines.
Now showing here.
Banned in the UK for blasphemy, Nigel Wingrove’s experimental short eroticizes religious iconography with a breathless sensuality. Dipped in luscious colors, scenes of sinful passions rise to fever pitch, as the score by Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees lulls us into a woozy dream state.
Now showing here.
Probing the social prejudices and legal obstacles surrounding abortion, Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner astutely shatters the illusory liberalism of 1960s France. Starring a revelatory Anamaria Vartolomei, this unflinching and powerful cry for reproductive freedom simmers with a timely urgency.
Now showing here.