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Looking for what to see in theaters? Our feature, updated weekly, highlights our top recommendations for films currently in theaters, from new releases to restorations receiving a proper theatrical run.

While we already provide extensive monthly new-release recommendations and weekly streaming recommendations, as distributors’ roll-outs can vary, this is a one-stop list to share the essential films that may be on a screen near you.

2000 Meters to Andriivka (Mstyslav Chernov)

In 2000 Meters to Andriivka, we are thrown headfirst into war. From a first-person point of view, we live with a brigade of Ukrainian soldiers as they make their way to liberate the village of Andriivka, which is occupied by the Russians. As the Ukrainians trudge through the forest (they have to avoid the mine-filled roads) they take heavy fire from the opposition. The village is just over a mile away, a strategic power point in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Chef and documentary filmmaker Eddie Huang said on Thursday that his latest doc, “Vice Is Broke,” has been shelved by distributor Mubi because he publicly criticized the company for making an investment deal with a private equity firm with ties to an Israeli defense tech contractor.

Mubi has denied Huang’s claims and says it still plans to release his film, which had been previously scheduled for release on the studio’s streaming service on August 29.

In an Instagram story post, Huang said that he had told Mubi that he would not participate in promotion of “Vice Is Broke” in protest of an investment deal made by Sequoia Capital, which also provided the key investment to Kela Technologies, an Israeli military tech company founded in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Huang also signed a letter alongside other filmmakers who have worked with Mubi, including Joshua Oppenheimer, Sarah Friedland, Nate Fisher and Radu Jude,...

Mubi has received fresh push back over a recent $100 million investment it received from Silicon Valley-based private equity firm Sequoia Capital, over the latter’s backing of a number of Israeli defence-tech start-ups.

Filmmakers with connections to Mubi – including Nate Fisher, Sarah Friedland, Cherien Dabis, Tyler Taormina, Aki Kaurismäki, Radu Jude and Joshua Oppenheimer – have signed a letter calling on the arthouse distributor and streamer to reconsider its relationship with the investment firm.

The signatories do not include the directors of Mubi’s recent high-profile Cannes acquisitions such as Lynne Ramsay, Mascha Schilinski (Sound of Falling), Oliver Hermanus (The History of Sound) and Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind) and Akinola Davies Jr. (My Father’s Shadow).

In the statement, first reported by Variety, the filmmakers highlighted Sequoia Capital’s growing investments in Israeli military technology companies.

It cited Kela Technologies, which was founded in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Southern Israel,...

Filmmakers including Robert Greene, Joshua Oppenheimer, Sarah Friedland, Radu Jude, Levan Akin, and Miguel Gomes are among the more than 35 who have signed an open letter from Film Workers for Palestine calling on indie distributor Mubi to part ways with investor Sequoia Capital.

The venture capital firm has recently invested in Israeli military-aligned businesses, and backlash against Mubi has been growing since the investor’s ties came to light in June. Sequoia had just given Mubi a $100 million investment. But since February 2024, Sequoia has also invested in Kela, a military tech startup that finds weapons and military-grade applications for AI and drone tech. Sequoia itself touts the partnership with Kela on its website as a way to “leverage Israel’s unique cadre of technowarriors to help defend the Western world order.”

When reached by IndieWire, Mubi had no comment.

Since June, the backlash against Mubi has been growing. These are...

Fans are rocking out to This Is Spinal Tap over the holiday weekend.

The beloved 1984 Rob Reiner mockumentary of a fictional British rock band on a disastrous U.S. tour, restored and remastered, will pull in an estimated $931.7k at 1,015 locations Saturday and Sunday, no. 10 at the domestic box office. The Bleecker Street and Fathom release is looking at $138k on Monday for a total of $1.069 million over its three-day special engagement with limited showtimes.

Due to fan demand, the distributors said, they are adding additional playdates July 8, 9 and 10.

Bleecker will release sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues on September 12 with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer reprising their star turns as as members of the heavy metal band reuniting after 15 years for one final show.

“We are thrilled with these early results of our re-release of Rob’s original This is Spinal Tap. While showtimes were limited this weekend,...

As we hit the last day of June, it is time to take stock of where the race for the 98th Annual Academy Awards stands. I know they don’t happen until March 15, but it is never too early to start talking.

And it’s pretty simple. Six months into the year, exactly halfway done, only one movie released between New Year’s Day and now stands a 100%, surefire, absolutely guaranteed chance of being nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. I am only talking about films actually released, not those that played festivals like Sundance and Cannes and still awaiting release in the year’s second half.

