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Festival coverage

Cheltenham International Film Festival

18 October – 26 October 2025

Now rebranded as FilmChelt, a nonprofit organisation, this festival continues to collect some of the best films on the international festival circuit for its home audience.

The festival runs from 18 to 26 October.

Other years (6)

Latest reviews

  • Rental Family
    Review preview for Rental Family

    It’s not a showy performance, but it’s a standout.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A lonely American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese 'rental family' company to play stand-in roles in other people's lives. Along the way, he finds surprising connections and unexpected joys within his built-in family.
  • Orwell: 2+2=5
    Review preview for Orwell: 2+2=5

    Offers food for thought in the realm of a slightly ungainly and sprawling all-you-can-eat buffet rather than a satisfying sit-down feast.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece… Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, the omnipresent spectre of Big Brother… disturbing socio-political truths which resonate ever-more powerfully today.
  • The Choral
    Review preview for The Choral

    The power of The Choral is that it evokes smiles and laughter in opposition to the oppressive reality of these war years.

    Paul Risker · 3.5 out of 5
    A Yorkshire village’s choral society finds its ranks depleted as men head off to war... leaving it forced to change its rules.
  • Palestine 36
    Review preview for Palestine 36

    Jacir's film might look back to the 1930s but it's a film that is in conversation with the present-day.

    Casper Borges · 3 out of 5
    In 1936, as Palestinian villages revolt against British colonial rule, Yusuf navigates between Jerusalem and his rural home, amidst escalating unrest and a pivotal moment for the British Empire.
  • La Grazia
    Review preview for La Grazia

    The plot may be straightforward but the characters are offbeat.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A president faces choices in his final months in office.
  • Sentimental Value
    Review preview for Sentimental Value

    What marks Trier out is his ability to take on intellectual ideas like this but make them play out in ways that don’t feel forced or overly constructed.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    In the wake of their mother's death, two sisters grapple with their relationship with their filmmaker father as he tries to involve one of them in his latest project.
  • DJ Ahmet
    Review preview for DJ Ahmet

    The artifice takes over, making the desired authenticity completely fake.

    Marko Stojiljkovic · 2.5 out of 5
    Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia find refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and first love.
  • It Was Just an Accident
    Review preview for It Was Just an Accident

    The takes are usually long and static, but every cut and move is justified for the purpose of dramaturgy.

    Marko Stojiljkovic · 4 out of 5
    What begins as a minor accident sets in motion a series of escalating consequences.
  • Cielo
    Review preview for Cielo

    A stunningly realised piece of magical realism quite different from anything that writer/director Alberto Sciamma has created before.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    How far would you go to reach heaven? Santa, a young indigenous girl, embarks on a rollercoaster journey to take her mother out of a life of hardship and into eternal paradise.
  • Colours of Time
    Review preview for Colours of Time

    There’s a fairy-tale element to this – and once the famous names start to be introduced, including Sarah Bernhardt, it becomes obvious it’s no history lesson – but that suits the crowdpleasing material well.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    After a group of distant relatives inherit a house, they begin to investigate the life of their predecessor.

A–Z of Cheltenham International Film Festival 2025 reviews

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