Mama

Allison Janney won an Oscar as the mother of Tonya Harding, the skater America turned into a punchline, and Margot Robbie lands the triple axel. Everyone remembers Tonya’s controversial career differently, and they all tell their version straight to camera. — In Portland, Oregon, LaVona puts her little daughter, Tonya Harding, on the ice and drives her through gruelling training. Tonya grows into one of the best skaters in America, but the judges mark her down because of her image. Her husband regularly hits her, and she keeps going back to him. She becomes the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition, and a few years later a friend of her husband’s comes up with an idea about what to do with her rival. — Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Allison Janney) | Oscars | 2018 Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Margot Robbie) | Oscars | 2018

Magic realism, melodrama, an ode to all things female: just some of the dimensions of this multi-faceted film by Julio Medem, who masterfully directs Penelope Cruz in an emotional, powerful role that feels like it was created just for her. — Already heartbroken by her husband's decision to leave her, a woman discovers she has breast cancer. Her doctor is hopeful, but she will have to undergo surgery and painful, time-consuming treatments. The day her diagnosis is revealed to her, she meets a man who is going through his own personal drama. The tragic events in both their lives forge a unique bond between them, which will endure the test of time and great difficulties.

The Dardenne brothers, masters of realism, won the Grand Prix at Cannes with their most moving film, about a lonely boy who has to learn to trust other people and himself. They had never used music in their films before, but this time they reach for Beethoven. — Twelve-year-old Cyril lives in a children’s home in Belgium, and his father has vanished without a trace, selling the boy’s bike on his way out. Cyril refuses to accept it and runs away, until Samantha, a hairdresser he barely knows, agrees to have him to stay at weekends. She also buys his bike back. — Grand Prize of the Jury | Cannes Film Festival | 2011

Another brilliant example of Bong Joon Ho's fascinatingly unclassified cinema, which masterly combines the genres of crime thriller, film noir, family drama and social satire to compose one of the most unconventional stories of maternal love ever screened. — One day a young girl is found dead in an abandoned building and a 27-year-old man is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force that closes his case too quickly inspire his mother to act on her own—to act as Mother in its purest form. Summoning all her maternal instincts and trusting no one, she sets out to find a killer and prove her son’s innocence. — Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2009

The Birkin VS the Varda family, literally. The French director reflects on a taboo subject in an incredibly paradoxical manner and presents her version of what ideal love might be; rather impossible. — At her daughter's party, a mother meets one of the girl’s 14-year-old classmates; he is drunk and she helps him get sober. The woman and the teenager start looking for opportunities to meet, which initially means going to arcades with his favorite game, Kung Fu Master. Gradually, however, the relationship turns romantic and their encounters more and more careless, until her daughter sees them kissing. Where will all this lead? — Official Selection | Berlin International Film Festival | 1988

Bright, explosive and tender, Almodóvar’s Oscar winner is dedicated to Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider and his own mother. A woman who has lost her son sets out to find the boy’s father, and on the way she finds friends in women who won’t let her fall. — Esteban dies on his seventeenth birthday, struck by a car in Madrid as he runs to get an actress’s autograph. His mother, Manuela, walks away from everything and heads to Barcelona in search of the boy’s father, whom Esteban never met. The man has never heard that he had a son. — Best International Film | Oscars | 2000 Best Director | Cannes Film Festival | 1999 FIPRESCI Prize | San Sebastian Film Festival | 1999 Best European Film | European Film Awards | 2000 Best Director | BAFTA | 2000

A sweet little poem about a mother and a daughter, a lush, dreamy postcard that plays music when you open it. The Boy's seventh feature film is overflowing with beauty and love. "A film for tender people in a not-so-tender world." — Sofia, the daughter, returns to Polydroso to take care of Sofia, her mother. In the neighborhood where she grew up, all the reasons that once made her want to leave are waiting for her. Polydroso is an isolated suburb and the two Sofias spend their days stumbling through first kisses, secrets and ghosts of the past. — Official Selection - Greek Competition | Thessaloniki Film Festival | 2023

Sometimes surprises come out of nowhere, such as this Hitchcockian psychological thriller from Belgium that never fails to impress with its 60s stylization, icy irony and subliminal tension. The American remake that followed surprised no one. — When a sudden tragedy strikes the lives of two women and their families, they will begin to question the relationships they once held so dear, with dangerous and devastating results. — Best Original Score | Magritte Award | 2020 Best Film | Magritte Award | 2020 Best Director | Magritte Award | 2020

An Iranian film in Exarchia, or the explosive film of Siamak Etemadi, who lives in the centre of Athens and knows well how to turn it into a filming space, away from the usual tourist-friendly gaze. A plethora of Greek actors (Kokkali, Pantazaras) frame a fascinating story. — An Iranian couple arrives in Athens to see their son who is studying at the Polytechnic School. Only he doesn't answer his phone, no one seems to know him, and the city seems like an unknown, threatening country.

Being a girl is hard. Adolescence, sexual awakening, school, it all passes through the lens of Suchi Talati, who looks on with a sweet and shy gaze, behind which boils an insatiable desire for autonomy. Just like her heroines. — In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira discovers desire and romance; but her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come-of-age herself. — Audience Award | Sundance Film Festival | 2024 World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award | Sundance Film Festival | 2024

To play a single mother going for a better job during a general strike, Venice prizewinner Laure Calamy trained as a chambermaid at a five-star Paris hotel and talked to maids who were on strike. Éric Gravel directs like the Dardennes crossed with the Safdies, and it won’t let you sit still. — It’s still dark when Julie, who lives in a small town a long way from Paris, wakes her two children, drops them with a neighbour and catches the train to work at a five-star hotel, where she runs housekeeping. Today there’s also an interview for a job she really wants. The trouble with trains is that they always seem to stop at the worst possible moment. — Best Director Award - Orizzonti | Venice Film Festival | 2021 Best Actress Award (Laure Calamy) - Orizzonti | Venice Film Festival | 2021