NEW RELEASES SEEN, 2026

 

([v] video piece; [s] short, under 30 minutes; [m] medium length, 30-69 min; * grade changed upon repeat viewing; \ repeat viewing of something I walked out of or fell asleep during)

 

[10]

 

 

[9]

 

 

[8]

Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont, France / Italy / Belgium / Portugal / Spain / Qatar)

 

[7]

The Arab (Malek Bensmaïl, Algeria / Belgium / France / Switzerland / Saudi Arabia)

Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)

Black Trees (Francisco Rojas, Chile) [s]

Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert (Yuen Woo-Ping, China)

Broken Rage (Takeshi Kitano, Japan) [m]

Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii Junior Ghosts - Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (Louise Weard, Canada)

The Christophers (Steven Soderbergh, U.S. / U.K.)

Dao (Alain Gomis, France / Guinea-Bissau / Senegal)

A Dark Room (Heehyun Choi, South Korea) [s]

A Date with Shirley (Ken Jacobs, U.S.) [m]

The Day She Returns (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

Depression (Bram Ruiter, Netherlands) [s]

The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude, France / Romania)

Duse (Pietro Marcello, Italy / France)

Everything Else is Noise (Nicolás Pereda, Mexico / Canada / Germany)

Flim Flam (Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Austria) [s]

Forever...Forever (Johann Lurf, Austria) [s]

Fractais Tropicais (Leonardo Pirondi, Brazil / Portugal)

How to Excel at Everything (Marion Balac, France) [s]

I Love Boosters (Boots Riley, U.S.)

In Spite of Hell (Maximilien Luc Proctor, Germany) [s]

Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman (Mawena Yehouessi, Fallon Mayanja, Rob Jacobs, Victoire Karina Kampire, Paul Shemisi, Anne Reijniers, Dem. Rep. of Congo / Belgium) [m]

Koki, Ciao (Quenton Miller, Netherlands) [s]

The Little Sister (Hafsia Herzi, France / Germany)

Local Sensations (Tulapop Saenjaroen, Thailand) [s]

London (Sebastian Brameshuber, Austria)

My Wife Cries (Angela Schanelec, Germany / France)

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson, Canada)

Out Iris (Rushnan Jaleel, India) [s]

Pure Reason (Sofia Bohdanowicz, Canada) [s]

Rage Bait (Damon Packard, U.S.) [s]

Resurrection (Bi Gan, China / France)

The Rib of the Greater Bay Area (Zhou Tao, Hong Kong)

Rumkugeln Roll Around (Sasha Pirker, Austria) [s]

See Through the Hollowed Blue Hellebore (Jiayi Chen, U.S.) [s]

Surrendur (Karthik Pandian, U.S.)

Things Many Eyes Have Seen (Yannick Mosimann, Switzerland) [s]

Travelers' Suite (Leonardo Pirondi, Brazil / Portugal) [s]

Tulsa (Scott Stark, U.S.) [s]

Unmeasurable Particles (Francisco Rojas, Chile) [s]

A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Thailand / Singapore / France / Germany)

The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania, France / Tunisia / U.S. / U.K. / Cyprus / Saudi Arabia / Italy / Netherlands)

A Weak & Panicked Animal (Jake Starr, Australia) [s]

The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants (Burak Çevik, Turkey / Germany / U.K. / Croatia) [s]

What We Said to Brussels Airlines (Collectif Faire-Part, Democratic Republic of Congo / Belgium) [s]

Yes (Nadav Lapid, Israel / France / Cyprus / Germany)

 

[6]

And the Moon Sets Over the Temple That Was (Justin Jinsoo Kim, South Korea)

Animal Eye (Carlo Nasisse, Costa Rica / U.S.) [s]

Anniversary (Jan Komasa, U.S. / Ireland)

Anomalies dans le paysage (Félix Caraballo, France) [s]

An Archive of Disappearing Sounds (Michaela Michalak, Canada) [s]

CAMP (Avalon Fast, Canada)

Case 137 (Dominik Moll, France)

Eagles of the Republic (Tarik Saleh, Denmark / Finland / France / Sweden)

Eight Bridges (James Benning, U.S.)

Erupcja (Pete Ohs, U.S.)

Estuary (tidal) (ebb) (Julie Murray, U.S.) [s]

Exit 8 (Genji Kawamura, Japan)

Extra Life (and Decay) (Stéphanie Lagarde, France / Netherlands) [s]

Fantasy (Isabel Pagliai, France)

Flies (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico)

Forbidden Fruits (Meredith Alloway, U.S. / Canada)

Forever Your Maternal Animal (Valentina Maurel, Costa Rica / Belgium / France / Mexico)

Fragments Of (Elena Calvo, Spain) [s]

Geomeunyeo (Park Kyujae, South Korea) [s]

Humboldt USA (G. Anthony Svatek, U.S.)

Is God Is (Aleshea Harris, U.S.)

Last May in Theaters (Arief Budiman, Soutk Korea / Indonesia) [s]

Magellan (Lav Diaz, Philippines / Portugal / Spain / France / Taiwan)

Manifesto of Feeble and Bitter Love (Abinadi Meza, U.S. / Mexico) [s]

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (Leonardo Pirondi, Brazil) [s]

Mounds Above the Earth (Jiayi Chen, U.S.) [s]

Narrative (Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand / South Korea) [m]

Ndjimu (Deep Cobalt) (Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, Democratic Republic of Congo / U.S.) [m]

The Orbit of Minor Satellites (Chris Sullivan, U.S.)

