Driving Mum (2022) (Á Ferð með Mömmu)
★★★☆☆
Driving Mum by Icelandic director Hilmar Oddsson is darkly strange, absurd and poignant.
Perfect Days (2023)
★★★★☆
Perfect Days is acclaimed director Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set film for which Koji Yakusho won a well-deserved Best Actor award.
Berlinale 2024: My Summer with Irène (2024) (Quell’estate con Irène)
★★★★☆
My Summer with Irène, directed by Carlo Sironi, is a beautiful summer elegy by the sea for two girls together.
Berlinale 2024: My New Friends (2024) (Les gens d’à côté)
★★★★☆
My New Friends written and directed by André Téchiné is an absorbing debate on a contemporary issue starring the wonderful Isabelle Huppert.
Bafta Awards 2024
★★★★☆
Bafta Awards 2024
Berlinale 2024: Young Hearts (2024)
★★★☆☆
Heart-warming coming-of-age story Young Hearts is award-winning Anthony Schatteman’s feature debut at the Berlinale.
Berlinale 2024: The Visitor (2024)
★★★☆☆
The Visitor is a provocative feature allegory of contemporary British issues by Bruce LaBruce, the Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer and underground director.
The Letter Writer (2024)
★★★☆☆
The Letter Writer by Layla Kaylif is about the painful coming of age, emotionally and politically, for a boy and a country.
The Taste of Things (2023) (The Pot-au-Feu) (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)
★★★★☆
The Taste of Things, directed by Tran Anh Hung is so, so French. It’s beautiful and it’s a 19th-century love story that is also food and beauty obsessed.
Your Fat Friend (2023)
★★★☆☆
Your Fat Friend, a documentary directed by Jeanie Finlay, is the touching story of obesity rights campaigner Aubrey Gordon.
The Settlers (2023) (Los Colonos)
★★★☆☆
The Settlers is an angry, violent Western-type version of the brutal colonial birth of Chile by first-time filmmaker Felipe Gálvez.
Berlinale 2024: Programme and line-up
★★★★☆
Berlinale 2024: line-up
IFFR 2024: Natatorium (2024)
★★★☆☆
Natatorium is a female-centred, atmospheric thriller debut in a World Premiere at the IFFR for Iceland’s Helena Stefánsdóttir.
Jackdaw (2023)
★★★★☆
Jackdaw directed by Jamie Childs is a fast-moving action thriller that beautifully exploits the northeast’s brutal post-industrial landscape and breath-taking country.