Wanna see which one it is? Here is the trailer:

Ryan Coogler’s Warner Bros. period film Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan and released on April 18, blends gangster and vampire genres about two twin brothers returning from Chicago’s gangland wars to their...

A24’s Sorry, Baby had a solid limited opening in 4 locations with about $86.5k (a per theater average of $21.6k) for Eva Victor’s critically acclaimed directorial debut. It was the highest psa for a new release this weekend, one dominated by big studio fare.

Sorry, Baby (Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 96%), a breakout at Sundance, is being lauded as one of the best debuts, and best films, of the year. Victor also wrote and stars in the dark comedy with Naomie Ackie and Academy Award nominee Lucas Hedges. It will continue to expand over the next few weeks and roll into the summer.

Noting the distributor’s Materialists by Celine Song continued a breakout run for a weekend gross approaching $3 million and a cume crossing $30 million in week 3 on 1,931 screens. At no. 8, it’s the only indie to hit the popping top 10 led by F1.

Hot Milk from...

As A.I. has become ubiquitous and its creators’ contempt for human-made art has grown louder, questions around what it means to be human in a tech-dominated world have taken on more existentially weighty dimensions. Certainly films have plumbed these questions for decades, but exploring them in new, adventurous ways feels essential in the face of technological forces seeking to stifle, and eventually, eradicate the art form.

Fortunately, filmmakers from around the world have met this challenge with resounding ambition and ingenuity. Two very different films, Carson Lund’s Eephus and Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls’s Grand Theft Hamlet, focus on the need for and power of community in disappearing and unconventional spaces, respectively. Meanwhile, Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch grapples with the inevitable decline of the body and mind in old age, while David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds goes one step further, contemplating how grief and technology can...

A life is an accumulation of stories, objects, and people, a dense tapestry of the self. What happens when the threads begin to pull loose? In Familiar Touch, we open within the sanctuary of Ruth’s Los Angeles home, a museum of a life she now only vaguely curates. An octogenarian widow, she performs the ritual of preparing a meal—salmon, cream cheese, toast—for a man whose name escapes her, a man she casts as a suitor in a scene she can no longer read.

He is her son, Steve, and his silent anguish is the first sign that this is not a visit but a departure. Their arrival at Bella Vista, a place of polished surfaces and pacifying tones, feels like a slow, mannered abduction of the soul. When she is introduced as a mother, her denial is startling in its sharpness: “I’m not a mother.”

It...

A work-in-progress participant at the 2023 American Film Festival in Wroclaw (which turned out to be a vintage edition with Indie Donaldson’s Good One and Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point also being selected) Sarah Friedland was putting the finishing touches on her feature debut which would be selected for the Orizzonti (Horizons) section at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and leaving with a trio of prizes: the Luigi de Laurentiis Lion of the Future prize for best first film, the Best Director award, while Kathleen Chalfant won the Best Actress award. Described as a new kind of coming-of-age story (for the octogenarian set), Familiar Touch is a poignant drama confronts the limitations imposed by dementia, but works with different set of narrative parameters — it’s not a portrait solely on the setbacks of memory loss, but what the functions we gain and how that manifests itself.…

Continue reading.

Music Box Films debuts Venice prize winner Familiar Touch, a fresh take on the process of aging, at Film Forum in NYC ahead of limited national expansion. Written and directed by Sarah Friedland in her feature debut, it stars Tony-winning stage actress Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth, an older woman with dementia who enters an assisted living facility where she must contend with new faces, routines and surroundings as her own identities and desires shift.

Ruth resists identifying with her aging neighbors but connects with care workers there (Carolyn Michelle and Andy McQueen) and is drawn towards her son (H. Jon Benjamin), whom she mistakes for a suitor. A former cook, Ruth finds agency preparing meals in the facility kitchen. She slides into younger selves as she embraces the sensory experiences of the community’s activities and daily life. But when the reality of her situation sinks in, Ruth feels betrayed...

I’ve spent my offline hours producing The Jag, a new play that runs from June 21 to July 6 at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research. Even without some of my fingerprints, this makes a curiously cinema-centered creative team: directed by Paul Felten (Slow Machine) and written by Robin Schavoir (The Plagiarists), it combines the lo-fi grittiness and observant humor that have defined either’s output. If you’re listening to this show, odds say what you know about theater could comfortably fit on a cocktail napkin. Thus I’m here to tell you The Jag is an ideal reintroduction to the medium, and––as a sign of confidence––offer up a 30% discount with the code Filmstage upon your ticket purchase.

For this episode I spoke with Felten about the play’s germination, evolution, and the feelings that come with being just hours from debuting a new production. Then, a conversation...

