NYFF 2022’s Unfamiliar Faces: Where are they now? – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

A lot of big titles screened at the NYFF this year, many of which were directed by esteemed women filmmakers, including festival darlings Claire Denis, Kelly Reichardt and Joanna Hogg. Also of note were new films by Sarah Polley and Maria Schneider. Several women directors snuck in under the radar with films that largely challenged the status quo. Most of them were first-time directors or unfamiliar faces, infusing fresh blood into a somewhat tired festival circuit. We should be on the lookout for such women who enrich our filmgoing experience, introducing us to new methods of filmmaking. But where do these films go after the festival screening? The answer is not always clear-cut.

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CENTIGRADE – Review by Lana Wilson Combs

Centigrade, from director Brendan Walsh (TV’s Nurse Jackie ) and screenwriter Daley Nixon is loosely based on a true story which occurred in 2002. The movie could have just as easily been titled Trapped since that’s the scary situation the film’s stars, Genesis Rodriguez, (TV’s The Fugitive) and Vincent Piazza (TV’s Passage) find themselves in while traveling in a rented SUV to the arctic mountains of Norway.

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SPUTNIK – Review by Leslie Combemale

There is a creepy pall over everything in Sputnik. It has an intentional sparseness and frigidity that might put off viewers were it not for the strong and complex female character at its center. She’s brainy, fearlessness, and compassionate. With Sputnik, you might come for the alien, but you’ll stay for the heroine.

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WEEK IN WOMEN – IFC acquires A CALL TO SPY, WWII Female Spy Drama – Brandy McDonnell reports

IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to A Call to Spy, the feature directorial debut of Academy Award-nominated documentary producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, which centers on the courageous unsung female spies who served in World War II. IFC is planning an autumn release.

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SWALLOW – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

The risk of spoilers with Swallow is high, so to avoid this suffice it to say that the journey taken by Hunter (Haley Bennett) through her eating disorder takes her exactly to where her story should logically go. Swallow is a film as much about striving for creative freedom as it does a woman desperately clawing her way towards a sense of autonomy, one mouthful at a time. Brave, challenging and desperately needed right now, Swallow is a perfect film about facing our imperfections.

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