The first time I watched Paolo Sorrentino’s film The Great Beauty, I was electrified. Even on successive viewings it continues to leave me exhilarated in its hyperbolic and acerbic portrayal of Rome’s literati glitterati. The film gestures towards a recurring idea in Sorrentino’s body of work – the exploration of beauty and decay mostly through…
If to some people E.1027 might sound like a bug to be avoided or an additive in food, architecture fans will smile in recognition. This is the name of the house in France’s Côte d’Azur designed by lovers Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici in the late twenties. The house, its architects and its legacy is…
Following its theatrical release in China, Beijing-based visual artist and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang’s debut feature film, Chinatown Cha-Cha, is embarking on an international tour. Having made pit stops in London, Berlin, and Munich this month, and with screenings planned in New York and San Francisco in May, the documentary shines a light on the…
Beyond the titles featured in our 2025 preview of global independent and arthouse cinema for the first half of the year, there is a gamut of imaginative, accomplished works to look out for during the rest of 2025. A vast cross-section of these feature films — from promising debut directors to veterans of the industry — will…
For its sixth and most expansive edition to date, Queer East Festival returns to London this spring with a vibrant celebration of queer cinema, performance, and visual culture from East and Southeast Asia – and, for the first time, Central and South Asia. With over 100 titles and a bold new strand spotlighting diasporic stories…
After a 12-year hiatus, the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (BEFF) founded by Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and curator Gridthiya Gaweewong, is back for its 7th edition. The Festival showcases over 120 experimental works across 29 programs. The singularity of this edition lies in its scale and two notion-defying works: A Conversation with the Sun, and…
2025 holds great promise for global independent and arthouse cinema from the return of old masters to a rich trove of breakthroughs by debut directors. Many of these films have received critical acclaim at film festivals while others have been flying a bit under the radar. Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof) In Farsi…
At the end of last week, news of visionary filmmaker David Lynch’s passing was announced. Months before his death, Lynch, aged 78, shared that he’d been diagnosed with emphysema. One of the most important filmmakers of his era, Lynch’s oeuvre—from Eraserhead and Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive and his cult TV show, Twin Peaks—has been…