Sundance 2026: Rinko Kikuchi plays a dancing widow in “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”

by Cláudio Alves

Two weeks ago, the 2026 Sundance Film Festival came to a close, marking its first edition after founder Robert Redford’s death and the last time it was held in Park City. Next year, the festivities will take place in Boulder, Colorado, the start of a new chapter in its history. For me, it was also a first, as, after years of trying, I finally got press credentials to cover Sundance online – fifth time’s the charm. Sadly, the limited number of days of the online program meant I had little time to post anything during the fest itself. And then came the storms, a weather calamity that’s ravaged Portugal and has left me various days without power and only intermittent wi-fi. 

My apologies that it took so long for this coverage to kickstart, but better late than never. And to get things going in style, let’s look at one of the films Nathaniel has already spotlighted in the “We Can’t Wait” series, about his most-anticipated 2026 releases – Ha Chan, Shake Your Booty!…

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Berlinale's best suprise is both a debut and an Ethan Hawke showcase

by Elisa Giudici

Ethan Hawke in THE WEIGHT, which premiered at Sundance and now hits Berlin.

The most galvanizing film of this year’s Berlinale didn’t screen in competition, having opened at Sundance last month. It’s a debut  directed by an Irish editor few outside industry circles could have named a month ago. After The Weight, that anonymity will surely be temporary. Padraic McKinley (previously known for cutting mid-tier commercial fare) announces himself here with a thriller of such muscular clarity that it easily eclipses many of the films vying for the Golden Bear...

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Berlinale #1: "Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die" and more...

by Elisa Giudici

NO GOOD MEN © Adomeit Film

I'm on the ground here at Berlinale with a report on the first four films screened including a film from  Afghanistan, Slovakia standing in for Wisconsin, a drama about the Turkish diaspora in Germany, and Gore Verbinski's new sci-fi comedy Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die. 

No Good Men
The Berlinale has not opened with something this emotionally persuasive in years. With No Good Men, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat delivers a film that appears modest in scale and technique yet proves unexpectedly buoyant. Its visual language is spare, at times almost elementary, but the lightness is deliberate. In a story about gender inequality in Kabul, hope becomes a quietly subversive choice...

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Best of 2025: Bi Gan dreams the death and “Resurrection” of cinema

by Cláudio Alves

Before dropping my top ten of 2025, sometime near the end of the season, there are a bunch of excellent films that have gone unreviewed at TFE. Let’s fix that…

With Warner Bros. for sale and Netflix as its most likely buyer, cinephiles worldwide are despairing over the future of the theatrical experience. As monopolies keep forming stateside, Hollywood seems bound to reach a breaking point any time soon, and the effects are already being felt beyond borders. And then there’s AI and a rising devaluing of human artistry, the production of content above all else. That said, to speak of the end feels premature, foolish even. Even if the mainstream American movie industry as we know it ceases to be, cinema is bigger than that. Indeed, it’s an art form still in its infancy, still transforming and coming into itself. If death is coming, it manifests as transformation and, in metamorphosis, there’s longevity that beckons hope. So, stop doomscrolling and hold tight to what you love, be it the medium itself or the communion of sitting in a dark room with others, facing the collective dream projected on a bright wall.

There’s a way to accept the pain of change without giving in to despair, to believe, to honor, to delight in the miracle of the moving image without falling into grief. Chinese wunderkind Bi Gan's latest, Resurrection, embodies such notions in ways few films have done. As it regards the past, it speaks to the present and the mystery of a future none of us can yet grasp. With equal parts adoration and sorrow, intellect and earnestness, sadness and a strange strain of fatalistic optimism, this multi-chaptered odyssey through the human senses whispers and screams: Cinema is dead. Long live cinema…

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Screening Season in Los Angeles - Round 2

by Eurocheese

can we have father and son Skarsgård nominations, please?

In Round One (in case you missed it) I shared thoughts on One Battle After Another, Train Dreams, Blue Moon, Hedda and more. Here are a few thoughts on ten more films, ranked by personal preference...

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