Alone

Park Hong-min : 2015
Honja

Su-min spies from his balcony on the house of neighbours over the road and happens to photograph a brutal murder. It marks the start for a series of muddy events. Until Su-min wakes up and it seems he has dreamt it all. But there is no avoiding of horrific events, while it becomes less and less clear whether they are real or inside his head. Memories, dream and reality become entangled. Victims and culprits continually swap roles. A nightmare set in a labyrinthine residential area of Seoul. Houses are close together, but there's no one on the street. Su-min can run as far as he likes, but always seems to return to the same spot. Park Hong-min's second feature had its international premiere in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Pacífico

Fernanda Romandía : 2016

On the beach of Puerto Escondido in Mexico, a sleepy community where very little seems to happen, people are working hard on constructing a house designed by the famous Japanese architect Ando Tadao. The tranquil coastline is a strange place for such a huge concrete construction, and it's not clear who commissioned the work, but the villagers and workmen don't seem to mind. Through the construction work, we get to know three people, each with their own problems, dreams and fears. Seven-year-old Coral goes to the building site every day after school to visit her godfather Diego, a bricklayer addicted to his telephone. There she also meets the carpenter Oriente, a poet muttering profundities whom she hopes will become her godfather, but who himself yearns to return to his family. Fernanda Romandía's fictional feature debut premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Endorphine

André Turpin : 2015

Twelve-year-old Simone is a witness to the gruesome murder of her mother, a trauma that causes her increasingly to shut herself off from reality. Together with her cousin, she plays a game in which they suffocate each other until they faint. At the age of twenty, Simone works in a parking garage, where panic attacks and visions make her life unbearable. And in her sixties, as a professor of physics, Simone gives a lecture about how the senses deceive our view of reality. Continuously turning in circles, a beautifully filmed puzzle unfolds, a hypnotic mix of dream, nightmare and mystery, in which the lives of three women going by the name of Simone are linked together through time and space. André Turpin's feature premiered at Toronto Independent Film Festival 2015, and screened in the Voices section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Alba

Ana Cristina Barragán : 2016

Alba is eleven years old and terribly shy. She has great difficulty standing up for herself among the precocious girls in her class, who talk like little adults about relationships but keep making fun of Alba with the cruelty of children. The fact that she wears a plastic corset to straighten her crooked spine and gets nosebleeds at inconvenient moments doesn't help. And then she is occasionally dumped off with her eccentric father Igor, who she never knew and of whom she is very ashamed. Very slowly and cautiously, the father and daughter get to know each other. Ana Cristina Barragán's feature debut was winner of the Lions Film Award when it premiered in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Kollektivet

Thomas Vinterberg : 2016
The Commune

Erik and Anna are an academic couple with a dream. Together with their daughter Freja, they set up a commune in Erik's huge villa in an upmarket district of Copenhagen. With the family at the centre of the story, we are invited into their dream of a real commune. We participate in the house meetings, the dinners and parties. There is friendship, love and togetherness under one roof, until an earth-shattering love affair puts the small community to its greatest test yet. A humorous, delicate but also painful and touching portrait of an entire generation, a gentle yet confrontational declaration of love for a group of idealists and dreamers who have long since awakened to reality. Thomas Vinterberg's feature was winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress at its international premiere in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Julieta

Pedro Almodóvar : 2016

Spanning 30 years in Julieta's life from a nostalgic 1985, at a more prosperous time in her life where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness. 12 years ago Julieta's daughter, Antía, abandoned her without warning and hasn't spoken to Julieta since. When a chance encounter brings news of her daughter, Julieta returns to her former home to revive her search for Antía, whilst also examining the events leading to her daughter's estrangement. The film speaks of inevitable destiny, a guilt complex, the unfathomable mystery which makes us abandon the ones we love, wiping them out of our life as if they had never meant anything to us – and about the pain this abandonment causes in the victim. Pedro Almodóvar's feature had its international premiere in competition at Festival de Cannes 2016.

