News

Kika (2025), the debut feature from Alexe Poukine, marks a bold transition from her award-winning shorts and documentaries into narrative cinema. Set against the urban backdrop of Brussels, the film introduces us to Kika, a dedicated social worker whose days are filled with visits to underfunded shelters and meetings with clients on the edge. A seemingly lighthearted meet-cute in a closing-time bike shop sparks a passionate affair with the owner, David, upending her stable—but emotionally restrained—family life.

When tragedy strikes and Kika finds herself widowed and pregnant, the film pivots sharply. Poukine shifts from romantic warmth to a grounded social-realist portrait of economic desperation: a single mother grappling with debts and the looming specter of social housing waitlists.

Moments of tenderness—shared breakfasts with her daughter, laughter with newfound friends—sit alongside scenes of moral reckoning as Kika invents unorthodox ways to stay afloat. This calibrated balance of light...

Exclusive:Paris-based Totem Films has taken on international sales for Alexe Poukine’s comedy dramaKika which is set to world premiere in competition at Cannes’ Critics Week.

The debut fiction feature stars Manon Clavel as the titular heroine. Pregnant with her second child and dealing with the aftermath of her partner’s sudden death, she must find a way to make money fast and stay strong.

Clavel, whose previous credits include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth and Leonore Serraille’s Mother And Son, stars opposite Makita Samba and Thomas Coumans.

Kika is produced by Belgium’s Wrong Men and France’s Kidam,...

Belén Cuesta and Gemma Whelan will join Albert San Juan in Disney+’s first Spanish period drama Balenciaga (working title).

The pair are two of several actors unveiled today for Lourdes Iglesias, Jose Mari Goenaga, Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi’s six-part drama about Cristóbal Balenciaga (San Juan), the son of a seamstress and a fisherman who uses his natural talent, constant work and sharp nose for business to become one of the most prominent fashion designers of all time.

It began filming in June and will continue until autumn in several locations in Spain and France with a team of 100 professionals and 2,000 extras.

Cuesta, who won the Goya Award for Best Actress for La Trinchera Infinita — a previous series from Iglesias, Garaño and Arregi. She will play Fabiola de Mora y Aragón before she became Queen of Belgium. Balenciaga...

"We know the risks. But it keeps us alive." Super Ltd has debuted a new Us trailer for Belgian romantic crime drama Racer and the Jailbird, from Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam, of Bullhead and The Drop. This premiered at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals last year under the title Le Fidèle in French, which just means The Faithful. Racer and the Jailbird stars Matthias Schoenaerts (from Bullhead, Rust and Bone, Red Sparrow) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (from Blue is the Warmest Color), along with Eric De Staercke, Jean-Benoît Ugeux, Nabil Missoumi, Thomas Coumans, and Nathalie Van Tongelen. This is described as a "breathlessly stylish and sexy crime epic" that is "set against an electrifying backdrop of high-speed racing and high-stakes heists." It looks very good, and I like the way they handle the subtitles. Here's the new Us trailer (+ new poster) for Michaël R. Roskam's Racer and the Jailbird,...

Chicago – Coming of age dramas are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, but few are ever brave enough to grapple with the profound transitions that occur during one’s teenage years. Young American moviegoers’ first encounter with foreign cinema is often the result of their search for honest and unflinching portraits of sexual awakening and discovery. In terms of sheer maturity, American movies are still woefully below the curve set by most countries.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

One of the best films of the last decade was Céline Sciamma’s “Tomboy,” a captivating French drama about a 10-year-old girl who dresses in boyish clothing and develops feelings for one of her female friends. The picture offered a hopeful twist on Kimberly Peirce’s “Boys Don’t Cry” by accentuating the healing that occurs when one is true to one’s own identity. Sciamma proved to be as skilled as the Dardenne Brothers in...

Brace yourselves. This list of the Top 100 Greatest Gay Movies is probably going to generate some howls of protest thanks to a rather major upset in the rankings. Frankly, one that surprised the hell out of us here at AfterElton.

But before we get to that, an introduction. A few weeks ago we asked AfterElton readers to submit up to ten of their favorite films by write-in vote. We conducted a similar poll several years ago, but a lot has happened culturally since then, and a number of worthy movies of gay interest have been released. We wanted to see how your list of favorites had changed.

We also wanted to expand our list to 100 from the top 50 we had done previously. We figured there were finally enough quality gay films to justify the expansion. And we wanted to break out gay documentaries onto their own list (You'll find the...

Bavo Defurne's North Sea Texas goes to Strand Releasing Strand Releasing has picked up all U.S. rights to the coming-of-age story from Wavelength Pictures, reports Variety. The film which makes its U.S. premiere in the World Cinema program of the Palm Springs Film Festival, stars Jelle Floorizoone, Eva Van Der Gucht, Luk Wijns, Thomas Coumans, Mathias Vergels and Nina Marie Kortekaas. The announcement was made today by Strand for the Belgian film which screened at the Rome Cinema Festival where it won the Alice Nella Citta 13+ Award. Adapted from the novel "This Is Everlasting" by Andre Sollie, this is the synopsis, courtesy of the Palm Springs Film Festival: A lonely gay adolescent suffers the pangs of unrequited love in this poignantly rendered coming-of-ager. The narrative unfolds in a small town on the Belgian coast in the late 1960s and 70s, where introverted dreamer Pim grows up accustomed...

Bavo Defurne's North Sea Texas goes to Strand Releasing Strand Releasing has picked up all U.S. rights to the coming-of-age story from Wavelength Pictures, reports Variety. The film which makes its U.S. premiere in the World Cinema program of the Palm Springs Film Festival, stars Jelle Floorizoone, Eva Van Der Gucht, Luk Wijns, Thomas Coumans, Mathias Vergels and Nina Marie Kortekaas. The announcement was made today by Strand for the Belgian film which screened at the Rome Cinema Festival where it won the Alice Nella Citta 13+ Award. Adapted from the novel "This Is Everlasting" by Andre Sollie, this is the synopsis, courtesy of the Palm Springs Film Festival: A lonely gay adolescent suffers the pangs of unrequited love in this poignantly rendered coming-of-ager. The narrative unfolds in a small town on the Belgian coast in the late 1960s and 70s, where introverted dreamer Pim grows up accustomed...

Bavo Defurne's North Sea Texas goes to Strand Releasing Strand Releasing has picked up all U.S. rights to the coming-of-age story from Wavelength Pictures, reports Variety. The film which makes its U.S. premiere in the World Cinema program of the Palm Springs Film Festival, stars Jelle Floorizoone, Eva Van Der Gucht, Luk Wijns, Thomas Coumans, Mathias Vergels and Nina Marie Kortekaas. The announcement was made today by Strand for the Belgian film which screened at the Rome Cinema Festival where it won the Alice Nella Citta 13+ Award. Adapted from the novel "This Is Everlasting" by Andre Sollie, this is the synopsis, courtesy of the Palm Springs Film Festival: A lonely gay adolescent suffers the pangs of unrequited love in this poignantly rendered coming-of-ager. The narrative unfolds in a small town on the Belgian coast in the late 1960s and 70s, where introverted dreamer Pim grows up accustomed...