32ND PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM
20,000 SPECIES OF BEES
Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s debut feature is a tender portrait of girlhood and womanhood as seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old during a family vacation in the countryside.
ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT
Produced by Barry Jenkins, the debut feature of award-winning poet and photographer Raven Jackson is an evocative, richly textured journey through multiple decades of one woman’s life in rural Mississippi.
AMERICAN FICTION
Opening Night Film
In this hilariously biting satire, a terrific Jeffrey Wright stars as a disillusioned black author forced to reckon with the nature of the publishing industry after he compromises his own integrity in his search for success.
AMERICAN SYMPHONY
Prepping an ambitious new project while his partner grapples with a devastating illness, award-winning musician Jon Batiste experiences a year of artistic triumphs and intense personal struggles.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
When a mysterious ailment causes some humans to transform into different species of animal, a devoted father must do whatever it takes to track down his mutating wife and protect his teenage son in this crowd-pleasing dramedy.
ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM
ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM | 88 MIN
ART DEALERS
The rapturous, sweaty live experience of Philly rock band Low Cut Connie—fronted by charismatic leader Adam Weiner—is celebrated in all its beer-soaked, piano slamming glory in this rousing documentary.
ART FOR EVERYBODY
Tracking the rise and fall of Thomas Kinkade, this poignant, revealing documentary delves beneath his reputation as the “Painter of Light” to explore the multifaceted, troubled man whose work revolutionized the business of art-making.
BAD PRESS
This thrilling political documentary spotlights a courageous journalist’s perilous fight to expose government corruption and protect free speech rights in Muscogee Nation.
BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN PHILADELPHIA
This timely and powerful documentary follows three Philadelphia young people who are working to overcome violence and forge a positive new path through the power of basketball.
BETWEEN THE RAINS
With an empathetic subject at its core, this heartwarming documentary from Kenya captures a young man’s exploration of his identity amidst the ecological erosion of his community.
THE BOOK OF SOLUTIONS
Indie auteur Michel Gondry mines his own history behind the camera for this madcap comedy of errors about an imaginative but erratic filmmaker on an obsessive quest to finish his magnum opus.
BRAVE THE DARK
Based on a powerful true story, this Pennsylvania-shot drama stars Jared Harris as an inspiring high school teacher determined to help a troubled student overcome his traumatic past.
BRAVO, BURKINA!
In this visually stunning, time-traveling meditation on lives not led, filmmaker Walé Oyéjidé crafts an imaginative epic about a Burkinabé man confronting the culture and family he left behind.
BREAK THE GAME
A prolific trans video game streamer grapples with universal questions of identity and connection, all while broadcasting her life to thousands of (sometimes toxic) viewers in this eye-opening, moving doc.
THE BREAKING ICE
Three adrift twentysomethings navigate a budding love triangle during a blustery winter along China’s northern border in this captivating relationship drama from acclaimed director Anthony Chen.
A BRIGHTER TOMORROW
In a jubilant return to form for Nanni Moretti, this semi-autobiographical cine-memoir finds the Italian auteur playing an aging director struggling to finish his latest film.
BUCKY F*CKING DENT
David Duchovny brings his own acclaimed novel to the big screen in this scrappy, big-hearted story of a rocky reunion between a terminally ill, Red Sox-obsessed man and his estranged son.
CATERPILLAR
Hoping to transform the way the world sees him and the way he sees himself, a man seeks out a risky cosmetic procedure in this unsettling and moving meditation on beauty, identity, and self-acceptance.
CHESTNUT
STRANGER THINGS star Natalia Dyer plays a recent college graduate who falls in with a circle of restaurant workers and navigates romantic entanglements under the neon lights of the eponymous Philadelphia street.
CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT
In this offbeat Argentinian indie, a pious, elderly chapel custodian is in desperate search of a way to show up the other women at her church–even if it means staging a miracle herself.
COPA 71
Nearly forgotten after 50 years, the remarkable story of the 1971 Women’s World Cup is finally given the spotlight with never-before-seen footage and interviews with the soccer superstars who kicked it off.
DEEP SEA
After an accident on a cruise ship throws her overboard, a young girl and her new underwater companions embark on a turbulent quest to find her mother in this visually astonishing animated adventure.
