27th Philadelphia Film Festival Program

AGUA VIVA
A Chinese manicurist in Miami attempts to describe feelings she doesn’t have the words for.

ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU
Tracking the downward spirals of two troubled, pop-music obsessed teens, this poetic drama is both a time capsule of Y2K-era cyberculture and a timeless portrait of youthful alienation.

ALL INCLUSIVE
Fun around-the-clock is guaranteed on a cruise, while you float along with your hotel room.

ALL SQUARE
A small-time bookie (Michael Kelly) temporarily hits it big when he starts taking bets on little league games in this scrappy dramedy.

AMIN
A solemn Senegalese immigrant in Paris finds himself in a moral struggle after he strikes up a fleeting romance with a recent divorcee while raising money for his wife and children back home.

AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL
Late filmmaker Hu Bo’s masterful debut is an intimate epic about four characters in various states of desperation whose paths intersect over the course of a single day.

ANCHOR AND HOPE
Living on a cramped boat in the London canals, bohemian couple Eva and Kat learn that more than their home might be sinkable when they enlist a friend to be the father of their child.

AND BREATHE NORMALLY
A down and out single mother and an African woman seeking asylum in Iceland find themselves relying on one another in unexpected ways in this moving social-realist drama.

ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM
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ASAKO I & II
After the love of her life mysteriously vanishes, a lovelorn college student attempts to move on, finding hope when a potential new beau eerily resembles the disappeared.

ASH IS PUREST WHITE
In this sweeping gangster epic from Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, a woman is determined to find a lost love after serving time in jail, but doesn’t recognize the China she once knew.

AT FIRST LIGHT
In this inventive sci-fi indie, a teenage boy puts everything on the line to protect his longtime crush after she come in contact with other-worldly forces.

BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY
This delightful documentary follows comedy writer Steve Young on his deep dive into the forgotten history of the elaborate, corporate-sponsored spectaculars known as industrial musicals.

BEN IS BACK
Directed with a quiet urgency by Peter Hedges, this gripping family drama stars Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges as a mother and son who must grapple with a history of addiction and broken promises on Christmas Eve.

BIRDS OF PASSAGE
The mythic birth and tragic rise of the Colombian drug trade is shown as never before in this stunning epic that opened Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

BODIED
Outrageous and insightful, Joseph Kahn’s comedy follows a white, hip-hop-obsessed grad student who becomes immersed in the world of underground rap battles.

BORDER
An unusual looking border customs agent with a sense of smell so powerful it can identify criminals meets a suspicious stranger who shares her abilities in this utterly unique mystery.

BOY ERASED
A minister’s son must come to terms with his identity when he is forced into a dubious conversion therapy camp by his well-meaning parents in this deeply moving drama based on a true story.

BURNING
In this thriller from Lee Chang-dong, one of the modern giants of cinema, an alienated young man begins to suspect the sinister intentions of the wealthy stranger who’s won the affections of the woman he longs for.

BUTTERFLIES
A motley trio of siblings is reconnected after an unexpected phone call from their estranged father prompts them to return to their hometown to fulfill a surprising last request.

CAM
Capturing any social media star’s worst nightmare, CAM is a mind-bending nosedive into the horrors of a camgirl’s loss of identity when a menacing doppelgänger hijacks her account.

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Based on a true story and set against a stunning backdrop of early-90s New York City, the lonely, once-celebrated author Lee Israel finds a new voice when she begins to imitate, forge, and sell personal letters of deceased literary icons.

CAREFUL HOW YOU GO
A darkly comic short about malevolent women.

CAROLINE
When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.

CHEF FLYNN
Determination meets deliciousness in this delectable documentary that charts teen chef Flynn McGarry’s meteoric rise from home cook to acclaimed culinary wunderkind.

COLD WAR
The winner of the coveted Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, COLD WAR offers an exquisitely realized love story that transcends a lifetime against the backdrop of postwar Eastern Europe.

COUNTERFEIT KUNKOO
In a city that houses millions, Smita finds herself fighting beasts of a different kind as she discovers a strange prerequisite to renting a house in middle-class Mumbai.

