(dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain, 2026, feat. Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo)
- a director seeking to reconnect with his estranged daughter by casting her in his latest film -
treads different ground in that it delves even more deeply into the mechanisms of filmmaking and the powerful relationships between the ultimate dictators - film directors - and their actors. Filmed in Fuerteventura in the windswept Canary Islands, the film benefits from two strong lead performances from Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo, and offers a fascinating and believable portrayal of building a period drama in challenging locales while coming to terms with decades of unresolved tensions. Its unwillingness to offer easy solutions or vindication might alienate some viewers, but its depiction of the messy, emotional and sometimes risky task of both making a film and rekindling a dormant family relationship has the ring of authenticity.
(dir. Pawel Pawlikowski, Germany, 2026, feat. Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler)
It's rare that you can emerge from a festival film and wish that it might've been an hour longer, but that can be said of Paweł Pawlikowski's European co-production depicting Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann's 1949 return from California to a divided post-war Germany after 16 years of exile in Switzerland and America, to commemorate the 200th birthday of Goethe. The film depicts this visit through the relationship between Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) as they navigate the culture shock of their ruined homeland and family tragedy amidst the political machinations of the early Cold War. In a telling scene in an East German canteen where the Manns arrive unexpectedly, the dire straits of the actual DDR and how divorced from the stage-managed pageantry it is quickly become obvious: when a coffee and juice are sought, all that can be offered are chicory and sea-buckthorn. Beautifully shot in black-and-white, and featuring exquisite choral performances as Mann is feted West und Ost, this is a restrained work that will bear rewatching.
Rose (dir. Markus Schleinzer, Austria, 2026, feat. Sandra Hüller)
Fast becoming an unmissable actor in whatever project she chooses - Sandra Hüller excels as a 17th-century soldier setting up as a farmer in an isolated German village, maintaining her cross-dressing subterfuge even through a surprise matrimonial contract. Replete with exquisite black-and-white cinematography, Rose successfully captures the fragile beauty of hard-toiling rural life. Throughout Hüller's performance is compelling and engaging, as the soldier who longs to escape the years of violence and cruelty implicit in army life during the seemingly never-ending
Thirty Years War (1618-48).
Dead Man's Wire (dir. Gus Van Sant, USA, 2025, feat. Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Al Pacino, Colman Domingo, Myha'la)
Mingled with authentic found footage of the
actual 1977 hostage events that inspired the story, Gus Van Sant's film is a winning combination of talented leads Bill Skarsgård and Dacre Montgomery, a deftly handled supporting cast including Colman Domingo, Cary Elwes and Al Pacino, and commendable attention to period detail in its urban Indiana setting. Apart from some slightly over-used 1970s cinema staples on the soundtrack, perhaps the only meaningful limitation, revealed when the real footage of the perpetrator and victim is screened over the end credits, is that Skarsgård's performance is so appealing that the audience's sympathy is thoroughly engaged despite the violence inherent in the crime being perpetrated.
Fjord (dir. Cristian Mungiu, Norway, 2026, feat. Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan)
An intriguing slow-burn dramatisation of the Norwegian child protection system in action in a remote fjord hamlet, bringing a large Norwegian-Romanian Christian family into a bitter custody dispute with the state. As with all compelling tales, there are no 'goodies and baddies' here, although it's hard not to feel sympathy for the family whose child-rearing differs from the prevailing ethos of the community they live in, with potentially disastrous results. But that depends on whether this is a realistic depiction of the actual process, or an exaggerated caricature for political ends. Also, the use of English for the older children results in some slightly stilted acting, and the director's potentially heavy-handed depiction of the film's final scene detract from the film's many successes.
Last Man Standing (dir. Gerd Pohlmann, NZ, 2026)
A comprehensive survey of a political career defined by courageous and, at times, iconoclastic stances backed up by comprehensive political organisation skills and tireless campaigning, both within parties and in public. For a self-defined poor kid from Western Springs to rise to the rank of party president then leader of his own party and, eventually, Deputy Prime Minister, shows the extent of
Jim Anderton's achievements, and his many interviews and the testimonials of friends, colleagues and a few rivals, illustrate the breadth of his talents. It's a small miracle the documentary was able to be made to this quality without much-needed public funding, and it's a credit to the production team that it's emerged in a polished form. Irrespective of its focus on one man, it's also an effective overview of 30 years of New Zealand politics, which is no mean feat. The only potential critique could be that in attempting to reflect the myriad of political signposts across a lengthy career, it sometimes errs towards political score-settling by Anderton's surviving circle.
La Gradiva (dir. Marine Atlan, France/Italy, 2026)
An engrossing immersion in a senior high-school class trip from France to the glories of Naples, including Pompeii and Vesuvius, in which the complex and mercurial hormonal dynamics within the class take precedence over most academic concerns. The leading teen actors are uniformly excellent, as is Antonia Buresi as the class' persevering classics teacher. The film really shines in two extended sequences - one, in which the teacher conveys her boundless enthusiasm for her topic despite the boisterous disruptions of a troubled class-member, and another in which five teen girls share home truths about a particularly beautiful and untrustworthy boy.
Father Mother Sister Brother (dir. Jim Jarmusch, USA, 2025, feat. Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett & Vicky Krieps)
An amiable, if somewhat aimless trilogy of expertly-cast and convincingly-portrayed family scenes - one set in rural America, one in the genteel Dublin suburbs, and the final in the heart of urban Paris. There are some gently perceptive observations of the minute awkwardness of family dynamics and the facades erected to maintain equilibrium with a parent or sibling, but ultimately it's the impressive cast that merits attention, rather than the material they're working with, which doesn't offer much in the way of profundity.
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