Synopsis

When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business,” is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern-day New York City.

Synopsis

On the morning of February 8, 1977, Indianapolis entrepreneur Anthony G. “Tony” Kiritsis entered the office of Richard O. Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took the man hostage with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun wired to his head. In this ‘70s-style thriller reminiscent of Dog Day Afternoon, acclaimed filmmaker Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting) recreates the incident in meticulous detail, following Tony’s misbegotten attempt to seek retribution from the Hall family for cheating him out of what he felt he was owed.

Featuring commanding performances from Bill Skarsgård as the unhinged Kiritsis, Colman Domingo as a radio DJ who gets up caught in the chaos, and Al Pacino as the grouchy mortgage mogul whose son, played by Dacre Montgomery, is under the gun, Dead Man’s Wire is an eerily timely, unsettling, and captivating story about vigilante justice and the thin line between criminal and hero in American society.

Synopsis

Tasked with writing an essay for her college application, high school senior Morgan (Ella Rubin) is at a loss. With no real sense of who she is or what she wants, the 17-year-old is hopeful that her much-older half-siblings will provide some inspiration. But after their mother heads off to Europe on a long overdue vacation, the sheltered teen quickly realizes that they might be even more off balance as she is. Charged with keeping brother Josh (Thomas Sadoski) from going off the deep end yet again, Morgan and sisters Lisa (Betsy Brandt) and Dahlia (Aya Cash)—each with their own issues and secrets—struggle to maintain equilibrium as the misadventures mount.

In this endearing Chicago-made dramedy, director Rich Newey and writer Annika Marks (Killing Eleanor) paint a humorous and touching portrait of coming of age at all ages. Featuring winning performances from Brandt (Breaking Bad), Sadoski (Life in Pieces), and Cash (The Boys), and an especially sympathetic turn from newcomer Rubin (Anora, The Idea of You), Adult Children is richly drawn, deeply felt, and warmly amusing.

Synopsis

From the twisted mind behind All Jacked Up and Full of Worms comes a raucous, Chicago-set riff on ’70s sexploitation films. Writer-director Alex Phillips returns to the Festival with this stunning 16mm thriller following Liam, an unassuming bike-courier and sex worker in Chicago delivering whatever will satisfy his clients’ appetites—until they start turning up dead. A trail of taboo encounters and gruesome crime scenes paint Liam as the primary suspect, making him wanted in more ways than he’d anticipated. Framed by a serial killer and pursued by a pair of deranged cops, all while trying to maintain his lascivious livelihood, Liam’s simple life of on-demand pleasure turns into a conspiratorial nightmare.

Playful and gory yet full of heart, Anything That Moves blends salacious sex and social critique into a thrilling exploration of the darker sides of desire.

Synopsis

Award-winning Swiss Albanian filmmaker Dea Gjinovci (2020’s Wake Up on Mars) returns to the bucolic Kosovo town of her father’s youth—a place he hasn’t seen in 60 years—for this lyrical journey into the past at once wistful and tragic. Together, they recreate his childhood memories, making sets that resemble his former home and with scenes acted out by the local villagers. Through this collective creative project, 1950s Kosovo springs to life in a series of beautifully realized vignettes that prompt Gjinovci’s father to reflect on times of innocence, of violence (when the country persecuted the Albanian population), and of loss, enabling him to finally reckon with the disappearance of his mother decades before.

This evocative mix of memory and reenactment allows father and daughter to uncover shocking truths about their family history and to come to terms with a legacy of oppression. A touching narrative of resilience and catharsis, The Beauty of the Donkey is also a sensitive and bittersweet testament to the power of stories to bring back people and places that history and political strife have tried to erase.