Blue Heron
(Country: Canada, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Sophy Romvari; Writer: Sophy Romvari; Stars: Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Amy Zimmer)
Leeds International Film Festival · 2025
44 films · 24 reviews
(Country: Canada, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Sophy Romvari; Writer: Sophy Romvari; Stars: Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Amy Zimmer)
As Blue Moon progresses it becomes clear that the one thing Hart really wants is to be wanted.
(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)
When you get old, hope you find someone who looks at you the way Mascaro looks at Tereza and Roberta.
(Country: Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands, Chile; Year: 2025; Director: Gabriel Mascaro; Writer: Tibério Azul, Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega, Gabriel Mascaro; Stars: Denise Weinberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socarras, Adanilo)
This isn’t a fuzzy celebration of making do with what you have as you get older but of embracing the passions that endure.
(Country: France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Morocco; Year: 2025; Director: Maryam Touzani; Writer: Maryam Touzani; Stars: Marta Etura, Carmen Maura, María Alfonsa Rosso, Miguel Garcés, Ahmed Boulane)
The power of The Choral is that it evokes smiles and laughter in opposition to the oppressive reality of these war years.
(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Nicholas Hytner; Writer: Alan Bennett; Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Simon Russell Beale)
A beguiling mix of magic-realist fable, coming-of-age drama & post-colonial critique.
(Country: Germany. France, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan; Year: 2025; Director: Suzannah Mirghani; Writer: Suzannah Mirghani; Stars: Mihad Murtada, Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud, Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Hassan Kassala)
(Country: Switzerland, Argentina; Year: 2025; Director: Milagros Mumenthaler; Stars: Isabel Aimé González Sola, Esteban Bigliardi)
Ramsay's style takes no prisoners.
(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)
(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)
(Year: 2025; Director: Lucia Castro)
(Country: Slovenia, North Macedonia; Year: 2025; Director: Kukla; Writer: Kukla; Stars: Sarah Al Saleh, Alina Juhart, Mina Milovanović, Mia Skrbinac)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2025; Director: Eric K Boulianne; Writer: Alexandre Auger, Eric K Boulianne; Stars: Eric K Boulianne, Catherine Chabot, Florence Blain Mbaye, Étienne Galloy, Sarah Chouinard Poirier, Simone Bellemare-Ledoux, Agathe Ledoux, Sophie Letourneur, Antonin Mousseau-Rivard, Ève Landry, Éric Robidoux, Julie Le Breton, Nathalie Coupal, Ambre Jabrane, Carolanne Foucher, Erin Margurite Carter, Jacques L'Heureux, Rose-Anne Déry, Rémi St-Michel)
(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: John Minton)
The plot may be straightforward but the characters are offbeat.
(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Paolo Sorrentino; Writer: Paolo Sorrentino; Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti)
While bringing home the injustice of life for Toha, Goher treads a careful line so as not to turn the adults into cartoonish 'bad guys', which makes the situation all the more upsetting.
(Country: Egypt; Year: 2025; Director: Sarah Goher; Writer: Mohamed Diab, Sarah Goher; Stars: Nelly Karim, Hanan Motawie, Hanan Youssef, Doha Ramadan)
Rose Byrne anchors the whole damn thing with a performance that gives the sense of wobbling for eternity on a tightrope without ever quite falling off.
(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Mary Bronstein; Writer: Mary Bronstein; Stars: Rose Byrne, Danielle Macdonald, Josh Pais, Daniel Zolghadri, Ivy Wolk, Conan O'Brien, A$AP Rocky, Helen Hong, Ella Beatty, Delaney Quinn, Mark Stolzenberg, Lark White, Eva Kornet)
(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Imran Perretta; Writer: Imran Perretta, Enda Walsh; Stars: Farhan Hasnat, Yahya Kitana, Sudha Bhuchar)
(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Bradley Cooper; Writer: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Mark Chappell; Stars: Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper)
The takes are usually long and static, but every cut and move is justified for the purpose of dramaturgy.
(Country: Iran, France, Luxembourg; Year: 2025; Director: Jafar Panahi; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Madjid Panahi, Ebrahim Azizi, Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari)
Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.
(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Mailys Vallade; Writer: Amélie Nothomb, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Aude Py, Mailys Vallade, Eddine Noël; Stars: Loïse Charpentier, Victoria Grobois, Yumi Fujimori, Cathy Cerda, Marc Arnaud, Laetitia Coryn, Haylee Issembourg, Isaac Schoumsky, François Raison, Emmylou Homs)
On the technical level, Jacques Girault’s usually hand-held cinematography keeps the immediacy of associated with that choice, but never slips into “chaos cinema” shakiness.
(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Alice Douard; Writer: Alice Douard, Laurette Polmanss; Stars: Ella Rumpf, Félix Kysyl, Monia Chokri, Anne Le Ny, Noémie Lvovsky, Édouard Sulpice, Eva Huault, Julien Gaspar-Oliveri)
(Country: Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France; Year: 2025; Director: Hlynur Pálmason; Writer: Hlynur Pálmason; Stars: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Sverrir Gudnason, Anders Mossling, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Katla M. Þorgeirsdóttir, Saga Garðarsdóttir, Halldór Laxness Halldórsson, Grímur Hlynsson, Þorgils Hlynsson, Kristinn Guðmundsson)
(Year: 2025; Director: Marcel Barelli)
As is true of many a tale, not all motivations are on the table right away, and finding rescue and respite with strangers can only last a mere while.
