Directed by: Ofir Raul Graizer
Israel, Germany, Czech Republic, 2022, 127 min

Eli works as a swimming coach in Chicago but news of his father’s death necessitates his return to his native Israel. His decision to contact a friend from his childhood sets in motion a series of events that have a lasting impact on everyone’s lives. An affectionate tribute to 60s and 70s cinema and an enchanting tale of love and friendship – that’s the essence of America.

Directed by: Tomasz Wiński
Czech Republic, Poland, 2022, 95 min

After years together, Petr and Hana share their unspoken erotic fantasies. What begins as an innocent conversation gradually turns into curious experimentation with a non-monogamous approach to their relationship. This debut by Tomasz Wiński boldly explores various forms of intimacy and the possibilities of its depiction on the big screen.

Directed by: Masaaki Kudo
Japan, 2022, 128 min

An unadorned perspective on impoverished life in Okinawa. 17-year-old Aoi works as a nightclub hostess in order to earn rent money and to provide for her little boy and his lazy father, who has no qualms about hitting his wife. Yet how dark does reality have to get before it stifles the rays of hope that filter through?

Directed by: Anna Kazejak
Poland, 2022, 96 min

Two families who have known each other for years spend the long May weekend camping together as usual on the idyllic Danish island of Bornholm. However, instead of the relaxation they had anticipated, the holiday turns into purgatory… An acerbic Polish comedy on the pitfalls of raising children, midlife crisis and partnership discord.

Directed by: Sophie Linnenbaum
Germany, 2022, 120 min

Paula is a supporting role aspiring to become a main character. Yet, just before her final exams, her emotive music generator suddenly starts playing up, which presents a major problem for her. No starring role can survive without a heartrending accompaniment from the strings. The Ordinaries is a film about what it’s like to live in a film. An enchanting ode to cinema, a whirl of ideas, and playfulness in every take.

Directed by: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
Bulgaria, Germany, 2022, 110 min

A provincial hospital in Bulgaria, Covid ward. This observational documentary draws our attention to the country’s antiquated healthcare system and reminds us of our attitudes at the time when faced with an unknown threat. A skilfully constructed survey of the bleak goings-on in an underfunded facility where, even when looking death in the face, people still manage to find their sense of humour.

Directed by: Ioseb "Soso" Bliadze
Georgia, Germany, 2022, 107 min

Tina, a young woman who has lost her way in life, rents a room from the vibrant Megi, thanks to whom she gradually starts to discover what it’s like to be free and to be able to make her own decisions without being reliant on men… Self-assured in its directorial style, this authentic film portrays millennials in contemporary Tbilisi and points to the influence of patriarchal thinking on Georgian society.

Directed by: Christos Passalis
Greece, 2022, 81 min

Aris and Anna meet one evening in a half-abandoned town surrounded by antennas. In this strange, dreamlike world the two solitary souls gradually start to develop feelings for one another… A melancholic love story with a mesmeric atmosphere and striking visuals that proves Greek cinema has lost nothing of its originality.

Directed by: Sadaf Foroughi
Canada, Iran, 2022, 99 min

A young swimmer is training for the national championships with his new coach. But the alliance between the two young men elicits disapproval from the people around them. This social drama, set in northern Iran, is the second film by Sadaf Foroughi who, since her successful feature debut Ava, has continued to develop her distinctive visual narrative style.

Directed by: Kristina Buožytė, Bruno Samper
Lithuania, France, Belgium, 2022, 114 min

At some point in the future the Earth’s ecosystem collapses. A tough 13-year-old called Vesper, whose father is paralysed, tries to get food for them wherever she can. When she finds a mysterious woman in the forest one day she starts to hope that things will change… Thanks to a combination of a unique artistic concept, strong performances from the cast, and an imaginative score, this dystopian sci-fi offers viewers a comprehensive audiovisual experience.

Directed by: Beata Parkanová
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, 2022, 104 min

Beata Parkanová, the filmmaker behind Moments, returns to Karlovy Vary with an exceptionally vivid portrait of the family of notary Václav Vojíř, a small-town moral authority, and his selfless wife Věra. This masterfully told and highly original intimate drama, whose protagonists undergo a difficult ordeal in the summer of 1968, is reinforced by finely wrought, exquisite performances from Martin Finger and Gabriela Mikulková.

Directed by: Jonás Trueba
Spain, 2022, 64 min

Two couples in their thirties, heated discussions on the essentials of life unfolding between Madrid and the neighbouring countryside. Directorial star of Spanish film Jonás Trueba (The August Virgin, KVIFF 2019) is a master of soulful cinematic miniatures which don’t require long hours to convey profound, existential feelings infused with enchanting melancholy and gentle humour.

Directed by: Šimon Holý
Czech Republic, 2022, 85 min

What do you do when love simply isn’t on the cards and keeps passing you by? 60-year-old Kristýna has lost her last ray of hope, so she goes off with her daughter Sára to talk to a fortune-teller about her sorry lot in life. One year on from Mirrors in the Dark, Šimon Holý brings us another wholly independent film about life’s traumas as seen from a female perspective, this time with a liberal dose of esoterica on top.

Directed by: Mladen Kovačević
Serbia, France, Qatar, 2022, 90 min

In 1972 Yugoslavia became the site of Europe’s last smallpox epidemic. This gripping archival documentary, aptly described by its creators as a medical thriller, reconstructs the dramatic events of those spring months, and viewers will find it difficult not to draw comparisons with the worldwide events of the past two years.

Directed by: Tomáš Bojar, Adéla Komrzý
Czech Republic, 2022, 102 min

Artistic endeavour isn’t about competing; even so, applicants still have to be placed in order of merit at the academy’s entrance exams. But how do you assess artistic talent? And what role can art play in today’s world? A layered, observational documentary which presents a portrait of an institution and a light generational statement in one.

Directed by: Tomasz Wasilewski
Poland, Romania, Germany, 2022, 109 min

Marlena (62) and Tomasz (42) are living contentedly in a house on the coast, wrapped up in their own little world. But their cosy existence is turned upside down by Marlena’s decision to bring home her sick son… In his unsettling family drama Tomasz Wasilewski concentrates on compelling visual stylisation and a detached narrative form, while the carefully composed images well illustrate the protagonists’ inner struggle.

Directed by: Marco Berger
Argentina, 2022, 102 min

It's the Christmas holidays, and Andy leaves the city in order to spend some time at a luxury villa with his best friends. As they goof around, their initial consensual horseplay reveals that they each have different personal boundaries. Marco Berger’s new film takes a subversive look at masculinity in its dangerously toxic form.

Directed by: Emmanuel Tardif
Canada, 2022, 151 min

A wealthy family withdraws from society after something unforeseen happens. When one of its members leaves the house on the pretext of paying an innocent visit to someone outside, the family’s fragile equilibrium is disturbed. In Broad Daylight presents an inscrutable, tantalisingly elusive fictional world enhanced by a colourful array of absurd characters.

Directed by: Dornaz Hajiha
Iran, 2022, 78 min

Haleh and her husband Amir are having to cope with a tough situation: their four-year-old son Ilya has suddenly stopped talking. There is evidently no physiological cause, so they go to see a psychotherapist who comes up with a radical solution. Ilya’s mother, who has cared for him until now, is to take a back seat while the father assumes her role looking after the child. This change in the established order sends the family into a downward spiral of tension and aggression, and it's extremely difficult to see a way out.

Directed by: Eduardo Casanova
Spain, Argentina, 2022, 80 min

Mateo lives with his mother Libertad in a rose-tinted world: a microcosm which has precisely two inhabitants, mother and son. One day Mateo is diagnosed with cancer… There are few films which defy all the rules in order to tell an utterly realistic story, and La Pietá is one of them. We find ourselves in a reality where the mother exercises the same kind of power as the dictator governing North Korea. Just as toxic, just as absolute, and just as deadly.

Directed by: Andrea Bagney
Spain, 2022, 80 min

When Ramona meets the charismatic Bruno on one of her strolls through the city, it never occurs to her that she might encounter him again the following day. Will an innocent flirtation get in the way of her career dreams and the perfectly good relationship she has with her boyfriend? A refreshing romantic comedy that sets the scene for the immortal feud between sense and sensibility.

