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Cheltenham International Film Festival · 2025

Cheltenham International Film Festival 2025

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Programme

16 films · 14 reviews

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Blue Moon

Review preview for Blue Moon

As Blue Moon progresses it becomes clear that the one thing Hart really wants is to be wanted.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical Oklahoma!.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Robert Kaplow; Stars: Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott, Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Patrick Kennedy, Simon Delaney, John Doran, Elaine O'Dwyer, Cillian Sullivan, Ian Dillon)

Full review

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Nicholas Hytner; Writer: Alan Bennett; Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Simon Russell Beale)

Full review

Colours of Time (La venue de l'avenir, The Coming Of The Future)

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.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Cédric Klapisch; Writer: Santiago Amigorena, Cédric Klapisch; Stars: Suzanne Lindon, Abraham Wapler, Julia Piaton, Julia Piaton, Vincent Macaigne, Zinedine Soualem, Vassili Schneider, François Berléand, Sara Giraudeau, Paul Kircher, Cécile de France)

Full review See: Colours Of Time Cédric Klapisch on being proud to be populist but stayingon the edge

Die, My Love

Review preview for Die, My Love

Ramsay's style takes no prisoners.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
A woman battles her demons.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2025; Director: Lynne Ramsay; Writer: Ariana Harwicz, Lynne Ramsay, Enda Walsh; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, LaKeith Stanfield, Sarah Lind, Gabrielle Rose, Victor Zinck Jr., Phillip Forest Lewitski, Debs Howard, Luke Camilleri, Marcus Della Rosa, Tom Carey, Saylor McPherson, Lori Bachynski)

Full review See: Lynne Ramsay, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson on Die, My Love in Cannes

Dreams

Believing his lover will support him, a young Mexican ballet dancer crosses the border to pursue his dreams in San Francisco. But as ambition and love clash with harsh realities, he must face the true nature of their relationship.

(Country: Mexico, US; Year: 2025; Director: Michel Franco; Writer: Michel Franco; Stars: Jessica Chastain, Rupert Friend, Marshall Bell, Isaac Hernández, Lee Braithwaite, Jim Anderson, Tracy Todd, Tatiana Ronderos, Sedrick Cabrera, Scott Jordan, Jayden Leavitt, Nicholas Gould, Nessa Dougherty, Bobby August Jr., Phillip Caires)

It Was Just an Accident (Un Simple 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.

(Country: Iran, France, Luxembourg; Year: 2025; Director: Jafar Panahi; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Madjid Panahi, Ebrahim Azizi, Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari)

Full review See: Jafar Panahi on inspiration for It Was Just An Accident

Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)

Review preview for Nouvelle Vague

Guillaume Marbeck as Godard is pitch perfect, trademark dark glasses and tobacco smoke his indispensable props with even the voice uncannily resonant of the man himself.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
This is the story of Godard making Breathless, told in the style and spirit in which Godard made Breathless.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Holly Gent, Laetitia Masson, Vincent Palmo Jr, Michèle Pétin; Stars: Zoey Deutch, Alix Bénézech, Paolo Luka Noé, Nicolas Dozol, Guillaume Marbeck, Tom Novembre, Jade Phan-Gia, Aubry Dullin, Côme Thieulin, Blaise Pettebone, Adrien Rouyard, Matthieu Penchinat, Jodie Ruth-Forest, Roxane Rivière, Jean-Jacques Le Vessier)

Full review See: Richard Linklater on chronicling the creation of Godard's Breathless

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.

(Country: France, US; Year: 2025; Director: Raoul Peck; Stars: Narrated by, Damien Lewis)

Full review

Paleontology Lesson

Review preview for Paleontology Lesson

Feels like a bite-sized companion piece to The Invasion

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Short documentary following a children's visit to a natural history museum.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2025; Director: Sergey Loznitsa)

Full review

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.

(Country: France, Palestinian Occupied Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK, Denmark, Jordan, Norway, US; Year: 2025; Director: Annemarie Jacir; Writer: Annemarie Jacir; Stars: Jeremy Irons, Robert Aramayo, Liam Cunningham, Billy Howle, Christopher Villiers, Hiam Abbass, Sam Hoare, Yasmine Al Massri, Nicholas Moss, Mo'min Swaitat)

Full review See: Interview with Annemarie Jacir about Palestine 36

Peter Hujar's Day

Review preview for Peter Hujar's Day

Wishaw is an absolute wonder, delivering the conversational, sometimes stream-of-consciousness dialogue with a constantly engaging, almost hypnotic cadence.

Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.

(Country: US, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs; Stars: Ben Whishaw, Rebecca Hall)

Full review

Relay

Elusive professional fixer Ash has his skills put to the test while protecting whistleblower Sarah Grant fromincreasingly ruthless corporate mercenaries.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: David Mackenzie; Writer: Justin Piasecki; Stars: Willa Fitzgerald, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Riz Ahmed, Matthew Maher, Helen Eigenberg, Pun Bandhu, Eisa Davis, Purva Bedi, Aaron Roman Weiner, Reed Northrup, Sasha Sen, Brian O'Neill, José Báez, Jose Guns Alves)

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.

(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2025; Director: Hikari; Writer: Hikari, Stephen Blahut; Stars: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, Nihi, Akira Emoto)

Full review

Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi)

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.

(Country: Norway, Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden; Year: 2025; Director: Joachim Trier; Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Stars: Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Cory Michael Smith, Jesper Christensen, Catherine Cohen, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Bjørn Alexander, Jonas Jacobsen, Pia Borgli)

Full review

Sirât (Sirat)

Review preview for Sirât

The film looks amazing, but it sounds even more incredible.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A father arrives at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco with his son, looking for his daughter who has been missing for months.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2025; Director: Óliver Laxe; Writer: Santiago Fillol, Óliver Laxe; Stars: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez)

Full review See: Interview with Kangding Ray about Sirât