(Year: 2025; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Stars: Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Victoire Laly)
(Country: Chile; Year: 2025; Director: Diego Céspedes; Writer: Diego Céspedes; Stars: Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca)
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.
(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)
There may be a rumbling of trouble in the background, but Machoian and Webley capture the way that this doesn’t impinge on the feeling of joy that can come in a moment.
(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Cole Webley; Writer: Robert Machoian; Stars: John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, Talia Balsam)
Ambrosioni extracts lived-in performances from Cottin and the whole cast which lifts what could have been a straight-forward drama into a profound and moving portrait of families and motherhood.
(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Nathan Ambrosioni; Writer: Nathan Ambrosioni; Stars: Camille Cottin, Juliette Armanet, Monia Chokri, Féodor Atkine, Myriem Akheddiou, Guillaume Gouix)
(Country: Austria, Slovak Republic; Year: 2025; Director: Alexandra Makarová)
Wishaw is an absolute wonder, delivering the conversational, sometimes stream-of-consciousness dialogue with a constantly engaging, almost hypnotic cadence.
(Country: US, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs; Stars: Ben Whishaw, Rebecca Hall)
The constant contrast is the trick, which later extends to the emotional stakes.
(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Harry Lighton; Writer: Harry Lighton, Adam Mars-Jones; Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling, Georgina Hellier, Brian Martin, Zamir Mesiti)
(Country: India; Year: 2025; Director: Uttera Singh; Writer: Adam Linzey, Uttera Singh; Stars: Sunita Rajwar, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Uttera Singh, Badri Chavan, Nitesh Pandey, Sapna Sand, Rajiv Nema, Ranjana Tiwari)
(Country: Colombia, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2025; Director: Simón Mesa Soto; Writer: Simón Mesa Soto; Stars: Guillermo Cardona, Rebeca Andrade, Ubeimar Rios, Humberto Restrepo, Margarita Soto, Allison Correa)
(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Rebecca Zlotowski; Writer: Anne Berest, Gaëlle Macé, Rebecca Zlotowski; Stars: Jodie Foster, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Auteuil, Vincent Lacoste, Luàna Bajrami, Sophie Letourneur)
It’s not a showy performance, but it’s a standout.
(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2025; Director: Hikari; Writer: Hikari, Stephen Blahut; Stars: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, Nihi, Akira Emoto)
(Country: China, France; Year: 2025; Director: Bi Gan; Writer: Bi Gan; Stars: Shu Qi, Jackson Yee, Mark Chao, Chloe Maayan, Jue Huang, Gengxi Li, Zhijian Zhang, Yongzhong Chen, Mucheng Guo)
(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Eric Lin; Writer: Marilyn Fu, Eric Lin; Stars: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou, Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu, James Chen, Eleven Lee, Susan Pourfar, Zack Calderon, Adam Chanler-Berat, Dana de Celis, Jo Mei, Dave Shalansky, Grace Shen, Eric Leviton)
Marcelo is at home in the fine tradition of flicks where the fact that they are an agent is mainly a secret to them.
(Country: Brazil, France, Netherlands, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho; Writer: Kleber Mendonça Filho; Stars: Wagner Moura, Udo Kier, Gabriel Leone, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Hermila Guedes, Alice Carvalho, Thomás Aquino, Isabél Zuaa, Suzy Lopes, João Vitor Silva, Roney Villela, Rubens Santos, Luciano Chirolli, Buda Lira, Jimmy Astley)
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.
(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)
(Country: Greece, France, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi, Tina Kaiser; Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux, Sylvester Groth, Yun Huang)
(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Valentine Cadic; Writer: Valentine Cadic, Mariette Désert; Stars: India Hair, Arcadi Radeff, Blandine Madec, Lou Deleuze, Matthias Jacquin)
A sometimes compelling, often baffling work that doesn’t really solve the inherent problem of its subject matter, but swings for the fences trying.
(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Dylan Southern; Writer: Dylan Southern; Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, David Thewlis, Sam Spruell, Jessie Cave, Leo Bill, Vinette Robinson, Tim Plester, Adam Basil, Garry Cooper, Pierre Bergman, Eric Lampaert, Claire Cartwright, Lesley Molony, Joakim Skarli, Max Porter)
There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.
(Country: Tunisia, France; Year: 2025; Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania; Stars: Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury, Amer Hlehel)
We Believe You works to perfection thanks to the dedication and stellar directing, acting and technical work.
(Country: Belgium; Year: 2025; Director: Charlotte Deville, Arnaud Dufeys; Writer: Charlotte Deville, Arnaud Dufeys; Stars: Myriem Akheddiou, Ulysse Goffin, Adele Pickaers, Alisa Laub, Laurent Capelluto, Marion de Nanteuil, Natali Broods, Mounir Bennaouim)
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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