Paper Trail (Don Hertzfeldt, U.S.) [s]

Pixel Metabolism's Interface Ulcer (Zhongyao Wang, China) [s]

Polychora (Abinadi Meza, U.S. / Mexico) [s]

The Sheep Detectives (Kyle Balda, U.K. / U.S.)

Sheep in the Box (Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan)

Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi, France / Germany / Hungary)

Three Kilometres to the End of the World (Emanuel Pârvu, Romania)

Trial of Hein (Kai Stänicke, Germany)

Two Pids (John Smith, U.K.) [s]

Two Seasons, Two Strangers (Sho Miyake, Japan)

Veronique (Friedl vom Gröller, Austria) [s]

Voicemails for Isabelle (Leah McKendrick, U.S.)

Wounded Edges (Yannick Mosimann, Switzerland) [s]

Xtended Release (Joshua Gen Solondz, U.S.) [s]

 

[5]

Alpha (Julia Ducournau, France / Belgium)

blue and sentimental (Chloë Gordon, Canada) [s]

A Circle As the Center of the Whole (Utkarsh, India) [s]

Cursive (Serena Lee, Canada) [m]

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (David Frankel, U.S.)

Document With No End (Kym McDaniel, U.S.) [s]

Every Contact Leaves a Trace (Lynne Sachs, U.S.)

Foam of Worlds (Anna Marziano, Italy / Germany)

Fuori (Mario Martone, Italy / France)

Getting LOST (Taylor Morden, U.S.)

Gorg O Mish (Radin Khodadadi, Canada / Iran) [s]

La Gradiva (Marine Atlan, France / Italy)

Herida (Wounded Gazelle) (Diana Esther, Domimican Republic) [s]

The Land Where Ghosts Could Speak (Tianhui Wu, U.K.) [s]

The Love That Remains (Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland / Denmark / France / Sweden)

Mother Future Self (Tori Lancaster, U.S.)

Pasaj [Alley] (Defne Kirmizi, Turkey) [s]

La Perra (Dominga Sotomayor, Chile / Brazil)

Pillion (Harry Lighton, U.K. / Ireland / Netherlands)

The Rabbit Always Dies (Oona Taper, U.S.) [s]

Remarkably Bright Creatures (Olivia Newman, U.S.)

The Station (Sara Ishaq, Yemen / Jordan / France / Germany / Netherlands / Norway / Qatar)

The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold, U.S. / U.K. / Sweden / Cyrpus / Hungary)

Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa, France / Germany / Netherlands / Latvia / Romania / Lithuania / Ukraine)

Unless the Eye Catch Fire (Brandon Poole, Canada) [s]

 

[4]

Another Earth (Ben Russell, France) [s]

Back Home (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan / Laos)

Beating Hearts (Gilles Lellouche, France / Belgium)

bio (space/opal) (Cassie Packham, Canada) [s]

Caves of Our Insides (Sabīne Šnē, Latvia) [s]

Clay (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.) [m]

FoUBARthes: Death of the Author (Dayna McLeod, Canada) [s]

Hamnet (Chloé Zhao, U.S. / U.K.)

Limonov. The Ballad (Kirill Serebrennikov, France / Italy / Spain)

Mother, You Have Not Died Yet. But You Will. And When You Do, You Will Finally Be Alive Again (Advik Beni, South Africa)

The Noise of Time (Patricio Escartín, Mexico) [s]

Obsession (Curry Barker, U.S. / U.K.)

The River Train (Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas A. Vignale, Argentina)

Romería (Carla Simón, Spain / Germany)

Send Help (Sam Raimi, U.S.)

Two Pianos (Arnaud Desplechin, France / Turkey)

Unerasable! (Socrates Saint-Wulfstan Drakos, Belgium / Thailand / Sweden)

Weird Absurd Whatever (Zeynep Dadak and Çiçek Kahraman, Turkey) [s]

The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas, France / U.K. / U.S.)

 

[3]

Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately? (Amy Scott, U.S.)

In the Blink of an Eye (Andrew Stanton, U.S.)

 

[2]

 

 

[1]

 

 

[W/O]

Carolina Caroline (Adam Rehmeier, U.S.)

Ella McKay (James L. Brooks, U.S.)

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (Gore Verbinski, U.S. / Germany)

Krakatoa (Carlos Casas, Spain / U.K. / Poland)

Mother Mary (David Lowery, U.S. / Germany / Ireland / Finland)

Peak Everything (Anne Émond, Canada)

A Poet (Simón Mesa Soto, Colombia / Germany / Sweden)

 

briefly sampled

The Bride! (Maggie Gyllenhaal, U.S.)

Eberhard as Seen by Amit (Amit Dutta, India / Switzerland)

Suburbia, There and Back (Damien Cattinari, France) [m]

The Serpent's Skin (Alice Maio Mackay, U.S. / Australia)

Urchin (Harris Dickinson, U.K. / U.S.)

The Vanishing Point (Bani Khoshnoudi, Iran / U.S. / France)

Variations on a Theme (Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, South Africa / Netherlands / Qatar)

We Are the Fruits of the Forest (Rithy Panh, Cambodia / France)

Wuthering Heights (Emerald Fennell, U.K. / U.S.)