Tuscany, the 1980s. Englishman Arthur (Josh O’Connor), recently released from prison, is drawn back towards the hometown of his former lover Beniamina. Beniamina is nowhere to be found - perhaps she’s even dead - but Arthur does manage to reconnect with the rest of her family. Adrift and living in a shack, Arthur makes a living through his almost supernatural sense for discovering long-lost Etruscan artefacts. He falls in with a group of grave-robbers and embarks on a series of increasingly risky thefts.

The new film from Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) is a fresh, engrossing adventure film that’s simultaneously gritty and magical; sad and romantic; satisfying and unpredictable. It is simply a film to lose yourself in for two wonderful hours.

Cannes Film Festival, 2023

Dublin International Film Festival, 2024

Telluride Film Festival, 2023 - Silver Medallion Award (Alice Rohrwacher)

“★★★★★ Alice Rohrwacher’s new film is a beguiling fantasy-comedy of lost love: garrulous, uproarious and celebratory” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Arthur [is] wonderfully played by O’Connor with a loping gait and a muttering command of Italian” - Guy Lodge, Variety

Burlington, Ontario, 2003. Socially inept 17-year old cinephile Lawrence Kweller dreams of attending film school in New York City. To contribute to the hefty tuition fee, he gets his dream job at a video store. Wracked with anxiety about his future, Lawrence begins alienating the most important people in his life – his best friend Matt and his single mother Terri – all while developing a complicated friendship with his older female manager, Alana. As graduation looms ever closer, it becomes increasingly clear that Lawrence’s movie obsession (and his inability to tolerate anyone) is a way of burying a world of hurt and avoiding any real connection.

This warm, funny coming-of-age debut feature is based on director Chandler Levack’s own formative experiences.

Glasgow Film Festival 2023

Toronto International Film Festival 2022

-

‘Lehtinen delivers a wonderful performance as a kid who is simultaneously perfectly sure of himself and sure of nothing. He has to walk the tightrope between lovable and cringeworthy, and that isn’t an easy thing to do.’’ - Andy Howell, Film Threat

‘‘★★★★ There remains a warmth and goofiness in Lehtinen’s performance that harks back to Napoleon Dynamite as much as it recalls such similarly themed bro pics as High Fidelity and Clerks. It’s enough to restore one’s faith in the near-extinct subgenre once known as the teen comedy.’’- Tara Brady, The Irish Times

‘’Making her feature debut, writer-director Chandler Levack has pulled off a rare trick here by making a movie that feels warm and safe without coddling its protagonist. A film that is small but not slight, sweet but not cloying, and the kind of thing that can make even a cynical critic like movies again.’’ - Katie Rife, indieWire

 

Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a newly appointed, very dedicated high school teacher. When one of her students is accused of theft, Carla decides to take the matter into her own hands, setting a trap for the ‘real’ thief. But her actions back fire and things begin to spiral out of control, pushing Carla to her limits. Forced to face the consequences of her own actions, her relationship with her students and colleagues begin to disintegrate.

İlker Çatak misses nothing in his brilliantly observed drama. In his unsparing film, the school becomes a proxy for the cultural and ethical clashes of modern-day society, a microcosm in which the outside world no longer exists and nothing remains private. 

Berlin International Film Festival 2023

Toronto International Film Festival 2023

Dublin International Film Festival 2024

Winner – Europa Cinemas Label, Ilker Çatak: Berlin International Film Festival 2023

Winner - Best Screenplay, Ilker Çatak: Dublin International Film Festival 2024

“The Teachers’ Lounge flows very well, and the story is quite effective, leaving viewers intrigued, engaged, and as eager as its protagonist to find the truth and answers to what is happening at the school.’’- Hanna B, Film Threat,

‘’ It’s an exemplary film that strikes an emotional and thoughtful chord.”
- Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

‘’The Teachers’ Lounge starts to feel like a high-stakes thriller, with no need to teach a lesson beyond the limits of do-gooder idealism. The deliciously twisted turns are enough to keep viewers riveted.’’

-Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

 

Set in the late 90s, Ellen and her new husband Van decide to take Ellen’s older sister Inger on a bus trip to Paris where Inger once lived. Inger is schizophrenic, and lives in a care home coddled by her overprotective mother. Ellen sees their holiday as an opportunity to reconnect, and to find out if Inger might be able to live more independently. Inger herself has a hidden agenda for the trip – hoping to track down a lost love.

Rose is based on director Niels Arden Oplev’s own family history and is full of feeling. Sofie Gråbøl’s performance is the film’s highlight. She inhabits Inger, bringing her to life and presenting all her complications, impulses and anxiety with grace.

