OPENING Aug 31 to Sept 6, 2026 – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of August 31 – September 6 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:
Tuesday, September 1
- Confinement – Paramount Pictures (VOD) – UK – Thriller. A grieving widow is invited to her late husband’s family estate, but when she is forced to stay until she gives birth, she must confront whether her child is cursed or if she is losing her mind.
- Finding HAPPY – Vision Films (VOD) – USA – Documentary written and directed by Maria Bertrand. A heartbroken woman saves an injured baby sparrow forging a once-in-a-lifetime bond that inspires an uplifting journey around the world to explore unique human-animal relationships and find the heart of true connection.
Wednesday, September 2
- The Runner – Amazon (Prime) – UK – Action-thriller. A high-powered attorney must race through London to save her abducted son while following cryptic commands from a mysterious caller.
Friday, September 4
- Barbara Forever – Strand Releasing / MUBI (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Documentary directed by Brydie O’Connor. An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.
- Chronovisor – Grasshopper Film (Cinemas) – USA – An armchair mystery in which the life of a reclusive academic collides with the story of a clandestine technology that can photograph the past.
- Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood – GKIDS Films (Cinemas) – Japan – Anime directed by Yukimitsu Ina and Stephanie Sheh. San and Mayu are drafted into the war effort with their classmates as nurses during the closing months of the Pacific War. They escape only to face the harsh environment of a tropical paradise that has become a hellish battlefield.
- Maya & Samar – Distant Horizon Ltd. / Quiver Distribution (VOD) – Canada / Greece / South Africa – Romantic drama directed by Anita Doron. Set in contemporary Athens, Maya and Samar tells the story of two young women from conflicting cultures whose brief yet torrid affair endangers the life of one, while propelling the other to instant online fame.
- Teenage Wasteland – Film Forum / Netflix (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Documentary co-directed by Amanda MacBaine and Jesse Moss. A teacher inspires a group of teenagers in the early 1990s to make a student film and they uncover a conspiracy that is poisoning their community. Thirty years later they revisit this transformative experience.
- Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day – Quiver Distribution (Cinemas) – UK / Germany / USA – Dramedy directed by Tina Gharavi. London 1910: a passionate astronomer does everything she can to avoid romantic love and marriage. Her bold challenge to Edwardian patriarchy is set against the suffragette movement and advances in science and technology.
https://awfj.org/blog/2026/08/28/barbara-forever-review-by-loren-king/
Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.
