Section: Critics Selection

A DARK SONG

Devastated by the death of her young son, Sophia would like to be able to speak to him one last time. But she’s not going to screw around with Ouija boards or waste her time with charlatans. She rents a large manor lost in the Irish forests and calls on Joseph Solomon, an occultist specializing… Continue reading A DARK SONG

MONOLITH

Sandra is locked outside her Monolith, the safest car in the world, built to protect her loved ones from any threat. Seated behind her and tied to his seat, David, her 2 year old son, is playing with her cellphone. Suddenly Sandra runs over a deer, stops and gets out of the car. David, by… Continue reading MONOLITH

REPLACE

Kira Mabon lives her life to the fullest. She is young, beautiful, happy. Until one morning she discovers a spot of dried-up skin on her hand. Terrified by the decay of her body, Kira is desperately searching for a cure. But the disease keeps spreading, and nobody seems to be able to help. Devastated, Kira… Continue reading REPLACE

EGOMANIAC

After a documentary and a short film that was seen by at least three people not involved in the picture, Catherine Sweeney is ready to go to second base: a feature film. Unfortunately, her epic project of a zombie scifi romance requires some compromises. Catherine is obliged to work with producers who have as much… Continue reading EGOMANIAC

SPIT’N’SPLIT

Nothing could be cooler than a rock-band on tour. Hordes of screaming fans who want to give up their virginity for an autograph, free drugs in all sizes, colors and kicks, luxury hotels that loose a star after our rock gods have passed through it like a tornado and sold out theaters and stadiums. The… Continue reading SPIT’N’SPLIT

AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Chained to his wheelchair, Joaquin leads a solitary life in a huge house in Buenos Aries. He has a dying dog and lots of debts. We don’t have to mention that Joaquin isn’t exactly a very cheerful guy. This doesn’t stop the delicious stripper Berta from wanting to rent the upper floor of Joaquin’s house… Continue reading AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

TUNNEL by Seong-Hun Kim

Lee Jung-soo is about to end his day and return to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. And he has every interest to be there on time, since it is he who brings the cake! Unfortunately for him, the government cut a few corners when it built an enormous tunnel under a huge mountain. And right when… Continue reading TUNNEL by Seong-Hun Kim

MAN DIVIDED

Ever heard of the butterfly effect? In chaos theory (and of course in science fiction flicks) it refers to the fact that minimal changes in a given situation can later cause gigantic problems. In 2095, the world is overrun with salt water and all forms of life are in danger of extinction. Fang Rung, head… Continue reading MAN DIVIDED

TERRIFIED

Imagine for a moment: you are peacefully asleep, your wife quietly gets up to do what she has to do on the toilet and, suddenly, you hear a thunderous pounding on the other side of the wall. Furious at your neighbour for hammering at three in the morning, you knock at his door, determined to… Continue reading TERRIFIED

CHARISMATA

It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Easier said than done for rookie police inspector Rebecca, who has to pry into the sleaziest crimes. As if that weren’t enough, she has to put up with her male chauvinist pig colleagues and their sick sense of humor. Especially the other half of her detective… Continue reading CHARISMATA

SNOWFLAKE

The near future: German society is in the doldrums and Berlin is the scene of street battles. Tan and Javid get into a fight with the manager of a kebab joint and swiftly send him to the netherworld. Also killed are some innocent bystanders, including the parents of Eliana, who retaliates by sending a series… Continue reading SNOWFLAKE

BEES MAKE HONEY

The English countryside, 1934. Halloween night. Honey, a young but very wealthy widow, organizes her celebrated yearly costumed ball. The most distinguished figures of local high society are present, sipping expensive champagne while exchanging exotic holiday stories. This year, Honey has invited a special guest. Inspector Shoerope, the British version of our Hercule Poirot, is… Continue reading BEES MAKE HONEY

DHOGS

A taxi driver with the face of a beaten-up dog drives through the streets of a desolate city, like he does every night. This time he picks up a businessman who’s having an argument with his wife. But when he drops him off at the hotel, lives will be changed forever. Whether we like it… Continue reading DHOGS

HUNTING EMMA

Emma looks like a gentle, peace-loving, and caring woman. But when danger occurs, she gets possessed by the ghost of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson’s character in Taken). “Danger” here means a group of six lunatic drug sellers, whom she saw killing a cop on duty. There remains but one thing to do : kill that… Continue reading HUNTING EMMA