Quand on a 17 ans

André Téchiné : 2016
Being 17

Damien is the pampered teenage son of a soldier and a doctor. He lives with his mother in Army barracks in the south of France while his father is on a military mission in the Central African Republic. Damien shows a new, defiant side of himself in high school in order to stave off the bullies who taunt him over his effeminate ways: a friend of his father's is teaching him to wrestle. When he meets Tom, the adopted son of local farmers, the hatred between the two boys is immediate and visceral. But when Tom's mother is forced to go to the hospital, Damien's mother quite naturally offers to take Tom into their home for a short while. The tension between the two boys becomes more and more palpable. André Téchiné's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

L'avenir

Mia Hansen-Løve : 2016
Things to Come

Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. But when her husband announces he is leaving her for another woman, she finds a newfound freedom suddenly thrust upon her that is simultaneously liberating and disconcerting. An intelligent, poetic and naturalistic exploration of one woman's pursuit of contentment in the face of adversity. Mia Hansen-Løve's fifth feature was winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Beyond Sleep

Boudewijn Koole : 2016

A mythical quest for a stone that fell from the sky. Alfred Issendorf, a young, ambitious geologist, goes in search of meteorites in the swampy north of Norway, hoping that the journey will cement his academic reputation by uncovering a significant scientific proof. Alfred is also trying to continue where his father left off when he died during a similar research trip of his own. Alfred searches, stumbles and suffers on the pitiless Northern European tundra. He finds redemption only when he has reached the very brink of insanity. Based on the Dutch literary classic Nooit meer slapen by Willem Frederik Hermans. Boudewijn Koole's feature premiered as the opening film at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Le grand jeu

Nicolas Pariser : 2015
The Great Game

One evening, on the terrace of a casino, Pierre Blum, a one-time best-selling author, meets a mysterious man called Joseph Paskin. Pierre agrees to work as a ghost writer for Joseph – a man who commands the political influence at the heart of the French State. Influential, charismatic and manipulative, Joseph is fomenting a conspiracy against the Interior Minister and will take advantage of his new protégé to achieve his own ends. Soon realising the life-threatening implications linked to his new job, Pierre will be seduced by Laura, a young extreme left militant. But is she really as harmless as she looks? Delicately navigating the mysteries of the misinformation of the secret back rooms of the State, and the portrait of a young forty-something man forced to exceed the faded revolutionary delusions of his youth. Nicolas Pariser's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Locarno Film Festival 2015, screened at Festival de Cinéma Européen des Arcs 2015, and was winner of the Louis-Delluc Prize for Best Debut Film 2015.

Lovesong

So Yong Kim : 2016

Sarah, a young mother, raises her precocious daughter in their country home whilst feeling abandoned by her husband, who perpetually travels for work. When Sarah's old friend Mindy comes to visit, they decide to take a road trip, and after an alcohol-infused heart-to-heart, a long unspoken intimacy emerges between the two best friends. Later Sarah is unable to articulate her thoughts about her husband or Mindy, and Mindy decides to leave the trip and go home. Three years later, the two women are reunited for Mindy's wedding, and Sarah is forced to reconcile the reality of her feelings. So Yong Kim's feature premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2016.

Wild

Nicolette Krebitz : 2016

On the way to work Ania has a strange encounter. Crossing the park she comes upon a wolf, and looking directly into his eyes, she suddenly discovers a new meaning to her existence. She seizes it, just like the idea to find the wolf again, and never to let it go. Ania is the Slayer, she lays tracks and manages to catch the wild animal. Revoking the tacit contract with civilisation, she fearlessly opts for a life without hypocrisy or an obligatory safety net. Ania is a woman who gradually sets herself free with each step into the Wilderness. Equally disturbing and fascinating, a love story of animalistic radicality, freedom and intransigence. Nicolette Krebitz's third feature premiered in competition in the World Cinema section at Sundance Film Festival 2016.

Amina's Letters

Jacob Bitsch : 2016
Aminas breve

When 21-year-old Janus is released from a secure psychiatric hospital, he has only one thing in mind – to find a girl named Amina. She means everything to him and her letters gave Janus faith and consolation while in hospital, but they suddenly stopped coming. Janus fears that Amina has come to grief and embarks on an investigation that leads him through the city's shadowy streets to find her. His journey takes him into a paranoid and violent world, where anyone who knows her seems to have something to hide. He becomes increasingly convinced that Amina is living in a violent marriage, from which he must save her. He becomes so obsessed by the notion of Amina's tragic fate, that only when it is too late does he realise that the person who needs saving is himself. Jacob Bitsch's second feature is based on Jonas T Bengtsson's award-winning debut novel.