THE DELINQUENTS
Fed up with his daily milieu, an Argentinian bank manager coordinates the perfect heist that will earn him minimal prison time only if his unknowing accomplice will agree to stash his haul.
DREAM SCENARIO
An everyman attains overnight celebrity when he inexplicably turns up in thousands of people’s dreams in this horror-laced comedy from Sick of Myself director Kristoffer Borgli and co-producer Ari Aster.
EILEEN
The arrival of a bewitching psychologist at a 1960s penitentiary awakens strange new feelings in a mousy young woman, leading her down a tantalizingly dark path full of shock and glee.
EVIL DOES NOT EXIST
In this slow-burn masterpiece from DRIVE MY CAR auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the peaceful existence of a mountainside community in rural Japan is threatened by misguided urban developers.
THE (EX)PERIENCE OF LOVE
To save their relationship, a seemingly happy couple must track down and sleep with all of their past lovers in this insightful, gently surreal romantic comedy from Belgium.
FALLEN LEAVES
A touching love story about two lost souls, Aki Kaurismäki’s rumored swan song perfectly encapsulates the Finnish master’s deadpan wit, visual ingenuity, and quiet humanism.
FANCY DANCE
Lily Gladstone delivers a fierce performance as a Native American woman trying desperately to hold her family together after the disappearance of her sister in this urgent and deeply affecting family drama.
FANTASTIC MACHINE
Hilarious, informative, and deeply troubling, this ambitious cinematic essay tracks the evolution of the recorded image from photography’s inception to our current, content-obsessed era.
FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
A Palme d’Or-winning landmark of Chinese cinema, this lush, riveting love triangle set against the backdrop of the Peking Opera is presented in an uncut 4K restoration.
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED
Filmmaker Joanna Arnow stars as a thirtysomething woman in New York City navigating her BDSM relationship and cubicle hell with a defiant shrug in this wry send-up of modern millennial living.
FILMADELPHIA SHORTS PROGRAM
FILMADELPHIA SHORTS PROGRAM | 100 MIN
FINGERNAILS
Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in this thought-provoking, melancholy sci-fi romance set in an off-kilter reality in which a mysterious test determines whether couples are truly in love.
FOE
Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan star in this near-future sci-fi about a struggling farmer who’s offered a lucrative opportunity to work on a space station while an AI replica remains at home with his wife.
FOOD AND COUNTRY
Concerned about the impact of the pandemic on independent farmers and chefs, culinary maven Ruth Reichl talks to innovators across the country working to repair America’s broken food system and build a more sustainable future.
FOUR DAUGHTERS
This profound documentary character study seamlessly blends reality and fiction, enlisting actors to embody two missing Tunisian women as their family members struggle to find closure.
GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI
Immersing viewers in the world of competitive high school mariachi, this tuneful doc follows one hard-working team as it overcomes numerous obstacles in pursuit of a state championship.
GOODBYE JULIA
Mohamed Kordofani’s Cannes prizewinner merges Sudanese history into an affecting narrative about two women whose vastly different worlds collide after a horrific tragedy.
GREEN BORDER
Examining the refugee crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border from multiple perspectives, Agnieszka Holland’s searing drama is one of the master filmmaker’s most ambitious, devastating works.
THE HOLDOVERS
During a prep school’s winter break in the 1970s, the unlikely trio of a prickly professor, grieving cafeteria manager, and a disillusioned student find warmth in Alexander Payne’s touching dramedy.
I THINK I'M SICK
Given a second chance at life after a suicide attempt, a high school senior reluctantly joins the cross country team and begins a friendship with a young woman with struggles of her own.
I USED TO BE FUNNY
Rachel Sennott’s layered performance anchors this absorbing, darkly comedic indie about a stand-up comedian who’s attempting to put her life back together after a traumatic series of events.
IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE
Zoljargal Purevdash’s affecting and personal portrayal follows Ulzii, a gifted teen who is suddenly faced with incredibly adult choices when his mother leaves him and his siblings in the dead of winter.
IN OUR DAY
Prolific Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s wry, subtly profound take on meaning and connection ties together two seemingly unrelated (but strikingly similar) storylines about artists and their admirers.
INFESTED
An arachnophobe’s nightmare, this squirm-inducing horror film finds residents of a rundown French apartment building battling against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.
