Category: Film Festivals

Jay Kelly will likely be Noah Baumbach’s most widely appealing film to date. It is full of laughs and is often touching without being overly sentimental.  George Clooney and Adam Sandler’s characters fit them like a glove, with Sandler impressing once again in a role that deviates from his broadly comedic onscreen persona.  The traditional […]

Kleber Mendonça Filho directs The Secret Agent as if he’s conducting a symphony. There are numerous moving parts that blend together perfectly.  Wagner Moura is charming and spellbinding and stands out among a cast of many remarkable characters. At a time when stories of oppression under dictatorships are as relevant as ever, KMF constructs one of […]

Winner of the Best Director and Screenplay awards at this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival, Joachim Lafosse’s SIX DAYS IN SPRING is a breezy drama capturing divorced mother Sana (Eye Haïdara) and her two sons on vacation in Saint-Tropez.  After her original plan of staying with her boyfriend Jules (Jules Waringo) falls apart and she […]

Valentyn Vasyanovych’s To the Victory!, which won the Platform Award at TIFF 2025, looks at the war in Ukraine from a perspective that is not often talked about. It envisions a near future in which, despite the war’s end, the women and children who fled at the conflict’s onset do not return to their war-ravaged […]

Philippe Falardeau’s Lovely Day (Mille Secrets Mille Dangers) is a coming-of-age drama disguised as a wedding movie.  Neil Elias delivers a layered performance as Alain, who experiences a crisis of anxiety on his wedding day. The non-linear narrative tells his story effectively, alternating between different periods of his youth and the present day. However, the […]

Gianni Di Gregorio co-wrote, directed, and stars in Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, a distinctly European comedy/drama about aging, family, and companionship.  After her husband Helmut cheats on her with one of his students, Sofia takes her children Olga and Tommaso to Rome to live with her retired father, affectionately called Professore […]

Indian filmmaker Anuparna Roy follows in Payal Kapadia’s footsteps with her feminist debut feature Songs of Forgotten Trees, a beautiful film that portrays the bond between two women sharing an apartment in Mumbai.  Thooya is an aspiring actress supporting herself with sex work. Swetha is in IT sales and has hopes of getting married. The […]

The extended opening sequence of Tereza Nvotová’s Venice Film Festival drama FATHER, depicting a loving parent’s grave mistake, is simply devastating.  It is the high point of the film that goes on to convincingly explore memory, forgiveness, prejudices, and the chances of a relationship’s survival in the aftermath of a tragedy.  Milan Ondrík’s outstanding performance […]

These are the highlights from the lineup of the 52nd Telluride Film Festival, August 29-September 1, 2025: Hamnet – Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal Ballad of a Small Player – Edward Berger Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier Jay Kelly – Noah Baumbach Hamlet – Aneil Karia, Riz Ahmed Tuner – […]

82nd Venice Film Festival will run from August 27th to September 6th, 2025. Below is a list of highly anticipated films that will have their premieres at the festival. You can find the complete lineup and more information about the films on our Letterboxd list: https://letterboxd.com/filmfestival/list/venice-film-festival-2025