-

-

“Gråbøl is superb throughout, recognising Inger as a complicated individual who has a lot more going on than just her illness.’’ - Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film

“The writer-director, Niels Arden Oplev, based the film in part on his own experiences, and the movie keenly illustrates how stigma surrounding mental illness hurts neurodivergent people and their families.” - Natalia Winkelman, The New York Times

“Carried by a brilliant lead performance from Sofie Gråbøl, it’s a fine depiction of mental health and a heartening espousal of our shared humanity.” - Louis Roberts, The Independent

China 2008. Following his release from prison, Lang returns to his hometown on the edge of the Gobi desert. The now desolate city is overrun with stray dogs, and Lang enlists in the team rounding them up as part of a pre-Beijing Olympics clean-up. When Lang captures the suspected rabid Black Dog, an expected bond forms between man and dog.

Director Guan Hu, better known for recent blockbuster The Eight Hundred, delivers a more delicate work with Black Dog. Drawing on elements of Western, film noir and comedy, and shooting in widescreen, Hu’s unlikely tale of redemption is unique, intimate, yet cinematic. But it’s actor Peng’s and faithful companion Xin’s winning performances that make this 2024’s must-see crowd pleaser.

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Sydney Film Festival 2024

New Zealand International Film Festival 2024

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024

Winner - Un Certain Regard Prize, Cannes Film Festival 2024

“A warm-hearted crowd pleaser about an ex-convict and the canine he befriends …”

- Screen International, Cannes Film Festival 2024

“… a delicate balance between drama and deadpan comedy …”

- Variety, Cannes Film Festival 2024

 

There, Cléo discovers not only a different culture but that Gloria has her own family and that the world - especially Gloria’s world - does not revolve around Cléo. It’s a harsh lesson and one that both of them have to face as the consequences of their changed dynamic plays out.

Enriched by charming animated sequences and a deeply moving performance by 6-year-old Louise Mauroy-Panzani, Ama Gloria is a tender, vibrant drama.

Sundance Film Festival 2024

BFI London Film Festival 2023

Cannes Film Festival 2023

Awards

-

“The considerable power of Ama Gloria lies not in its take on colonial conscience, nor even in its insights into the complex economical and emotional dynamics of the child-nanny bond. It is in its unmatched portrait of one brave little heart..’’

- Jessica Kiang, Variety

“It is a small film, but one whose subtle touch and generous spirit proves captivating.” – Allan Hunter, Screen International

“The love story at the center of Àma Gloria feels more tragic than any tale of romance.” – Jose Solís, The Film Stage

 

Sophie (Magalie Lépine Blondea), a 40-year-old philosophy professor, has been living with her partner Xavier for ten years. Their relationship is intellectually stimulating and stable, if somewhat passionless. However, when Sophie meets rugged carpenter Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) - the strapping working-class contractor renovating their country house - an intense physical chemistry erupts between the two. It fuels a passionate affair and leads Sophie to question her life choices and her prior assumptions.

French-Canadian director Monia Chokri’s exuberant romantic comedy is sexy, perceptive. It’s packed with laughs, as well as some razor-sharp truths about desire and co-dependency. Dissecting one woman’s mid-life crisis, the chasm between classes and the notion that opposites attract, The Nature of Love is infused with spiky energy and fresh perspectives.

Cannes Film Festival 2023

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023

BFI London Film Festival

-

‘There’s much to recommend the film, but the writing, in particular is first-rate: it establishes a rattling screwball-style dialogue pace early on, and combines cynical smarts and deceptively light handling of some undeniably mature themes…’’ -Wendy Ide, Screen International

‘‘Monia Chokri‘s brilliant feature is one of the sharpest cinematic examinations of the paradoxical expectations we place on our relationships in the 21st century.’’ - Christian Zilko, indieWire

‘The Nature of Love engages with the stylings and bubbly tonality of the classic rom-com in ironic fashion, along the way exploring complex aspects of human behaviour.’’ - Wes Greene, Slant Magazine

Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Dogman) directs this humanistic portrait of the migrant experience. In portraying the two boys’ dangerous journey in such detail, he asks the audience to directly confront a reality all too often relegated to impersonal headlines and political rhetoric. This is a film of deep compassion, capturing the tragedy, turmoil and overriding sense of hope so many migrants experience.

Venice International Film Festival, 2023

Dublin International Film Festival, 2024

Venice International Film Festival, 2023:

Silver Lion for Best Director (Matteo Garrone)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Actor / Actress (Seydou Sarr)

“An adventure peppered by moments of nauseating horror but also ravishing beauty and grace” - Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

“The world could do with paying attention to Seydou’s story and the millions of other real ones like it” - Leila Latif, Indiewire

In a Georgian backwater, retired teacher Lia turns up on the doorstep of her neighbour: affable, aimless Achi. She’s trying to find her niece Tekla, a twenty-something trans woman who was regretfully banished years before. Achi claims he knows where she is: in Istanbul. With a half-baked plan and very little money, their search for Tekla sparks some soul-searching within them both, while their journey attracts both suspicion and generosity.

