Heysel 85

Xu Zao’s mellow, melancholy film follows a bottom-tier employee at a decaying film studio as he gets pulled into an online obsession. Mixing animation with live action, this is a whimsical satire and a lament for the pre-digital world.

In Sweet Milk Lake, a trans man is mistaken for his cisgender twin in a darkly comic thriller about deception, gender, and dangerous wish fulfilment.

Winner of this year’s prestigious Un Certain Regard award at Cannes, Sandra Wollner’s exquisite debut is a tender drama in which a mother is drawn closer to her youngest daughter and her late daughter’s boyfriend as they make sense of a shared tragedy.

Image: © The Barricades Panama Film, Gregory Oke

Anthony Chen tells the soulful story of a father and son in contemporary Singapore, each of whom gets married for very different reasons. This is a film about the human cost of poverty — poignant, relatable, and profound.

In Alaska follows Woody, an Inuk teen whose bullet pierces the Trans-Alaska Pipeline during a failed suicide attempt. Fleeing to Nunavut, he finds community and reconnects with the land and his Inuit roots, discovering what it means to be alive.

In a remote Nepalese village, Pirati takes charge in the search for a missing girl belonging to her family of third-gender Kinnar women. A densely atmospheric thriller and a moving portrait of an embattled but resilient community.

This gentle, lyrical film stars Yang Hae-bom as San, an adorable toddler living in the countryside. Her life is peaceful save for the aggressive outbursts of her brother, whose autism has created tension between the parents…

This wry, twisty theatrical farce stars Stephen Fung as a playwright, actor, and director who writes a play based on his own past. His rich ex-lover wants to co-star, but our hero has found a sexy new actress, and he’s got a plan to get her the part…

Seventeen-year-old Sara is hiding a big secret during her school trip, but when she witnesses the sexual assault of her best friend, her secret becomes impossible to hide. Kosara Mitić shines a light on the most volatile corners of the teenage experience.

Three interwoven stories explore survival, resilience, and the human cost of civil conflict against the ethnic violence that erupted in 2023 in Manipur, Northeast India. Yogesh Lohan offers an intimate portrait of lives caught in the strife.

Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.

Liz Sargent’s film stars her sister Anna, who plays a woman quite like her real self: thirty something, cognitively disabled, and utterly vivacious. Exploring one unique family and the hardships it faces, this is a film of deep empathy and subtle beauty.

Image: © Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi

Three undocumented men from different backgrounds navigate Paris's luminous metropolis in this stirring drama of dislocation. Gorgeously composed and often humorous, Paris Paris questions what it means to truly belong.

Vienna-based Al Cook plays a fictionalized version of himself in this poignant deadpan portrait of a bluesman at a crossroads. A beguiling minor-key medley of melancholy and nostalgia that draws you fully into its thrall.

Image: © Vento Film

Achingly sensual and graced with fine performances, Fruit Gathering depicts embattled desire in a conservative society. Two working-class women fall into a romantic relationship in contemporary Myanmar — but is their love real, or borne of desperation?

Stuck in a big city in a mind-numbing domestic routine, a young poetess finds herself at crossroads when her role as a mother and wife starts to overshadow her identity as an artist.

The Difficult Bride follows Zaineen, a young woman preparing for her marriage. Through a blend of feminist social commentary, psychological horror, and surreal imagery, the film explores female desire, fear, and the weight of societal expectations.

In this tender, compassionate drama, we see the hardships endured by a young girl adopted in the early 1980s during China’s one-child policy. As a teenager in the 90s, she’s still fighting to find a sense of belonging and assert her worth.

Lali explores the turbulent union of Zeba and Sajawal, two wounded souls bound by fate, through a compelling visual language, rich symbolism, and emotional depth. A distinctive and significant work of contemporary Pakistani cinema.

Yasha follows Hana, a young teacher in desperate need of money for her son's life-saving operation. Sidestepping melodrama, Naghi Nemati offers a compelling portrait of a strong woman fighting against impossible odds.

Childhood friends Adele and Sofia reconnect after years apart. Vowing to finally complete their long-planned climb to Mount Etna, the two set out on a strenuous journey up the Sicilian mountainside, where their friendship will be tested and redefined.

Kangdrun's feature debut depicts a twentysomething filmmaker coming to grips with a shameful act she committed in childhood. Moving between past and present, with each main character played by two actors, this is a provocative and challenging work.

Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, Marine Atlan's feature debut follows a class of French high-school students on a trip to Naples. While learning about the ruins of Pompeii by day, a different kind of education takes place at night.

Image: © Films du poisson, Bibi Film TV, Arte France Cinema

A middle-aged businessman leads his family on a one-day religious pilgrimage in the hopes of extending his sickly mother's life. Along the way, conflict brews, painful realizations unfold, and the film transforms into a meditation of faith, love, and duty.

Naru, the sole camerawoman at a major Kabul newsroom, is convinced that there are “no good men” left in Afghanistan. But partnered with the station’s star reporter in the leadup to the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, her outlook starts to shift.

Mihail, a contemporary art expert, has been living in Montreal since he left Bulgaria with his daughter almost thirty years ago. When he is commissioned to authenticate the work of an 8-year-old painting prodigy, he returns to Bulgaria for the first time.

Iron Boy, a hand-painted animated feature, follows a hardworking preteen farm boy and his sublime flights of fancy as he faces the earthshaking upheavals of growing up in an iron back brace. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2026.

Image: © Eddy Cinema, Beside Productions, Regular Production, France 3 Cinema, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, RTBF

This harrowing drama recreates the 1985 European Cup Final in Belgium, when rival football fans clashed before a ball had even been kicked. Teodora Mihal's film captures the hubris, incompetence, and politicking that compounded the escalating chaos.

Étienne lives a solitary existence as a truck driver for French company, his love life consisting of anonymous sex with men in empty parking lots. But after a passionate encounter with a Polish truck driver, his steady routine is thrown out of gear.

Roid follows Sadhu, a solitary man who marries a mysterious young woman from a distant village. But when her behaviour disrupts the quiet rhythm of Sadhu's life, he decides to abandon her — only for her to reappear, again and again.

Flies is the story of elderly and embittered Olga, the father and son she accepts as tenants, and the spiritual reawakening they provoke in her. Director Eimbcke plots Olga’s shift from battle-axe to benevolent spirit with grace. A heartwarming gem.