COYOTE
A coyote loses his wife and children to an attack by wolves and is overtaken by grief, delusion, and evil.

DEAD PIGS
Following the crisscrossing paths of several eccentric characters, this ensemble satire captures the outrageous showdown between tradition and modernity in rapidly developing Shanghai.

DIAMANTINO
In the most bizarre, puppy-filled political satire of the year, disgraced international soccer star DIAMANTINO unknowingly becomes the center of a Portuguese conspiracy to secede from the EU.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES
This damning portrait chronicles the turbulent life and career of disgraced former Fox News tycoon Roger Ailes, who flamed out amid a barrage of sexual harassment allegations.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS PROGRAM
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DOGMAN
A brutish hooligan terrorizing his dilapidated Italian hometown drags a gentle dog groomer into the violent turmoil, leading to an ultimate fight for bloody vengeance.

DON'T BE A HERO
Lizzy Jo, who still lives with mom at age 45, battles her loneliness and boredom on her lunch break by robbing banks in the guise of a cowboy

DONNYBROOK
Amidst the opioid epidemic infecting America’s rust belt, down-and-out ex-Marine Jarhead Earl (Jamie Bell) battles for a large cash prize in an underground boxing ring against a raging madman.

EGG
In this explosive comedy of manners from indie darling director Marianna Palka, two old friends and their husbands clash over conflicting ideas of motherhood and family while trying to reconnect at a dinner party.

EMPATHY, INC.
In this chilling techno-thriller, an investor in a mysterious virtual reality startup finds that the sordid experiences the service provides its clients aren’t as virtual as he’d been told.

EVERYBODY KNOWS
When a wedding celebration erupts in tragedy, old wounds and long grudges bubble to the surface in this riveting mystery from master filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz.

FOREBODING
Kiyoshi Kurosawa continues to dazzle audiences with his newest cult sci-fi entry that explores an alien race’s invasion of earth to further understand life, love, hate, and death.

GALVESTON
A gripping, dark, and at times brutal adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto’s (TRUE DETECTIVE) noir novel, this intense crime thriller follows Roy (Ben Foster) on a quest for retribution and redemption.

GENERAL MAGIC
An unexpected look into one of Silicon Valley’s most dramatic failures, this doc recounts the story behind the company often credited with designing the world’s first smartphone.

GIRL
This captivating and compassionate award-winning breakout film from Cannes follows determined teen Lara as she enters a prestigious ballet academy and anxiously awaits her gender affirmation surgery.

GREEN BOOK
In his foray into powerfully dramatic work as a feature director, Peter Farrelly helms the film inspired by a true friendship that transcended race, class and the 1962 Mason-Dixon line.

HAPPY AS LAZZARO
Simple-minded Lazzaro finds himself thrust into the center of a time-bending, saintly odyssey after he’s enlisted to stage a kidnapping by the rebellious son of an Italian tobacco tycoon.

HER SMELL
Years after her spotlight has faded, Elizabeth Moss’s riot grrrl Becky Something is hell bent on a comeback as she careens down a self-destructive path leaving bandmates and family in her wake.

HULA GIRL
The true, surprising, and unfortunate untold story behind one of the biggest fads in modern history.

HYBRIDS
When marine wildlife has to adapt to the pollution surrounding it, the rules of survival change.

I AM CUBA
The legendary “lost” Soviet-Cuban film returns newly restored, with all the music, characters, and jaw-dropping cinematic wizardry that was fitting for a country celebrating a revolution.

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
MOONLIGHT director Barry Jenkins returns with this achingly beautiful James Baldwin adaptation about young lovers struggling against the unjust circumstances threatening to keep them apart.

INFINITE FOOTBALL
Corneliu Porumboiu brings his trademark off-kilter humor to this documentary portrait of a small-time bureaucrat on a decades-long quest to revise the rules of the world’s most popular sport.

INTERCOURSE
A couple wakes up in bed together; they start making out and he wants to take things further, but she’s not in the mood.