Mammal

Rebecca Daly : 2016

Margaret, a separated woman living alone in Dublin, learns that her teenage son has been found dead. Enduring her unsettling grief privately, she escapes daily to the local swimming pool. One day at the pool she runs into Joe, a homeless youth she found injured late one night in the deserted laneway behind her work. Margaret offers Joe a room in her house and an unorthodox relationship starts to develop between them. Margaret's ex-husband Matt begins to turn up randomly in Margaret's life. As Margaret and Joe's mutual reliance grows their tentative trust is threatened by the escalation of Matt's grieving rage and Joe's involvement with a gang of violent youths. Rebecca Daly's second feature premiered in competition in the World Cinema section at Sundance Film Festival 2016.

Moira

Levan Tutberidze : 2015

After Mamuka is released from prison, he tries to rescue his family from poverty. His mother is working abroad, his father is wheelchair-ridden, and his unemployed younger brother appears to be attracted by criminals. Mamuka takes out a loan and buys a small fishing boat, eager to work and bring his mother back. The brothers name the fishing boat after Moira, a goddess of fate. But fate is often blind and merciless. Levan Tutberidze's feature premiered at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2015, and screened as the opening film at Tbilisi International Film Festival 2015.

Don't Look at Me That Way

Uisenma Borchu : 2015
Schau mich nicht so an

Hedi is the new neighbour of Iva, who is raising her young daughter, Sophia. Iva is struggling with being a single parent whilst trying to lead a semblance of a personal life, and Hedi seems to be a breath of fresh air. Iva falls desperately in love with Hedi and the two women begin a complex relationship. When Iva's father appears out of the blue, Hedi finds herself strongly attracted to him. It seems that only one world exists for Hedi – her own. Soon their worlds will all collide. Uisenma Borchu's feature debut was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered at Filmfest München 2015, and had its international premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Puppet Syndrome

Elena Hazanov : 2015
Sindrom Petrushki

Since early childhood Petya has been obsessed with the world of puppets, but his greater obsession is with a girl named Liza. He crafts his perfect woman out of her. But Liza is a real woman. She'd never submit to him completely. Their love is tested in the most brutal way – by the death of their son born with a severe genetic disease nicknamed Happy Puppet Syndrome. As Liza suffers, Petya creates himself a new muse – a sophisticated doll, Alice, a hauntingly identical copy of Liza. Petya has to make a choice: Liza or Alice? Life or art? Petya matches his talent against Fate, and wins his own happiness. Elena Hazanov's feature premiered in competition at Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival 2015, and screened at Tbilisi International Film Festival 2015.

A Simple Goodbye

Degena Yun : 2015
Gaobie

The story of two generations unfolds through apparently disconnected moments. The story of Shanshan, who was sent to England to study when she was young and finds herself living a solitary life, involved in virtual relationships which pain her but which she can't do without; and that of a middle-aged father, who left his hometown as a young man, moved to Beijing and is now facing death. His feelings of helplessness involve the condition of the state-run film studio where he works, while his illness increasingly undermines him. Slowly but surely, the daughter begins to know her father, while the man remembers his past, his roots and his dreams. Degena Yun's second feature premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival 2015, and was winner of the Best Screenplay Award ex-aequo at its European premiere at Torino Film Festival 2015.

Hall

Jürgen Volmer : 2015
Grey

The forest is older than us, the parent of us all. In many nations' mythology the wolf is often a king of the forest, who hears, sees and knows everything. Little boy Mart lives in a cottage at the edge of the forest and something awful has happened in his family. The mother's efforts to save the daughter could bring success, but little Mart is too young to understand the ritual and puts at risk the fate of his family. A wolf always gets its share. Jürgen Volmer's short premiered in competition at Sleepwalkers International Short Film Festival 2015.

Hevn

Kjersti Steinsbø : 2015
Revenge

Rebekka's beloved younger sister has just committed suicide. Grieving, angry and seeking justice, Rebekka travels under false identity to an idyllic hotel situated in the majestic fjords of Western Norway. She is going to meet Morten Holand, the innkeeper and the town's "Golden Boy", with whom she shares a dark secret surrounding the death of her sister. Fixated on plotting her revenge against Morten, Rebekka sets out to destroy his perfect family life, turning his friends and the townsfolk against him. Soon it becomes apparent that Rebekka's actions have consequences for more than just Morten himself, as life in the village begins to unravel, and Rebekka must determine how far she will go to seek revenge. People often say that the end justifies the means, but are we really aware of the consequences of our actions, of the collateral damage, once we set in motion certain mechanisms in which lies and blindness, bad faith and hypocrisy play an essential role? Kjersti Steinsbø's feature debut is based on the novel The Doll in the Ceiling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen.