Berlinale 2026: “Papaya,” “Chimney Town: Frozen in Time,” “The River Train”

Journeys of self-discovery are always ripe material for children’s fare (and can be enjoyed by adults who feel similarly lost and confused). The following three films that premiered at this year’s Berlinale— the animated Papaya and Chimney Town: Frozen in Time from the youth-geared Generation sidebar and the impressive debut The River Train from the […]

Berlinale 2026: “Yellow Letters”

At the start of Yellow Letters, Ilker Çatak’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated drama The Teacher’s Lounge, celebrated Turkish actress Derya (Özgü Namal) is taking her bows to thunderous applause, having just completed the opening night performance of a new play penned by her playwright husband Aziz (Tansu Biçer), who waits for her in the wings. […]

Berlinale 2026: “Nina Roza”

It’s been 30 years since Mihail (Galin Stoev) left his home country of Bulgaria behind for Canada, emigrating with his young daughter Roza following the loss of his wife. Now, he’s a Montreal-based art consultant, his validation of new talents prized by curators and collectors. He’s wholly left his Bulgarian roots behind; when the now-adult […]

Berlinale 2026: “Paradise,” “Narciso,” “A Russian Winter”

The Berlinale‘s Panorama sidebar is typically home to the festival’s most daring works in contemporary international cinema, spotlighting both debut filmmakers and established directors. The following films making their world premieres in this year’s Panorama section run the gamut from lyrical character studies to historical dramas to documentaries about global conflicts in the news right […]

Berlinale 2026: “I Understand Your Displeasure”

Do you ever think about who tidies your workplace? Who scrubs the toilets? Who takes out the trash? Most people don’t. It’s a thankless business, but also an extraordinarily cutthroat one, at least as evidenced by director Kilian Armando Friedrich’s debut feature, I Understand Your Displeasure. Heike (Sabine Thalau) is the customer service manager of […]

Berlinale Dispatch: “Matt and Mara,” “Janet Planet,” “La Cocina”

For this batch of capsule reviews from the 74th Berlinale, I’m covering two relationship comedies (Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara and Annie Baker’s Janet Planet) and Alonso Ruizpalacios’ epic about the American dream as contained within a busy Manhattan kitchen, La Cocina. Read my reviews of those films below. LA COCINA The American dream is […]

Berlinale Review: “A Traveler’s Needs”

Travel is a funny thing: the sense of displacement rubbing up against the excitement of being in a new place and meeting new people. As a frequent rover, it’s something that I experience a lot: existing in constant limbo, feeling alive while feeling like I can’t have a life at all. Perhaps those thoughts are […]

Berlinale Dispatch: “Dahomey,” “My Stolen Planet,” “Hands in the Fire”

For this dispatch from the 74th Berlinale, I’m looking at three films (coincidentally all directed by women) that merge history and filmmaking. Mati Diop’s magnificent Dahomey and Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi’s My Stolen Planet both operate in the nonfiction sphere, while Portuguese director Margarida Gil’s Hands in the Fire is a loose adaptation of Henry […]

Berlinale Dispatch: “My Favourite Cake,” “All the Long Nights,” “Abiding Nowhere”

For this batch of capsule reviews of films that premiered at the 74th Berlinale, I’m looking at three films that, in a sense, deal with loneliness, in addition to possessing an innate sense of space. Otherwise, the variety of themes and tones they offer is vast, stemming from Iran, Japan, and Taiwan. MY FAVOURITE CAKE […]

Berlinale Review: “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”

If you know movies, you probably know Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger— if not by name, than by the indelible images they created in their films. The infinite staircase connecting earth with the afterlife in A Matter of Life and Death; the vibrant reds in the ballet at the center of The Red Shoes; the […]