IT'S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL
Known for stirring harmonies and socially conscious lyrics, iconic folk rock duo Indigo Girls are the subject of this intimate and insightful documentary, which tracks their decades-long career.
KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA
Marco Bellocchio’s sumptuously mounted historical drama is the explosive true story of a Jewish boy whose kidnapping at the hands of the Catholic Church caused an international scandal.
KIM'S VIDEO
Equal parts cinema history and gonzo journalism, this doc conjures the halcyon days of legendary rental shop Kim’s Video and investigates the whereabouts of its collection.
KUBI
The latest film from auteur Takeshi Kitano is an epically bloody, darkly humorous, and surprisingly queer dramatization of one of the most famous political assassinations in Japanese history.
LA CHIMERA
Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher returns with a luminous, boldly cinematic caper following a band of grave robbers and their mysterious leader, a lovelorn Brit charismatically played by Josh O’Connor.
LATE BLOOMERS
Karen Gillan delivers a knockout tragicomic performance as a hapless twentysomething in a love-hate relationship with a cantankerous Polish woman in this poignant, hilarious indie.
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
A 1970s late-night talk show host plans a daring Halloween special to save his failing program, only to discover there may be a sinister entity afoot.
Live Action Shorts Program 1
LIVE ACTION SHORTS PROGRAM 1 | 91 MIN
LIVE ACTION SHORTS 2
LIVE ACTION SHORTS 2 | 104 MIN
LOUSY CARTER
Man-baby Lousy Carter struggles to complete his animated Nabokov adaptation, teaches a graduate seminar on The Great Gatsby, and sleeps with his best friend’s wife. He has six months to live.
MAESTRO
Epic yet intimate, this decades-spanning drama offers a fascinating look at legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, focusing on both his artistry and his adoring but tumultuous marriage.
THE MONK AND THE GUN
Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji follows up his Oscar-nominated LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM with a gently satirical ensemble comedy about a village learning to reconcile tradition with modernity.
MONSTER
Revered director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to Japan with this intense drama, employing an intricate, Rashomon-like structure to unravel the mystery of what transpired between two troubled boys.
THE OLD OAK
Ken Loach’s latest film is a heartfelt and impassioned plea for empathy and solidarity in the face of prejudice, focusing on the unlikely friendship between a small-town pub owner and a young Syrian refugee.
OMEN
The exhilarating, visually rich first feature from Belgian-Congolese musician Baloji tells the intertwined tales of four people accused of various forms of witchcraft and sorcery.
PERFECT DAYS
A lovely meditation on the magnificence of an ordinary life, this late-career masterpiece from master filmmaker Wim Wenders follows a good-natured cleaner of Tokyo’s public toilets.
PIANOFORTE
At once tenderly moving and keenly riveting, this doc follows several gifted pianists as they compete in the rigorous and highly prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition.
PLAYTIME
In his magnum opus, French legend Jacques Tati once again transforms into clumsy cinematic hero Monsieur Hulot as he stumbles through a postmodern, absurdist Paris filled with tourists, bureaucrats, and the bourgeoisie.
THE PROMISED LAND
Mads Mikkelsen brings primal intensity to his portrayal of a lowborn army captain striving to establish a settlement in Denmark’s notoriously inhospitable Jutland Heath in this brutal, beautiful historical epic.
RAGING GRACE
An innovative blend of social commentary and spine-tingling scares, this SXSW award-winner follows an undocumented Filipina house cleaner whose latest snobby employer just might be her last.
RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE
As climate change affects Miami Beach’s elite, developers invest in Liberty City, a historic Black enclave outside the floodplains. Despite promises of progress, residents face possible displacement and cultural erasure.
RED ROOMS
Impeccably crafted and deeply unsettling, this shape-shifting Québécois thriller probes the warped psyche of a woman obsessed with a sadistic serial killer and his legendary snuff films.
RICHLAND
Using candid, multifaceted narratives, this vivid documentary explores a city forged by the Manhattan Project, where nuclear pride and a haunting legacy coexist.
RIDDLE OF FIRE
Equipped with paintball guns and a whole lot of attitude, three rebellious children embark on a dirt bike odyssey across rural Wyoming to create the perfect blueberry pie for their mother in this instant cult classic.
ROBOT DREAMS
A dog and a robot form a beautiful bond, but when a mechanical malfunction tears them apart, they’re forced onto journeys of individual growth in this affecting, melancholy tale of unlikely friendship for all ages.
