Synopsis

Oscar, an aging wannabe poet who never quite broke through, is past his prime. He drinks too much, his relationship with his daughter is in dire straits, he has no career prospects, and he is living with his mother. He takes a teaching job at a high school in hopes of putting his life back together. There he meets Yurlady, a promising poet from a lower-class family whose writing captures his attention. Attempting to redeem himself both personally and professionally, he decides to take her under his wing and mentor her through a program for talented young writers. Yurlady’s writing is met with instant acclaim, and she’s hastily shepherded into the spotlight—but when the attention proves too much for her, the situation begins to spiral out of Oscar’s control.

At once an honest portrait of ambition and failure and a farcical sendup of institutional exploitation, A Poet thoughtfully dissects the class and power dynamics at play in the arts world.

Synopsis

Witty, playful, and profoundly moving, The President’s Cake is a story of struggle and survival under Saddam Hussein’s sanctioned Iraq. Though the country is suffering massive food shortages, a decree is sent across the nation: the President requires a cake from every school to celebrate his birthday. Despite desperately trying not to be chosen, unlucky nine-year-old Lamia is selected for baking duty, even though she’s too poor to afford the ingredients.

Setting out on a daylong odyssey from her provincial home to a nearby town with her beloved rooster Hindi in tow, Lamia is forced to use her imagination and get creative as she attempts to whip up the obligatory confection. With a keen eye for period detail and a winning performance from newcomer Baneen Ahmed Nayyef as Lamia, The President’s Cake offers an astonishing child’s-eye view of the hardships of living in 1990s Iraq.

Synopsis

Driven to document the war in Gaza, filmmaker and Festival alum Sepideh Farsi (2014’s Red Rose) tries to enter the region. Blocked at the border, Farsi strikes up a relationship via cellphone with a bright-eyed young Palestinian photographer and poet named Fatma Hassouna, who is holed up in her bombed-out neighborhood. Through a series of intimate video conversations, by turns lighthearted and heartbreaking, Sepideh and Fatma grow closer despite the layers of screens between them, even as the conditions around Fatma become increasingly dire.

Mirroring in its construction the distance between Gaza and the rest of the world, this cleverly conceived Cannes Film Festival stunner also subtly explores potent contrasts between the two women: the Iranian filmmaker’s world travels and her long life in exile vs. Fatma’s isolation, entrapment, and dreams of escape. As weeks turn to months, the film chronicles their deepening relationship, becoming a compassionate portrait of a life under siege that celebrates the remarkable fortitude of the Palestinian people.

Synopsis

Set in modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.

Awards Event

At this screening, director HIKARI will receive the Festival’s Spotlight Award.

HIKARI is an award-winning writer, director, and producer whose debut feature, 37 Seconds, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won accolades globally. She’s directed episodes of the Emmy-winning series Beef, as well as Tokyo Vice and acclaimed shorts like Tsuyako.

Synopsis

An audacious, ambitious vision from master filmmaker Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Resurrection is a whirlwind love letter to cinema unlike any before. Set in a future where society has lost the desire to dream, a clandestine set of rebels called “Fantasmers” continue to indulge in fantasy and imagination. A curious creature, armed with a device able to extract their fading dreams, attempts to catalog these illusions. The result is a mesmerizing, maximalist masterpiece that toggles between a dizzying array of film styles and aesthetic modes—from a Méliès-inspired silent film to a slick story about playing card-toting con artists, as well as a bloodsoaked, red-filtered modern vampire romance.

To watch this layered, daring work is to experience five or six films in one. Replete with eye-popping production design, expertly choreographed long takes, and a constantly shifting rollercoaster of a narrative, Resurrection uses its sci-fi-inflected premise to ponder an art form’s past as it imagines its future.