A tragedy brings a mother closer to her youngest daughter and her late daughter’s boyfriend in Sandra Wollner’s exquisite feature debut, which took home the prestigious Un Certain Regard award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Despite some raised eyebrows, the film’s three protagonists gravitate toward each other as they make sense of the shocking event and the myriad emotions swirling among them — a shared journey that reaches an eerie peak when they visit a beloved vacation spot in the Canary Islands where past and present memories collide.
Teeming with tenderness, Everytime is a rare gem that operates on a different spiritual plane, capturing the soft rawness of a heavy heart. Its emotional core is complemented by breathtaking cinematography and the deeply moving, understated performances of its three leads. Wollner has crafted a formally impressive, delicate study of grief, like a sorceress wielding cinema’s most gentle but quietly powerful energies. This is an intricate piece of dramatic work that nevertheless feels like a warm embrace.
Best Film: Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2026; Oscars submission: Germany
Birgit Minichmayr, Lotte Shirin Keiling, Naomi Elia Richard, Tristan Lopez, Carla Hüttermann
Germany/Austria
2026
In German and Spanish with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Lixi Frank, Viktoria Stolpe, David Bohun
Screenwriter
Sandra Wollner
Cinematography
Gregory Oke
Editor
Hannes Bruun
Production Design
Julia Libiseller, Gerald Freimuth
Original Music
David Schweighart
Sandra Wollner
Born 1983 in Leoben, Austria, Sandra Wollner studied directing for documentary film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Her first feature, The Impossible Picture (2018), received the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino and German Film Critics’ Award for Best Feature Film. Her graduation film, The Trouble with Being Born (2020), had its world premiere in the Encounters section of the 70th Berlinale, where it received the Special Jury Award. It also received Austrian Film Awards for Best Director and Best Feature, and German Film Critics’ Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography. Sandra lives and works in Berlin.
Filmography: The Impossible Picture (2016); The Trouble with Being Born (2020)
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