New Directors/New Films 2023
The Maiden The Maiden
The Maiden and Tótem
1976 (Chile, '76) (Country: Chile; Year: 2022; Director: Manuela Martelli; Writer: Manuela Martelli, Alejandra Moffat; Stars: Aline Küppenheim, Alejandro Goic)
A woman finds herself dicing with danger after she is asked for help.
Absence (Xue yun) (Country: China; Year: 2023; Director: Wu Lang; Stars: Lee Kang-Sheng, Li Meng, Ren Ke, Liang Wanling)
After ten years in prison, Han Jiangyu returns to Hainan Island. Housing construction is booming, his childhood friend is now rich. Searching for traces of the familiar, Jiangyu meets his old love who now has a daughter.
Almost Entirely a Slight Disaster (Sanki Her Sey Biraz Felaket) (Country: Turkey; Year: 2023; Director: Umut Subasi)
In contemporary Istanbul, a small group of interconnected millennials aimlessly grasp for love, work, friendship, and financial stability. They devote themselves to mindless games and romantic dead-ends while ignoring the larger world.
Arnold Is A Model Student (Country: Thailand, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Sorayos Prapapan; Writer: Sorayos Prapapan; Stars: Darunbhorn Likitkererat, Niramon Busapavanich, Siraphop Punmanee)
senior student Arnold excels at his studies and is a frontrunner for education scholarships and accolades. Yet after returning from studying abroad in the United States, he begins to question the meaning and authoritarian practices of school itself, and his growing awareness then makes him ripe for temptation into an underground cheating ring.
Ashkal (Year: 2022; Director: Youssef Chebbi; Writer: Youssef Chebbi)
In the Gardens of Carthage, a district of Tunis initiated by the former Regime which construction stopped at the beginning of the Revolution, two cops, Fatma and Batal, find a burnt body in one of the lots. As construction slowly resumes, they start looking into this mysterious case.
Joyland Joyland
Joyland and Metronom
Astrakan (Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: David Depesseville; Writer: David Depesseville)
A traumatised orphan on the cusp of teenagehood tries to adjust to life with his new, rural foster family.
Autobiography (Country: Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Singapore, France, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Makbul Mubarak; Writer: Makbul Mubarak; Stars: Kevin Ardilova, Yusuf Mahardika, Arswendy Bening Swara, Lukman Sardi, Rukman Rosadi, Haru Sandra, Gunawan Maryanto, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin)
A young man working as a housekeeper sparks a chain of violence after defending his boss's mayoral election campaign.
Coconut Head Generation (Country: France, Nigeria; Year: 2023; Director: Alain Kassanda; Writer: Alain Kassanda)
Documentary capturing the words and emotions of students at the University of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria. The country’s first university, it was founded in 1948 and is still reckoning with its colonial British legacy.
Disco Boy (Country: France, Italy, Belgium, Poland; Year: 2023; Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese; Writer: Giacomo Abbruzzese; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev)
The destinies of a man who has joined the Foreign Legion and another in the Niger Delta intersect.
Earth Mama (Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Savanah Leaf; Writer: Savanah Leaf; Stars: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Keta Price, Doechii)
Set in the Bay Area, the film follows Gia as she contends with pregnancy and poverty while longing for her children in foster care.
Opening film
Pamfir Pamfir
Pamfir and Remembering Every Night
The Face of the Jellyfish (El rostro de la medusa) (Country: Argentina; Year: 2022; Director: Melisa Liebenthal; Writer: Agustín Godoy, Melisa Liebenthal; Stars: Rocío Stellato, Vladimir Durán, Federico Sack)
A woman tries to cope after her faces changes.
Family Time (Mummola) (Country: Finland, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Tia Kouvo; Stars: Ria Kataja, Elina Knihtilä, Leena Uotila, Tom Wentzel, Jarkko Pajunen)
Comedy drama set during an annual family Christmas get-together.
Gush (Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Foxy Maxy; Writer: Foxy Maxy; Stars: Michel Sayegh, Ruth Fish, Sergio Mejia, Littlebear Sanchez, No'aash Iswut Peltier, Suavitel Paper.)
An embodied rumination of both male and female power, healing and haunting, all within an apocalyptic world. A transformation that courses through unknown terror to untamed collective joy.
Have You Seen This Woman? (Da Li Ste Videli Ovu Zenu) (Country: Serbia, Croatia; Year: 2022; Director: Matija Gluscevic, Dusan Zoric; Writer: Matija Gluscevic, Dusan Zoric; Stars: Ksenija Marinkovic, Isidora Simijonovic, Boris Isakovic, Alex Elektra, Ivana Vukovic, Vlasta Velisavljevic, Goran Bogdan, Jasna Djuricic, Nenad Ciric, Radoje Cupic, Fedor Djorovic, Isidora Minic, Olga Odanovic, Milos Samolov, Danilo Savic)
Through three different life possibilities a middle-aged woman tries to get out of her skin.
