The Costa Rican filmmaker Kim Torres is one of the most exciting emerging voices of Latin American cinema. In her short-film efforts, she presented Atrapaluz at Locarno and Luz Nocturna at Cannes. Yet, she made a splash in the festival circuit with her Solo La Luna Comprenderá (The Moon will Contain Us), a beautiful …
Melodrama is a constantly sub-genre appreciated by cinephiles. Historically, filmmakers like Douglas Sirk, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Pedro Almodovar earned admiration from the lovers of the seventh art, predominantly because their work approaches the structures of the melodramatic conventions. In this sense, another contemporary filmmaker admired for his oeuvre in …
Few countries in the world have invested in documentary filmmaking as much as Spain. In recent years, films like Tardes de Soledad by Albert Serra have impacted the festival circuit with their gut-wrenching observations of bullfighting. Also, there are new names in the Spanish non-fiction community, such as Patricia Franquesa in My Sextortion Diary. …
Annemarie Jacir is a crucial filmmaker to understand modern Palestinian cinema. In 2003, she made history with her short film, Like Twenty Impossibles, the first Arab short selected at the Festival de Cannes, and later earned an Academy Award nomination. In her subsequent efforts, Jacir reached the principal international stages. …
The Romanian director Radu Jude is one of the most prolific filmmakers of our time. A member of the Romanian New Wave, a group of new voices in the mid-2000s, which generated great works from Cristian Mungiu, Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and Alexander Nanau. Since 2020, Jude has released 11 …
Documentary filmmaking is probably the cinematic medium that benefits the most from technological improvements in the arts. Each new tool used in production allows the directors to fill gaps caused by the lack of archival footage and the limitations of interviewing subjects. Hence, in recent years, we have observed the …
The animation medium allows a plenitude of experimentation. In this sense, it is possible to represent and narrate any story the writer’s head wishes to, using the technique and animation conventions to develop that specific story. One of the most popular and eccentric subcultures in the world is the furry …
The Malaysian/Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent figures in slow cinema. This philosophy of filmmaking contradicts the modern postulates of the commercial cinema, where the film features multiple cuts and plenty of scenarios to compose its story. As the name suggests, this form of filmmaking contemplates …
As the title makes abundantly clear, Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri (which means ‘you’re mine, I’m yours, I’m yours, you’re mine’ in Hindi) is here to have its cake and eat it. Its explicit purpose is to make a 90s-style romance (this means old-fashioned, readers of a …
2025 has just recently finished, the awards season is well underway, and our Letterbox stats are well in our inbox, but we’re already looking at the 2026 cinema schedule. 2026 sees the return of some of Earth’s mightiest superheroes, Spielberg to the science fiction genre for the first time since …
It is a cultural quirk of Indian cinema that they will show the most gruesome torture and murders in glorious close-up while simultaneously subtitling the language used during these scenes as “Dang!” and “You idiot!” If we are in a hard-R/18 environment, capable of being shown a man suspended off …
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 …
Most people in the West probably never saw A Step Into the Past, a one-season Hong Kong TV show from 2001 about a modern scientist who ends up back in the Qin dynasty. Therefore the major draw of Back to the Past, which finishes the plotlines of that TV show, …
The Brazilian director Daniel Nolasco has been creating a trademark for himself as a filmmaker. Drawing inspiration from his personal interests and his academic path, his films approach the stories of the LGBTQIA community in a conservative state. In his debut feature, Vento Seco (Dry Wind), he approaches the monotonous …
Few authors from the 20th Century are more influential than Franz Kafka. The Czech writer did not receive the recognition he deserved throughout his life, as detailed in the introductions to his books. Each new edition of his masterpieces, such as Metamorphosis, gets a deep explanation of how Kafka’s success …
The introductory section of Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister (La petite dernière) is slightly alienating, as it swiftly moves from one scene to the next, without an anchor point for the audience to latch onto, despite being adapted from Fatima Daas’ 2020 autofiction novel of the same name. However, our …
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. …
It was Stephen Sondheim who wrote a song about the two things people can leave behind: children and art. What the Shakers, a small religious movement which began in the mid-1700s, left behind was their art. Some of this is their highly influential style of furniture, made plainly to emphasise …
Who would’ve thought that the first studio production of the year would be a genuine heater, especially given that the January slate doesn’t usually promise a good time at the movies? Who would’ve also thought that a major Hollywood studio would greenlight what is essentially an exploitation film, promising a …
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 …