Location, location, location. When it came time for filmmaker Sarah Friedland to make her first feature, the Venice winner “Familiar Touch,” it wasn’t just a case of “this would be a nice location to have” or “think of the location as another character in the film.” It went completely beyond those elements, as Friedland opted to not only set her film in a Southern California retirement community, but to film it at one too — with the help of actual residents.

“I think we tend to think about aging communities and particularly aging communities where there is care provided as spaces where people go to die rather than spaces of living,” Friedland told IndieWire during a recent interview. “So I thought, Ok, if we turn a retirement community into a film set, that is part of anti-ageist politics, to say a care setting can actually be a site of cultural production.

Note: This review was originally published as part of our Venice 2024 coverage. Familiar Touch opens in theaters on June 20.

In a sunny kitchen in California, Ruth prepares a sandwich with the muscle memory that only a lifetime allows. Bread is toasted and left to cool; dill is picked and chopped efficiently; sour cream, radish, and salmon are arranged to resemble a blooming flower. After going to get ready, she serves it to a man named Steve (H. Jon Benjamin) who she doesn’t seem to recognize. When he tells her he’s an architect, she responds, “My father builds homes. Maybe you’ll meet him one day.” Caught off-guard, her son can only offer a loving smile and say “I’d like that.”

This uncertain space––part clarity, part blur––is the subject of Sarah Friedland’s moving debut feature Familiar Touch. It’s the story of an older woman...

Sarah Friedland often describes her feature directorial debut, Familiar Touch, as a “coming-of-old-age story.” That clever turn of phrase is where the cuteness ends with her treatment of Kathleen Chalfant’s Ruth as the character transitions into assisted living for dementia care. Senescence shares more with adolescence than a mere passage of years, as her carefully crafted work demonstrates with sincerity rather than detached irony.

Just as a teenager’s process of maturation lends them a new aperture through which to view the world around them, so, too, does Ruth’s world expand into new sensorial territory. The fully embodied aesthetic experience of Familiar Touch bears no resemblance to more sensationalized depictions of dementia that turn the condition into a theme park ride for viewers. Both Friedland and Chalfant approach Ruth’s journey with enormous sensitivity, gently capturing the unexpected emotional and physical textures that reveal themselves as her condition progresses.

Familiar Touch.Heartbreaking as it so often is, there is something almost subversively uplifting about Familiar Touch (2024). Sarah Friedland’s feature debut centers on Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), an octogenarian struggling with dementia as she transitions to life in a retirement home. But where so many other old-age dramas would couch her story as an inexorable, humiliating decline, Friedland’s takes a more daring approach. No harbinger of decay, Ruth’s condition here stands as a rebirth of sorts; as her cognitive skills atrophy, her other senses are suddenly kindled anew, until the texture of the film itself seems to adjust to its protagonist’s worldview. True to its title, Familiar Touch is a profoundly tactile experience, which is to say it’s told by and large through the movements of Ruth’s body. This is nothing entirely new for Friedland, a filmmaker attuned to dance whose trilogy of shorts, Movement...

After acclaimed showings at the Venice Film Festival and New York Film Festival last fall, Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch emerges as one of 2025’s great indie gems — sitting, as of time of writing, tied for the top spot on Metacritic’s highest-rated films of the year. Offering a beautifully nuanced approach to its well-trodden subject matter, Familiar Touch is the type of movie that will move you without feeling like it needlessly tugs at your heartstrings.

Familiar Touch Review

Familiar Touch follows Ruth, an octogenarian, who finds herself struggling to assimilate into her new life after moving into assisted living to receive additional care for her dementia. While Sarah Friedland’s feature debut hits several familiar beats, such as the protagonist struggling in her relationship with her adult child or rebelling against her own decline, it feels like a deconstruction of the preconceived notions we have of aging, whether...

The folks at Music Box Films are releasing Sarah Friedland‘s award-winning Familiar Touch this Friday at the Film Forum in New York and then expand the following week. We had the chance to speak to the filmmaker while the film was still a work in progress at the 2023 American Film Festival in Wroclaw. With a a fascinating professional roadmap as a filmmaker, choreographer and teaching artist, Familiar Touch addresses cognitive decline related to dementia, but its not a film that is solely about subtraction as it sheds light on what might be gained and both usurps the coming-of-age film format and tackles conventions of ageism.…...