INVENTING TOMORROW
Six remarkable teen inventors from around the world compete in a prestigious science fair presenting their best ideas for creating lasting solutions for local environmental problems.

KNIFE + HEART
Backed by a throbbing soundtrack and spewing ‘70s grit and glam, a campy crew of gay porn auteurs is threatened by a masked killer as the production’s director herself descends into madness.

L'ANIMALE
Tomboy Mati is treated just like one of the rowdy boys in her dirt bike gang, but when she rejects a fellow rider’s admiration, her exclusion from the group forces her to set a new course.

LETO
In this electric punk rock opus out of Cannes, an outsider musician submerges himself in Leningrad’s early-80s underground scene and finds love as he revolutionizes rock music.

LITTLE WOODS
Jeopardizing the final days of her parole, the defeated Ollie makes one last illegal trip across the Canadian border with her estranged sister to save themselves and the ones they love.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
In this groundbreaking neo-noir, a man recalls his past among the rainy, neon streets of Kaili in search of a mysterious woman and the friends he has lost before he slips into a hypnotic, 3D, dream.

MAGIC ALPS
An Afghan refugee seeking asylum in Italy brings the immigration system to a grinding halt when he includes his beloved goat in the application.

MAN IN THE WELL
Apocalypse. Two starving kids find a dead body in the ruins…

MONROVIA, INDIANA
Legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman lends his signature observational style to this eye-opening examination of the institutions and inhabitants of one small Midwestern town.

MOTHERS' INSTINCT
In this taut and smartly styled thriller set in the ‘60s, a sudden tragedy upends the previously-close bond between two women and their families.

MUG
A biting satire of prejudice and hypocrisy in rural Poland, this affecting drama follows a young man whose small town turns against him after a freak accident leaves him disfigured.

MY DEAD DAD'S PORNO TAPES
Charlie Tyrell tries to better understand his deceased father through the random objects he inherited, including a pile of VHS dirty movies.

NARRATIVE SHORTS PROGRAM
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NEVADA
A young couple’s romantic weekend getaway is interrupted by a birth control mishap.

NON-FICTION
Juliette Binoche is at her radiant best in auteur Olivier Assayas’ intelligent, uproarious comedy of manners about Parisian intellectuals struggling to come to terms with changing technology.

OVERLORD
From producer J.J. Abrams, OVERLORD is a thrilling, pulse-pounding action adventure with a twist.

PET NAMES
A young woman facing a quarter-life crisis makes the impromptu decision to invite her estranged ex-boyfriend (and his dog) on a fateful camping trip In this insightful indie dramedy.

PIG
As a serial killer targeting the country’s best filmmakers terrorizes Tehran, one cocky but deeply neurotic director doesn’t know whether to be fearful or offended not to have made the hit list in this Iranian satire.

A PRIVATE WAR
Based on the extraordinary career of renowned war correspondent and journalist Marie Colvin, this drama is an intense, powerful look leading up to the events of one of Colvin’s most dangerous assignments in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

PROSPECT
While searching for valuable gems on a remote moon, a teenage girl and her treasure-hunting father find themselves besieged by ruthless criminals in this brainy sci-fi adventure.

RAFIKI
On the lively, colorful Nairobi streets of the Slopes, two young daughters of local political opponents fall for each other despite the dangers if their controversial romance were to be discovered.

RAMEN SHOP
In this delicate family drama, a young Japanese ramen chef follows his heart and his stomach to his late mother’s hometown, hoping to uncover the truth about his family’s history.

RIVER'S EDGE
Based on a cult Japanese manga, this edgy drama follows several teenagers in a dead-end suburb of Tokyo who become enmeshed in a dangerous web of jealousy, betrayal, and violence.

ROMA
Iconoclastic auteur Alfonso Cuarón returns to motion pictures for the first time since 2013’s GRAVITY with his most personal film yet— a masterwork for the ages that begs to be seen on the big screen.

SHIRKERS
Both a film-within-a-film and a beguiling mystery, Sandi Tan’s captivating documentary attempts to piece together the long lost feature she made as a teen and track down the man who stole it from her.