Directed by: Gregorio Graziosi
Brazil, 2022, 105 min

If film geometry were a field of study, then this supremely aesthetic “figure” from Brazil would deserve special attention. A sports drama and fanciful “body thriller” in one, the film tells the story of Marina, who competes in synchronised diving events. However, an attack of tinnitus – an unbearable ringing sound in the ears – drags her from the top of her game to the edge of madness.

Directed by: David Kapac, Andrija Mardešić
Croatia, Serbia, 2022, 104 min

Yugoslavia, late 1980s. Parents and son are hastily making the final preparations for Christmas Eve dinner. Their beloved uncle will be turning up from Germany any minute now. But, hang on, are things really as they seem? An unnerving debut à la Haneke that cleverly balances on the edge of farce and oppressive thriller while ingeniously toying with narrative structure.

Directed by: Andreas Horvath
Austria, 2022, 73 min

The pandemic brought society to a standstill, but from an animal’s perspective the world didn't change that much. Unless, of course, you live in a zoo. What was life like in the Salzburg zoo when no visitors were allowed? Microstories from the pavilions, enclosures, and terraria, told with Horvath’s typical sense of humor.

Directed by: Adam Sedlák
Czech Republic, 2022, 105 min

“Dude, do you have any idea how hard it is to get yourself among the top players?” says Láďa to his best friend Alex, who is determined to record a hit with an established rapper. When it finally looks like he might get his chance, a small problem presents itself: it costs a ton of money and Alex just gave up dealing. And so begins an adrenaline ride filled with rap and drugs.

Directed by: Miroslav Krobot
Czech Republic, 2022, 90 min

An actor called Šnajdr is given an opportunity to make his debut as a director. He doesn’t think twice about leaving Prague and dashing off to Olomouc, where he is met by the grumpy director of the town’s cultural centre and his eccentric grandma, who is to be the star of his production and who's perfectly attuned to his sense of humour and mystification… A bittersweet comedy directed by Miroslav Krobot and starring Pavel Šimčík and Iva Janžurová.

Directed by: Jake Paltrow
USA, Israel, 2022, 105 min

This thrilling yet, at its core, empathetic and humanist film looks at the infamous trial of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the mass extermination of Jews during the Second World War. Depicting the events preceding Eichmann’s execution, it approaches the important and much publicized Nazi criminal through the eyes of three participants in these events.

Directed by: Matt Sarnecki
Denmark, USA, Czech Republic, 2022, 102 min

In February 2018 Slovakia was shaken by the cold-blooded murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée. This Danish documentary coproduction unravels the tentacles of the Slovak mafia and much else besides, and this from a valuable foreign perspective. The appalling story is reminiscent of the plot from a sophisticated thriller, although the sad fact remains that the reality itself was and still is just as barbaric.

Directed by: Tizian Büchi
Switzerland, 2022, 104 min

A view of a microcosm reflecting the nuances of human coexistence in Europe, or a playful mystery full of amusing, open-ended plot lines? Perhaps it’s both. An observational documentary and also a magical realist visit to the Lausanne suburbs where, for some unknown reason, two watchmen are guarding a small river in a nearby park.

Directed by: Lukas Sturm, Lila Schwarzenberg
Austria, Czech Republic, 2022, 79 min

An intimate portrait of the relationship between Karel Schwarzenberg, a key figure of the post-November 1989 era, and his daughter Lila Schwarzenberg. The fascinating discussions, filmed over a period of five years, also open up uncomfortable, controversial themes, such as the complex process of growing up in the shadow of a charismatic father, moreover, under the weight of aristocratic traditions and customs.  

Directed by: Štěpán FOK Vodrážka
Czech Republic, 2022, 70 min

Orion, Vladimir 518 and Mike Trafik are Peneři strýčka Homeboye (Uncle Homeboy’s Hoboes). Three lads from Prague, legendary rappers on the cusp of middle age, friends. Graffiti, the first attempts at rap, parties, fame, booze and drugs. Sky-rocketing popularity (but well-earned), downfalls, crises and comebacks. A cleverly shot, incisive triple portrait that flouts all the taboos.

Directed by: Magdalena Lauritsch
Austria, 2022, 110 min

It's the year 2056 and oxygen is running out on a devastated Earth. One possible solution is a project being developed on the space station Rubikon under the supervision of the idiosyncratic geneticist Dimitri. A work of pure science fiction, Rubikon is unusual within the context of European cinema. Despite its genre identification, it tries to answer questions related to the climate crisis and individual responsibility for the good of mankind.

Directed by: Goran Stolevski
Australia, United Kingdom, Serbia, 2021, 109 min

A remote mountain village is under threat from a bloodthirsty witch named Marie, whose spirit is capable of entering the bodies of murder victims and slain animals. One day the witch leaves her mark on the newborn Nevena, and the girl’s fate is sealed forever… Stalevski delivers a highly original, atmospheric horror flick, working with Macedonian mythology as he deftly interweaves folkloric motifs with existential questions, while also examining the position of women.

Directed by: Gastón Solnicki
Austria, Argentina, 2022, 81 min

A way of seeing which endows its objects with nobility and connects the far and near, the open and the closed. Angeliki Papoulia, a wealthy yet perpetually dissatisfied woman, is looking for an apartment in Vienna at a time when the smoking ban in public places impacts the city’s coffeehouse culture. After its premiere at the Berlinale the film won Best Director at the BAFICI festival in Buenos Aires.

Directed by: Charlotte Wells
United Kingdom, USA, 2022, 98 min

Sometime in the nineties, somewhere in a Turkish coastal resort, Calum (Paul Mescal), a young, divorced father, is spending the vacation with his daughter Sophie (Francesca Corio), a girl almost in her teens. This debut by Charlotte Wells, one of the most agreeable surprises at this year’s Cannes festival, captures fragments of childhood memories and doesn’t require flamboyant gestures to portray unutterably intense life impressions.

Directed by: Jöns Jönsson
Germany, 2022, 112 min

A chilling character study. When the likable young Julius invites his co-workers to go sailing with him on his family yacht, nothing feels out of the ordinary. But even before the group gets on board, serious cracks appear in the image of the main protagonist. Who is this Julius, and what drives his actions?

Directed by: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Czech Republic, 2022, 123 min

The combative 14-year-old Addi takes a bullied classmate under his wing and introduces him to his gang of friends. Can a bully become a protector and vice versa? A disturbing yet highly sensitive drama about the reverse side of adolescence, the beauties and cruelties of childhood, and the dark twists and turns of male friendship.

Directed by: Maryam Touzani
Morocco, France, Belgium, Denmark, 2022, 118 min

Halim and Mina own a small family tailor shop that specializes in sewing ceremonial caftans. Since traditional hand-crafted work is time-consuming, Halim decides to hire an assistant, Youssef. The presence of the attractive young man arouses long-suppressed feelings in Halim, something that does not go unnoticed by his wife Mina… A deeply moving melodrama about the many forms of love, The Blue Caftan excels thanks to a sophisticated script and outstanding performances from the three leads.

Directed by: Lorenzo Vigas
Mexico, USA, 2021, 92 min

Award-winning director Lorenzo Vigas returns with another subtle study of paternal authority and the lost vulnerable souls who intuitively gravitate towards it. In this dramatic tale of an orphaned boy, he uncovers the cruel ecosystem of cheap day labor on the Mexican periphery while managing to capture subtle emotional processes in the mesmerizing stony countenance of the young non-actor Hatzín Navarrete.

Directed by: Maksym Nakonechnyi
Ukraine, Czech Republic, Croatia, Sweden, 2022, 107 min

Soldier Lilia returns home from the war after several months in captivity in the Donbass, where she was being held by separatists. Her brutal treatment brings on trauma which torments her in harrowing dreams. As an expert in aerial reconnaissance, she saw action on the front line from a drone’s perspective. Yet, if you just want to carry on living your life, a bird’s-eye view isn’t necessarily the best option.

Directed by: Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov
Russia, Estonia, France, 2021, 126 min

Leningrad, 1938. The Stalinist machine is running at full throttle, seeking out enemies of the state and executing the innocent. One of the executioners is the well-respected Captain Volkonogov, but he soon realizes the heinous nature of the system of which he has become a part. On a sudden impulse, he decides to seek out the relatives of his victims and to ask for forgiveness, even though he risks soon being silenced.