NEW TRIAL

The year 2000. Jo Hyun-Woo is 15. He is a good kid, who may no longer believe in Santa but does believe in justice. That’s bad luck for him, as good cops decide to arrest him for the murder of a taxi driver. He might be innocent, but a few punches in the face from… Continue reading NEW TRIAL

EXTRA ORDINARY

Rose is a kindhearted woman in a small Irish town who spends her days teaching the local population how to drive. She isn’t very forthright about her supernatural abilities because, in the past, they often had disastrous consequences. Except for her sister, she is alone in the world and her free time is mostly spent… Continue reading EXTRA ORDINARY

THE POOL

Day, an insecure and underpaid art director, has just finished filming an ad in a deserted Olympic pool. He’s charged with the cleaning and the emptying of the six-meter deep bath. Before beginning the heavy work, he wants to enjoy the silence and peacefulness while floating through the chlorine in the sun. Unthinking, he dozes… Continue reading THE POOL

I’M BACK

A stout man in uniform wakes up at the Piazza Vittoro and notices with great contempt a bunch of dark skinned kids playing football. “We’re under attack”, he scornfully mumbles. He gets up, wipes the dust off his uniform and swiftly walks on until he gets to a newsstand. He sees the date and instantly… Continue reading I’M BACK

THE UNTHINKABLE

Alex is a musically gifted teenager. He has quite a good understanding with his mom but things don’t go so well with his dad. The latter’s fits of rage and whacky conspiracy theories might have something to do with that. Twelve years later, Alex is a well-known musician. At the funeral of his mom, he… Continue reading THE UNTHINKABLE

BRAID

Best friends and drug dealers Tilda and Petula are on the run from the police and decide to visit and rob their rich childhood friend Daphne. Before she lets them in, she has only one condition: they have to play along in a twisted but simple game with very few rules. Slowly but surely, the… Continue reading BRAID

WEREWOLF

1945, the Second World War has just finished. Soviet soldiers reach the Groß-Rosen concentration camp and set free the remaining prisoners. A group of orphans is transferred to a derelict mansion deep in the woods, where they’ll have to fend for themselves. Fear and death are all they’ve ever known. They’re still wearing their camp… Continue reading WEREWOLF

BROTHERS’ NEST

At dawn in the Australian outback, two men in flashy orange overalls arrive by bike. They quickly sneak into an empty house. An ordinary robbery? Well, think again. The two men, Jeff and Terry, are brothers. Their mother is dying of cancer and intends to change her will so the house, the land, and the… Continue reading BROTHERS’ NEST

TAKE POINT

Captain Ahab is a man with a mission. Alongside his team of twelve apostles… I mean elite troops/guns for hire, he must kidnap the North Korean Defense minister in a bunker underneath the DMZ (the demilitarized zone dividing the nation’s north and south). But someone is playing dirty tricks and things quickly go awry. In… Continue reading TAKE POINT

Loop

As a country that has Bolsonaro for president and that lost 2-1 against Belgium in the World Cup, it’s not surprising that Brazil dreams of traveling back in time. Daniel however has other motives. Years and years he’s been slaving away in search of the formula for time travel, which seems at his fingertips but… Continue reading Loop

The Division

Rio de Janeiro, 1997. “Love me, love me, say that you love me” the Cardigans croon on the radio, but that’s of little comfort to the girl who’s listening. She’s being held hostage in a sleazy room and her captors demand ransom from her rich senator of a dad. She’s one of the 11 kidnappings… Continue reading The Division

The Platform

A prison, 333 floors. Two prisoners on each floor, some of whom have climbed up on their own. A platform filled with delicacies, the finest wines, the sweetest deserts, stops every day during two minutes at each floor. Rule one: every prisoner can take a personal object with them. Rule two: if a prisoner stocks… Continue reading The Platform

Random Acts of Violence

During the 80’s and 90’s a serial killer roamed the Interstate 90 on the lookout for potential victims which he then brutally murdered with a disturbingly skillful eye for aesthetic gore and violent composition. Years later comic book writer Todd takes a road trip through the same area with his girlfriend and publishers in search… Continue reading Random Acts of Violence

Advantages of Travelling by Train

“Imagine a woman coming home and surprising her husband inspecting his own shit with a popsicle stick”. That’s the opening phrase of Aritz Moreno’s first feature. It’s the perfect taster for what’s to come. What could be more innocent than starting a conversation on the train with the person you’re sitting across, right? Wrong. When… Continue reading Advantages of Travelling by Train

