Berlinale: Paternal Leave (2025)
★★★★☆
Paternal Leave is charming and heartbreaking at the same time. It’s the debut feature written and directed by Alissa Jung.
festivals
Berlin Film Festival 2025: 13-23 February: Line-up
★★★★☆
Berlin Film Festival 2025
A Complete Unknown (2024)
★★★★☆
A Complete Unknown is an excellently written and acted, star-studded (Timothée Chalamet) biopic directed by James Mangold of four crucial early years in the life of iconoclastic genius, musician and poet, Nobel Prize-winning Bob Dylan.
Maria (2024)
★★★★☆
Maria, an emotional biopic, directed by Pablo Larrain, starring an incredible performance by Angelina Jolie as the iconic Maria Callas.
Oscars FYC: From Ground Zero (2024)
★★★☆☆
Oscars 2025: From Ground Zero compiled by Rashid Masharawi is a compilation of short films showing everyday life in a destroyed Gaza.
The Universal Theory (2023) (Die Theorie von Allem)
★★★☆☆
The Universal Theory directed by Timm Kröger is a stunning homage to all those black-and-white film-noir mysteries of the 1940s with a dreamlike sci-fi twist.
The Taste of Mango (2023)
★★★★☆
The Taste of Mango is an impressionistic collage of female abuse through three generations bound by enduring love.
All We Imagine As Light (2024)
★★★★★
All We Imagine As Light is a beautiful film about the contrasting lives of three women in India, the second film directed by award-winning Payal Kapadia.
Conclave (2024)
★★★★☆
After the death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading the conclave to recruit a successor with rumour and conflict threatening to overtake the Vatican’s battle for power in Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave.
Memories of a Burning Body (2024) (Memorias de un Cuerpo que Arde)
★★★★☆
Memories of a Burning Body is an incredibly moving, candid docufiction about older women’s sexuality, directed by award-winning Antonella Sudasassi Furniss.
Rome 2024: The Opera! Arias for an Eclipse (2024) (Arie per un’eclissi)
★★★★☆
The Opera! Arias for an Eclipse is the extraordinary, unique artistic vision of Davide Livermore and Paolo Gep Cucco.
BFI LFF 2024: Hard Truths (2024)
★★★★☆
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is tremendous as a woman constantly beset by anger, fear and depression in Mike Leigh’s searing character study Hard Truths.
Rome 2024: Eternal Visionary (2024) (Eterno Visionario)
★★★☆☆
In Eternal Visionary director Michele Placido’s biopic takes us through the life of one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, Luigi Pirandello.
BFI LFF 2024 Award Winners
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2024 Award Winners