KVIFF 2026: “Tycoon,” “Five Years, Four Months,” “Against Nature”

This year marks my first time attending the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and I’ve been amazed not only by the beauty of the Czech spa town where it takes place, but the diversity of its programming, which has been exciting to experience whether I’ve gelled with a film or not. The three films reviewed […]

KVIFF 2026: “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) has just settled into her room in a sleepy hotel in a rural town, bordering a forest that’s blanketed with snow. If that remote environment sounds rather too quaint for a seemingly savvy young person, know that this trip isn’t purely for pleasure. At 29 years old, Kris is a Sundance wunderkind […]

KVIFF 2026: “Black Money for White Nights”

The White Nights are a natural phenomenon like no other. For a brief period over the summer, the sun barely dips below the horizon in high latitude areas, meaning that daylight sticks around for a full 24 hours. It’s a sight that Marina (Tanya Shahova) has yearned to witness for the last 30 years. Sixty […]

KVIFF 2026: “Chica Checa”

Zdena (Pavla Tomicová) works as a mail carrier in the small Czech town where she’s lived all her life. She promised her husband before he passed away that she’d be able to take care of their house on her own, but she’s managing that about as well as her life. The building is in desperate […]

KVIFF 2026: “The Match”

Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco’s documentary The Match couldn’t feel more timely. Following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the absorbing and detailed account of the now-legendary match between Argentina and England at the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals screens as the opening night film at the Karlovy Vary International Film […]

Annecy 2026: “Julián,” “We Are Aliens”

An affirming tale of self-acceptance and identity told with vibrancy and tenderness, director Louise Bagnell’s Julián— premiering in competition at the 2026 Annecy Film Festival— finds its title character and beating heart in a young Afro-Latino boy (voiced by Knyght Darius Jack) journeying with his father (Anthony Sardinha) to spend the summer with the grandmother […]

Cannes 2026: “The Station”

The Station, Yemeni-Scottish director Sara Ishaq’s thoughtful and humanity-filled fictional feature debut premiering in Critics’ Week at Cannes, begins with title cards that utilize the language of storytelling to set the framework for its world: “Once a land known for its abundance and powerful queens, Yemen was a bustling gateway between civilizations… But wars fueled […]

Cannes 2026: “Blaise,” “Flesh and Fuel”

The Cannes Film Festival annually overflows with an embarrassment of riches, but while many eyes turn to cinema’s most prestigious event (celebrating its 79th edition in the south of France this year) for its high profile premieres– ranging from the newest works from some of the most acclaimed auteurs working to much anticipated blockbusters– its […]

Cannes 2026: “Shana”

Shana (Eva Huault) has nothing going for her. Her toxic lover is in prison. She works a dead-end food service job, to the ridicule of her bougie family, who she shares a, at best, fraught relationship with due to past strife. Her grandmother just died, but she left her a ring, a striking gold bird-shaped […]

True/False 2026: “Barbara Forever,” “Broken English,” “True North”

Unconventional biographic documentaries and sharp use of archival footage are the hallmarks of the following three films that screened at the 2026 True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri: Barbara Forever uses the personal archives of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer to tell the story of her life and career; Broken English depicts a fictionalized archive […]