"We're just going to take this step by step..." Music Box Films has revealed an official trailer for Familiar Touch, a lovely indie drama marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Sarah Friedland. It's worth a watch. This won the Best Actress & Best Director & Best Debut Film awards in the Orizzonti section at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, then went on to play at the Vancouver, London, Tromso, Singapore, AFI Fest, New Films/New Directors Film Festivals as well. Familiar Touch is a coming-of-old-age film about an older woman dealing with memory loss. It's lead by a remarkable performance by Tony nominee Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth. Made in close collaboration with residents of a retirement community, it challenges the perceptions around aging and sensitively depicts the complexities around intimacy and desire in later life. The film follows the winding path of octogenarian Ruth's shifting memories and desires while remaining rooted in her sage perspective.

One of the best first features in recent memory, Sarah Friedland’s wonderfully gentle Familiar Touch premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it picked up Best Director, Best Actress, and Best First Film in the Orizzonti section. After opening New Directors/New Films, the drama will now begin a theatrical run on June 20, and Music Box Films has unveiled the first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), a retired cook, prepares breakfast in her sunny and cozy kitchen — a dish she seems to have made many times before, although small and puzzling errors now punctuate her comfortable routine. When her son (H. Jon Benjamin) arrives to dine with her, she mistakes him for a suitor. Their ‘date’ takes them to an assisted living facility, which Ruth does not remember that she had previously selected for herself. Among her fellow memory care residents, Ruth feels lost and adrift,...

“Familiar Touch” captures the loneliness of forgetting coupled with the joy of rediscovering what it means to feel alive. The drama, which is written and directed by Sarah Friedland, became a critical hit after it premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival where it was later acquired by Music Box Films.

“Familiar Touch” stars Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth Goldman, an older woman with dementia who realizes that her “hotel” is actually an assisted living facility. Of course, this realization happens once she is about to go on a date.

The official synopsis reads: “While Ruth resists identifying with her aging neighbors, she connects with the care workers there (Carolyn Michelle and Andy McQueen) and is drawn towards her son (H. Jon Benjamin), whom she mistakes for a suitor. A former cook, Ruth finds agency preparing meals in the facility kitchen. She slides into younger selves as she embraces...

Chicago – The 2025 Chicago Critics Film Festival (Ccff) wrapped on May 8th and the guest list was another high level turn out. The featured role in “Familiar Touch” was portrayed by Katherine Chalfant and it was written/directed by Sarah Friedland. Both walked the Red Carpet at the Ccff on May 7th. For details on the film on the fest schedule, click 2025 Ccff.

Katherine Chalfant of ‘Familiar Touch’ at the 2025 Ccff

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The film begins with retired cook Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), preparing breakfast in her kitchen. When her son (H. Jon Benjamin) arrives to dine with her, she mistakes him for a suitor. Their “date” takes them to an assisted living facility, which Ruth does not remember that she had previously selected for herself. Although at first lost and adrift, she finds new ways to ground herself in her body, even as...

Irish filmmaker Brendan Canty’s debut feature Christy will open the 24th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca on June 13.

The coming-of-age-story had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section where it won the section’s Grand Prix for best film.

The film will be launching TIFF’s new competitive section, Teen Spirit, dedicated to exploring youth culture through fiction and documentary films, with the winning film being decided by a jury made up of local teenagers aged 16 to 20.

The screening of Christy on Cluj-Napoca’s Unirii Square will be preceded...

The beloved annual Provincetown International Film Festival (Piff) is having a big moment with its buzzy 2025 lineup. IndieWire can announce that leading horror auteur Ari Aster will be honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge title at the festival, which will take place from June 11 to 15 in Provincetown, Ma.

Aster will be in Provincetown to receive the award and participate in conversation with resident artist John Waters on Saturday, June 14, ahead of the nationwide release of his new film “Eddington” on July 18. The secretive 2020-set dark comedy “Eddington” will debut at Cannes; the feature reunites Aster with his “Beau Is Afraid” star Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Clifton Collins Jr., and more.

“Ari Aster’s films weave grief, beauty and dread into unforgettable cinematic experiences,” Anne Hubbell, Piff’s Executive Director, said in a press statement. “We’re excited to welcome Ari...

The Sundance Institute has revealed the fellows for the 2025 directors, screenwriters and Native labs. The Native lab begins in-person April 28 through May 3 in Santa Fe, N.M. while the directors lab returns for its 45th anniversary June 1 through 16 in Estes Park, Colo. The 2025 screenwriters lab will be held online from June 24 through 27, offering filmmakers an “Immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors,” according to a press release.