Joyland (Country: Pakistan; Year: 2022; Director: Saim Sadiq; Writer: Saim Sadiq; Stars: Sana Jafri, Ali Junejo)
As the Ranas, a happily patriarchal joint family, yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theater and falls for an ambitious trans starlet. Their impossible love story illuminates the entire family's desire for a sexual rebellion.
Have You Seen This Woman? Have You Seen This Woman?
Have You Seen This Woman? and 1976
Leila’s Brothers (Country: Iran; Year: 2022; Director: Saeed Roustayi; Writer: Saeed Roustayi; Stars: Taraneh Alidoosti, Saeed Poursamimi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Payman Maadi, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, Farhad Aslani)
No details yet available.
The Maiden (Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Graham Foy; Writer: Graham Foy; Stars: Jackson Sluiter, Marcel T Jiménez, Hayley Ness)
The lives of three suburban teenagers intersect.
Maputo Nakuzandza (Country: Brazil, Mozambique; Year: 2022; Director: Ariadine Zampaulo; Writer: Maria Clotilde Guirrugo, Ariadine Zampaulo; Stars: Domingos Bié, Maria Clotilde Guirrugo, Salvado Mabjaia)
Kaleidoscopic view of Mozambique's capital, with a mysterious woman in its midst.
Metronom (Country: Romania; Year: 2022; Director: Alexandru Belc; Writer: Alexandru Belc, Patrick Templin; Stars: Mara Bugarin, Serban Lazarovici, Vlad Ivanov, Mihai Calin, Andreea Bibiri)
A teenager finds herself grappling with love and the authorities during the rule of Ceaucescu.
Milisuthando (Country: South Africa; Year: 2023; Director: Milisuthando Bongela)
Set in past, present, and future South Africa — an invitation into a poetic, memory-driven exploration of love, intimacy, race, and belonging by the filmmaker, who grew up during apartheid but didn't know it was happening until it was over.
Mutt Mutt
Mutt and Disco Boy
Mutt (Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz; Writer: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz; Stars: Lío Mehiel, Cole Doman, MiMi Ryder, Alejandro Goic)
Over the course of a single hectic day in New York City, three people from Feña's past are thrust back into his life. Having lost touch since transitioning from female to male, he navigates the new dynamics of old relationships while tackling the day-to-day challenges of living life in between.
Pamfir (Country: Ukraine; Year: 2022; Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk; Writer: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk; Stars: Oleksandr Yatsentyuk, Stanislav Potyak, Solomiya Kyrylova , Olena Khokhlatkina, Myroslav Makoviychuk, Ivan Sharan)
Pamfir wants to be a decent family man but challenged by the circumstances he is forced to give up honest breadwinning to help his family.
Petrol (Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Alena Lodkina; Writer: Alena Lodkina; Stars: Nathalie Morris, Hannah Lynch, Emmett Aldred, Daniel Aloisio, Mezi Atwood)
While working on a deeply personal school project connected to her Russian heritage, Eva meets the mercurial Mia, a performance artist who runs hot and cold, and with whom she develops a close bond bordering on obsession.
Remembering Every Night (Subete no yoru wo omoidasu) (Country: Japan; Year: 2022; Director: Yui Kiyohara; Writer: Yui Kiyohara; Stars: Kumi Hyôdô, Manami Ohba, Ai Mikami, Tadashi Okuno, Guama Uchida, Shintaro Yuya, Mizuho Nojima)
Drama involving the quiet pursuits of several women over a single afternoon.
Safe Place (Country: Croatia; Year: 2022; Director: Juraj Lerotic; Writer: Juraj Lerotic; Stars: Juraj Lerotic, Snjezana Sinovcic, Goran Markovic)
24 hours in the life of a man who is trying to kill himself while his family members try to save him.
Safe Place Safe Place
Safe Place and Milisuthando
Tommy Guns (Nação Valente) (Country: Portugal, France, Angola; Year: 2022; Director: Carlos Conceição; Writer: Carlos Conceição; Stars: João Arrais, Anabela Moreira, Gustavo Sumpta)
Set in 1974 Angola, during the waning days of Portugal’s militaristic rule over the African nation, the film jumps between different perspectives, including those of local rebels and villagers contending with the persistence of authoritarian forces and the occupying soldiers.
Tótem (Country: Mexico, Denmark, France; Year: 2023; Director: Lila Avilés; Writer: Lila Avilés; Stars: Naíma Sentíes, Monserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Teresita Sánchez)
In a large house, friends and family meet for a dual ritual: it is the birthday of young father and painter Tona, but also a farewell ceremony.
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