Pedro Lima 
Two decades after his extensive and impactful work with Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Chidgasornpongse presents his debut feature, 9 Temples to Heaven (9 วัด สู่สวรรค์). The film is a selection of the Quinzaine des Cineastes of the Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a huge family of 9, who take their dying …
Dominga Sotomayor is one of the biggest names of the new generation of the Chilean cinema. Alongside Pablo Larraín and Sebastian Lelio, her films achieved the international recognition and received attention for their boldness. Her debut feature, De Jueves a Domingo, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her most …
In 2011, in the context of the Arab Spring, the Yemeni revolution took place in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Thousands of protestors organized themselves in the streets of the city, and the government murdered dozens of them. The result was the popular uprising against the state’s violence, which led to the …
The French director Lila Pinell presented her first feature film, Kiss and Cry, at the Cannes Film Festival in the ACID parallel section, which she co-directed with Chloé Mahieu. Four years later, she released Le Roi David (King David), a short film that premiered at the prestigious Vila do Conde …
The Semaine de la Critique is a spotlight for the debut feature at the Cannes Film Festival. One of the 2026 selections in Flesh and Fuel (Du fioul dans les artères) by Pierre le Gall, whose last effort is the 2018 short Doubout. It tells the story of Étienne (Alexis …
In 2022, the debut feature film Tengo Sueños Eléctricos (I Have Electric Dreams) by the Costa Rican filmmaker Valentina Maurel made a potent appearance at that year’s Locarno Film Festival. It won the directing, actor (Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez), and actress (Daniela Marín Navarro) awards in the main competition. Later, the …
Sports dramas are a sub-genre that allows filmmakers to take multiple different approaches. They can narrate the Cinderella story of an underdog team, the individual evolution of its players, or the downside of being an athlete. In her debut feature, Charlotte Glynn takes the latter approach. The Gymnast is a …
Throughout the history of documentary filmmaking, the observational type captures a story through the absence of direct interference by the director. It is a format that allows the audience to understand the subject more profoundly. An observational film is the one that rejects the talking head interview scheme to create …
At Cannes, L’ACID presents a range of indie films, including the 2D animation Blaise by Jean-Paul Guigue and Dimitri Planchon. The film is the sophomore effort by Guigue, following his 2024 The Darwinners (Silex and the City, le film), which also premiered at the same festival previously. The director’s latest work, …
One of the beauties of non-fiction filmmaking is presenting the audience with a reality that they might never have known before. Yet, there is a fascinating aspect to comprehending how human beings behave and live differently in each corner of the world. In this sense, the Polish documentary The Queen …
For almost fifty years, the country of Yugoslavia was important in global geopolitics. Zastava, a company founded in the 1850s as a weapons manufacturer, pivoted and began producing vehicles a century later. Fiat, the Italian manufacturer from Turin, licensed its designs to the Yugoslav industry. Zastava would sell models of …
Before the spread of the academia as a central form of producing and teaching knowledge, the indigenous communities already understand crucial learnings about the world. Historically, civilizations such as the Mayans and Aztecs produced immense amounts of information on mathematics and engineering. Human being tends to seek understanding of their …
In the inception of filmmaking, cinema was similar to magic. It is the illusionism of the images that impressed dozens of people gathered in a room watching a machine that projects photos. In that first showing in Paris, filmmaking was a new form of witchcraft, the combination of chemical processes …
The LA-Based director and actor Lauren Noll made a splash in the short film circuit, leading the award-winning film The Heart of Texas by Gregory J.M. Kasunich. Besides working as an actor, she presents her first feature as a director, an effort funded through crowdfunding campaigns that allowed her to …
Rio de Janeiro is arguably the most well-known city in Brazil and one of the most iconic places in the world. However, despite the undeniable natural beauty, the town is destroyed by its contradictions. Throughout the construction of Rio as a city, there has been a connection between wealth and …
In recent years, documentaries have become a space for personal histories. Filmmakers saw the non-fiction form as an opportunity to reflect on their lives and eternalize the memories, shadows, and complexities of their backgrounds. Therefore, throughout archival, diary, and poetic structures, directors expose their intimacies, unveiling their emotions and the …
Documentary filmmaking also works as a personal chamber for filmmakers to pour their hearts into films. Throughout the diary or poetic non-fiction, the directors can discuss their personal lives, the formality of cinema, and themes they are passionate about. It is a chance to unveil themselves and the world surrounding …
Jafar Panahi is arguably the most relevant Iranian filmmaker since Abbas Kiarostami. Fascinatingly, Panahi was his pupil and an assistant director for the legendary director in Through the Olive Tree, the final act of the Koker trilogy, alongside Where Is the Friend’s House and And Life Goes On. Despite the …
When discussing American Independent Cinema from the 1980s and 1990s, Hal Hartley’s name is a central one for the conversation. Releasing his low-budget NYC-shot film The Unbelievable Truth in 1989, the New York director launched his arguably most well-known works in the following years with Trust, Simple Men, and Flirt. …
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Europe was boiling with ideas and cultural movements. Modernism, Brutalism, and the Belle Epoqué bloomed with multiple currents that provoked changes in the cultural and societal landscape in the world. In 1919, a particular school in Germany taught and shaped artists whose work …