The 2025 Native lab fellows are: Jared Lank, (Mi’kmaq), Isabella Dionne Madrigal (Cahuilla/Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Alex Nystrom (Ojibwe) and Jordan Waunch (Métis). The 2025 Native lab artists-in-residence are Sabrina Saleha (Diné) and Svetlana Romanova (Sakha/Even). All six filmmakers will receive guidance from creative advisors including Bryson Chun (Kanaka Maoli), Sarah Friedland, Kiva Reardon, and Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga). The Native Lab is overseen by Sundance Institute Indigenous program director Adam Piron (Kiowa...

The Sundance Institute has announced the fellows selected for the 2025 edition of its Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs.

Taking place since the mid-’90s, the Native Lab kicks off in person today, continuing through May 3 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to artists named below, artists-in-residence Sabrina Saleha (Diné) and Svetlana Romanova (Sakha/Even) will be participating. The Lab is designed for artists of Native and Indigenous backgrounds who aim to center Indigeneity in their work. Over five days, fellows refine their scripts for feature and episodic projects in one-on-one feedback sessions, screenplay readings, and roundtable discussions with advisors, while building community on Native land in Santa Fe.

The Native Lab is overseen by Adam Piron (Kiowa and Mohawk), Director of the Institute’s Indigenous Program, alongside Senior Manager Ianeta Le’i. Creative advisors will include Bryson Chun (Kanaka Maoli), Sarah Friedland, Kiva Reardon, and Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga).

“Every year...

The Beijing International Film Festival has developed a reputation for putting a spotlight on female voices in cinema.

Its 15th edition, running April 18-26, is continuing that trend with its sixth annual “Women’s Voice” section, featuring the likes of Walter Salles’ Oscar winner I’m Still Here, the political autobiographical drama starring Fernanda Torres as a Brazilian woman whose dissident husband disappears, and Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, his depression comedy-drama with Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

“In recent years, female creators and their stories have continued to emerge, and the voices of women on screen have become more diverse and powerful,” the Beijing festival highlights. “These works continue to break boundaries in form and theme, bringing us richer and more multidimensional female expressions.”

This year’s lineup “brings together masters and emerging creators from all over the world” who “show the complex faces of women” in various situations. “This is not only a cinematic feast,...

Looking for bold new work from first- and second-time feature filmmakers? Look no further than New Directors/New Films, the New York City festival that annually highlights them. Now in its 54th year, New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) returns to New York April 2 through 13, hailing from the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center.

Sarah Friedland’s debut feature, “Familiar Touch,” will open the festival with its New York premiere. The drama centers on a dementia-suffering octogenarian Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), who has a surreal experience after relocating to an assisted-living facility. The film nearly swept the 2024 Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition, winning Lion of the Future, Best Director, and Best Actress for Chalfant.

The festival closes with the post-Sundance New York debut of the stylish “Lurker,” directed by Emmy-winning “Beef” and “The Bear” writer and producer Alex Russell. Théodore Pellerin stars as a retail worker who becomes...

About an hour into Familiar Touch, Sarah Friedland’s feature directorial debut, a subtle yet striking stylistic rupture occurs. The effects of dementia on octogenarian Ruth Goldman (Kathleen Chalfant) grow gradually more pronounced as her stay in assisted living stretches on. In gentle gestures—most frequently a pronounced pause—Chalfant renders what the disease takes from her character by making present an overwhelming sense of absence.

But when the camera surveys Ruth in a doctor’s chair, following Chalfant’s hands downward as she caresses her chest and arms, the film shifts out of its thus-far straightforward perspective. The scene jumps unexpectedly away from the room to a moment of tender hand-holding that Ruth shares with her doctor at the facility before returning to Ruth grasping her wrist. The tactile has supplanted the temporal, and it jolts the film into an enthralling new register.

This sensorial, rather than sensationalist, approach...

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt, and RaMell Ross––those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century.

Now returning for its 54th edition at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art from April 2-13, this year’s lineup features 33 new films, presenting acclaimed titles from Berlinale, Cannes, Locarno, Sundance, Rotterdam, and more. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered our recommended films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.

Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang)

Shot largely on location in Queens, Blue Sun Palace explores a hidden culture and milieu.

The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center has announced the full lineup for the 54th edition of New Directors/New Films, unspooling at MoMA on April 2–13.

The event, presenting 24 features and nine short films — including 20 North American or U.S. premieres — will open with Sarah Friedland’s Venice award-winner Familiar Touch and close with Alex Russell’s Lurker from Sundance and Berlin. Both are New York premieres.

Familiar Touch, Friedland’s debut, won three top prizes in the 2024 Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition and showcases an astonishing performance by Kathleen Chalfant.

Russell’s feature debut Lurker, is a tense thriller about the darker side of pop-star worship.

