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Festival coverage

Palm Springs International Film Festival

4 January – 15 January 2024

The first big international film festival of 2024, Palm Springs offers the chance to catch up with some of the biggest hits on the festival circuit in the previous year, as well as providing a glimpse of the hottest titles set to circulate over the year to come.

We're still adding titles here, so don't forget to check back for more.

Other years (5)

Latest reviews

  • Hidden Master: The Legacy Of George Platt Lynes
    Review preview for Hidden Master: The Legacy Of George Platt Lynes

    A thorough, well-told tale intertwined with many of the key social and artistic movements of that century – and dotted with its luminaries – Hidden Master brings Lynes back out into the light.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A documentary about the fashion photographer whose rare artistic vision became apparent when he focused his attention on male nudes.
  • Merchant Ivory
    Review preview for Merchant Ivory

    Whether you’re a fan of the company’s work specifically or simply interested in the history of cinema, this portrait of its longest-lasting partnership will delight and entertain you.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    The story of cinema's longest lasting partnership.
  • Goodbye Julia
    Review preview for Goodbye Julia

    Kordofani uses the greater intimacy offered by the camera to bring us close to the characters and reveal the complex layers of relationship developing between them.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.
  • Close Your Eyes
    Review preview for Close Your Eyes

    A meditation on both memory and movies as well as ageing and a hankering for the past that is informed by the melancholic knowledge that nostalgia is inevitably rose-tinted.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A TV show looking into the mysterious disappearance of an actor leads a director on a journey into his own past while making discoveries in the present.
  • In The Rearview
    Review preview for In The Rearview

    Beyond the stories that unfold within the vehicle, the tension of these journeys, often on dirt tracks in rural areas, is brought home.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    This fly-on-the-wall film captures Ukrainians as they are forced to leave their homes and drive into the unknown.
  • Blaga's Lessons
    Review preview for Blaga's Lessons

    Beneath the intense lead performance and the minimalist but effective camera work, there is a rigid moral waiting to be unearthed.

    Sergiu Inizian · 2.5 out of 5
    A woman's moral compass starts to slip after she is conned out of her savings by a phone scammer.
  • In The Land Of Saints And Sinners
    Review preview for In The Land Of Saints And Sinners

    With plenty of meat for its fine cast to chew on, the film is often intense but never loses its nuance.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A retired assassin finds himself drawn into a game of cat and mouse.
  • Green Border
    Review preview for Green Border

    Essential, urgent and damning.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    Multifaceted drama about the plight of refugees on the Belarus/Poland border.
  • Chasing Chasing Amy
    Review preview for Chasing Chasing Amy

    A multi-layered journey into the filmmaking process.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A documentary about the complex legacy of Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy for LGBTQ+ people and its life-saving impact on director Sav Rodgers.
  • In Flames
    Review preview for In Flames

    Writer/director Zarrar Khan uses techniques borrowed from the horror genre to address the experience of living in an environment where one is seen as less than fully human, or even as prey.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    After the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s precarious existence is ripped apart by figures from their past – both real and imagined.

A–Z of Palm Springs International Film Festival 2024 reviews

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