International Competition

After idealistic law student Luisa is convinced by her best friend to move into an Antifa commune in Berlin, she falls under the sway of charismatic radical Alfa and is soon surprised by the changing nature of her own convictions. This urgent drama details the many faces of activism and dissects the nature of justice in the face of extremism.

As an amnesia-inducing pandemic rages across the globe, solitary Aris finds himself in a rehabilitation program for the afflicted. His treatment: performing tasks mimicking life’s milestones and capturing these new memories on Polaroid. Through images deadpan, strange, and surreal, the film posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss.

A group of four men in modern-day Iran plot to burn down a movie theater, an act that replicates a historical tragedy that occurred 40 years prior, as society was teetering on revolution. The cinema in their crosshairs is premiering a film about an unexploded missile—a crowd gathers outside the theater in anticipation. Past and [...]

In 1962, when a strike at a local factory catches ardent Communist Party official Lyudmila and her colleagues off guard, Moscow steps in. Left searching for her missing daughter, who joined the strike, Lyudmilla’s eyes are opened to the human toll of state-sanctioned violence. Filmed in arresting black and white, this historic tale bristles with immediacy.

Suburban housewife Jean (Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) lives a seemingly easy life, supported by husband Eddie’s (Bill Heck) career as a thief. But when Eddie betrays his partners, Jean and her baby are forced to go on the run, and Eddie’s old friend Cal (Arinzé Kene) is tasked with the job of keeping [...]

Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival Imagine the French Revolution transposed on contemporary Mexico City in the hands of provocative Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco (Daniel and Ana, After Lucia, Chronic). The result: a riveting and prescient dystopian drama that serves as a disquieting cautionary tale for a society marked by extreme class divisions. Just beyond the [...]

A young man is sent to "La Maca,” a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits [...]

1976 Rome. After 10-year-old Valerio witnesses the attempted assassination of his father, he and his famility are overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. When Christian, a slightly older and bolder rebellious boy appears seemingly out of nowhere and befriends Valerio, his outlook starts to shift. Loosely based on his own childhood experience, director Claudio Noce deploys magical realist elements to both wondrous and nightmarish effect.

Loneliness and insecurity in the digital age are on full display in this candy-colored chronicle of three days in the life of social media celebrity Sylwia Zajac, a fitness instructor who documents her every move for her 600,000 followers. Will the sudden appearance of a stalker prompt Sylwia to reconsider her life lived fully online?

After a long and painful struggle with infertility, Satoko and her husband Kiyokazu stumble across Baby Baton, a non-profit organization that matches couples who can't conceive with mothers who are unable to raise their children. Realizing that adoption could make their family whole, the couple soon brings home a son, little Asato. But six years [...]

Hirokazu Kore-eda protégée Miwa Nishikawa (Dear Doctor) returns to the Festival with her compassionate yet pointed chronicle of an ex-con’s rough re-entry into society. Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins, Shall We Dance?) delivers a nuanced lead performance as former Yakuza Mikami, who struggles to secure both employment and a new sense of self after years of incarceration.