Blood Lines

Winner of the Caméra d’Or and Director’s Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes, Hasan Hadi’s fable-like drama set in 1990s Iraq follows an impoverished child's quest into the city to scrounge up ingredients for birthday cake for Saddam Hussein.

This bracing political drama tells the story of female sweatshop workers in Myanmar and their courageous struggle for justice. It’s a dark, unflinching work, in which the depiction of oppression is meant to spark outrage and action.

A harried mother (Rose Byrne) clings to an unhelpful therapist (Conan O’Brien) as she struggles to cope with her daughter's mysterious illness in Mary Bronstein’s darkly comedic psychological drama.

Azucena seeks to reconnect with her 18-year-old son, Julio, whom she abandoned at an orphanage after giving birth to him at age 13. The pull is undeniable as the two find their way back into each other's lives, but unresolved issues loom.

Set in the Chilean desert, this 80s drama centers on a commune of queer outcasts, including 11-year-old Lidia and her mother. When her mom's abusive ex-lover reappears in their lives with tragic consequences, the group decides to fight back.

When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.

A nurse finds herself pushed to the brink as she attempts to maintain order over one high-pressure night in a Swiss hospital’s surgical ward. Petra Volpe’s drama unfolds at an exhilarating pace and instils a deep sense of admiration for its heroine.

Sina, Jasna, and Mihrije are three best friends navigating the challenges of young adulthood in contemporary Ljubljana. Their world is blown wide open when they meet Fantasy, a mysterious trans woman with much feminine wisdom.

This gritty, Bronx-set romance follows two teenagers in love, an unplanned pregnancy, and the poverty that encumbers them. And yet, this is a vivacious, heartwarming work — funny without being frivolous and tender without being sentimental.

In Lucile Hadžihalilović’s spellbinding fantasy drama, an orphan (Clara Pacini) becomes enthralled by a movie star (Marion Cotillard) playing the Snow Queen in a fairy tale film adaptation. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

When 13-year-old Karolina is chosen to be part of the main lineup of an acclaimed children’s choir, it draws unwanted attention. Broken Voices is a gutting account of a grave abuse of power based on a real-life story.

In the Bolivian Andes, a teen raised by a midwife longs to trade ancestral birth songs for a spotlight in the city. Álvaro Olmos Torrico’s The Condor Daughter is a lyrical, tender story of inheritance, ambition, and the power to choose your own path.

A young girl’s gift for communicating with animals makes her a considerable asset to her guardians, who traverse the Argentinian countryside providing assistance to pet-owners in need. But as their travels roll on, the child gets restless.

Can love prevail when the world is falling apart? Adam is overwhelmed with climate despair until he falls in love with a customer service operator over the phone. Jagging from melancholia to slapstick, this quirky Canadian rom-com shoots for the moon.

Two middle-aged drunkards drive across the Veneto region on a freewheeling bender, taking a young college student along for the ride. A celebration of the spirit of drink and the kinds of stories told around a table of old friends and too much wine.

Thirty-something professor Ali leads an apparently stable life. But when his ailing mother dies under ambiguous circumstances, he starts to unravel, resulting in an act that shatters our understanding of his person.

Danzuka Yuiga’s poetic film tells the story of a fractured family in contemporary Tokyo. The city’s concrete overpasses, bright lights, and sterile architecture are central figures in a landscape that embodies its characters’ estrangement.

Fifty years after being separated during the Sixties Scoop, four Cree siblings reunite for the first time on a long weekend trip to Banff. Tasha Hubbard’s sensitive drama relates an emotional and life-affirming story of kinship and belonging.

In this emotional second feature from filmmaker Gail Maurice (Rosie, VIFF 2022), a proud lesbian Métis journalist struggles to reconcile with her estranged mother, while a new entanglement with a captivating stranger threatens to upheave their lives.

A lovely, ruminative movie set in the Pacific Northwest during the first half of the last century. Robert (Joel Edgerton) plays a Robert Grenier, a taciturn lumberjack who comes to appreciate the life slipping between his fingers.

When a burned Quran is found on the set of a film, tensions rise between the filmmaker and the refugees recruited as extras for the shoot. As the conflict escalates, a young assistant finds herself drawn into a widening web of paranoia and conspiracy.

An aspiring fashion designer’s dreams are put to the test when she lands a spot on a new competition reality show. An irreverent and heartwarming indie comedy that explores culture and identity in the world of reality TV.

This razor-sharp drama mixes three characters, a secret from their past, and one small apartment into an explosive concoction. Tape is provocative in its #MeToo politics and stirs the heart with its depiction of personal pain.

Cheng-Chui Kuo’s drama is a lively, bittersweet ode to love and friendship. Following four friends through a night of drinking, reminiscence, and revelation, the film explores love and its discontents while paying tribute to Taipei.

Wistful in tone and graceful in its direction, Zhuo Bian’s film stars Li Zhenping as Xie Shuwen, an elderly widower trying to find a measure of peace in his final years. While not without its sad moments, this is undoubtedly a life-affirming work.

This haunting, meditative drama refracts global anxieties through the story of a white-collar worker and the pregnancy she's concealing from her macho husband. Deeply conflicted about her pregnancy, a twist of fate exposes the truth…

Blending sci-fi and family drama, My Father's Son takes us through the past, present, and future of a computer engineer. As a child, Qiao is bullied by his father; in the present, his father is laid to rest; and in the future, he’s resurrected via AI.

Keiko Tsuruoka’s film tells the story of an actor returning home to confess a sad secret. Filling the roles of writer, director, cinematographer, and editor, she has created a graceful work about the small moments that make up so much of our lives.

Ryan (Peter Dreimanis) and Andie (Leah Fay Goldstein) meet in the aftermath of a car crash, forging a friendship that slowly cruises towards something deeper. The film succeeds both as a breezy romance and a poignant reflection on commitment and freedom.

In Tehran, Seti dreams of singing freely in the streets. Bidad, directed by Soheil, is a raw, urgent portrait of resistance, courage, and hope. A must-see film about one woman’s voice echoing a generation’s fight for freedom.

Ash Mayfair’s romance gives us San (Trân Quân), a trans woman saving up for gender affirmation surgery, and Nam (Võ Diên Gia Huy), her macho lover. They fight for their freedom and dignity against a society in which the odds are stacked against them.

This charming film presents a core sample from the life of a NYC location scout: leafletting, awkward interviews, and traffic trouble galore... The social interactions, which range from cozy to creepy, are portrayed with a casual, ingratiating naturalism.

When the identity of her sperm donor is revealed, a curiosity-driven journalist seeks him out under the false pretext of interviewing him about his company. What begins as a calculated encounter gradually deepens into a genuine connection.

Inhabiting the back alleys and dangerous streets of New York City, this gripping, deeply humane film stars Chang Chen as Lu, a delivery driver in a race against time to raise money for his family.

Radu Jude's Silver Bear winner is an anguished drama of conscience about a bailiff traumatized by an eviction that ends in tragedy. What more could she, or should she, have done?