Vhyes

In our present Screen Age full of likes, influencers and fake news, it’s very tempting to wrap yourself in the snug, fuzzy blanket of the 80s. And what could possibly be more 80s than the VHS? Mullets? Still, any kid growing up back then will relate to Ralph (Mason McNulty), a 12-year-old boy whose parents… Continue reading Vhyes

Beasts Clawing at Straws

The life of a Louis Vutton bag filled to the brim with money ain’t particularly easy: there’s the continuous moving around, being abandoned or even locked up, the ever-changing chain of owners… Tae-young wants to take care of the bag, but he’s being chased by a bunch of merciless mercenaries with a love for spliced… Continue reading Beasts Clawing at Straws

The Death of Dick Long

Following the global success of SWISS ARMY MAN, which he co-directed, we can vividly imagine Daniel Scheinert confidently entering the office of his producers with the pitch for his next project: “So, it’s about Dick, who dies in the E.R. where his two buddies Zeke and Earl have dropped him off in secret. They want… Continue reading The Death of Dick Long

Riders Of Justice

After ADAM’S APPLES and MEN AND CHICKEN, grandmaster Anders Thomas Jensen delivers a brilliant pitch-black revenge comedy. And, yes, Mads Mikkelsen is heading the cast again. Simply essential viewing!

Son

Ivan Kavanagh (THE CANAL) returns with a chilling horror flick about cults, abuse, a gruesome hunger and all-consuming darkness. To all (future) mothers and fathers, consider yourselves warned: this one rips your tender little parental hearts to pieces!

The Closet

A creepy house with a creepy closet and a little girl that goes missing… Prepare yourself for an ordeal through a hellish Neverland in this supernatural Korean horror starring Jung-woo Ha (THE CHASER) and Nam-gil Kim (MEMOIR OF A MURDERER)!

Caveat

In this diabolical puzzle by Damien McCarthy, Isaac accepts a job to look after a psychologically unstable woman in a dilapidated house on a remote island… and he has to wear an armor attached to chains to prevent him from entering her room….

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes

BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is a delightfully light hearted Japanese flick about five innocent heartwarming friends who discover that they can travel two minutes into the future. And maybe more?

Honeydew

When your camping trip falls through, don’t go knocking at the house of a family that has a striking similarity to the madmen of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. “But, but, but they looked so innocent”, Rylie (Malin Barr) and Sam (Sawyer Spielberg) sputter. “Until we started dinner…”

FOLLOW HER

Influencers do the in(s)anest things to haul in cash flows, like selling their farts in sealed jars or their used panties. Or, as is the case for Jess, film fetishists that do the weirdest – though quite harmless – things to you, without them knowing that you film and post the content on your channel.… Continue reading FOLLOW HER

REDEMPTION OF A ROGUE

After 7 years of exile, Jimmy Cullen decides to head back to his native village. A return of the prodigal son it is not, seeing as the whole village hates his guts after a lost football match. His luck isn’t better with his brother’s, who welcomes him with a firm head butt. Same for his… Continue reading REDEMPTION OF A ROGUE

SALOUM

They call them the Hyenas of Bangui. A trio of mercenaries who like to eat lead for breakfast. Chaka the brain, Rafa the muscle and Minuit the mystic have just evacuated a South American drug lord from Guinea-Bissau. They want to fly to Dakar, but a leaking fuel tank forces them to make an unscheduled… Continue reading SALOUM

THE LAST CLIENT

Suzanne obviously has it all: an ideal husband, a perfect little girl and a job she excels at. As a renowned psychologist with an impressive string of bestsellers, she makes enough to afford all the finer things in life. All she has to do is listen to her tortured patients, all day long. Kind of… Continue reading THE LAST CLIENT

LA PIETÀ

La Pietà is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, made in Carrara marble for Cardinal Jean de Bilhères’ funeral… Ergh, sorry wrong file! Instead, LA PIETÀ is a key work of strange, wonderfully bold BIFFF cinema by Álex de la Iglesia protégé Eduardo Casanova about a boy well into his 20’s… Continue reading LA PIETÀ

SWALLOWED

Having to let go of a good friend who wants to make it big in the gay porn industry, it can happen to you! And it’s what happens to Dom. He and Benjamin have been best buds since kindergarten but Benjamin, being the hot piece of ass that he is, is moving to LA to… Continue reading SWALLOWED