Films in the Nd/Nf program probe a diverse array of themes, including community and co-existence, family histories, the lives of artists, global political issues, and the complexities of youth and coming of age. A number of works experiment with hybrid forms,...

Sarah Friedland’s Venice Film Festival prize-winning grand slam debut Familiar Touch is set to open the 54th edition of New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) and Alex Russell‘s Lurker – a 2025 Sundance and Berlinale selection will be bookending the fest which takes place between April 2nd through April 13th. A true mixed bag of most first time efforts, we have films going back to last year’s Cannes in Blue Sun Palace by Constance Tsang and the Un Certain Regard film The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe. Here is the line-up.…...

After showcasing work from the likes of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Jia Zhangke, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar-wai, Agnieszka Holland, Denis Villeneuve, Luca Guadagnino, and more, New Directors/New Films is back for their 54th edition, taking place from April 2-13 at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. The 2025 lineup has now been unveiled, including Sarah Friedland’s Opening Night selection Familiar Touch, Alex Russell’s Closing Night selection Lurker, as well as more acclaimed features such as Invention, Drowning Dry, Fiume o morte!, No Sleep Till, Two Times João Liberada, Timestamp, and more.

Dan Sullivan, 2025 Nd/Nf Co-Chair and Flc Programmer, says, “The lineup for this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films inevitably reflects the uncertainties and tragedies of our global situation in 2025, yet it also evinces the sheer resilience of cinema and the...

The 54th annual New Directors/New Films festival is almost here. IndieWire can unveil this year’s lineup of the beloved program from theMuseum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center. The 2025 New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) will take place April 2 – April 13.

Sarah Friedland’s debut feature “Familiar Touch” will open the festival with its New York premiere. The drama centers on octogenarian Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant) who has a surreal experience after relocating to an assisted-living facility. The feature earned three awards in the 2024 Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition, including the Lion of the Future, Best Director, and Best Actress for Chalfant.

Nd/Nf will close with the New York premiere of buzzy Sundance 2025 film “Lurker,” directed by “Beef” and “The Bear” writer and supervising producer Alex Russell. Théodore Pellerin stars as a retail worker who becomes obsessed with an up-and-coming musician (Archie Madekwe). “Lurker” is Russell’s feature directorial debut.

Heading towards next month’s Academy Awards, Sean Baker’s Anora has been on a complete rebound, taking over awards season via the WGA, DGA and PGA. Now, it has added the Independent Spirit Awards to that list, taking home three at yesterday’s ceremony: Best Feature, Best Director for Baker and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison. Going in, it co-led the nominees with five, tying with I Saw the TV Glow.

Check out the full list of winners from the 40th Independent Spirit Awards below:

Best Feature: Anora

Best First Feature: Didi

John Cassavetes Award: Girls Will Be Girls

Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora

Best Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

Best First Screenplay: Sean Wang, Dìdi

Best Lead Performance: Mikey Madison, Anora

Best Supporting Performance: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Best Breakthrough Performance: Maisy Stella, My Old Ass

Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys

Best Editing: Hansjörg Weissbrich,...

Film Independent handed out its 2025 Spirit Awards on Saturday afternoon (February 22), in a Santa Monica ceremony that saw Anora claim three prizes for best feature, director Sean Baker, and lead performance Mikey Madison in the gender-neutral category.

Sean Wang’s Didi took two prizes for best first feature and first screenplay, whileGints Zilbalodis’s Latvian animation Flow won international film and No Other Land was named best documentary. A Real Pain also nabbed two awards for screenplay and supporting actor Kieran Culkin.

While it is too late for the Spirit Awards to have any bearing on the Oscars next weekend...

Kieran Culkin took home the win for best supporting performance at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday.

Presented by Kathryn Hahn, Culkin won the honor for his work in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, marking his first Spirit Award ever. Culkin — who is starring in Glengarry Glen Ross, which opens March 10 on Broadway — was not present at the Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday, but Hahn accepted the award on his behalf.

His win at the 2025 Spirit Awards came a little over a month after he won the award for best supporting actor at the 2025 Golden Globes. Culkin, too, became a first-time Oscar nominee this year with a nod in the same category for his portrayal of Benji Kaplan in A Real Pain.

The Succession star was nominated for best supporting performance at the Spirit Awards alongside Yura Borisov (Anora), Joan Chen (Dìdi), Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson...

The 40th annual Independent Spirit Awards took place in Santa Monica on Feb. 22, with Aidy Bryant as host for the second year in a row.