Directed by: Lukas Dhont
Belgium, France, Netherlands, 2022, 105 min

Thirteen-year-old Rémi and Léo are inseparable. Their intense friendship also involves an unusual physical closeness, which becomes the target of sneering remarks from their adolescent classmates and irrevocably disrupts their relationship. This intimately tender and oppressively painful film about growing up was considered by many to be the emotional pinnacle of this year’s festival in Cannes, where it earned the Grand Prix (ex aequo).

Directed by: Marie Kreutzer
Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France, 2022, 113 min

It is the year 1877 and Elisabeth of Bavaria is celebrating her fortieth birthday. In the same way her tight-fitting corset confines her body, the restrictive way of life at the Viennese court is stifling her personality. The myth of Empress Sissi returns, this time played by Vicky Krieps, who is outstanding in this quick-witted costume drama about a restless woman longing for freedom and emancipation.

Directed by: Ali Cherri
France, Sudan, Lebanon, Germany, Serbia, Qatar, 2022, 80 min

Renowned visual artist Ali Cherri makes his debut in feature film with the enigmatic story of Maher, a Sudanese labourer who works in a brickyard on the banks of the Nile and, every evening, he wanders off into the desert to continue constructing a mysterious monster made of mud. This mesmerising allegory with its uncompromising political subtext entranced audiences at this year’s festival in Cannes.

Directed by: Park Chan-wook
South Korea, 2022, 138 min

A strange death in the mountains, a mysterious widow, and a detective slowly discovering unwanted emotions. Can one silence the past for the sake of love? This stylish romance full of mysterious plot twists resists labeling as the South Korean master of the mystery thriller comes up with one great idea after another. A well-deserved best director winner at Cannes.

Directed by: Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
Italy, Belgium, France, 2022, 147 min

Bruno hails from a remote Alpine village; Pietro is a son of the city. Despite their different backgrounds, the two men are bound by a strong friendship. Whether on their own or together, they are both searching for the answers to life in the high mountains. An intimate story set amidst the spectacular panoramas of the Alps and Nepal, The Eight Mountains took home the Jury Prize in the main competition at this year’s festival in Cannes.

Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
Poland, Italy, 2022, 86 min

Eo is a gray donkey who is freed from the circus by a legislative act. Thus begins his surreal journey through the world, as the audience observes various forms of human behavior through his eyes. A distinctive variation on Bresson’s allegorical Au hasard Balthazar and a formally liberated parable that one reviewer called the wackiest film in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by: Kivu Ruhorahoza
Rwanda, 2022, 110 min

Zaninka is mourning her dead son, but her husband thinks only of himself. Mukobwa doesn’t want to donate an organ to save his father because he has discovered his dark past. Little Kadogo is learning to hate after experiencing his father’s brutal form of child-rearing. A lyrical film about the role of fathers in a country still haunted by the shadows of a national tragedy.

Directed by: Sara Dosa
USA, Canada, 2022, 93 min

Katia and Maurice. A geochemist and a geologist. A charming volcanologist couple who spent their lives on the peaks of active volcanoes, erupting lava and emotions notwithstanding. How small is man when compared to the power of nature? And who do you live for when you could die at any moment? This touching documentary romance became an unexpected audience hit during the festival season this spring.

Directed by: Léa Mysius
France, 2021, 96 min

Ten-year-old loner Viky lives with her parents in a small Alpine village. She differs from the other children, who mock her for her wild and bushy hair, not just by her skin color but especially because of her supernatural abilities. When her father’s sister Julia appears in the village after an absence of ten years, Viky uses her powers to slowly unravel dark family secrets... Léa Mysius has given this visually and aurally fascinating genre spectacle an extra existential dimension while capturing on film the small-town mindset.

Directed by: Peter Strickland
United Kingdom, USA, Hungary, 2022, 111 min

A flatulence-plagued narrator guides us through the closed space of a manor house where an arts patron and director of the Sonic Catering Institute uses various forms of manipulation in order to get a trio of performance artists to provide ever better results. This intimate satire shows that, in the world of “sonic culinary art,” everything is a dirty struggle for power.

Directed by: Anna Eszter Nemes, László Csuja
Hungary, 2022, 92 min

Edina would do anything to fulfil her dream of becoming a bodybuilding world champion. The training and performance-enhancing drugs don’t come cheap, however, so she is forced to accept work as an escort at a specialised agency. Everyone sees Edina merely as a walking mass of muscle and, up until a certain point, that’s how she views herself as well. Until love enters her life...

Directed by: Hlynur Pálmason
Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden, 2022, 143 min

In the late 19th century Lucas, a Danish missionary brimming with ambition and ideals, sets off on a journey to a remote part of Iceland to help finish the construction of a church and to photograph the local inhabitants. What appears to be a predictable pilgrimage, however, gradually becomes an unexpectedly intense encounter with the landscape and the forces of nature. For many the absolute pinnacle of this year’s festival in Cannes, the stunningly composed drama with its truly enchanting images was created by consummate talent of contemporary film, Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day).

Directed by: Sophie Hyde
United Kingdom, 2021, 97 min

Nancy nervously paces back and forth by the hotel-room window until a good-looking young man knocks at the door. A widow and former teacher who has never had an orgasm, Nancy has decided to educate herself when it comes to sex. But first she will have to overcome her own uncertainties. Emma Thompson shines in this conversational film that is something like an updated version of Pretty Woman.

Directed by: Lotfy Nathan
France, Luxembourg, Tunisia, Belgium, 2021, 90 min

Ali earns a living illegally selling gasoline on the street. He doesn’t have any contact with his family, but when he receives news that his father has died, he is forced to become responsible for his two younger sisters. The family home is burdened by debt and the police have intensified their search for fuel smugglers… Harka rightfully earned the Best Performance award in the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes.

Directed by: Michelangelo Frammartino
Italy, France, Germany, 2021, 93 min

In 1962, a group of young speleologists from northern Italy set out for the country’s south to explore the seemingly bottomless maw of an unexplored abyss, which turns out to be one of the deepest ever discovered. Visually compelling imagery brings to life the vertiginous and lofty beauty of nature as well as man’s determination and fragility.

Directed by: Saim Sadiq
Pakistan, 2021, 126 min

In his traditionally organized family, Haider is the lowest-ranked member. His wife Mumtaz goes to work while he looks after the household. His family pressures him to find a job, and eventually he ends up working with a dance troupe led by the charismatic trans artist Biba. A devastating romance soon evolves. An explosive, colorful, humorous, and sad chronicle of an unlikely love affair.

Directed by: Maryna Er Gorbach
Ukraine, Turkey, 2022, 100 min

Irka and Tolik live in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. It is July 2014, and they continue to hope that the thing which is slowly eating away at their house and their souls – and into which their child will soon be born – is not war. This portrait of people who lose the right to make any decisions about their lives has only grown in urgency since its triumphant premiere at Sundance.

Directed by: Tomáš Hodan
Czech Republic, 2022, 102 min

The Giant Mountains, 1913. At the start of a skiing competition Bohumil Hanč, the greatest Czech cross-country skier of his day, encounters the talented all-rounder Emmerich Rath, whose German origins have brought him problems his whole life. The bitterly cold, but stunning mountain ridges provide the setting for an ill-fated race, where the battle for first place becomes a battle for survival. A dramatic tale of friendship that knows no national boundaries.

Directed by: Emmanuelle Nicot
Belgium, France, 2022, 83 min

Twelve-year-old Dalva lives with her father, whom she loves to no end. But his love for her is not purely parental, as a police raid reveals one evening. Dalva finds herself in foster care; a trial begins. A tale of childhood innocence and the yearning for love, this drama portrays the young girl as she comes to terms with trauma – first, her separation from her father, then having to accept the bitter truth about the deviant nature of their relationship.

Directed by: Max Walker-Silverman
USA, 2022, 81 min

“What’s love for those with no-one to share it?” asks debuting director Max Walker-Silverman in his lyrical romance, one of the true highlights of this year’s Sundance festival. With his intuitive appreciation of the ephemeral beauty of the ordinary day, with tenderness and a subtle sense of humour, he introduces us to the lone traveller Faye (Dale Dickey), who is biding her time at a deserted Colorado campsite, watching birds and stars as she awaits the arrival of Lito (Wes Studi), a figure from her distant past.

