MMature themes, coarse language and sexual references
This evocative 90s-set drama, with an effortlessly cool soundtrack to match, stars Normal People’s Paul Mescal as divorced dad Calum who takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (newcomer Francesca Corio) on a holiday to a budget Turkish resort. “Calum is caring, weird in the way that everyone’s dad is a bit weird, and a goofball who genuinely enjoys spending time with his kid. But there’s a clear sadness to him that Mescal allows to flicker through his face to remind us that no matter how hard Calum is trying, there’s a dark side to him that will soon rear its head… Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells… weaves together memories, home video and dreams in a singular way. It turns out that an older Sophie is remembering these important – and, it is implied, last – moments with her dad… Wells makes the interplay between these recollections and her piecing together her father’s emotional reality incredibly vivid. Aftersun flows like a fondly remembered memory that’s been replayed endlessly, as if trying to find an important detail that might explain what happened. The easy pace of her direction brings out the best in her central performers, and the chemistry between Mescal and Corio plays out effortlessly. The light moments between them are warm and the darker ones linger heavily.” — Anna Bogutskaya, Time Out
MSex scenes and nudity
Mina (Lubna Azabal) and her husband Halim (Saleh Bakri) run a small business making and selling bespoke caftans in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. Halim is a master of his trade, and Mina a canny saleswoman, though their wares don’t come cheap and traditional dress is falling out of favour. Woven with exquisite care, Maryam Touzani’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winning drama reveals a beautiful love triangle exploring mortality and sexuality in a small Moroccan town. Touzani presents a complex marriage with tenderness and grace in a sincere and superbly performed film that unfolds in unexpected and heartening ways.
MMature themes and coarse language
Five years after winning the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters, Academy award nominated filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with BROKER, starring Cannes Best actor winner Song Kang Ho (Parasite). The film follows two brokers who sell orphaned infants, circumventing the bureaucracy of legal adoption, to affluent couples who can’t have children of their own. After an infant’s mother surprises the duo by returning to ensure her child finds a good home, the three embark on a journey to find the right couple, building an unlikely family of their own.
MSuicide themes
Leo and Remi are two thirteen-year-old best friends, whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Lukas Dhont's second film is an emotionally transformative and unforgettable portrait of the intersection of friendship and love, identity and independence, and heartbreak and healing
MA15+Strong violence and crude sexual humour
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.
MA15+Strong themes, violence and coarse language
Through various modes of surveillance we observe an overprotective young woman, Winnie, and her disabled brother, Stevie, caught in a web of intrigue involving a bomb plot, inept anarchists, ambitious police and a corrupt politician. The duplicity of Winnie’s boyfriend, Conrad Verloc -political activist and police informant –propels these siblings down a deadly path. But justice may prevail in the aftermath, via the surveillance collected, compiled and presented by Special Crimes Sergeant Kylie Heat.
PGMild fantasy themes and animated violence, some scenes may scare young children
Mavka - a soul of the Forest - faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as guardian to the Heart of the Forest, when she falls in love with a human - the talented young musician Lukash. Our story is about the magical power of love. That kind of love that enables human nature to find the magic within and reveals abilities and qualities that empower a person to reach beyond possible and to hold against evil and human vice.
MMature themes, violence and coarse language
UN Women - Charity Partnership launch Fundraiser for UN Women for Ukraine Using real-life gymnasts to land his debut on solid ground, director Elie Grappe presents a compelling psychological portrait of a dedicated young athlete on the cusp of great success. Olga, which played at Critics Week in Cannes, packs in too much plot - the film would have vaulted home with far less. But there's a grounded authenticity in this hermetically-sealed world of elite sports which should see the arresting Olga travel through festivals, making a name for its director and co-writer on the way. Perfectly timed with this year's Olympics and the well-documented mental issues affecting the gymnasts there, Olga could catch itself on the bars of the zeitgeist and make a bid for theatrical exposure. Grappe's film doesn't feel a world away from last year's Cannes Label title Slalom, although the threat to the lonely female athlete here - 15 year-old tough-as-nails Ukrainian gymnast Olga (Anastasia Budiashkina) - isn't a sexual predator. Instead it's her very identity: who is Olga, and what will she lose in order to take her shot at success? She's so absurdly dedicated, and so breathtakingly talented, her teammates call her a robot. But she drives herself too hard, and there's a breaking point.
MMature themes, coarse language and brief nudity
Todd Field (who directed acclaimed dramas like In the Bedroom and Little Children) writes and directs TÁR, a period drama with Cate Blanchett as an orchestra conductor of a German orchestra at the heights of her career.
E
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones made history in the 2021–22 season. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzosoprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the podium to conduct Blanchard’s second Met premiere. Director James Robinson, whose productions of Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Porgy and Bess brought down the house, oversees the staging. Camille A. Brown, whose choreography electrified audiences in Fire and Porgy, also returns.
E
A dream cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy. Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aristocratic Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as her lover, Octavian, and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-siècle staging.
E
One of opera’s most beloved works receives its first new Met staging in 19 years—a daring vision by renowned English director Simon McBurney that The Wall Street Journal declared “the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera.” Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Met Orchestra, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast. In his Met-debut staging, McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.
CTC
Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove makes his Met debut with a new staging of Mozart’s tragicomedy Don Giovanni. The tale of deceit and damnation is set in an abstract architectural landscape that explores the dark corners of the story and its characters. Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Met debut conducting a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the Leporello of bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang are Giovanni’s conquests—Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina—and tenor Ben Bliss sings Don Ottavio.
E
Baritone Michael Volle stars as the caddish knight Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance, in Verdi’s glorious Shakespearean comedy. Maestro Daniele Rustioni takes the podium on April 1 to oversee a brilliant ensemble cast that features sopranos Hera Hyesang Park, Ailyn Pérez, and Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux, tenor Bogdan Volkov, and baritone Christopher Maltman.
E
Wagner’s Lohengrin returns to the Met stage after an absence of 17 years with this atmospheric new staging by François Girard. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the mysterious swan knight. Soprano Tamara Wilson is the virtuous duchess Elsa, falsely accused of murder, going head-to-head with soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud’s power-hungry husband, Telramund, and bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich.
MMature themes, coarse language and drug use
Inspired by true events. A West Texas single mother wins the lottery and squanders it just as fast, leaving behind a world of heartbreak. Years later, with her charm running out and nowhere to go, she fights to rebuild her life and find redemption.