Dinosaurs from the Jurassic saga, a thirty-year history of Steven Spielberg, and a weekend spotlight on Carmen Machi as a volunteer in a Greek refugee camp, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch’s transformation into the painter Louis Wain, headline this period’s cinematic conversations.
EPIC END OF JURASSIC SAGA
Seven years after a restart to the Jurassic narrative, the creator Colin Trevorrow closes the second trilogy and the franchise that Spielberg ignited with Jurassic Park. Jurassic World, released in 2015, frames an ultimate clash of eras as world-wide humans and dinosaurs coexist in ways never imagined. The cast brings together veterans Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum with newer stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Isabela Sermon in a bold continuation of a story that began decades ago.
Four years after the events on Nublar Island, the planet becomes a vast stage where dinosaurs hunt and humans adapt. This film stitches together the returning ensemble from the original trilogy with fresh confrontations and new alliances as the saga drives toward its climactic resolutions.
CARMEN MACHI VOLUNTEERS AT A REFUGEE CAMP IN GREECE
Nely Reguera, the director of María y los otros, recasts Carmen Machi as a retired physician who volunteers at a refugee camp in Greece in her second feature. The Volunteer follows a human journey that begins with a simple choice and expands into a meditation on care, duty, and belonging.
Arriving in the camp, the protagonist encounters realities that broaden her sense of purpose and redefine what it means to be useful, testing the boundaries between affection and obligation.
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, CAT PICTURE
Known for his affinity for feline subjects in Louis Wain’s world, Benedict Cumberbatch stars in a film centered on the painter who battled social resistance in late Victorian England. Mr. Wain dramatizes the artist’s life as he navigates public perception while feeding his own artistic curiosity.
The story follows a man balancing creative pursuit with family duties, including caring for younger siblings and a mother. An enduring romance with Emily and the companionship of a cherished pet, Peter, shape Wain’s art and his legacy.
JAPANESE ANIMATION OF ‘GEAR KING’
After years as an animator at Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki’s collaborator Masashi Ando begins his directorial debut with The Deer King. The film premiered at Sitges and joined the official lineup of the Annecy animation festival. It centers on a slave-soldier who teams with a girl to survive a mysterious illness and a world in turmoil.
The narrative threads a journey through friendship and resilience as the two protagonists confront a collapsing world and forge a path forward amid uncertainty.
NO AGE OF LOVE FOR FANNY ARDANT
Carine Tardieu, adapting a true story, presents Young Lovers as her fourth feature. The drama portrays a romance between a 71-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, challenging assumptions about time, desire, and companionship.
Fanny Ardant portrays a graceful retired architect who reconnects with a married doctor years after a hospital encounter. Their renewed bond sets the stage for a heartfelt exploration of love, memory, and the evolving meaning of companionship.
‘NINJABABY’, UNWANTED MOTHERNESS
Nina, a 23-year-old, confronts an unexpected pregnancy and chooses a path that defies conventional expectations. Ninja Baby, a dramatic comedy from Norwegian writer-director Yngvild Sve Flikke, turns a comic premise into a frank meditation on motherhood and personal conviction.
Rakel’s life shifts when she discovers she is six months pregnant. A woman who prizes independence and a carefree lifestyle finds herself facing decisions that could redefine her future and her sense of self.
OPERA AND RAP, TWO DISTANT WORDS CLASHING IN ‘TENOR’
Tenor imagines a collision between worlds when a refined opera teacher from the upper class meets a budding rapper from the Paris suburbs. Music becomes a bridge that challenges social norms and reshapes the lives of two unlikely partners.
Michèle Laroque, César nominee, and MB14, a celebrated beatboxer known from The Voice, frame a story about transformation through artistic collaboration. A director’s vision underscores how rhythm and melody can liberate identities and futures.
‘FINLAND’, MEXICO Immersion in the queer universe
Horacio Alcalá centers his film on Oaxaca’s queer muxe community, examining identity and belonging through magical realism. The ensemble includes Spanish actor Andres Guasch and Noé Hernán and Eric Israel Consuelo, known for Narcos, in a narrative that threads colonial history, capitalism, and fashion into a richly layered exploration.
LEAVING THE WORKING CLASS ‘RETURN TO REIMS’
Jean-Gabriel Périot uses documentary and experimental methods to probe the erosion of the working class and the migration of political attitudes in France. Return to Reims intertwines the author Didier Eribon’s autobiographical reflections with a broader political commentary, inviting viewers to reconsider past loyalties and future trajectories.
The work adapts Eribon’s novel into a hybrid film that blends personal memory with social analysis, encouraging a candid dialogue about class, identity, and the evolving fabric of French society.