From acclaimed director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), Crossing is a moving and tender tale of identity, acceptance and unlikely connection that transcends borders and generations. Humanistic and compassionate, Akin’s third feature is a heartfelt portrayal of overcoming the degrees of separation that divide us. 

Berlin International Film Festival 2024

Tribeca Film Festival 2023

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2024

Winner - Teddy Jury Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2024

“Dumanli, making her screen feature debut here, is a pure joy to watch, enveloping the movie in a sense of warm coziness and safety as, just being in her presence, you feel like everything will somehow work out.” - Ryan Lattanzio, indieWire

“★★★★1/2 - Following on from Blackbird, Blackbird, Blackberry, Crossing gifts us the second essential Georgian screen heroine of 2024.” - Tara Brady, The Irish Times

“★★★★ A thoroughly intelligent, emotionally engaging and robustly performed movie from Levan Akin, the Georgian-Swedish director who had an international breakthrough four years ago with the love story And Then We Danced.” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Sergio Juarez (Eugenio Derbez, who also starred in Oscar winner CODA) is the new teacher at a poor school in a Mexican border town. Ravaged by negligence, corruption and violence, neither the town nor the school offer many options for the lost youth. Frustrated by a general sense of apathy, Sergio turns to drastic methods to gain the students’ interest and help them realise their potential. However, he soon finds out that he’ll have to overcome obstacles he never saw coming.

Based on the story of real-life teacher Sergio Juárez Correa, Radical is an uplifting film about fighting the status quo. Featuring a wonderful central performance from Derbez, the film won the audience Festival Favourite Award at Sundance.

Sundance Film Festival 2023

Glasgow Film Festival 2024

Festival Favourite Award – Sundance Film Festival 2023

‘Boosted by some lovely performances from its young actors, writer-director Christopher Zalla’s sometimes-creaky feel-good film is most affecting when it explores how some children can have their future taken away only too soon.’’ - Tim Grierson, Screen International

‘‘Radical isn’t so much an irresponsibly magical against-the-odds yarn as a truthful one, in which a well-intentioned outsider can only go so far in protecting underprivileged students from certain grim paths.’’ - Tomris Laffly, Variety

‘The strength of the story rests firmly in Derbez's sensitive portrayal and his touching moments with each student, proving that Sergio does know how to spark a genuine excitement for education by tapping into a child's personal interests.’’ -Tatiana Hullender, Screen Rant

Iceland, early 2020. Widower Kristófer’s memory has started failing, and he decides now is his last chance to track down his estranged first love. Through flashbacks, we learn Kristófer worked in a Japanese restaurant while he was a student in 1960s London. There, he met and fell in love with the owner’s daughter, Miko. Now, despite his own daughter’s pleas and looming travel lockdowns, Kristófer flies to London to find Miko - more than 50 years after she abruptly left without a goodbye.

Baltasar Kormákur’s deeply moving film is based on the novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, who also co-wrote the screenplay. This is a rich study of love and grief that’s both heartbreaking and achingly romantic.

Sydney Film Festival, 2024

n/a

“★★★★★ Touch is an uncommonly poignant drama that balances rich sentimentality with more harrowing themes. Only cynics will resist a swoon or three.” - Hilary White, Irish Independent

“A uniquely powerful, humane film about people rebounding from the rubble of devastating losses, choosing courage and love to overcome grief.” - Courtney Howard, Variety

“Much of the film’s beauty lies in the wholesomeness of Kristofer as a character. Even as a dying man whose life didn’t go according to plan, he’s driven not by bitterness or regret, but a simple desire to find the woman he never stopped loving.” - Christian Zilko, Indiewire

108 mins, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden 2023 Cert:TBC

Director: Marija Kavtaradze

Language: Lithuanian / English

Cast: Greta Grineviciute, Kestutis Cicenas, Pijus Ganusauskas

Divine G (Colman Domingo), an inmate at Sing Sing prison, runs a theatre group as part of a Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. Incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, Divine and his fellow RTA members escape the reality of prison life by putting on plays. When a wary outsider (John “Divine G” Whitfield) joins the group, the men decide to stage their first original comedy,

A stirring story of humanity, redemption, friendship, the power of art and the importance of community, Sing Sing stars an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors. The film beautifully weaves together the true-life story of friendship between the troupe and the transformative process devising a new play brings to them.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024

Toronto International Film festival 2023

-

“Domingo's transcendent performance may be the center, but it's the world that flowers all around him that makes Sing Sing feel so special.’’ - Katey Rich, Vanity Fair

“Domingo brings the storm and the heart; the performance won’t overshadow Rustin this awards season, but it’s another sign that the time has come for this deep and soulful actor to get some real attention’’. - Steve Pond, The Wrap

‘’Bryce Dessner’s score and Domingo’s deeply felt work help anchor Sing Sing as a lyrical depiction of a unique way of life.’’ -Shirley Li, The Atlantic