SHOPLIFTERS
This year’s magnificent Cannes Palme d’Or winner from the legendary Hirokazu Kore-eda is a powerful tale of a ragtag, loving family surviving by any means necessary after taking in an abandoned child.

SIDELINED
When several members of the San Diego Chargettes agreed to pose nude for Playboy in the 1970s, the pictures ignited a media firestorm.

SIMPLE WEDDING
In this winning romantic comedy, a young Iranian-American woman is caught between her traditional first generation parents and her new white boyfriend. Could a wedding be the answer to everyone’s problems?

SOFIA
When a Moroccan woman unexpectedly gives birth to a child and is reluctant to name the father, she must face the harsh repercussions of Casablanca law and the dishonoring of her family.

STUDIO 54
Scintillating and deeply informative, this fascinating doc provides the definitive account of the meteoric rise and infamous fall from grace of New York City’s most legendary nightlife hotspot.

STYX
Alone on a solo boating trip in the middle of a vast and tempestuous sea, a German emergency doctor unexpectedly finds herself faced with a devastating life-or-death dilemma.

TEDDY PENDERGRASS: IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME
Detailing the extraordinary story of Philadelphia’s own Teddy Pendergrass, this moving doc examines his brilliant career, inspiring story, and unique contribution to the history of popular music.

THE ANGEL
Based on a true story, a baby-faced rebel-without-a-cause cruises Argentina capturing the hearts of idolizing teens despite the growing number of murders in his wake.

THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
In this crowd-pleasing documentary about food, farming, dreams, and determination, a young couple leaves city life behind for a grand experiment in holistic agriculture.

THE CLIMB
Kyle is depressed, and a weekend bike ride with his best friend, Mike, should help. Fresh air. Camaraderie. Exercise. But Mike has something to say that might ruin the ride.

THE CONQUEROR
A young man from North Philly loses his best friend to murder and takes up boxing to get out of the streets and improve his life.

THE DARE PROJECT
Ben and Johnny run into each other at a party after not having crossed paths since high school, where they shared one sexy, boundary pushing night in a swimming pool.

THE DEVIL WE KNOW
This searing new documentary exposes a mega-corporation’s active complicity and refusal to admit accountability in the poisoning of Americans with toxic chemicals.

THE DRIVER IS RED
Set in Argentina 1960, this true crime documentary follows the story of secret agent Zvi Aharoni, who hunted down one of the highest ranking Nazi war criminals.

THE EARTH IS HUMMING
Around 10% of all earthquakes occur in and around Japan, with citizens experiencing as many as 1,000 earthquakes per year.

THE FAVOURITE
Yorgos Lanthimos lends his singularly twisted sensibility to this opulent costume drama about two ambitious aristocrats ruthlessly vying for power in the court of England’s eccentric Queen Anne.

THE FRONT RUNNER
Oscar® nominee Hugh Jackman stars as the charismatic politician Gary Hart for Academy Award®-nominated director Jason Reitman in the new thrilling drama THE FRONT RUNNER.

THE GUILTY
A police officer attempts to thwart an increasingly dangerous and horrific kidnapping over the phone from an emergency center in this taut, thrilling nail-biter from Denmark.

THE HAPPINESS MACHINE
An inventor and farmer shares the workings of his projects, how they are connected to the land, and what he hopes to pass on to his children as the gift of place.

THE IMAGE BOOK
Celebrated French New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard returns with a blistering cinematic collage pondering the state of the world through a terrifying barrage of film clips, readings, and sound.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND
Set at his 70th birthday party on what would be the final day of his life, renowned yet struggling director J.J. “Jake” Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to make his triumphant comeback film.

THE PARTY'S JUST BEGINNING
This stylish, intimate examination of a young woman trapped by her own grief and sadness marks the feature directorial debut of actress Karen Gillan, who also wrote and stars in the film.

THE PASSAGE
Phil, a sweetly mysterious and childlike wanderer, adventures across a surreal multicultural landscape in order to escape the clutches of two bumbling pursuers.

THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING
The business side of art goes under the microscope in this frank, incisive doc that puts the art scene in its sights on a mission to finally determine how exactly the world got this way.

THE QUAKE
After surviving a tsunami in PFF24’s THE WAVE, geologist Kristian Eikjord must once again warn the citizens of Norway of an impending colossal disaster in this heart-pounding thrill ride.

THE TIGER
On a winter evening Tiger has to take the first steps towards independence.

THE UPSIDE
Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart’s infectious chemistry illuminates the story of a wealthy quadriplegic man’s newfound zest for life when he befriends an ex-con from the other side of the tracks in STXfilms and Lantern Entertainment’s new heartfelt comedy THE UPSIDE.

THE WATER SLIDE
The story of Verrückt, the world’s tallest water slide.

THE WIND
Left alone on the edge of the Western frontier, a young settler must guard her homestead and her mind against dark forces lurking just beyond her lantern’s light in this unnerving genre-bender.

THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD
The latest feature from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD is an engrossing look into the life and career of legendary director Orson Welles and the making of his final film, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE!
An anthology film set in colonial Africa in the late 19th century telling the stories of five different characters.

THIS ONE'S FOR THE LADIES
An empowering and refreshingly honest look at female sexuality and solidarity, this eye-opening documentary follows Newark’s Nasty Boyz exotic dance troupe and the ladies who love them.

THUNDER ROAD
A young police officer’s escalating struggles reach a breaking point in this grim yet awkwardly endearing character study effortlessly adapted from the Sundance grand-prize winning short of the same name.

TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD
After a massacre leaves him the sole survivor, a French WWII soldier goes rogue in the nightmarish jungles of Indochina in search of revenge as his own heart descends into darkness.

TRANSIT
Celebrated auteur Christian Petzold captures the plight of a man attempting to escape Nazi-occupied France under a false pseudonym, only it isn’t during WWII— it’s now.

TREAT ME LIKE FIRE
A young woman falls for a roguish conman and gets swept up in the alluring but dangerous world of underground gambling in this sexy, stylish romantic thriller from France.

VIRGENCITA
A woman’s failed attempt at masturbating leaves her accused of being suicidal.

VOX LUX
Natalie Portman shines in one of her most audacious roles yet as a pop mega-star spiraling out of control in Brady Corbet’s stylish indictment of our cultural generation.

WHAT THEY HAD
Hilary Swank stars as a woman who must reckon with her complicated past when she returns home to care for her Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother, poignantly played by Blythe Danner.

WIDOWS
Steve McQueen follows up his Academy Award-winning 12 YEARS A SLAVE with a gripping thriller about four women left with no options other than to pull off a daring multi-million dollar heist.

WILD
Regardless of the harsh environment that surrounds Leo, a 22-year-old gay hustler, he longs for human connection and love, and will do anything to find it.

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY
Starring a vivacious Molly Shannon as Emily Dickinson, this queer imagining cheekily portrays the notoriously secretive writer as an ardent lover with a tumultuous romantic life.

WILDLIFE
In this smoldering directorial debut from celebrated actor Paul Dano, 14-year-old Joe watches his parents’ marriage fall apart while a destructive wildfire blazes outside their idyllic Montana town.

WOMAN AT WAR
In this rousing Icelandic drama, a mild-mannered choir instructor becomes an unlikely eco-warrior when she decides to take the fight against big industry into her own hands.

WRITE WHEN YOU GET WORK
A young woman struggling to get by in New York City finds her fragile existence upended when an alluring figure from her past inserts himself back into her life and begins stirring up trouble.

YOMEDDINE
This Cannes award-winning road movie follows two very unlikely friends as they journey across Egypt in search of long-lost families and a place to call home.

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY
In this uproarious comedy of errors, an angsty teen on his last spring break discovers that his father (Jim Gaffigan) is not as uptight as he once thought—at least not with his second family.

ZEROES
Two dim-witted roommates catch the vigilante bug when they thwart a Kensington robbery and become the heroes Philadelphia didn’t know it needed, must less deserved, in this hilarious homegrown comedy.