Directed by: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
Spain, 2022, 104 min

Amaia has just given birth to her first daughter. She would prefer not to give up her career as a translator, but it’s not easy to balance it with her family and looking after a young child. When her partner goes away on business for seven weeks, the young woman capitulates and goes to stay with her parents in the countryside. Living together gives her a chance to get to know her mother and father from a new perspective, to understand them, and even to forgive them for a few things…

Directed by: Mantas Kvedaravičius
Lithuania, France, Germany, 2022, 112 min

Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius returned to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol six years later to record the inhospitable reality of a city under fire from the Russian aggressors. He paid for his return with his life – but his fiancée managed to get the film material out. The edited footage provides a unique account of war and of the altruism of the Ukrainian people.

Directed by: Brett Morgen
USA, 2022, 140 min

Over the course of several decades, David Bowie amassed some five million diverse pieces of audiovisual material relating to his artistic career. It took director Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) two years to go through it all. He then spent another year coming up with the conception for his film, and five years creating the sound design for this highly unconventional look at the career of an original musician and fascinating prophet. This unique cinematic experience – one of the key events at the recent festival in Cannes – will ride through you like a wave. Brett Morgen’s testament to David Bowie is as elusive and captivating as the artist himself.

Directed by: Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, Lithuania, USA, 2021, 248 min

A portrait of one man, a national awakening, and cyclical history. Under the steadfast leadership of professor Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania managed to break free from its enforced Soviet brotherhood. The events of 1988–1991 are presented through period footage, interspersed with insightful reflections from the main protagonist. The essential anthropologist Sergei Loznitsa again presents history in an agonizingly topical light.

Directed by: Ruth Beckermann
Austria, 2022, 100 min

A pornographic classic, its planned film adaptation, and the casting of male actors aged 16 to 99. The result is not an “adults-only” film but a poignant and sensitive performative documentary. Besides reflecting the life of the Viennese prostitute Josephine Mutzenbacher, readings of excerpts from the book introduce us to the diverse participants in the film’s casting, as well as their attitudes, experiences, and intimate histories.

Directed by: Signe Baumane
Latvia, USA, Luxembourg, 2022, 108 min

Ever since she was little Zelma was convinced that, if she behaved like a decent, respectable young girl, she would find love with a big L. However, her first, timid interactions with the opposite sex proved that reality is woefully far removed from her amorous notions. Animator Signe Baumane treats romantic relationships – and the expectations that arise from them – with her typical, lightly ironic detachment, and all this seasoned with musical interjections from a Greek chorus and illuminating details of neurochemical processes in the brain.

Directed by: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Ukraine, France, Poland, Chile, Germany, Luxembourg, 2022, 107 min

The inhabitants of a remote Carpathian village are getting ready for a traditional costumed celebration. Leonid (known as Pamfir) returns home after having spent several months working abroad. When his son Nazar ends up in trouble, Pamfir doesn’t hesitate. He decides to return to his dark past and to take one more risk… Set in the colorful world of the Ukrainian-Romanian border region, Pamfir masterfully combines elements of Greek tragedy, Western, and thriller and brings to the screen one of the most charismatic protagonists of recent years.

Directed by: Mikhaël Hers
France, 2022, 111 min

Paris in the 1980s. Elisabeth’s husband has left her, and her children, almost grown up, are ready to leave the nest. After years of financial security and a lack of worries, she must find a new job, and so she tries her luck at the radio show “Passengers of the Night,” which she likes to listen to when she cannot sleep. At her new workplace she meets the eighteen-year-old Talulah, who changes her life and that of her entire family.

Directed by: Michael Koch
Switzerland, Germany, 2022, 136 min

Anna lives with her daughter in a remote Alpine village. Her love for Marco, who comes to help on the farm, introduces new energy into her life. But the joy of building a relationship and a shared future is soon tempered by Marco’s sudden losses of control… A story of love put to the test, and an evocative look at the hard life of farmers in the Swiss Alps.

Directed by: Chie Hayakawa
Japan, France, Philippines, Qatar, 2022, 112 min

The Japanese population is aging inexorably. One possible solution is a government program known as Plan 75, which offers older citizens the chance to die voluntarily in exchange for certain benefits during the autumn of their life. Set in the near future and characterized by gentle humor and melancholy tenderness, the film follows a group of people whose days are far from numbered, as much as society around them would like the opposite to be true.

Directed by: Andreas Dresen
Germany, France, 2022, 119 min

After her son is sent to the American prison on Guantanamo, Turkish-German Rabiye Kurnaz launches a quixotic struggle against an opaque judicial system, bureaucracy, and international politics, helped by her attorney Bernhard Docke. A sensitive comedy about human indomitability, belief in justice, and undying hope.

Directed by: Valentyn Vasyanovych
Ukraine, 2021, 126 min

2014 – the first year of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. After his capture, the surgeon Serhiy is confronted with violence, torture, and killing. His return home is deeply affected by the trauma he has been through. Valentyn Vasyanovych lets the viewer taste his protagonist’s fear, desperation, and sense of helplessness. During the second, no less painful part of Serhiy’s journey, together they seek the answer to the question of how to live on after having experienced such horrors.

Directed by: Ruijun Li
China, 2022, 131 min

The arranged marriage between the taciturn Ma and the lame and infertile Guiying gives rise to a relationship full of patience and thoughtfulness. Told without a trace of sentimentality, this charming film, set in a landscape of deep yellow corn fields and sand dunes, paints a portrait of modest rural life and reveals the unsustainability of the country idyll in a modernizing China.

Directed by: Lola Quivoron
France, 2022, 104 min

Lola Quivoron’s dynamic genre-bending Rodeo takes us into the disturbing world of Bordeaux's suburbs. An underground community of dirt bikers who like to perform stunts on the streets is shaken up with the arrival of Julie, a wild adolescent from the margins of society with a passion for motorcycles. This powerful debut took home an award from this year’s Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Directed by: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Poland, USA, United Kingdom, 2022, 113 min

June and Jennifer, identical twins whose parents are from Barbados, move to Wales soon after their birth. As they grow up, they begin to close themselves off in their own world, to the point that they decide to communicate only with each other. This fascinating story of two unusual, creative beings, profound sisterly love, and destructive dependence is a playful, visual work of cinema that makes use of animation and musical scenes.

Directed by: Kurdwin Ayub
Austria, 2022, 88 min

When three girls don hijabs and sing their own version of the hit song “Losing my religion”, they become celebrities among the Kurdish community in Vienna. An engaging coming-of-age drama about what it’s like to be a girl growing up in a Muslim family, and also a universal tale of personal development in the face of other people’s views, expectations and conceptions.

Directed by: Paolo Genovese
Italy, 2021, 121 min

A romantic film that briefly introduces us to the carousel of joys and fears of a couple brought together by chance. Or was it fate? Comic book illustrator Anna and theoretical physicist Marco are a pair of congenial Superheroes who, like so many other people, have decided to live together. After all, dealing with shared problems sometimes requires truly superhuman strength.

Directed by: Tim Sutton
USA, 2022, 98 min

Rapper Cole returns, exhausted, from a successful tour. The people around him, especially his personal assistant Ilana, continue to work tirelessly on his career, but Cole is detached from it all. He slowly succumbs to a downward spiral of depression, drugs, prostitutes, and alcohol… The lead role in the latest film by established American independent filmmaker Tim Sutton is played by rapper Colson Baker, aka Machine Gun Kelly.

Directed by: Denis Côté
Canada, 2022, 137 min

An experimental therapy is supposed to help three women with their sexual addiction. Can abstinence resolve the traumas hidden behind the façade of wild fantasies? Taking the viewer on a journey through the treacherous terrain of female sexuality, That Kind of Summer is an exciting and playful exploration of the possibilities for presenting this subject on the screen without being shockingly explicit.

Directed by: George Miller
Australia, USA, 2022, 108 min

Professor of narratology Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) arrives in Istanbul for a conference, but when a Djinn (Idris Elba) appears in her hotel room she begins to question her identity as a rational academic. After the adrenaline-laden, post-apocalyptic ride of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), George Miller came to Cannes with this eccentric fantasy and timeless tale of love and yearning.

Directed by: Ruben Östlund
Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark, 2022, 142 min

Five years after The Square Ruben Östlund took away his second Palme d’Or from Cannes, along with a reputation as the filmmaker behind the wittiest film of this year’s competition. The tale of the young couple Carl and Yaya begins in the world of modelling while, for the second act, we move to a luxury cruise ship. Will the fierce storm which tosses the waves and the contents of their bloated stomachs liberate the super-rich passengers from the futility of their lives? Or will Östlund’s characters again behave like animals even in this extreme situation?

