Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Matthew Rankin
Chris says: “Winnipeg native Matthew Rankin’s second feature UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE was my favorite film of 2025. Imagining a Canada colonized by Iran, it was inventive, absurd, sidesplitting and in the end, oddly affecting. One could apply those descriptors in varying
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Starring: Ellen Dorrit Petersen | Lisa Carlehed | Lisa Loven Kongsli | Renate Reinsve | Sebastian Stan
Michael says: “This film has a lot of controversy swirling around it, and I guess I can see why, but I thought it was a fascinating look at the way people view what is right and what is wrong, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Leung Chuen Yeung
Starring: Chun Yip Lo | Kearen Pang | Suet-Ying Chung | Wai Lun Yeung | Wing-Sze Ng
Beth Cu says: “This was my favorite at TIFF. A Hong Kong city story about two people trying to do their best despite feeling like bad people, who wind up being each other’s last straw – petty get-backs lead to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Hosam Abu Dan
Starring: Feras Al Masri | Ghassan Salem | Mary Ziyara | Nawaf Abu Amra
Michael says: “Director Hosum Abu Dan makes his feature film debut (after multiple documentaries) about a father and teen-aged daughter living in a refugee camp in Gaza after losing their mother and siblings in a bombing. Shot in an actual
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sandra Wollner
Starring: Birgit Minichmayr | Lotte Shirin Keiling | Nanon Esja Mo Tara Nin Wendel | Naomi Elia Richard | Tristán López
Michael says: “EVERYTIME, German director Sandra Wollner’s follow-up to the similarly confounding THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN, explores grief — and more, grief in the digital age. It was a difficult film for me to get through… particularly the first
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Barbara Kopple
Val says: “Barbara Kopple and her team take us into the beating heart of New York City’s delivery culture, the delivery workers who staff UPS, Amazon, and the many food delivery apps that New Yorkers depend on daily. It’s a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Arthur Harari
Starring: Léa Seydoux | Lilith Grasmug | Niels Schneider | Radu Jude | Valérie Dréville
Michael says: “Arthur Harari, screenwriter for ANATOMY OF A FALL, has directed a film adapted from a graphic novel written by he and his brother Lucas, aptly called THE UNKNOWN. A science fiction tale only as a premise, the film explores
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kim Bartley
Starring: Barry Keoghan | Carla Tous | Eileen Walsh | Justin Daniels Anene | Lewis Brophy
Michael says: “Moving, optimistic portrait of a young Irish man turning after 18 after living his childhood in foster care after being separated from his younger brother and his social worker. Danny falls into a bit of trouble after hardships
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ulrike Tony Vahl
Starring: Clemens Schick | Frida-Lovisa Hamann | Jella Haase | Lukas Miko | Martin Wuttke
Val says: “Tony Vahl’s first feature is a dark, disturbing, gorgeous triumph. She explains that when she was young, her grandmother told her about people from villages around East Germany that ‘went into the water’ right as Germany was about
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Bertil Nilsson
Starring: Ed White | Joshua Griffin | Lincoln Conway | Reece King | Tega Alexander
Michael says: “Boldy, experimental narrative about a queer, neurodivergent young man’s experiences moving through life. The film is broken up into segments, where Robin tries different roles in life to see how he can fit in as a man. The
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