In their first directorial effort as a directing duo, Nicole and Valentina Bertani debut at the Concorso Internazionale of the Locarno Film Festival with Mosquitoes (Le Bambine). In 2022, Valentina screened her first film, The Crown Shyness (La timidezza delle chiome) at the Giornate degli Autori of the Venice Film …
Playing in the Orizzonti competition program at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, Thai director and screenwriter Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s latest vision Human Resource doubles as an intimate character study and a meditative portrait of contemporary Thai life mapped through the soul-sapping mechanics of corporate grind, a kind of a white-collar …
Writer-director Mihai Mincan told the room at the Venice Film Festival that the idea of Milk Teeth came from a real case of a girl who disappeared carrying a bucket of walnut shells to the garbage. His movie also makes an interesting companion piece to another film from the festival, …
Writer-director Shahad Ameen begins her movie with the last thing you’d expect from a story set in Saudi Arabia: snow. The message of this image is clear: if stereotypes are all you know then you know nothing at all. And as we follow three people on a secret, dangerous journey, …
No deer longs for the hunter’s arrow, and no art designed to maintain the status quo is ever as good as it thinks it is. Say what you will about Luca Guadagnino, he has made three solid movies in the last eighteen months, a level of career output rarely seen since …
Juror #2 could not have come out at a stranger time in world events towards the end of 2024. As a director, Clint Eastwood’s interests have been captured by the contradictions of life and justice in the United States: there are often clear-cut guilty and innocent parties, but who prevails …
Nicholas Hoult had a theme in 2024. The Order, director Justin Kurzel’s latest dramatic feature based on true events, puts his character in a very similar situation as in Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. Both Bob Mathews (The Order) and Justin Kemp (Juror #2) are morally compromised men making bad (desperate, …
In the following effort for the Croatian director Hana Jušić, she presents God Will Not Help in the Concorso Internazionale of the 2025 Locarno Film Festival. Following her debut at the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori with Quit Staring at My Plate, the Croatian author takes a look at the …
In her fourth directorial effort, the Serbian director Ivana Mladenović returns to the Locarno Film Festival, where she premiered her 2019 film Ivana the Terrible, now with Sorella di Clausura. The director, who currently resides in Romania, presents a story about a wasted Romanian talent – someone who never reached …
The Vietnamese director Trương Minh Quý was one of the highlights of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with his film Viet and Nam. The film had an extensive festival season, including a main slate slot in the New York Film Festival and a Wavelength selection in the Toronto International Film …
A competitive entry in the Filmmakers of the Present program of the Locarno Film Festival’s 78th edition, Fantasy, the feature directorial debut from Slovenian musician and director Kukla, at times credited as Katarina Bogdanović, is a hypnotic, surreal expansion of the story the filmmaker initially sketched in her award-winning short …
In recent years, films that set out to explore non-traditional relationships or unconventional family dynamics have become more common, but they don’t always manage to do so with the necessary depth. Most fall into the trap of using the theme as a mere gimmick, without delving into the genuine emotions …
I wasn’t familiar with the work of James Sweeney (Straight Up), but there’s always something fascinating when a filmmaker decides to take on so many roles in a single project: writing, directing, producing, and, on top of that, playing one of the main characters. That kind of total exposure naturally …
The Indian Film & TV industry hasn’t managed to come out with a spy thriller that not only hits hard, but also makes viewers realize how these people put themselves on the line to protect their country. That’s where Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha steps in, finally delivering the sharp, …
Premiering in the Filmmakers of the Present competition of the recently concluded Locarno Film Festival, A Balcony in Limoges, French writer-director Jérôme Reybaud’s feature follow-up to his debut 4 Days in France (2016), is the kind of movie that one might describe as deceptive, or unforeseen at the very least, …
The Swiss director Fabrice Aragno is known for his collaborations with the cinematic genius Jean-Luc Godard. He worked as a cinematographer in Godard’s films ” Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, and Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. He produced Godard’s last Cannes competition entry, The Book …
The French New Wave existed as a pinnacle moment in filmmaking. It served as a period of time that redefined “genre” by flipping conventions on their head. A master of that new ground of cinema was filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Films like Pierrot le Fou, Contempt, and Weekend revolutionized an industry. …
The young South Korean filmmaker Syeyoung Park is already very prolific at a youthful age. Since 2020, he has released five feature films: Love (between) Pickle in 2020, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra in 2022, Base Station in 2024, I’d Like That Corner Seat Over There, and The Fin in 2025. The …
Preparing to watch a contemporary western is always an exercise in expectation and curiosity. The genre, so often revisited, can be both fertile ground for reinvention and a minefield of clichés. Tony Tost, in his first feature as writer and director, takes on this risky premise with Americana, a hybrid …
Author and writer Dennis Lehane has carved a niche in the crime and thriller genres. His credits include novels such as Live by Night and Gone Baby Gone, as well as screenplays like 2014’s underrated film The Drop. Lehane has even dipped his toe into television work with series such …