Tag: top-stories
Interview: Scandar Copti – A Childhood (Work in Progress)
Known for blurring the boundaries between fiction and documentary, Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti crafts work that moves fluidly between lived reality and constructed narrative....
2026 César Awards: Carine Tardieu’s ‘The Ties That Binds Us’ Lands Best Film
It was a rare Thursday night ceremony for the 51st César Awards ceremony and Carine Tardieu's L'Attachement aka The Ties That Binds Us (which...
What Does that Nature Say to You | Review
The Parent Trap: Sang-soo Takes Sideways Swipe at Social Etiquette
A constant purveyor of how subtle social cues are obliterated by the lowered inhibitions of...
2026 Berlin International Film Festival – Checklist of Our Coverage
IONCINEMA.com’s Chief Film Critic Nicholas Bell reviewed the entire competition and more. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the feature film reviews from...
Dreams | Review
Magnificent Obsession: Franco Finds Love is a Hopeless Place
Michel Franco lassos Jessica Chastain into his continued class conflict examinations in Dreams, an intimate portrait...
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Free Bird: Fitch & White Unveil Inventive, Personal Homage
Watching something like Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird) reifies the exceptional and unique nature of...
Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Celestial Orgy: Haroun Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts
Nestled deep down inside the core of Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars is a compelling narrative...
A New Dawn | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Grave of the Fireworks: Shinomiya Finds All the Colors in the Dark
For his debut film, A New Dawn, animator Yoshitoshi Shinomiya marries bureaucratic takeovers,...
Lali | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Ghosts of Past & Present: Sultan Khoosat Hones His Visual Flair But Latest Devolves Into Silliness
A universal thematic thread of the past haunting its...
Roya | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
I Confess: Mohammadi's Myriad of Memory Celebrates Women of Iran Who Don't Stand Idly By
While we understand imprisonment as punishment par excellence, what Iranian...
2026 Berlinale: İlker Çatak’s ‘Yellow Letters’ Wins the Golden Bear!
As we predicted, Yellow Letters was a formidable film in the competition of twenty-two films. Here are the winners!
Golden Bear: Yellow Letters
Silver Bear Grand...
We Are All Strangers | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Strategy of Tragedy: Chen Overdoses on Drama in Sprawling Family Portrait
The most succinct aspect of Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s latest feature, We Are All...
No Salgas (Don’t Come Out) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
It Doesn’t Follow: Linares Villegas’ Queer Horror Forgets the Fright Factor
Horror has long been a safe space to explore queer stories; from cult classics...
The Loneliest Man in Town | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Perfect Blue: Covi & Frimmel Marinate in Memories
“Everything changing all the time. Even the air you breathing change,” notes a character in August Wilson’s...
17 | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
This Makes Two of Us: Mitić Explores Binding Connection of Trauma & Silence
Adolescence is once again cinematically explored as a breaking point between innocence...
Home Stories | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Unbearable Likeness of Being: Trobisch Mines Banality in Family Drama
Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way…and sometimes those unhappy ways are...
Light Pillar | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Capitalism & The Cosmos: Jinwei Ambitiously Explores China’s Future with a Stark Warning For Its Present
Long have Chinese filmmakers used the medium of film...
Flies (Moscas) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
All the Small Things: Eimbcke Explores the Pleasures of Disruption
The titular insects of Fernando Eimbcke’s latest feature, Flies (Moscas), metaphorically represent an unwanted, aggravating...
Wolfram | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Torn Birds: Thornton Returns to Brutality of the Australian Frontier
The sovereignty of Australia was never officially ceded by its First Nations peoples, succinctly...
My Wife Cries | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Where Did Our Love Go?: Schanalec Deconstructs the Break-Up Drama
True to form, or rather, anti-form, Angela Schanelec’s latest exercise, My Wife Cries (Meine Frau...
Queen at Sea | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
(Get) Away From Her: Hammer Returns with Elder Ethical Dilemma
It’s been nearly twenty years since Lance Hammer’s 2008 debut Ballast announced a major new...
Trial of Hein (Der Heimatlose) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Far From Home: Stänicke’s Direction Leaves the Audience Marooned
How does one define their own home? Is it the place we were born? The place...
The Blood Countess | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
There Will (Not) Be Blood: Ottinger Returns with Anemic Vampire Comedy
New German Wave legend Ulrike Ottinger returns with her long gestating project The Blood...
Truly Naked | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Father Knows Best: Intimacy Cuts Deepest in d’Ansembourg’s Debut
“When porn has become the norm, intimacy is the new taboo,” reads an early tagline for...
Nina Roza | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Father Figure, Mother Tongue: Dulude-De Celles Curates Reconciliation
It turns out you can go home again…but don’t expect not to confront psychic wounds left untended,...
At the Sea | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Days of Wine and Poses: Mundruczo Dances Around the Trauma
Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó aims to repeat the critical acclaim following his Academy Award nominated...