“Anora” was the biggest winner of the day, being named best feature while Sean Baker and Mikey Madison took home individual trophies for best director and lead performance. “Baby Reindeer” also won big, with Richard Gadd, Nava Mau and Jessica Gunning clinching the awards for lead, supporting and breakthrough performance, though “Shogun” won best new scripted series. And Sean Wang’s “Dìdi” clinched both awards in the debut film category: best first feature as well as best first first screenplay.

See the full list of winners below.

Best Feature

“Anora” (Winner)

“I Saw the TV Glow”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”

“The Substance”

Best First Feature

“Dìdi” (Winner)

“In the Summers”

“Janet Planet”

“The Piano Lesson”

“Problemista”

John Cassavetes Award – Given to the best feature made...

The 40th anniversary Film Independent Spirit Awards got underway Saturday afternoon, and plenty of stars and filmmakers from the indie world walked the blue carpet ahead of the ceremony. In addition to host Aidy Bryant, presenters include Kathryn Hahn, Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Natasha Lyonne, Danielle Deadwyler, Alana Haim, Questlove, Hunter Schafer and more.

Nominees this year range from Amy Adams to Sebastian Stan to Demi Moore to Kieran Culkin.

See photos from the 2025 Spirit Awards blue carpet below.

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Demi Moore, actress

(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Emma Stone, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Colman Domingo, actor

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Colman Domingo, actor and Raúl Domingo, producer

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Édgar Ramírez, actor

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Mikey Madison, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Kathryn Hahn, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Natasha Rothwell,...

Film Independent handed out its 2025 Spirit Awards on Saturday afternoon (February 22), in a Santa Monica ceremony that saw Anora claim three prizes for best feature, director Sean Baker, and lead actor Mikey Madison in the gender-neutral category.

Sean Wang’s Didi took two prizes for best first feature and first screenplay, while Gints Zilbalodis’s Latvian animation Flow won international film and No Other Land was named best documentary. A Real Pain also nabbed two awards for screenplay and supporting actor Kieran Culkin.

Baker gave an impassioned speech calling for higher upfront fees for independent directors who he said take...

Paris-based sales outfit Memento International has rebranded as Paradise City Sales and will operate under Emilie Georges and Naima Abed’s Paris and London-based Paradise City banner moving forward.

The sales arm aims to board projects from early stages produced by Paradise City like Anthony Chen’s 2023 Sundance title Drift starring Cynthia Erivo, and Hailey Gates’ Sundance Jury Grand Prize-winning Atropia, on which Paradise City is a producer. It will continue to acquire some 10 films per year from independent producers and balance emerging talent with established filmmakers.

Paradise City Sales is at EFM with Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát’s English-language...

Exclusive: UTA has inked filmmaker and choreographer Sarah Friedland whose movie Familiar Touch made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last fall.

Friedland’s debut feature film received both the Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film and the Horizons Award for Best Director at Venice.

The pic which stars Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen with H. Jon Benjamin follows an octogenarian woman who transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires. Chalfant received the award for Best Actress, making Familiar Touch the most awarded film selected for the Horizons category in the festival’s history.

On the heels of her success at Venice, Friedland was also honored with an Independent Spirit Award in the Someone to Watch category.

Friedland’s previous work has been...

On Saturday, the Spirit Awards returned to the beach. Casa Del Mar Hotel Santa Monica hosted our annual Spirit Awards Nominees Brunch to celebrate all the 2025 nominees and their films. The ultimate power brunch. Yes, there was fashion, yes there was shmoozing, yes there was eggs benedict, but more importantly there were the FilmIndependent Spirit Award Emerging Filmmaker Awards. These three awards celebrate emerging filmmakers with a total of $75,000 in unrestricted grants, as well as some see-through oblong hardware.

The awards were hosted by the great Karen Pittman of The Morning Show and the upcoming Netflix series, Forever, that can be seen later this year. This year’s prizes included the Producers Award, the Someone to Watch Award and the Truer Than Fiction Award. Watch the winners’ full acceptance speeches and learn more below:

The Producers Award

The Producers Award, in its 28th iteration, went to Sarah Winshall for her...

As per usual, well before the actual film awards show takes place (February 25th) – three lucky people in three categories are offered cash prizes rather trophyware by the Film Independent Spirit Awards folks – its that little extra nudge to push the future of cinema into the right direction. The The Producers Award, Someone To Watch Award and Truer Than Fiction Awards were handed out this past weekend and two indie folks we’ve been tracking (both happen to be at the U.S in Progress in Wroclaw last October) were given some cold hard cash. Sarah Friedland who premiered Familiar Touch at Venice (winning a trio of major awards) grabbed the Someone to Watch Award (her debut will be in contention at the ceremony in 2026), while Smudge Films producer Sarah Winshall who returns to Sundance this year after preeming I Saw the TV Glow and Good One at the fest...

