During its first two-plus decades, the Animation Show of Shows showcased 41 short films that went on to garner Academy Award nominations and 11 that won the Oscar! Its all-new 22nd annual edition includes10 animated gems from nine different countries—nine new works made between 2019 and 2021 and one newly restored classic, Frédéric Back’s Oscar-winning The Man Who Planted Trees (Canada, 1987).
TBC
The life of a family of peach farmers in a small village in Catalonia changes when the owner of their large estate dies and his lifetime heir decides to sell the land, suddenly threatening their livelihood.
Rfor strong bloody war violence and grisly images.
All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.
There’s a new sheriff in town—and he’s Black! Mel Brooks’ uproarious western spoof (which also skewers American racism) was co-written by Richard Pryor and stars Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and Brooks himself.
In this notorious W. German cult/horror film, a teenage girl obsessively in love with a rising new-wave pop singer finally gets to meet her idol—with catastrophic results. The movie’s unhinged heroine (Désirée Nosbusch) evokes Isabelle Adjani’s hysterical character in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, made a year earlier. No one under 18 admitted!
A donkey working in a Polish circus soon gets to experience the outside world—witnessing the good, the bad, and the ugly—in this singular, poetic new movie by master Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, Moonlighting). Inspired by Robert Bresson’s great 1966 donkey film Au Hasard, Balthazar, EO was one of the most acclaimed movies at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is Poland’s official submission for the 2023 Oscar for Best Int’l Feature Film. With Isabelle Huppert.
Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (Border) unveils a gripping crime thriller, and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life.
The penultimate film from the genius director of Battleship Potemkin is a gripping, sumptuous historical drama that focuses on 16th-century Tsar Ivan IV, who united feudal Russia under his leadership despite resistance from the boyars (privileged aristocracy). The film’s monumental visuals borrow from grand opera, Kabuki theatre, and Russian icon painting. Music by Sergei Prokofiev.
Tsar Ivan deals ruthlessly with the boyars and the Church to solidify his power on the throne. Eisenstein’s opulent final film was banned by Stalin because the filmmaker failed to understand the “progressive” nature of the Tsar’s secret police. Finally released in 1958, ten years after Eisenstein’s death and six years after Stalin’s, this operatic spectacle contains Eisenstein’s only color sequences and has music by Prokofiev. A surviving fragment from Eisenstein’s never-completed Ivan the Terrible, Part III will follow the feature.
for some thematic elements and brief language.
From the extraordinary mind of Palme D’or winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton, comes a bewildering drama about a Scottish woman, who, after hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.
The great American architect Louis Kahn (1901-74), who built iconic buildings all over the world, also led a secret life—fathering three children with three different women, only one of them his wife. All three families were unknown to each other until after Kahn died penniless in the men’s room of Penn Station. In this moving nonfiction classic, one of Kahn’s illegitimate children, Nathaniel (who always wished his dad would live with him and his mother), travels the globe exploring his father’s buildings and interviewing his friends, colleagues, and relatives in order to make peace with this famous man he hardly knew. With Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, et al.
The founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA during the Vietnam era is dramatized (with certain liberties taken) in Mario Van Peebles’ political thriller written by his father, Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback). The all-star cast features Kadeem Hardision, Bokeem Woodbine, Courtney B. Vance, Joe Don Baker, Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, Angela Bassett, Dick Gregory, and both Van Peebles.
PG-13for some thematic elements and brief strong language.
Saint Omer court of law. Young novelist Rama attends the trial of Laurence Coly, a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
PG
Charlotte "Charlie" Newton is bored with her quiet life at home with her parents and her younger sister. She wishes something exciting would happen and knows exactly what they need: a visit from her sophisticated and much travelled Uncle Charlie Oakley, her mother's younger brother. Imagine her delight when, out of the blue, they receive a telegram from Uncle Charlie announcing that he is coming to visit them for awhile. Charlie Oakley creates quite a stir and charms the ladies' club, as well as the bank President where his brother-in-law works. Young Charlie begins to notice some odd behavior on his part, such as cutting out a story in the local paper about a man who marries and then murders rich widows. When two strangers appear asking questions about him, she begins to imagine the worst about her dearly beloved Uncle Charlie.
The outlandish tall tales of a prevaricating 18th-century German nobleman—who has traveled from the earth to the moon and from the bowels of a volcano to the belly of a whale—are brought vividly to life in Terry Gilliam’s lavish, FX-laden follow-up to Brazil. A huge financial flop when first released (but nominated for four Academy Awards), the film has an amazing cast that includes Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Sting, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams.
Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams star in Terry Gilliam’s emotional and visually sumptuous contemporary fairy tale, about a radio DJ whose successful career self-destructs, prompting him to try to redeem himself by helping a deranged homeless man. Co-star Mercedes Ruehl won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Showing in a 4K restoration of an extended cut 37 minutes longer than the general-release version of the film, this poetic, meditative look at the creation of the Jamestown settlement in 17th-century Virginia stars Colin Farrell as Captain John Smith, Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas, and Christian Bale as settler John Rolfe. Like Malick’s previous clash-of-cultures sagas, The New World is understated, elliptical, and suffused with the sublime beauty of the natural world. With Christopher Plummer; cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki