ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

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NYFF 2025

Festivals 

New York Film Festival 2025 Roundup – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

Margaret Barton-Fumo , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This year, the 63rd annual New York Film Festival boasted an impressive roster of women-produced and women-prominent features, spanning across a variety of different genres. In general, this year’s more anticipated, big-ticket films turned out to be less remarkable than some of the quieter releases, as we’ll address in this roundup. The festival opener, for example, Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, while an apt showcase for Julia Roberts, was a coolly received treatise on cancel culture told from within the confines of the ivory tower of academia. Other films in the Main Slate, like Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, while more understated features, received greater praise from audiences and critics alike.

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Festivals Reviews 

THE CURRENTS (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

Margaret Barton-Fumo , , , , ,

Milagros Mumenthaler’s The Currents is an ambitious, at times convoluted feature, one that often reflects the complexities of women’s inner lives. Mumenthaler’s perspective is consistently observational, going so far as to mimic the path of the human eye. Her vision is compelling; she is an artist and a feminist with a promising career ahead of her. Kudos to Mumenthaler for playing with the medium and daring to link the primary character’s story into a larger community of friends and strangers, creating a fascinating portrait of a bustling Buenos Aires in the process.

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Festivals Reviews 

THE FENCE (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

Margaret Barton-Fumo , , , , ,

Undeniably a master filmmaker with over 35 years of experience directing features, Claire Denis has reached the inevitable point in her career where it is difficult to live up to the standards set by her previous work. This film in particular could use a little more formal pizzazz. Due to its theatrical structure, the film runs a bit flat. The screenplay addresses many of Denis’ often explored themes, such as colonialism, desire, and homosocial relationships, but these are all touchstones represented by mostly familiar talking points. By the time night ends and the drama comes to a head, Denis has wrangled the film into something interesting, but overall The Fence stands as a rather anemic work.

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Festivals Reviews 

AFTER THE HUNT (NYFF 2025) – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , , ,

Some films promise more than they deliver to the disappointment of those who welcome weighty issues decisively tackled. Director Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt qualifies with its exceptional cast, substantive conflicts, and high profile setting, all to no avail as the film chases after a clear presentation of characters awash in acrimonious crises. The jumbled ideas are as muddled as the relationships in a film with no semblance of constructive insight into the university world or its affected individuals. Promoted as a “twisty psychological thriller,” it is, more accurately, a confused, erratic indulgence.

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Festivals Reviews 

THE MASTERMIND (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

Margaret Barton-Fumo , , , , , , , ,

Screening as part of the Main Slate of the 63rd New York Film Festival, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind is strong enough to stand as an opening or closing night feature, if only it carried the gravitas of a big-budget, high profile production. But that, of course, would be antithetical to Reichardt’s work, which is characteristically small scale and often unassuming. With that being said, The Mastermind is a significant accomplishment, one deserving of high praise.

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Festivals Reviews 

A PRIVATE LIFE (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

Margaret Barton-Fumo , , , , , , ,

A Private Life is an engaging but purposefully jumbled film, following Jodi Foster’s Dr. Lilian Steiner, a confused expat psychoanalyst whose life turns upside-down when one of her patients unexpectedly commits suicide. Living and working in a gorgeous, book-filled Parisian apartment, Lilian tends to her patients distractedly, relying perhaps too heavily on her outdated mini-disc recorder. Abruptly dumped by her longstanding patient Pierre in favor of a hypnotist who apparently helped him quit smoking, Lilian handles the sudden rejection with a slightly befuddled ease—but when she discovers that another one of her patients, Paula has recently died, her reaction is more profound.

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Festivals Reviews 

THE MASTERMIND (NYFF 2025) – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , , , ,

The Mastermind is one of those rare films that increases appreciation on a second viewing. The subtle interplay, the strained relationships communicated through sidelong glances, the hesitant delivery of dialogue, and the slapdash unraveling of exalted ideas: all of this rewards viewer alertness to Reichardt’s genius. Through the inclusion of carefully selected details delivered through superb performances, audiences come to feel a kinship with the worlds Reichardt creates.

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Festivals Reviews 

THE SECRET AGENT (O Agente Secreto, NYFF 2025) – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , , ,

A complex dramatization of tragic history comes to vivid life in Brazilian writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto). Set in 1977 Brazil, academic leftist and technology expert Armando retreats to his home town of Recife to reunite with his son, hoping also to elude violent retaliation perpetrated under General Ernesto Geisel’s military dictatorship, a rule characterized by rampant corruption and indifference to human life.

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