Staff Picks

A natural disaster during a ski holiday triggers an avalanche of strain in a couple's marriage. Before the Palme d’Or, Ruben Östlund explores modern relationships, stunningly balancing between evocative drama and hilarious comedy. — A cheerful Swedish family goes skiing at the French Alps. During a meal at a restaurant on a slope, an avalanche turns everything upside down. While plates fly away in all directions, the woman is looking for her husband as she tries to shield their children; but he ran away to save himself. After the avalanche stops, they burst into awkward laughter but the family balance has been completely overturned. His unexpected reaction causes the reassessment of family roles and relationships. — Un Certain Regard Jury Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2014 Best Film | Seville European Film Festival | 2014 Best Screenplay | Seville European Film Festival | 2014

The greatest love stories have yet to be told. An elderly woman embarks on a long journey and thus unleashes a grand, tender, peculiar, unique second part in a film for which just one time is not enough. — A woman spends her retirement years taking care of the people around her. Most of all, she's troubled by her lonely neighbor, an eccentric 80-year-old who believes her maid is using voodoo on her. The old woman wants to meet a man from her past, so the retiree and the maid join forces to help her find him. The man has a story to tell. A story that unfolded 50 years ago, before the Portuguese colonial war, and begins as follows: "He had a farm in Africa, at the base of mount Tabu..." — Alfred Bauer Award | Berlin International Film Festival | 2012 FIPRESCI Prize | Berlin International Film Festival | 2012 Audience Award | Las Palmas Film Festival | 2012

Wong Kar-Wai flew to Buenos Aires in September 1996 for what was meant to be a six-week shoot, and he was still filming in December. Two men from Hong Kong cross the world to save their relationship and break up along the way, and from then on they swing between love and hate. — Two men on holiday in Argentina break up partway through the trip, and neither has the money to get home. One takes a job as a doorman at a bar and rents a tiny room, while the other spends his nights with whoever’s around, until the day he turns up hurt on his ex’s doorstep. — Best Director | Cannes Film Festival | 1997 Audience Award | Arizona International Film Festival | 1998 Best Actor | Hong Kong Film Awards | 1998

An Oscar triumph that will be remembered as one of the most eventful wins in history. A black boy grows up and discovers his sexuality through three decisive stages of his life. Academy Awards for Best Picture and Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and a watershed moment for American indie cinema. — A timeless story of human connection and reconciliation with oneself, "Moonlight" tells the story of a man's life, beginning in childhood and through adulthood, as he struggles to find his place in the world. A vital portrait of the life of a contemporary African American man and a poetic reflection on identity, family, friendship and love, full of deep compassion and universal truths. — Best Film | Oscars | 2017 Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali) | Oscars | 2017 Best Adapted Screenplay | Oscars | 2017

It was meant to be the cinematic event of the 60s. Instead, three weeks into filming, the project gets abandoned, leaving behind an unfinished masterpiece. Completed in 2009 as a mix of fiction and documentary, this “Inferno” is a film jewel and a glance to a parallel world of beauty. — In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot picks Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani to star in “Inferno”. The enigmatic project would focus on a hotel manager possessed by the demons of jealousy, and was meant to be the biggest cinematic event of the decade, with Clouzot being given carte blanche and a large budget. However, during filming everything goes wrong, the project gets abandoned, and something that was meant to make history is left unfinished. — Best Documentary Award | César Awards | 2010 International Jury Award for Best Documentary | Sao Paolo International Film Festival | 2009

Back when everyone wanted Lynch to finally explain “Twin Peaks”, he answered with a prequel that only multiplies the questions, following Laura Palmer through the last seven days of her life. The film some fans first dismissed is now one many would follow into the Black Lodge. — David Lynch’s prequel to his own cult series begins in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. The FBI agent sent there to investigate the murder of a young woman, Teresa Banks, finds nothing and then vanishes himself. A year later, in nearby Twin Peaks, homecoming queen Laura Palmer has two boyfriends, a secret and seven days left to live. — Official Selection | Cannes Film Festival | 1992

Innocence’s epilogue was brought upon by the war and the transformation of the once funny jester into a delightfully cynical figure was something that the world was not yet ready to digest. Although unfavourably acclaimed in its time, it’s now regarded, not unfairly, as his black masterpiece. — Inspired by notorious French serial killer Landru, Henri Verdoux lures wealthy women by promising them sweet happy-everafters. After the wedding bells chime, however, he murders them for their fortunes. In this particularly dark comedy, Chaplin questions our perception of evil: isn’t this refined criminal a mere amateur compared to weapons suppliers and dictators? We stand ready to condemn a murderer, but when war victims are counted in millions, we celebrate a hero! — Nominated for Best Original Screenplay | Oscars | 1948