Film Under the Stars 2024

Kaurismäki’s “fourth part of the proletariat trilogy” is a tender tragicomedy about two lonely souls seeking love in a time of economic inequality, war, and uncertainty. Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize and the Grand Prix of The International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) for Best Film of the Year.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ (The Favourite, The Lobster) film is a story about a fantastic transformation of a young woman who, liberated from the prejudices of her day and age, stands for women’s equality and freedom. The satirical version of Frankenstein for the 21st century won the director a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy category.

October 1958. The Cold War is at its peak. A group of young Yugoslav scientists are irradiated with a lethal dose of uranium. They are sent to Paris for medical treatment by Professor Mathé at the Curie Institute. Mathé proposes the first-ever human bone marrow transplant. Is this an experiment with living beings or does he truly want to help them?

The great Hayao Miyazaki returns with a deeply personal, autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and the art of creating. The winner of this year’s Oscar for animated feature is a film full of breathtaking beauty, mischievous humour, and gentle melancholy.

In 1755, the impoverished outcast Captain Kahlen sets out to conquer the harsh, uninhabitable plains of Jutland with a seemingly impossible goal: to build a colony in the name of the King. If he succeeds, he will receive a desperately desired Royal title. However, the sole ruler of the area, the ruthless and cruel Frederik de Schinkel, arrogantly believes that this land belongs to him …

Rome, the 1940s. Delia wants to be a good mother and wife. Always busy, she lives with her husband Ivano and their three children. Ivano is the harsh padre padrone, but his bedridden father is even worse. Delia has occasional moments of relief exchanging secrets with her best friend Marisa, and she is happy at the prospect of her oldest daughter getting married to a wealthier young man. She submissively accepts the fate that was assigned to her, until one day a mysterious letter arrives …

Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig strive to build an idyllic life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp …

Seventy-year-old Mahin lives alone in Tehran after her husband’s death and her daughter’s departure for Europe, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life. However, as Mahin opens herself up to a new romance, what begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening.

Snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, the young Furiosa falls into the hands of a biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home. 

Philosophy professor Gary Johnson moonlights as a hitman for the New Orleans Police Department. Gifted in inhabiting different personalities to catch hapless people hoping to bump off their enemies, Gary descends into morally dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to one of those potential criminals, a beautiful woman named Madison … 

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside his highly structured daily routine, he enjoys his passion for music and books. And he also loves trees and takes photos of them … With Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Nina Simone on the soundtrack. Best Actor Award in Cannes and nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption and violence, a teacher tries a radical new method to unleash the curiosity and potential of his students … and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story!

When the charismatic Ingeborg Bachmann first meets playwright Max Frisch, they are already international celebrities of the literary world. Their courtship is rapid, and in the next four years they share a passionate but open relationship where friction is never far from the surface …

Sandra, a successful German writer, her French husband Samuel and their visually impaired eleven-year-old son Daniel live a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he committed suicide or was killed by his wife… Palme d’Or winner 2023!

Quentin Dupieux (Daaaaaalí!) returns behind the camera with a provocative, absurdist yet hilarious love letter to terrible films and bad actors facing their characters and their lines. This is farcical, surrealistic cinema that only he is capable of – with a message, if not many – and starring his most A-list cast yet. Opening film of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Tashi Duncan is a former tennis prodigy turned coach. She is a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak, Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he needs to face off against the washed-up Patrick – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. 

The Holdovers reunites Sideways’ Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school during the winter break in 1970. Golden Globe for Giamatti and an Oscar for Joy Randolph.

Andrew Haigh’s film (45 Years) is a nostalgic, dreamy story about loss, loneliness and the power of love.

Fanny and Jean look like an ideal married couple – they’re both professionally accomplished, they live in a gorgeous apartment in an exclusive neighbourhood of Paris, and they seem to be in love just as much as they were when they first met. But when Fanny accidentally bumps into Alain, a former high school classmate, she’s swept off her feet …

Family Therapy revolves around a nouveau riche family living in a glass house, exuding an air of detached superiority. This serves as a satirical backdrop for a humorous reimagining of the premise of Pasolini’s Teorema: a young stranger arrives at the house, disrupting the delicate balance of the family’s dynamics, revealing a world of chaos and dysfunctional relationships hidden beneath its surface … With a tragicomical tone, the film explores contemporary social issues. Family Therapy had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Summer by the Baltic Sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so do their emotions …

1885. Peerless cook Eugénie has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin for the last twenty years. As time went by, the practice of gastronomy and mutual admiration turned into a romantic relationship. Their association gives rise to dishes, each one more delicious than the next, which confound even the world’s most illustrious chefs. But Eugénie is fond of her freedom and has never wanted to marry Dodin. So he decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.

When the teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend … Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla’s long courtship and turbulent marriage.

In this fiercely original sex, drugs and hip-hop biopic, Kneecap play themselves in a global rallying cry for the defence of native cultures.