Dust | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Corporate Cannibals: Blondé Underwhelms with Ethical Reckoning
There’s an interesting idea behind Dust, which finds two Belgian entrepreneurs essentially navigating their last two days of...
Rose | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Self-Made Man: Schleinzer Explores the Privilege of Pants
If there’s a trough line (beyond the eponymous titles) of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s films, it’s...
Salvation | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hysterical Intervention: Alper Gets Overwrought Exploring Tribalism
The land dispute at the center of Emin Alper’s latest film Salvation has all the trademarks of a...
Rosebush Pruning | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Killing of a Sacred Dogtooth: Ainouz Paints with Contempt
Karim Aïnouz doesn’t so much eat the rich as he does regurgitate them in his...
2026 Qumra Masters: Alice Diop, Faouzi Bensaïdi, Ambulante’s Gael García Bernal + Diego Luna & Gustavo Santaolalla
Every edition, the Doha Film Institute lands some bold global filmmaker folk to offer mentorship and masterclasses for the next generation of filmmakers and...
Nightborn | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Only Mothers Left Alive: Bergholm Tackles Motherhood Malaise
Finnish director Hanna Bergholm adds to the subgenre of motherhood body horror with Nightborn (Yön Lapsi), an arguably...
Dao | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Family Rituals: Gomis Goes For Broke in Sprawling Epic
With his first narrative feature in nearly a decade, French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis formulates a complex...
Everybody Digs Bill Evans | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Jazzman’s Blues: Gee Strikes the Right Chords in Tender DocudramaE
British filmmaker Grant Gee, heretofore best known as a documentarian of various musical artists,...
Yellow Letters | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
How to Beat the High Cost of Fascism: Çatak Flounders in Blaring Treatise
Following his Academy Award nominated The Teacher’s Lounge (2023), Turkish-German director Ilker...
In a Whisper | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Death in the Family: Bouzid Explores the Tolls of Open Secrets
What’s most expertly encapsulated in Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid’s third feature In a...
I Understand Your Displeasure | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
In the Realm of Defenses: Friedrich Examines Turmoils of the Working Class
Even in the democratic and social federal state of contemporary Germany, all is...
Iván & Hadoum | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love Audit: de la Rosa Defies the Odds with Star-Crossed Lovers
Much like the shifting ideals and hard won identities defining the protagonists of Ian...
You BETcha!: ‘Yellow Letters’, ‘Rose’ & ‘Queen at Sea’ are the Golden Bear Frontrunners
YouBETcha! is back, this time for our Berlinale edition, where we guess the odds of the films most likely to pick up the converted...
No Good Men | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Up Close & Personal: Sadat Subverts the Spotlight in Stellar Melodrama
In her third directorial feature, No Good Men, which is part of a five...
Exclusive Clip: Disappearing Behind the Scenes in Marcelo Martinessi’s ‘Narciso’ – 2026 Berlinale
After competing for the Golden Bear back in 2018 with The Heiresses (read review), Paraguayan filmmaker Marcelo Martinessi returns to the Berlinale with the...
Interview: Akinola Davies Jr. – My Father’s Shadow
Before he began his maiden voyage into Cannes (being selected for the Un Certain Regard section and winning a Special Mention for the Caméra...
How to Divorce During the War | 2026 Sundance Film Festival Review
Invisible Missiles: Blaževičius Offers Chilly Portrayal of a Couple & Country in Crisis
Given its title, Andrius Blaževičius’ third outing, How to Divorce During the...
Exclusive Clip: The Harvest of a Relationship in Ian de la Rosa’s ‘Iván & Hadoum’ – 2026 Berlinale
Spanish filmmaker Ian de la Rosa makes his big entry onto the film festival circuit with Iván & Hadoum - a TorinoFilmLab workshopped project...
Interview: Hasan Hidi – The President’s Cake
Earlier this year, first-time filmmaker Hasan Hadi arrived in Cannes, conquered the Croisette landing the coveted Caméra d'Or prize and the newly minted Directors'...
Interview: Óliver Laxe – Sirāt
In his debut You Are All Captains (2010), Óliver Laxe blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction, probing questions of authorship and control, with...
Interview: Óliver Laxe – Sirāt (2025 Marrakech International Film Festival)
Óliver Laxe has been on a whirlwind promotional tour for his fourth feature ever since it premiered to thunderous critical acclaim at the Cannes...
Sirat | Review
A Bridge Too Far: Laxe Enters the Zone
“The Zone wants to be respected. Otherwise it will punish.” Aleksandr Kayadonvsky’s line from Tarkovsky’s existential sci-fi...
Pillion | Review
Sit & Deliver: Lighton Assumes Positions in Titillating Debut
There’s a melancholic seductiveness to Pillion, the directorial debut of Harry Lighton, based on the 2020...
Interview: Andy & Carolyn London – 1981 (Short Film) 2026 Sundance Film Festival
Set against the awkwardness of early adolescence, 8 minuter 1981 plunges the viewer into a moment when curiosity, fear, and desire collide without warning....
