Synopsis

Early 1700s. Venice. The Ospedale della Pietà orphanage has a storied reputation for the distinguished musical education of its residents. The young women’s ensemble performances attract the attention of audiences, patrons, and even suitors, who become enchanted by their talent, believing their training will make them more virtuous wives. Cecilia, a virtuoso violinist, has been promised to a decorated army official upon his return from the battlefield. It is with the arrival of a new musical director—the ambitious composer Antonion Vivaldi—that she is awakened to the power of her musical gift and its possibilities for joy and emancipation.

Celebrated opera and stage director Damiano Michieletto crafts a stunning cinematic work with this story of Vivaldi, underappreciated in his time, through the lens of a young muse, who herself is transformed by music as she finds the inspiration to rewrite her own destiny. Sumptuous costumes and production design are further elevated by an inspired score bringing vibrancy and immediacy to a stirring centuries-old tale.

Synopsis

From the Oscar-nominated director of Fire at Sea comes an immersive and impressionistic portrait of humanity at the precipice. With Below the Clouds, celebrated filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi trains his camera on communities living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano famous for burying the city of Pompeii nearly two centuries ago. Today, the area lies at a unique juncture between historic calamity and contemporary anxieties. As museum workers labor to preserve Pompeii’s extraordinary ruins and precious artifacts, the film also ventures into tunnels and classrooms, encounters firemen and teachers, and observes Japanese archeologists in the field and Syrian sailors shipping grain from Ukraine.

Filmed in luminous black and white and replete with haunting images from smoky skies to murky depths, Below the Clouds uniquely connects the sublime with the everyday. One of its most memorable refrains is its return to an emergency call center tasked with assisting harried citizens with problems both minor and harrowing. When the region is hit with a significant earthquake, the heavy legacy of history weighs on the panicked callers seeking help. Eruptions and disruptions, it seems, continue to come in many forms.

Synopsis

Bouchra, a coyote, is a queer Moroccan filmmaker based in New York City, navigating love and work in a world populated by other animal friends and family, including her hot ex-girlfriend, a cow, her best friend, a lizard, and her mom, Aicha, a coyote who lives back home in Casablanca. While Bouchra is finding her way in Manhattan, she has never resolved her mother’s lack of acceptance of her sexuality. It’s not that Bouchra has never come out; it’s that despite their closeness, her mom simply refuses to talk about it.

Brought to life in 3D animation, filmmaking team Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, known for their 2020 lockdown art sensation 2 Lizards, have crafted a unique animated docu-fiction hybrid that is profoundly intimate, light-hearted, and touching, with a quirky surrealist edge. So what if they’re cool animals? Bouchra is a universal story of immigrant life, family conflict, and queer identity.

Synopsis

Disruptions to the idyllic lives of the people in Remis, also known as the happiest town in Italy, are rare. But when Sergio, a former Judo champion with a tragic past, arrives to take over the school’s physical education program, his palpable pain puts him at odds with the town’s otherwise supernaturally cheerful inhabitants. Soon, he is initiated into Remis’s best-kept secret: once a week, the townspeople gather in a church to meet Matteo, a fifteen-year-old with some secrets of his own. His embrace promises to free its recipient of all their suffering, but this healing touch comes with consequences. Being the town’s savior is soul-crushing work and leaves little room for Matteo to live a life of his own or explore his blossoming queer desires. As the pressures on Matteo mount, Sergio searches for answers about this so-called angel, and the darkness inside his gift comes into disturbingly detailed focus.

Director Paolo Strippoli elegantly weaves a tapestry of contrasts and moral ambiguities that are mirrored in the film’s striking cinematography and production design. The Holy Boy thoughtfully contemplates the place of pain in our lives, matching its melancholic beauty with more than enough spine-chilling spectacle.

Synopsis

Jay Kelly, the new film from Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach, follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (George Clooney) as he embarks on a journey of self discovery confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Poignant and humor filled, epic and intimate, Jay Kelly is pitched at the intersection of life’s regrets and notable glories.