Directed by: Francesco Costabile
Italy, 2022, 120 min

Rose was a child when her mother died, and the family had an explanation ready for her: suicide. Except the fragments of memory that come to the young woman as she is growing up in the care of her grandmother and despotic uncle in a remote part of Calabria suggest something else. In her desire to understand the past and the family dynamic, Rosa uncovers the laws of the mafia world, in which she had only been a passive element until now.

Directed by: Erige Sehiri
Tunisia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Qatar, 2022, 92 min

Debut director Erige Sehiri closely follows the lives of her protagonists, young Tunisian women helping out during the fig harvest. Each has her own story, her own joys and worries, and her own ambitions to achieve something in life despite the limitations placed on them by a patriarchal society. Set over the course of one day, this captivating film about agreeably willful youth enjoyed remarkable success at the festival in Cannes.

Directed by: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Bolivia, Uruguay, France, 2022, 87 min

An ongoing drought forces an elderly Quechuan Indian couple to face a complicated dilemma: do they stay in an inhospitable landscape or leave for the city? In his Sundance-winning debut, director Alejandro Loayza Grisi shows himself to be a skilled storyteller, capable of imbuing a spare drama from a forgotten corner of the world with a universal sense of humanity while presenting, without preaching, a statement on the creeping impact of climate change.

Directed by: Riley Keough, Gina Gammell
USA, 2022, 114 min

The jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival decided to give the award for best debut film to the extraordinarily convincing look at the life of today’s members of the Oglala Lakota subtribe of the Sioux nation. The directorial duo masterfully guides the viewer through two interconnected storylines set in the inhospitable reality of the Pine Ridge Reservation. An evocative film about the search for one’s place in a world where the descendants of America’s first people still cannot shake the stigma of discrimination.

Directed by: Joe Hunting
United Kingdom, 2021, 91 min

It took Toaster several months before he turned on his microphone – and he only did this when he met belly-dance instructor DustBunny. By comparison, Jenny, who teaches sign language, didn’t need anything like that in order to understand Ray. Shot on the VRChat virtual platform, this documentary film depicts virtual space as a place where emotions are not a glitch.

Directed by: Mikko Myllylahti
Finland, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, 2022, 98 min

The optimistic woodcutter Pepe leads a quiet life in a small town in the north of Finland. But the situation changes when he loses his job. A darkly humorous existential drama about the search for the meaning of life in difficult times, The Woodcutter Story asks an insidious question: Is happiness fleeting or does it depend on one’s inner disposition?

Directed by: Miloš Pušić
Serbia, 2022, 85 min

Lidija works for a shady developer, overseeing construction laborers and covering up poor working conditions. But the men decide to protest. Boasting a punk aesthetic, this angry social drama in the style of the Dardenne brothers explores the bending of moral values in a place where capitalism trumps ordinary human life.

Directed by: Cat McClay, Éiméar McClay
United Kingdom, 2021, 12 min

“I didn’t think about religion until it became a violence.” A personal film, where religious iconography merges with intimacy, and in which a dense text accompanies images of Catholic icons and personal items. A colourful prayer which reminds us that faith is bound by many frontiers.

Directed by: Gerard Ortín Castellví
Spain, United Kingdom, 2022, 21 min

Here's work in progress that’s relaxing to watch. A stark, analytical and meticulous film which nevertheless pulsates with life as it demonstrates that machines, animals and people can function in a fascinating synergy. Does efficient industrialisation give you a sense of well-being or is it more likely to make you feel nervous? Whichever answer you give, Agrilogistics is a film that will have you reaching for those tomatoes.

Directed by: Yuri Ancarani
Italy, France, USA, Qatar, 2021, 100 min

The young and the restless from the Venetian Lagoon. The heroes of this impressionistic docu-fiction piece are shrouded in a dreamlike atmosphere; their prospects, however, are not entirely favourable. A film about a shared experience where, in a world of fast motorboats, there is no room for gondolas.

Directed by: Luca Dipierro
USA, Italy, 2022, 33 min

Does a creaking rocking chair make you feel uneasy or totally relaxed? In this crafty parable by animator Luca Dipierro it’s probably the former. His is a world of informed buffoonery, resourceful infantility and playfulness – the only adversary here is death, and you don’t want to trifle with that. The film’s uncomfortably seductive soundtrack is the work of the Father Murphy duo.

Directed by: Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
France, 2022, 115 min

What might a film examining the human body from inside rather than outside look like? The answer lies in this fascinating surgical trip with its unexpected arthouse catharsis, a movie which offers an immensely powerful physical experience for hard-boiled festival matadors. However, we strongly advise sensitive individuals of the film’s extreme subject matter and its equally explicit treatment.  

Directed by: Paz Encina
Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Germany, Netherlands, France, 2022, 85 min

Winner at this year’s Rotterdam festival, Eami is an ethnographic docu-fiction hybrid that poetically – yet without compromise – exposes the extent to which the original inhabitants of the Paraguayan primeval forests were dispossessed of their home. Now, thanks to this lyrical yet clearly intelligible film, they are finally given the space that is normally denied them.

Directed by: Kiro Russo
Bolivia, France, Qatar, Switzerland, 2021, 85 min

An urban symphony. Bolivia’s La Paz as seen by two outsiders who give us the opportunity to take a look at the chaos, but also the harmony of a place which is probably more hostile than open towards newcomers. A documentarist approach combines with intuitiveness, while desolation encounters subtle humour.

Directed by: Ben Rivers
United Kingdom, 2022, 7 min

A silent parable that might just as well play out on an industrial estate outside the city as on another planet altogether. A master of 16 mm film, Ben Rivers draws us into a dismal landscape, whose mood suggests toxic devastation, yet ultimately there will be signs of life. Six minutes which, despite a limited palette of colours, generate very strong impressions.

Directed by: Joseph Wilson
United Kingdom, 2021, 13 min

An experimental soundtrack from Delia Derbyshire and three queer performers who navigate the discipline of lip-syncing into darker waters. A hypnotic film which resurrects not only the traumas of unknown respondents, but also the ghost of Derek Jarman. A contemplative plunge into the depths.

Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang
Taiwan, 2021, 34 min

A woman is receiving physiotherapy for her paralysed lower body; an old man contemplates an even older tree – both are celebrated figures of Taiwanese culture. Tsai Ming-liang in silent communication with people and places, presented in a way that makes us feel as if we were waking up from a restful summer's afternoon nap.

Directed by: Hlynur Pálmason
Denmark, Iceland, 2022, 23 min

A period of eighteen months spent in the garden, playfully flipped over into an agreeable short film. Hlynur Pálmason and his three children build a hideaway together and, in doing so, unwittingly capture a palette of micro-stories, the changing scenery and the passing of time. The shifting Icelandic landscape, shot on 35 mm film, is only the beginning.

Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang
Taiwan, 2021, 19 min

An old Chinese song about the night which carries off a little fragment of our heart. Ordinary secluded spots in Hong Kong as we will never experience them again. The hustle and bustle of a night which seems remarkably serene. Tsai Ming-liang as a master at capturing muffled streets, the passing of time, and fleeting moments.

Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
USA, Thailand, 2021, 14 min

There are demonstrations in Bangkok but the insects on the white bed linen have other concerns, if they have any at all. In his short film hovering on the border between dream and wakefulness Apichatpong Weerasethakul again blends familiar banality with the realm of the dead. While fluorescent lamps attract night-time creatures, some of them are more interested in the food that’s been left out – and a curious stillness hangs in the air.

Directed by: Shazzula
Belgium, 2022, 17 min

A love story from beyond the grave, a tribute to the aesthetics of early cinema, and the fourth meditation on the various forms of hell. Creative duo Shazzula and Daniel Dujeux set off on another of their macabre strolls and, along the way, give shape to an original spiritual world which exposes human endeavour as futile yet, at the same time, romantically enticing.

Directed by: Radu Jude
Romania, 2021, 22 min

Even a doll’s house can provide the setting for a macabre tragedy. Or group sex. Radu Jude assembles a junk shop full of toys and depicts existence as a weird and tragicomic collection of amusing contradictions. Bloodless plastic casts are given an infusion of life, which the film describes in all its grotesque futility. T-Rex will still make a comeback eventually.

Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
United Kingdom, 2020, 10 min

Dancing as if there were no tomorrow, or as if you wanted to flush out a malignant disease. For his lo-fi dance film Jonathan Glazer got together with cinematographer Darius Khondji, while the music was entrusted to Mica Levi, who scored the sci-fi Under the Skin. Empty rooms providing dancers with a refuge from the pandemic now come alive with frantic movement.

