NYFF 2026 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

NYFF 2026 Main Slate Wrap Up – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

October 14, 2026October 18, 2026 Margaret Barton-Fumo 14th, Ava DuVernay, Everytime, Fatherland, Julia Loktev, kim minhee, La Gradiva, Misty Green, My Undesirable Friends Part II - Exile, New York Film Festival, NYFF 2026, Rose, Sandra Hüller, Sandra Wolllner

Out of thirty-four films in the festival’s Main Slate, nine were directed by women, or just under 25%. More promising, a dozen male-directed films within the Main Slate focused on women’s themes and featured women in leading roles. Out of the festival’s three pinnacle films, the closing night selection, 14th, was directed by Ava DuVernay—although the premiere courted some controversy as many critics and viewers were uneasy with the director’s liberal use of AI to animate historical images. Aside from this definite flaw, 14th makes some effective points, paying special attention to contemporary threats to birthright citizenship under the Trump administration while employing a historical perspective. Several other women-directed or co-directed documentaries made waves within the Main Slate: Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Naza, is a ruthless, clear-eyed and methodical takedown of Israeli drone warfare and genocide, while Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part II—Exile follows up with the subjects from Part I, the Russian journalists who were forced to flee their own country.

Festivals Reviews

LA GRADIVA (NYFF 2026) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 Margaret Barton-Fumo Antonia Buresi, Colas Quignard, french films, La Gradiva, Marine Atlan, Mitia Capellier-Audat, MK2 Films, NYFF 2026, Suzanne Gerin

Already an accomplished cinematographer, the young French director Marine Atlan recently burst onto the international film scene at this year’s New York Film Festival with her debut feature, the highly acclaimed La Gradiva. Focusing on a group of late teens on a school trip to the ruins of Pompeii, Atlan’s film ebbs and flows with the rhythms of its young subjects, eventually building into a surprising moment of tragedy. Closely attuned to schoolteacher Mme Mercier (Antonia Buresi)’s struggles as a well-meaning educator, Atlan taps into some ancient truths while observing her youthful, energetic leads. It’s admirable for a first-time director to follow her gut so confidently, and La Gradiva will surely have audiences discussing the film—not unlike its spirited subjects—for some time to come.

Festivals Reviews

ALL OF A SUDDEN (NYFF 2026) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 Margaret Barton-Fumo All of a Sudden, Kodai Kurosaki, Kyōzō Nagatsuka, NYFF 2026, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, Tao Okamoto, Virginie Efira

It’s truly a delight to watch friendships develop and flourish in this film, with the two “Marie”s (Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto) at the center of an impressive ensemble cast. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s approach is sometimes dry and academic, but working in concert with cinematographer Alan Guichaoua, the director achieves an emotional, effective catharsis. The connection between Efira and Okamoto is pure kismet, transforming Hamaguchi (and co-writer Léa Le Dimna)’s heady dialogue into a moving experience. Those already familiar with Hamaguchi’s work will certainly adore this film, his French-language debut, which is also a good entry point for those who are new to his work. All of a Sudden is a complex, heartfelt film, sure to inspire thoughts and emotions that will continue to resonate after the end credits roll.

Festivals Reviews

AMARGA NAVIDAD/BITTER CHRISTMAS (NYFF 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

September 30, 2026October 12, 2026 Diane Carson Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas, Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Milena Smit, NYFF 2026, Patrick Criado, pedro almodovar, Spanish films

Noted Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is at heart an experimental filmmaker working in a narrative world, often seamlessly integrating his dual impulses with occasional bumps here and there (Parallel Mothers, 2021, a case in point.) However, in Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas, Almodóvar blends both appetites masterfully in a semi-autobiographical, nonchronological exploration of creativity. In it, to overcome his writer’s block, celebrated film director Raúl Rossetti (Leonardo Sbaraglia) borrows surreptitiously and invasively from closest friends’ lives in order to develop his future film’s screenplay, also titled Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas. Exploring the interplay between fictitious and derivative stories, Almodóvar presents parallel accounts, the actual events occurring over a long weekend in December 2004 in Madrid with Raúl’s assembled version written in the summer of 2026.

Festivals Reviews

NOWHERE TO LAY MY EYES (NYFF 2026) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

September 30, 2026October 3, 2026 Margaret Barton-Fumo Choi Myung-gil, hong sangsoo, Kim Min-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, New York Film Festival, Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, NYFF 2026, Shin Seok-ho, south korean fillms

There is a lot of eating and drinking, as is par for the course in Hong Sangsoo’s films. Nowhere to Lay My Eyes unfolds at a comfortable pace, punctuated by nuanced, often illuminating conversations. Small musings can lead to revelations over the course of mere minutes, usually aided by glasses of Soju. Devoteés of Hong’s cinema tend to revel in these familiar beats, and here Nowhere to Lay My Eyes pleasingly delivers.

Festivals Reviews

ROSE (NYFF 2026) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

September 30, 2026September 30, 2026 Margaret Barton-Fumo black-and-white, Caro Braun, Gerald Kerkletz, Markus Schleinzer, NYFF 2026, Rose, Sandra Hüller, Thirty Years War

Markus Schleinzer’s third feature Rose is a formal marvel, as well as an excellent vehicle for its lead actor, the always impressive Sandra Hüller. Set in the 16th century during the Thirty Years War, Hüller plays a world-weary woman who disguises herself as a male soldier and sets out to claim a fallen associate’s inheritance.

Reviews

MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS PART II – EXILE (NYFF 2026) – Review by Jennifer Merin

September 29, 2026October 12, 2026 Jennifer Merin Alesya Marokhovskaya, Anna Nemzer, Elena Kostyuchenko, Julia Loktev, Ksenia Mironova, My Undesirable Friends Part II - Exile, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, Nataliya Gumenyuk, NYFF 2026, Peter Ruzavin, Sonya Groysman, truth in journalism, TV Rain, Ukraine war, Valeria Ratnikova, Yana Kuchina

The success of My Undesireable Friends Part I – Last Air in Moscow raised awareness of the Russian independent journalists’ repression and peril, but it didn’t resolve the serious issues it raised, nor did the celebratory kudos distract Loktov, who was resolved to follow her truth-telling subjects into exile whevever they could find shelter and (relative) safety as they continued to report truthfully about Russia’s human rights violations in Ukraine.

Festivals Reviews

THEY’RE HERE (NYFF 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

September 22, 2026September 23, 2026 Diane Carson abductions, Alex Pretti, documentary, government-sponsored deportation, ICE, laura poitras, Minneapolis, New, New York Film Festival, NYFF 2026, Rachel Lauren Mueller, Rénee Nicole Good, They’re Here

Unfolding in the style of horror film, which it is, directors Laura Poitras’ and Rachel Lauren Mueller’s They’re Here documents ICE’s illegal, combative activity in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this past winter. Immediately mimicking the menacing, stalking point-of-view shots that evoke anxiety in that genre of films, the association is apt given ICE’s threatening, frightening, even terrorizing men, women, and children. In a revealing, informative 25 minutes, They’re Here presents the array of tactics used by ICE agents in military uniforms and, almost universally, with partial masks covering their faces, thereby concealing their identity.