Female Film Critics 24/375
When the Cannes Film Festival opens for the 78th time on May 13, Juliette Binoche will preside over the main competition jury. A towering presence in international cinema, Binoche follows in the footsteps of another female film icon, Greta Gerwig. This marks the first time in over six decades that two women have consecutively held this prestigious role! All in all. 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for women at Cannes.
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Italian director Alice Rohrwacher avoids cinematic clichés, forging a unique blend of complex characters in unusual circumstances and settings. She’s true to form in her latest film, La Chimera, Rohrwacher’s critical assessment of a band of tombaroli, grave robbers in an eccentric 1980s Tuscan community. The foreigner Arthur and his Italian colleagues propel the narrative with unanticipated twists and turns. Pushing us out of a relaxed comfort zone, Rohrwacher includes characters’ direct-address to the camera, singers and dancers presenting alternative perspectives, and magical realism interwoven with Italy’s signature cinematic neo-realism.
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Love and contentment are as elusive as an undisturbed Etruscan tomb in Alice Rohrwacher’s piquant dramedy La Chimera. As it tells the story of a merry group of Italian grave robbers — known as tombaroli — and the inscrutable Englishman who leads them to the caches of objects they happily sell to the highest bidder, the film examines the allure of pursuing something that always seems just beyond your grasp.
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Women directors held their own at this year’s New York Film Festival, with impressive films in each of the fest’s coveted programs, from the Main Slate to Revivals. We’ll dip into each of these categories, singling out some of the lesser-known titles, in a women-focused overview of the fest. Starting off with the generally crowd-pleasing Main Slate, a number of women-directed features stood out (eight out of thirty-two, in fact).
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The New York Film Festival is set to return to the city with a packed schedule of international films. A little over one-fifth of the features this year are directed by women, with several standouts in the coveted Main Slate. Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated Priscilla is one such feature, scheduled to be the festival’s “Centerpiece” screening. Many critics are eagerly situating Coppola’s film, which is based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir, Elvis and Me, as the femme-centric antidote to Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic rock ‘n’ roll biopic. All assumed comparisons aside, the subject matter is certainly well-suited to its director, given Coppola’s accomplished history of directing moody tales of alienated women.
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Move over, Indiana Jones, there’s a new tomb-raiding archaeologist in town in Alice Rohrwacher’s madcap Italian tragi-comedy, La Chimera. Rohrwacher imbues the film with her unique style that feels loose and luxurious. Like the mythical chimera composed of incongruous body parts, the film is a gorgeous blend of style and substance. The story clips along with fast-motion sequences and silent film techniques which paint a truly original picture. Director of Photography Hélène Louvart plays with visuals and aspect ratios using 35mm, 16mm and Super 16 while editor Nelly Quettier brings further oddball energy to the the screen with jump cuts against a soundtrack of infectious Italian rock, folk, and electro-pop.
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The 48th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is once again ready to kick off in Toronto. While this year may not have the star power of previous years due to the ongoing SAG and WGA strikes, there are still plenty of films to see – especially ones with women filmmakers at the helm. While not reaching gender parity in their programming this year, TIFF is still showcasing films by women from around the world. Both well-established directors and first-time directors helm everything from star-studded ensembles, documentaries, indie dramas, comedies, and more. With more than 70 films, series, and shorts directed by women, there are many opportunities to take in female-helmed films this festival, which runs September 7 through 17th. See the full list of feature-length films and series directed or co-directed by women.
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In 2023, MIFF, well, felt like MIFF again. Mask sightings were rare, the festival’s long queues wound snake-like around city blocks once again, and if not for the unseasonably warm weather it felt like business as usual. With in-cinema programming running from 3 to 20 August and MIFF Play streaming from 18 to 27 August, MIFF is not just a lengthy festival when compared with other international fests, but also one of the longest running; founded in 1952, its first edition was a year after the first Berlin Film Fest, and it predates both TIFF and Sundance by decades. TIFF is perhaps the most useful point of reference when it comes to trying to capture the tone of MIFF for those in the Northern Hemisphere; while both have a significant industry portion (amongst other things, MIFF hosts the annual 37ºSouth Market), both festivals are marked by a kind of proud, public facing euphoria and share a similar spirit of accessibility when it comes to welcoming audiences from all walks of life, not just industry players going through the motions.
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Alice Rohrwacher is back, and the filmmaker who brought us The Wonders (2014) and Happy as Lazzaro (2018) returns with the highly anticipated Palme d’Or nominated (and Palme Dog winning) La Chimera. A generic melange of sped-up slapstick, heist film and romantic fantasy, the film stars Josh O’Connor as Arthur, an archaeologist turned graverobber who returns to the rural Italian home of his lost love Beniamina (Yile Tara Vianello) where he reconnects with her eccentric mother Flora (Isabella Rossellini) and his old tombaroli crew who entice him back into the business of raiding tombs to pilfer Etruscan antiquities. Through Flora he meets the quirky Italia (Carol Duarte), with whom he develops an unexpected connection.
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Directed by Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) and produced by Alfonso Cuarón, Le Pupille reunites Rohrwacher with writer Carmela Covino and star of Happy as Lazzaro, Alba Rohrwacher. It is WWII and a group of orphans live in a ramshackle convent in Italy. The whole county is suffering a famine because of the war. The Church, usually able to depend on money from the faithful is facing poverty, and the hope of Madre Superiora Fioralba (Alice Rohrwacher) is that the annual Nativity Scene will bring in some much-needed funds
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