- Exclusive Clip: Roseanne Pel on Her New Directors/New Films Closing Night Title Donkey Days
The 55th edition of New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase of rising cinematic talent co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA, will run April 8-19. Opening the festival is Adrian Chiarella’s queer horror film Leviticus, and other standouts include John Early’s brilliant bulimia comedy Maddie’s Secret, Kevin Walker and Jack Auen’s hypnotic hybrid Chronovisor, and Giulio Bertelli’s Agon, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Critics’ Week. Ahead of this year’s festival, Filmmaker is happy to debut a short clip courtesy of filmmaker Roseanne Pel, whose feature Donkey Days has been selected as this year’s closing night film. “I […]
- “Like a Surveillance Camera”: Christian Petzold on Miroirs No. 3
Following a fatal car crash in the countryside that leaves her injured and her boyfriend dead, Laura (Paula Beer), a pianist visiting from Berlin, is nursed back to health over several days by Betty (Barbara Auer), a quiet woman who lives near the crash site. Through carefully placed moments of subtle exposition, German filmmaker Christian Petzold slowly reveals to the viewer the extent to which Betty (who seemingly lives alone, but then…not) needs Laura to be a part of her daily life. Much of the fun of Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3 then comes in the mysterious yet heartbreaking ways the […]
- They Will Kill You Took the Blood, Sweat and Tears of Kirill Sokolov, Zazie Beetz, and Myha’la
It’s the closing night of the 2026 SXSW Film Festival and They Will Kill You director Kirill Sokolov is taking to the stage of the Paramount Theatre in Austin. He has multiple pages in hand listing out all of his collaborators he wants to thank. Where most filmmakers give a few brief remarks, possibly crack a joke or two, and then make a quick exit stage left, Sokolov, who previously made the films Why Don’t You Just Die! and No Looking Back in Russia, is running down as many people as he can possibly get through. This is all taking […]
- Inspired by Meatloaf: Alice Maio Mackay on The Serpent’s Skin
It’s been a whirlwind year for Alice Maio Mackay. Her latest film, The Serpent’s Skin, has been a darling at festivals from London to Montreal, and her next one—her seventh before the age of twenty-two—is already in the can. This one’s a supernatural romance about two queer women, Anna (Alexandra McVicker), innocent and extremely new-in-town, and Jen (filmmaker Avalon Fast), a mysterious goth tattoo artist, who discover they share magical powers and have to fight a demon that’s possessing Danny (Jordan Dulieu), the dreamy alt-boy-next-door who Anna’s recently friend-zoned. With this sweet, sharply witty romp, the twenty-one-year-old Australian filmmaker, both […]
- More Heart Than a Midnight Movie: Oscar Boyson and Ricky Camilleri on Our Hero, Balthazar
“It was important to us not to be a shit post,” says Ricky Camilleri, co-writer and co-producer of Our Hero, Balthazar, thanking me for not describing it as “edge-lordy.” On paper, the film, directed and co-written by Oscar Boyson, sounds like a provocation: a dark comedy about a teen who tries to stop a school shooting—not out of moral clarity, but out of ego. Balthazar Malone (Jaeden Martell) is a wealthy Manhattan private school kid living in a high-rise, performing sensitivity online through teary grief narratives—essentially crying for influence. In a bid to impress his school crush, a girl more […]