Directed by: Mauricio Sáenz-Cánovas
Mexico, 2022, 17 min

The rules for a pack of tigers are the same as those governing a mystic community which plans to expel one of its members. The film hypnotically blurs the border between banality and magic, it awakens the tension and strength of traditions, and demonstrates that our lives are often formed by rite and ceremony. The line between grieving and dancing is often pretty thin.

Directed by: James Benning
USA, 2021, 103 min

Every state gets its own representative shot, in alphabetical order – from Alabama to Wyoming. A portrait of the USA in fifty-two scenes which might not be picture-postcard pretty, but they’re undeniably mesmeric. A systematic yet unpredictable film – among others, in the way it shows that even conceptualists have a sense of humour.

Directed by: Jodie Mack
USA, 2021, 5 min

Even in decay you’ll see beauty – you'll often find it really is there. Director Jodie Mack sets out for the third time in search of poetry in objects condemned to extinction, on this occasion in flowers and other plant life. In its visual eloquence this restful film draws our attention to details and textures and prompts us to contemplate the state of impermanence.

Directed by: Bram Ruiter
Netherlands, 2021, 11 min

What can you see on fragments of Super8 film? And is there any point in talking about it if you cut the respondents off mid-sentence? Hovering on the border between impenetrable abstraction and very specific perceptions, this fragile work imaginatively plays with the nature of the given medium, a love of which is only one of several personal confessions.

Directed by: Max Ovaska
Finland, 2020, 23 min

Janika is in the advanced stages of pregnancy, a condition she exploits in order to smuggle drugs from Tallinn to Helsinki, since pregnant women don’t have to go through customs. As her date approaches, and with a new job waiting, Janika is nevertheless determined to do one last deal. But soon she feels the first contractions.

Directed by: Angelika Abramovitch
Sweden, 2021, 20 min

If you thought that the ladies’ restroom is a place where women do their make-up while engaging in friendly banter, Catcave Hysteria will disabuse you of that idea. It’s time to tear down the stereotyped image of women as the “fairer sex” who always hold each other’s hair back over the toilet bowl.

Directed by: Brenda Lien
Germany, 2022, 20 min

After Maxi wins an important music award, the pressure for her to release an album only increases. But pressure equals crisis, crisis equals self-doubt, and self-doubt does not make for a creative atmosphere. Maxi’s inner child can lash out as much as it likes, but her inner cop won’t give it even a minute to play or relax. A playful, glitter-covered study of depression and burnout.

Directed by: Maciej Jankowski
Poland, 2021, 26 min

Dorothy and Wojtek, mother and son. Wojtek struggles with obesity and with the fact that every morning his classmates see him get out of an old car filled with vegetables. Dorothy worries about financial difficulties – and about Wojtek… A loving drama about parents and children, about accepting oneself, and about a new dress that can change a lot of things.

Directed by: Lukas Kacinauskas
Lithuania, 2021, 21 min

One evening that means a lot for Max. It’s the first time he dares to go on a date arranged on the internet. The moment he gets into Tadas’s car, he embarks on a journey into the unknown. A sensitive look at the process of self-acceptance, at the moment when we have to stop hiding and to accept responsibility for who we truly are – and not to be ashamed of it.

Directed by: Nicolai G. H. Johansen
Denmark, 2021, 43 min

It’s been a few months since Leonora last heard from her ex-boyfriend, but she can’t get him out of her mind. If only he knew that the things she did in the past were because of her illness. How desperately she would like to look him in the eyes and explain it all. But her yearning for forgiveness could violate the personal boundaries of the one she so desperately loves.

Directed by: Alica Bednáriková
Slovak Republic, 2021, 26 min

Three generations of a seemingly ordinary family gather at the family home in southern Slovakia. The arrival of the granddaughter Zoja doesn’t cause any major issues, though perhaps just a little more alcohol is consumed, perhaps one more family secret comes out, and perhaps the gathering leads to a minor tragedy…

Directed by: Magdalena Chmielewska
Austria, 2022, 22 min

As the rest of the world falls asleep, Eva stays awake. In order to get at least a little bit closer to that elusive slumber, she spends her nights in other people’s houses, quietly watching their sleeping inhabitants. Not only is Eva’s ever-growing sleep deprivation a source of fatigue, but it also causes her to see the world differently as its real contours are increasingly distorted.

Directed by: Martin Kuba
Czech Republic, 2022, 38 min

Like many others, Daniil has decided to leave his native Georgia and move to Prague in search of better pay. Originally a teacher, he finds a job with Ukrainian laborers controlled by a Russian boss called Sergei and thus becomes a cog in the machinery that takes advantage of the work of illegal immigrants… Vinland looks at the lives of people who exist all around us but about whom we know so little because their identities disappear the moment they relinquish their passports to the mafia who are interested only in profit.

Directed by: Carmen Pedrero
Spain, 2021, 14 min

Teenager Amelie is impatiently counting down to the end of the school year. The class is going on a trip to Tenerife, and Amelie can finally pack a pair of jeans – after many years, she can now throw off the orthopedic corset that has kept her from wearing this particular article of clothing. A poetic film about the dreams, desires, and disappointments that are an integral part of our journey towards adulthood.

Directed by: Yi Tang
Hong Kong, 2021, 14 min

18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. The party is full of greasy, middle-aged Chinese men, but Jianguo is so very different.

Directed by: Igor Chmela
Czech Republic, 2022, 30 min

Zdena, a young nurse, starts her first night shift at an old people’s home and immediately faces a difficult task: she has to deal with the body of a deceased client. A gentle portrait of faltering youth and a realistic tale of an encounter with death in a blend of physically intense moments and absurd humour.

Directed by: Marek Najbrt
Czech Republic, 2015, 20 min

Casting is stressful. Hanka (Jana Plodková), the casting director, is heading for a breakdown and her state of mind isn’t helped by the myriad whims of her actors (Vojta Dyk, Lukáš Pavlásek, Pavel Liška) or the unwelcome visits from her ex-husband, a desperate hypochondriac (Marek Daniel). A short comedy by Marek Najbrt with a truly stellar cast.

Directed by: Olmo Omerzu
Czech Republic, Slovenia, France, 2021, 16 min

Nina is pregnant with Jakub’s child and today he is introducing her to his family. They are all gathered round his grandfather's bedside at the hospital. Nina is trying to put on a brave face but then she gets a surprising request from the dying relative: he wants to see her breasts. This prompts a discussion to which she is not invited - should the patriarch’s last wish be granted?

Directed by: Adrian Moyse Dullin
France, 2021, 15 min

Kenza, 15, and her younger brother Madhi, 13, regularly try to embarrass each other on social media. On the bus, Kenza puts her naive and romantic brother to the test: Madhi has to profess his love for Jada, whom he adores, even though she doesn’t know he exists.

Directed by: Marie-Magdalena Kochová
Czech Republic, 2022, 9 min

The elevator at a nursing home is the perfect place for a dancer to explore the limits of his body, memory, and the flow of time. Imprisoned by four walls, he is forced to face the helplessness of his own weakening body. Starring Pina Bausch’s long-time soloist Jan Minařík, one of the most important Czech dancers of the twentieth century.

Directed by: Carlos Segundo
Brazil, France, 2021, 15 min

In Natal on the northern coast of Brazil, the country is preparing to launch its first manned rocket into space. A couple lives with their two children near the space center: she is a cleaner and he is a mechanic, but she dreams of other horizons.

Directed by: David Payne
Czech Republic, 2021, 22 min

Šimon (46) has been suffering from insomnia for several years. Behind the illusion of a secure and happy life, he has a monotonous job he doesn't like, his wife looks down on him, his son doesn’t take him seriously, and Šimon has long since lost any hope for change. But then he discovers a 16-year-old YouTuber on his son’s computer whose ASMR videos finally help him to sleep. But he soon realises that the girl means much more to him than he had thought. The illusion begins to crumble.

Directed by: Jan Daniel
Czech Republic, 2021, 29 min

Five 20-year-olds live a naive way of life that often just revolves around alcohol and having as much fun as possible. But their carefree existence is disrupted when one of them becomes seriously ill. The others learn of his illness at different times, which leads to misunderstandings, conflicts, and eventually the sick friend’s alienation from the group. The story tells of the superficial nature of their relationships, helplessness, and disenchantment with the youth perspective.

