Tatami is co-directed by director Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi. The story revolves around Leila (Arienne Mandi), an Iranian Judo athlete, who, at the Judo World Championships, is told by the Iranian Judo Federation to pull out of the tournament by faking an injury. They want to avoid a …
Sometime in 1998, Filipino filmmaker Sari Dalena and co-director Camilla Benolirao Griggers set out to record and revisit little-known genocides committed by colonial U.S. forces in southwestern Philippines during the Philippine-American War of 1899 for their hybrid, avant-garde first feature Memories of a Forgotten War, released in 2001 and screened …
Three boys living in a rural, riverside community in the Philippines are forced to reckon with enduring grief and guilt following a gruesome crime involving their fathers. Shot entirely on iPhone across 35 days without a formal script and with a nonprofessional cast doubling as film crew, I grew an …
Enjoy Your Stay is a strikingly ironic and sinister title for a movie centered on the invisible labor that sustains the pristine and postcard-esque surface of a luxury ski resort in Switzerland. Played with an unassuming yet magnetic force by Mercedes Cabral, Luz is part of a mostly Filipino cleaning …
Filipino filmmaker Carl Joseph Papa’s latest film 58th is a gripping animated docudrama on the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre, now known as the single deadliest attack on journalists in recorded history. Recently screened in the Harbour programme of the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where the director’s critically acclaimed Iti …
Another small-town story set in its director’s hometown, Romblon island, Filipino filmmaker Ryan Machado’s sophomore feature Raging follows a young man (played by Elijah Canlas) in the aftermath of sexual abuse. Unfolding in the mid-1990s, the film is pensive and unhurriedly paced, portraying its central character’s conflicts as more inward …
In this year’s Cannes Film Festival, a post-screening reaction surprised tons of cinephiles following the festival’s attendees. Despite premiering after a veteran French filmmaker, Dominik Moll, with his Case 137, the most talked-about film of the second day of the festival was Sirât by the French-Spanish director, Oliver Laxe. In …
Latoya Austin sat down with director Suzannah Mirghani over a Zoom call to discuss her feature debut Cotton Queen, and its underlying themes, following a successful festival run. The film had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival’s Critics Week and has been the recipient of several …
When discussing modern experimental electronic music, Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is a prominent name in the conversation. Despite releasing acclaimed solo records, OPN also produced artists like FKA Twigs, Charli XCX, The Weeknd, and Soccer Mommy, musicians who bring electronic elements to mainstream pop. …
Dolores Fonzi is a veteran actor in Argentina, working in both television and films. She appeared in works like The Summit, Paulina, and others. In 2023, she released Blondi, which she also wrote and acted in. Two years later, she released her new feature, Belén. Based on the famous case …
For the last forty years, the Sundance Film Festival has been a crucial festival to highlight American independent cinema. Each year, when the event unveils its lineup, cinephiles, audiences, and sales agents dive into the programming to guess which of the selections will join films like Little Miss Sunshine, Memento, …
The young Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan is already a well-loved personality in the arthouse community. Despite his brief filmography, the director has already produced remarkable works in his career, such as Kaili Blues, Long Day’s Journey into Night, and his short film, A Short Story. Employing a poetic approach to …
Since his debut feature in 2006 with Reprise, Joachim Trier has become a relevant author in the arthouse circuit. His films gathered attention for the humanity, but centered on the use of Oslo, Norway, as a prominent character. Hence, Trier is mainly associated with his “Oslo Trilogy”, composed by Reprise, …
Renoir, the sophomore feature from Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, continues her cinematic exploration of the notions of death, old age, and loneliness, preoccupations that loom over her body of work, such as in her feature debut Plan 75 (2022), the anthology film Ten Years Japan (2018), which she co-directed with …
Wicked: For Good is one of the most anticipated films of the year. It is the conclusion of the musical saga adapted from the 2003 stage show by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, which became a massive success at Broadway, and in various local adaptations of the story of Glinda …
Director Stephen Shimek recently sat down with us to discuss Murder at the Embassy, his new film that’s out now in theaters and on demand. It’s a murder mystery set in 1930s Cairo starring Mischa Barton along with Mido Hamada and Richard Dillane. It’s the second installment in the Miranda …
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s debut feature A Useful Ghost exhibits a hooky high concept, one that’s centered on a woman who dies of dust pollution and gets reunited with her grieving husband by possessing a vacuum cleaner, much to the chagrin of her in-laws. The director dresses this concept, essentially a loose …
Screening in the Before Midnight section of the 2025 QCinema International Film Festival, Dutch filmmaker Morgan Knibbe’s sophomore feature The Garden of Earthly Delights portrays a gritty, neon-tinged Manila inferno centered on a young queer protagonist played by first-time actor JP Rodriguez. A teenager named Ginto descends deep into the …
Travel back to 1930s Cairo in this exclusive interview with Mido Hamada, who discusses his role as the skeptical Head of Security Mamoud in the new murder mystery film Murder at the Embassy with Mischa Barton. It’s the second installment in the Miranda Green series and is a delightfully fun …
In Aranya Sahay’s Humans in the Loop, technology and morality collide in a gripping story about the fine line between human judgment and artificial intelligence. The film follows Nehma, a woman deeply passionate about innovation but forced to confront ethical dilemmas that shake her sense of purpose and identity. At …