At its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch on Saturday, Film Independent honored three up-and-coming directors. The event held to honor the late head of the group, Josh Welsh, was both sad and happy.

Brenda Robinson, chair of the Film Independent board, opened the event by speaking from the heart. She got everyone to stand up and honor Welsh, who died on December 31 after a five-year fight with colon cancer.

Robinson told the audience, which included entertainment industry stars like Mikey Madison and Mark Eidelstein from “Anora,” Demi Moore from “The Substance,” and filmmaker RaMell Ross, whose film “Nickel Boys” was recently praised by the National Society of Film Critics.

Robinson thanked the community, saying, “I’m so thankful to be surrounded by such a beautiful group of people, our wonderful staff, leadership, and board.” “I want to lift Josh,” she said, inviting everyone to celebrate Welsh’s life. I’d like to praise him.

Film Independent announced the winners of its three Emerging Filmmaker Awards at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch on Saturday. Winners for the remaining categories are set to be announced on Feb. 22.

Opening remarks were delivered by Brenda Robinson, chair of the board at Film Independent, who remembered the organization’s late president Josh Welsh during her speech.

Welsh died on Dec. 31 after a five-year battle with colon cancer.

Robinson said, “We’re handing out a lot of free hugs this week.” She went on to say, “We’re in quite a moment today, and I’m so grateful to be surrounded by such a beautiful group of people, our wonderful staff and leadership and board. This has been a week of introspection for me and so many of us.”

“Anora” stars Mikey Madison and Mark Eidelstein, “The Substance” star Demi Moore, RaMell Ross whose film “Nickel Boys” was named...

The Film Independent Spirit Awards have given three $25,000 cash grants to emerging filmmakers Sarah Winshall, Rachel Elizabeth Seed and Sarah Friedland at its annual Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees Brunch, which took place on Saturday at Casa Del Mara in Santa Monica. Karen Pittman hosted.

Nominations in the three categories, the only Indie Spirit Award categories that offer cash prizes rather than trophies, were announced with the rest of the Indie Spirit nominations on Dec. 5, but the winners are revealed in advance of the Feb. 25 ceremony.

Winshall received the Producers Award, which is given to an emerging producer working with limited resources. Friedland was given the Someone to Watch Award, which salutes “a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.” And Seed received the Truer Than Fiction Award, which goes to an emerging director of nonfiction features.

The annual Nominees Brunch is typically a festive...

The fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia brought out big stars, from Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh to Jeremy Renner, Michael Douglas and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as new movies from the Middle East, Asia and Africa along with festival favorites of the year.

It also presented an opportunity to bring together six filmmakers who have made names for themselves as game changers and innovators for the second annual Hollywood Reporter roundtable at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Rsiff 2024 jury president Spike Lee took time out of his busy festival schedule to take part in the discussion at the historic Nassif House Museum in Jeddah’s Old Town Al-Balad. Representing host nation Saudi Arabia was Meshal Al Jaser, whose humorous thriller Naga, which tells the story of a young woman who sneaks out for a date that goes wrong, screened...

Last week the Sffilm Rainin Grant announced the recipients of much-needed coin support (see the complete list of finalists), and today we learn the identity of this year’s 2024 Rathaus Film Grant recipient: Arrielle Sadé Mock. The coin will go towards developing Mock’s short film. Founded by Madeleine Askwith, Alexandra Byer, Shabier Kirchner, and Kevin Steen, Rathaus is a production company based in Brooklyn and Detroit who’ve helped produced films such as Tim Sutton’s Dark Night and this year’s big Venice Film Festival winner in Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch. More info available here.

From the jury:

“Arrielle represents the very best of Detroit’s artistic spirit—a powerful blend of creativity and activism that has been woven into the city’s history for generations.…...

Music Box has acquired North American rights to “Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland’s feature debut which won three major awards in Venice including the Lion of the Future prize.

Represented by Memento International, “Familiar Touch” also won best actress for Kathleen Chalfant, and best director in the Horizons section at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Friedland is now nominated in the “Someone to Watch” award category ahead of the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards.

“Familiar Touch,” which could be described as a “coming-of-old age film,” stars Ruth as Chalfant, an older woman who faces dementia and transitions into assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship with herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity and desires. Chalfant stars in the film opposite Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen and H. Jon Benjamin.

“Music Box has been a steadfast champion of bold, artist-driven, independent cinema and I’m delighted to...