Directed by: Ramzi Bashour
USA, Lebanon, 2020, 22 min

Bashir attends his father’s funeral in rural Lebanon only to discover a pathogen infecting the trees in his village. A dark comedy about tradition, grief, and the environment.

Directed by: Dania Bdeir
France, Lebanon, 2021, 16 min

Mohammad is a crane operator working in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to take on one of the tallest and most dangerous cranes in Lebanon. Away from prying eyes he is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.

Directed by: Štěpán FOK Vodrážka
Czech Republic, 2022, 17 min

On Instagram Michal presents himself as a rapper who is one step away from stardom. In reality, he is a fast-food worker in a place from where no-one ever made the big time. What he doesn't yet know is that his dream will come true this afternoon.

Directed by: David Cronenberg
Canada, Greece, 2021, 107 min

David Cronenberg has set his latest film at an unspecified date in the future when people no longer suffer physical pain. Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart star in another inimitably bizarre work by the Canadian icon of body horror as he asks where the “synthetic age” is taking us, what sex might look like in an era of newly discovered thrills, and who owns whose body today.

Directed by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
USA, 2022, 140 min

An ultimate, opulent, lavish, bombastic, and at times stochastic, action-packed ride through the multiverse that masterfully mixes fight choreography with existential questions. A mix of genres ranging from action comedy to family drama, firmly held together by the sensitive brutality of the duo behind the hit Swiss Army Man.

Directed by: Martika Ramirez Escobar
Philippines, 2022, 101 min

What would it be like to meet the movie stars of our fantasies? Leonor, an aging former screenwriter for cheap action films whose star dimmed long ago, falls into a coma after her neighbor’s television lands on her head. As a result, in her mind she lives out the unfinished story of the noble Ronwaldo, who decides to stand up to a criminal gang.

Directed by: Alex Garland
United Kingdom, 2022, 100 min

Seeking to recover from a personal tragedy, Harper sets out for some quiet time in the picturesque British countryside. But a comforting peace is the last thing the surrounding forests and the deranged villagers have in store for lonely visitors. This atmospheric nightmare mix of folk horror and body horror makes inventive use of symbolic language and carefully dosed humor while nevertheless appealing to thoughtful viewers who might otherwise turn up their noses at the usual rural fright-fest.

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
USA, 1987, 103 min

This anti-utopian story of an invincible cyborg haunted by terrible memories as he fights crime on the violent streets of Detroit was not only the most successful film of 1987 but has since become synonymous with the cult of the eighties. Futuristic criticism of Reaganite capitalism was never more fun.

Directed by: Jean-Luc Herbulot
Senegal, France, 2021, 84 min

Three mercenaries manage to capture a drug dealer along with his loot – gold and a large supply of narcotics. They then flee with their hostage to Dakar, but a technical malfunction forces them to make an emergency landing in a mystical island region filled with violence and supernatural forces where even the most closely-guarded secrets rise to the surface.

Directed by: Quentin Dupieux
France, 2022, 77 min

What is this film about? About superheroes who resemble the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but call themselves the Tobacco Force and kill extraterrestrial monsters using nicotine? Or is it about the scary stories they tell each other by the campfire when their boss, the perpetually drooling rat Didier, sends them on a vacation in the woods? Hard to say. King of twisted ideas Quentin Dupieux returns with an (anti-)smoking comedy about saving the world.

Directed by: Arsalan Amiri
Iran, 2021, 93 min

The Kurdish village of Zalava is home to evil demons. At least, that is what its inhabitants think, and so from time to time the village is witness to bloody conflicts with those presumed to be possessed by them. When local police sergeant Masoud wants to confiscate the villagers’ weapons and dares to call the shaman Amardan a charlatan and even to arrest him, this triggers a massive wave of ill will within the community that leads to unexpected casualties.

Directed by: Federico Fellini
Italy, 1954, 108 min

The Road, which brought worldwide fame to Federico Fellini (represented by an Academy Award and dozens of other prizes), is today familiar to almost everyone interested in the art of film. Centering on hapless Gelsomina, brutish Zampanò, and the scornful Il Matto (The Fool), the film still touches the heartstrings, impresses with its aesthetic beauty and powerful performances, and provokes a variety of interpretations.

Directed by: Tom Hooper
United Kingdom, USA, Australia, 2010, 118 min

After the abdication of his older brother Edward, Prince Albert ascends the throne as King George VI. The Second World War is on the horizon and the country needs a strong leader, however, the introverted Bertie, who suffers from a speech impediment, is something of a joke to the public. His wife Elizabeth sets up a meeting with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an eccentric speech therapist, thanks to whom the king manages to overcome his stammer and ultimately forges a close friendship with him.

Directed by: Philip Kaufman
United Kingdom, Germany, 2000, 119 min

A drama with an all-star cast portraying the last years of the perverse aristocrat, the Marquis de Sade, dominated by a riveting performance from Geoffrey Rush as the eccentric, obsessive, and yet likeable author, to whom writing means everything. When the Marquis manages to get his scandalous texts out of the insane asylum and on to a publisher, the state summons the cruel psychiatrist Royer-Collard to silence him for good.

Directed by: Scott Hicks
Australia, 1996, 105 min

The lives of extraordinary yet severely tested geniuses are fascinating in and of themselves, but director Scott Hicks managed to lift this tale of an unnaturally talented pianist to another level. Based on a true story with an almost fatalistic dimension, the film’s message is further underscored by its unforgettable performances, in particular, by Geoffrey Rush and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
USA, Germany, 2000, 147 min

Director Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic is a fascinating tale of the drug trade told from the perspective of everyone involved: politicians, police, smugglers, and end users. Soderbergh gives everyone their own story, which cleverly intertwines with all the others on the US-Mexico border.  Excelling in this star-studded crime drama are Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Directed by: Bryan Singer
USA, Germany, 1995, 106 min

Roger “Verbal” Kint, a survivor of an incident that left twenty-seven dead, sits in a police station and tells the story that led to the massacre... The neo-noir mystery thriller The Usual Suspects needs little introduction. Its meticulously constructed narrative, dark atmosphere, and top-notch performances are all the ingredients of a film that just demands to be enjoyed again on the big screen.

Directed by: Vladimír Michálek
Czech Republic, 1996, 108 min

Czech-American screenwriter Milena Jelinek shifted Jakub Deml’s novel of the same name to a period fifty years later. Although she didn’t experience the Czechoslovak Normalisation era herself, Jelinek’s vision of the all-pervasive deterioration of the time is accurate down to the last detail. Here Michálek proved himself an accomplished director with a sense of subtle testimony, enhanced by suggestive performances from Boleslav Polívka and the rest of the cast and by a cinematographic eloquence beyond words.

Directed by: Věra Chytilová
Czechoslovakia, Belgium, 1969, 95 min

One of the cinematic masterpieces of the Czechoslovak New Wave, Fruit of Paradise is a highly stylised blend of detective story, parable and comedy of morals. For this project director Věra Chytilová brought together the same team she had worked with on her previous endeavour, Daisies, namely film designer and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová and cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera.

Directed by: Igor Minajev
France, Russia, 1993, 99 min

Petrograd, 1920. Sofia (the mesmeric Isabelle Huppert) has a single goal: to conceive a child with her husband Trofim. She hopes that, by achieving this, she will finally be able to allay her constant fear that her husband will leave her. Time moves on, no child is forthcoming, and the situation is further complicated by the arrival of a young orphan named Ganka, who becomes a member of the household...

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
USA, 1985, 116 min

Marty McFly, the Doctor, Einstein, and a flux capacitor. Robert Zemeckis’s cult movie about a teenager who travels back in time and so enamors his mother that he threatens his own existence is an action-packed ride full of unforgettable lines and violations of the rules of causality. Have a seat, buckle up, and get ready to go Back to the Future.

Directed by: Borhane Alaouié
Lebanon, Tunisia, Belgium, 1981, 101 min

Beirut, 1977. The early years of the Lebanese Civil War. A Shī'a man (Haitham El Amine) and a Christian bourgeois woman (Nadine Acoury) attempt to meet one last time before the latter elopes to the U.S. Corruption, poverty, garbage crises, sectarianism… This is Beirut as seen by the late, great master Borhane Alaouié: a wounded, collapsing metropolis no different from the Beirut of today.