HUESERA

After repeated attempts in between the sheets, Valeria and Raúl have finally succeeded: there’s a baby on the way! The beginning of her pregnancy is a walk in the park, with the choice of the crib, the color of the walls and all those little lovely touches. But one night Valeria sees her neighbor across… Continue reading HUESERA

SUMMER SCARS

The first scene of SUMMER SCARS feels like a vague childhood memory slowly bubbling up again. A memory of a bright, red-hot summer day you spent romping around with your brother. Except these two brothers, Tony and Noé, did not grow up in a suburb with white picket fences but in the rough, savage landscape… Continue reading SUMMER SCARS

LIMBO by Soi Cheang

Cham Lau is a lone wolf, a cop who almost went off the deep end after he lost his family in a car crash, and he’s on the hunt. A serial killer has been spreading chaos and panic in Hong Kong’s underworld. He has the nasty habit of sawing off the left hand of his… Continue reading LIMBO by Soi Cheang

PIGGY

A small provincial village in the Spanish heartland. A sweltering heat. Flies circling around dried-up feces. Local youngsters kill their boredom with a cruelty that is as gratuitous as it is relentless. Their favorite victim? Sarah, an overweight girl who is the target of ridicule every day at her school. But one day, while doing… Continue reading PIGGY

STEPHANE

Timothée, a filmmaker with the ego of Spielberg and the talent of Tommy Wiseau, is currently shooting his update of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE on a budget of three bags of Lays chips. But before wrapping up yet another great scene, a man walks into the image and spoils the whole shot. That man is Stéphane, a… Continue reading STEPHANE

THE COFFEE TABLE

Jesús and Maria love each other, endlessly, magnificently, even though they sometimes just don’t notice. But hey, now that their little lump of love is born, everything’s going to work out. Sure, Maria still has a bit of a North-Korean streak in handling the household, calling all the shots when it comes to the color… Continue reading THE COFFEE TABLE

SOFT & QUIET

She’s young, she’s a kindergarten teacher, her name is Emily and she’s giving her all for her community. Tonight she’s going to her weekly discussion group for women, accompanied with a nice specimen of home-made pie. Once the customary greetings over with, she brings out her freshly baked delight, with right at its center a… Continue reading SOFT & QUIET

THE ELDERLY

When summer comes to Madrid, the old folk tremble before the heatwave that will wipe out many of their peers. If most of them go into hiding in front of their fan, Mario’s mother opts for a definitive breath of fresh air by jumping out of a window for no apparent reason. The shock for… Continue reading THE ELDERLY

UFO SWEDEN

1996, in the Swedish city of Norrköping. An association of antisocial nerds who have watched a little too much of the X-Files, collect and verify all the testimonies of UFO’s flying over Sweden. For 99% of the calls they find a perfect scientific explanation, but it is that 1% of mystery that drives and motivates… Continue reading UFO SWEDEN

INFINITY POOL

Welcome to the luxurious all-in resort on Tolqa Island! A safe haven with pearl-white beaches for the world’s wealthiest tourists who just want to take their minds off things. That’s what James and Em Foster were planning to do, chilling at the pool. Then they meet a couple that proposes a different method of relaxing:… Continue reading INFINITY POOL

SATURN BOWLING

The red light of the club ‘Le Cargo’ pierces through a cold, drizzling autumn night. Armand, the bouncer, escorts a group of girls back to their car, holding an umbrella over their heads like a true gentleman. The girls never lay eyes on him, but his own eyes constantly drift to their miniskirts. After they… Continue reading SATURN BOWLING

THE OTHER SHAPE

In the near future, humanity has built an artificial square paradise on the surface of the Moon. You can only reach it if you have the appearance and the way of thinking of a square. To achieve this goal, people use “square-ism machines”: presses, corrective devices and cosmetic surgeries that mold their bodies like cubes… Continue reading THE OTHER SHAPE

SISU

1944, on the desolate plains of the Lapland tundra. As World War II slowly draws to a close, a gold digger stumbles upon a 24-karat bonanza that will change his life. As he makes his way back to civilization, a convoy of defeated sons of the Third Reich cross his path in the oppoWebsite direction.… Continue reading SISU

FEROCIOUS WOLF

Inspector Alonso is perhaps getting too old for all this shit. As a law enforcer he has seen his fair share of atrocities that usually leave him cold. But child murder, that’s a different thing… He’s got a suspect. A former religious studies teacher who looks maddeningly normal. Not the kind of face you’d associate… Continue reading FEROCIOUS WOLF