RUSTIN
Colman Domingo soars in this rousing biographical drama, which shines a long-overdue spotlight on the contributions of trailblazing, openly gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
SALTBURN
Closing Night Film
Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell returns with this provocative, visually stunning psychological thriller, starring Barry Keoghan as an enigmatic social striver and Jacob Elordi as the privileged object of his obsession.
SCREAM OF MY BLOOD: A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY
Known for their raucous live shows, punk rock immigrant folk heroes Gogol Bordello delve into their past and present as they voyage home to Ukraine amidst a smattering of bombs.
THE SEARCHERS
In this troubling, powerful, and hugely influential cornerstone of the Western genre, John Wayne stars as a Civil War veteran seeking revenge and redemption on the American frontier.
THE SETTLERS
A mixed-race Chilean accompanies a disgraced English captain and an American mercenary on a journey to secure a trade route for a wealthy landowner with ulterior motives in this harrowing and hauntingly beautiful Western.
SEVEN SAMURAI
An aging ronin puts together an A-Team of masterless samurai to protect a village of farmers from nefarious bandits in Akira Kurosawa’s influential symphony of action, suspense, and heart.
SILVER DOLLAR ROAD
When a land developer leverages legal loopholes to seize waterfront property owned by a Black family for more than a century, it sparks a decades-long battle exposing the fractured American system fueling economic disparity.
SLEEP
In this devilishly entertaining domestic thriller, a young, expectant wife must figure out how to stop her husband’s nightmarish sleepwalking habits before he harms himself or his family.
SLY
Iconic actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone looks back on his storied five-decade career with candor and hard-won wisdom in this intimate, revealing documentary portrait.
SMOKING TIGERS
Director So Young Shelly Yo delivers a refreshing Korean-American coming-of-age narrative about a girl navigating the pressures of adolescence when she is admitted into an elite school.
STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING
Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams offers a profound and unflinching exploration of America’s enduring struggle with racist, anti-Black narratives and the continued impact on policy and culture.
STAND UP & SHOUT: SONGS FROM A PHILLY HIGH SCHOOL
This soul-stirring musical documentary highlights a Philadelphia high school program that encourages students to channel their thoughts, feelings, and dreams into an album of rousing original songs.
A STILL SMALL VOICE
This intimate and profoundly moving documentary follows a dedicated hospital chaplain navigating a year-long residency where she learns to provide spiritual care to terminally ill patients.
THE SWEET EAST
The delirious directorial debut from famed indie cinematographer Sean Price Williams finds a high school senior ditching her class trip for an outrageous infiltration of fringe communities along the East Coast.
THE TASTE OF THINGS
Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel make a delectable pair in this luminous period romance about a couple who channel their passions into mouthwatering, elaborate gastronomic creations.
THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE
In a misguided attempt to solve a string of thefts, a virtuous young teacher unwittingly sets off a disastrous chain of events in this gripping, conversation-starting German drama.
THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
The team behind CHICO & RITA returns with a vibrant animated docudrama, following the brilliant career, mysterious disappearance, and lasting influence of bossa nova trailblazer Francisco Tenório Júnior.
THIS CLOSENESS
Attending a high school reunion, a young couple confronts their personal issues and a reclusive Airbnb host in Philly native Kit Zauhar’s tantalizingly tense chamber drama.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS: D’ARTAGNAN
Featuring lavish production values and a star-studded cast including Vincent Cassel and Eva Green, this adaptation breathes thrilling new life into the swashbuckling Alexandre Dumas classic.
TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.
William Friedkin’s gritty crime thriller plunges viewers into the underbelly of Los Angeles, following an unorthodox lawman determined to avenge his partner’s murder and catch a counterfeiter.
TÓTEM
As chaos and tension mounts, a seven-year-old girl watches her relatives prepare for a surprise birthday party that may also be a farewell in this compassionate, lived-in, critically acclaimed family portrait.
UPON ENTRY
A couple is flagged by a border agent and forced to endure an invasive probe into their lives in the hauntingly relevant sociopolitical debut from Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez.
WHITE PLASTIC SKY
Set in a future dystopian society in which there are no plants or animals, this chilling yet romantic animated drama follows a man desperate to save his wife from the inevitable.