Directed by: Nina Menkes
USA, 2022, 107 min

How does the language of film contribute to the propagation of gender inequality? Who has the active role of the narrator and, conversely, who is the passive object of the viewer’s gaze? Nina Menkes dusts off the fundamental theses of feminist film theory and, without compromise, exposes the invisible mechanisms that are constituents of narrative cinema.

Directed by: Alice Agneskirchner
Germany, 2022, 155 min

In this documentary, the ninety-year-old film historian Ulrich Gregor and his wife Erika share why they called the arthouse cinema where they showed more than 16,000 films the “Arsenal”, and explain what lies behind the name Forum, the Berlinale's important independent section, which they founded and whose program they shaped for thirty years. Besides a personal portrait, the film is also an exciting journey into the history of film and society in Germany and Europe.

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
USA, France, Germany, Japan, 1999, 116 min

A hit man (Forest Whitaker) who follows the samurai code. Jim Jarmusch’s masterpiece, in which action goes hand in hand with meditation, and which shoots not only bullets but also wisdom. At times it is deathly serious, at other times tongue-in-cheek, with an almost imperceptibly ironic smile crossing its lips.

Directed by: Jaromil Jireš
Czechoslovakia, 1968, 82 min

Intellectually challenging films became established in the 1960s and it certainly wasn’t only Godard for whom the adventure story no longer sufficed; it was the adventure of reflection that mattered. Jireš’s The Joke is an example of this cinematic endeavour: if it weren’t for the viewer continually deliberating the impulses that prompt the hero’s associative chain of memories, and asking why fragments of past and present situations are seamlessly blended together, many of the film’s important connections would never come to light.

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
USA, 1978, 117 min

This unforgettable classic among music documentaries recently received its new digital makeover, presented for the first time at this year’s Cannes festival. The unique film presentation (seven 35 mm cameras) of the last concert by the cult rock formation The Band from 1976, complete with authentic first-hand accounts of a life played out in rock’n’roll tempo, was created by phenomenal director and music-lover, Martin Scorsese.

Directed by: Alexandre O. Philippe
USA, 2022, 108 min

In his latest offering Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52 or Memory: The Origins of Alien), one of the industry’s greatest film aficionados and connoisseurs of cinematic history, focuses on the most original director of our times, David Lynch, and asks to what extent in his mystery-shrouded oeuvre he connects with the ultimate gem of American film production, The Wizard of Oz.

Directed by: John Cassavetes
USA, 1977, 144 min

Myrtle Gordon is a Broadway star. The premiere of her new play is only days away, however, a tragic event drives the actress to the very edge of breakdown. To date there has been no film which has adopted a more comprehensive approach to depict the way in which actors become totally immersed in their craft to a degree bordering on self-destruction. An unutterably intense experience from the king of independent film, John Cassavetes.

Directed by: Dušan Hanák
Czechoslovakia, 1972, 64 min

A testimony leaning towards contemplative lyricism, this documentary portrays the unique inhabitants of a far-flung region of rural Slovakia as it meditates on old age, loneliness, poverty and the weight of life’s destiny. However, the film is also a reflection of the indomitability of man and of an authentic existence that defies the pressures of civilisation.

Directed by: Rudolf Měšťák
Czechoslovakia, 1927, 104 min

Rudolf Měšťák’s silent film The Prague Executioner, based on the novel of the same name by Josef Svátek, is a historical tale of love, betrayal and revenge. The screening of the restored 35 mm copy, coloured in accordance with the original tinting and toning process, will be accompanied by music from an ensemble headed by musicologist and composer Vlastislav Matoušek.

Directed by: Mitra Farahani
France, Switzerland, Iran, Lebanon, 2022, 96 min

An affectionate depiction of an encounter between two breathless titans. Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and literary figure Ebráhím Golestán engage in long-distance exchanges of quotations and cryptic statements. Their dialogue, which should have taken place long ago in the last century, inevitably consists of weighty themes, such as humanity, time, art and death.

Directed by: Vladimír Čech
Czechoslovakia, 1961, 91 min

“A bored housewife, a husband who married her for show, and a stupid boy who is full of himself because he is dating a Swiss woman.” The words of Inspector Tůma sound like they’re from a European melodrama, but in fact they come from a Czechoslovak crime story. A pair of detectives, counterfeit medicine, the high-society setting of a Karlovy Vary hotel, and Oldřich Nový as the aging hotel manager Kraus.

Directed by: David Lynch
USA, 1990, 125 min

Love story, road movie, gangster flick, rock ’n’ roll fairy tale – a seemingly incongruous mix, and yet immensely enticing. It all starts with Lula (Laura Dern), who has been waiting outside prison for her boyfriend Sailor (Nicolas Cage) to be released on parole, handing him his beloved snakeskin jacket. Lula’s mother cannot stand Sailor, but the couple are all the more determined to stay together and run away as far as they can go. In David Lynch’s cult film, Elvis Presley meets The Wizard of Oz.

Directed by: Victor Fleming
USA, 1939, 102 min

Although the much-adored Shirley Temple had the right age to play the protagonist of this fairy-tale musical, the role of Dorothy eventually went to the seventeen-year-old Judy Garland – supposedly because Shirley’s childlike voice was not suited to the film’s songs. Garland’s pure and sonorous girl’s voice and acting talents quickly catapulted her to stardom as one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. Fleming's Wizard of Oz, which amazed its audiences with its special effects, spectacular sets and costumes, its choreography and catchy melodies, has an irresistible, nostalgic charm today.

Directed by: Eric Lartigau
France, Belgium, 2014, 101 min

Paula is sixteen, she helps her family on the farm, and she goes to school, where she has her eye on a boy she fancies; and, while it wasn’t really her plan, she finds herself singing in the school choir. Except that her life is somewhat unusual: her family is hearing-impaired. A superbly cast coming-of-age story, in which deafness is the least of everyone’s problems. The film went on to provide the inspiration for the American, Oscar-winning CODA.

Directed by: Teemu Nikki
Finland, 2021, 82 min

Jaakko is visually impaired and uses a wheelchair. He is in love with Sirpa. They haven’t met in person yet, but they speak to each other regularly on the telephone. One day something unexpected happens and Jaakko decides he must go to her immediately, so he gathers his courage and sets out on his own… A film which doesn’t tell a story of physical disability, but it successfully mediates the experience of it. Winner at Venice as part of Orizzonti Extra.

Directed by: Zach Breder
USA, 2021, 25 min

Sometimes the story preceding the making of a film is just as important as the work itself. Zach Breder, a young man living with a serious heart defect, had always wanted to shoot a movie and, with the aid of the Georgia Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he managed to do just that. This adventure story about a boy named Chris who, with the help of his friends, solves the mystery of his eccentric uncle, began as a “mere” dream and ultimately became a professional film which now celebrates its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF.

Directed by: Alan Hicks
Australia, USA, 2022, 70 min

When eight-year-old Tess learned that her mother was pregnant, she was not excited at the prospect of a sibling. But with the birth of little Liv, who had the same fiery red hair as her older sister, an unbreakable bond was formed that, sadly, was torn apart too soon. Grammy Award-winning director Alan Hicks has shot an equally touching and important documentary about pain transformed into hope.

Directed by: Ben Lewin
USA, 2012, 95 min

Poet Mark O’Brian (John Hawkes) contracted polio as a child and became paralysed as a result. He has troubles breathing and has to spend most of his time in a ventilator known as an iron lung. Now aged thirty-eight, he realises he doesn’t want to end up a virgin, and so a sex therapist (the excellent Helen Hunt) enters his life. Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance (2012), the film is an unusual yet immensely romantic comedy, in which sex takes a back seat.

Directed by: Shô Miyake
Japan, France, 2022, 99 min

The young boxer Keiko was born with a hearing impairment, and yet she has successfully gone professional. Her style is characterized by a calm energy, but also uncertainties. Will this fragile young woman stumble beneath the blows of life, or will she win her inner battle? This surprisingly poetic film about boxing comes with a reputation as an unassuming gem from this year’s Berlinale.

Directed by: Bartosz Blaschke
Poland, 2021, 118 min

A tale about hope and the promise that it’s never too late to start again and make your dream come true, even if it seems out of reach. Everyone is convinced that 14-year-old Grzegorz is on the autistic spectrum – except his new assistant, who discovers he is suffering from a severe hearing impairment rather than autism. After proper treatment the boy enters a world that had been denied him for so long… A story based on real events.