The Mediterrane Film Pageant in Malta is returning for its third model with larger than 40 motion pictures from over 20 worldwide places. Working from June 21-29 inside the island’s capital, Valletta, the competitors has set programming for its Opponents, Out of Opponents and Mare Nostrum sections.
Opponents motion pictures will embrace Uberto Pasolini’s “The Return,” starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche; Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut, “Scorching Milk,” “For the Love of a Lady” (Per amore di una donna) from Italian director Guido Chiesa; “Harvest” from Athina Rachel Tsangari; and Maltese director Joshua Cassar Gaspar’s “The Theft of the Caravaggio.”
Out of opponents explicit screenings will embrace Ira Sachs’ “Peter Hujar’s Day” with Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall, the Malta-set erotic thriller “Compulsion” by Neil Marshall, “4 Letters of Love” with Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne and “Time Journey is Dangerous,” narrated by Stephen Fry.
A sidebar half with FilmItalia may have a very good time new Italian girls filmmakers, with options along with “Diva Futura,” “Gloria!” and “Love and Glory – The Prolonged Deledda.”
The Mare Nostrum half, which means “Our Sea,” returns with six motion pictures exploring the native climate catastrophe and environmental themes along with “Lowland Kids,” “How Deep is Your Love” and “Transamazonia.”
Elli Griff, Rick Carter and Catherine Hardwicke are among the many many jury members who may even participate in Masterclasses in the midst of the competitors along with director Joe Carnahan, producer Jeremy Thomas and Glenn Gainor, head of bodily manufacturing at Amazon Distinctive Movies.
The Golden Bee Awards on June 29 may have a very good time 100 years of cinema in Malta, held on the historic 18th century Fort Manoel. The competitors is led by the model new creative group of Pageant Director Ray Calleja and Pageant Curator Mark Adams, and the theme of this yr’s event is “We Are Film.”
See the entire film program beneath:
MAIN COMPETITION
The Return (dir. Uberto Pasolini)
Uberto Pasolini’s The Return reunites The English Affected particular person co-stars, Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes and Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche in a powerfully genuine and psychologically revealing adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan Warfare, nevertheless so much has modified in his kingdom. His beloved partner Penelope (Binoche) is a prisoner in her personal residence, hounded by suitors vying to be king and planning the lack of lifetime of Telemachus, the son he under no circumstances knew. Shattered by his experience of wrestle, Odysseus ought to rediscover his energy with the intention to win once more all that he has misplaced.
Scorching Milk (dir. Rebecca Lenkiewicz)
Tailor-made from the acclaimed novel by Deborah Levy, this directorial debut by Rebecca Lenkiewicz sees Sofia and her ailing mother, Rose, journey to the Spanish seaside metropolis of Almería to hunt the help of Dr. Gómez, an enigmatic healer who may preserve the essential factor to Rose’s mysterious illness. As long-buried tensions simmer between them, Sofia finds herself drawn to the magnetic and free-spirited Ingrid.
For the Love of a Lady (Per amore di una donna) (dir. Guido Chiesa)
Written and directed by Guido Chiesa: A strong and neutral girl who hides a painful earlier.
Harvest (dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari)
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg, Chevalier) placing adaptation of Jim Crace’s acclaimed novel finds an idyllic rural group coming under danger from outsiders. Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no title, in an undefined time and place, disappears. Townsman-turned-farmer Walter Thirsk and befuddled lord of the manor Charles Kent are childhood buddies about to face an invasion from the floor world: the trauma of modernity.
The Theft of the Caravaggio (dir. Joshua Cassar Gaspar)
Orpheus wakes to discover a priceless Caravaggio painting stolen from St. John’s Cathedral in Valletta whereas under his watch. With city on edge, a detective is launched in from Washington to assist the native police in fixing the case.
The place The Wind Comes From (dir. Amel Guellaty)
Amel Guellaty’s long-awaited perform debut is a powerful and cinematic feast. The Tunisian-born director, screenwriter and photographer, who directed the critically acclaimed temporary Black Mamba follows rebellious 19-year-old Alyssa and shy 23-year-old Mehdi who dream of escaping their actuality. Upon discovering a contest offering a chance to flee, they embark on a avenue journey to southern Tunisia, overcoming obstacles alongside one of the best ways.
Fiume o Morte! (dir. Igor Bezinovic)
Winner of the IFFR 2025 Tiger Award, director Igor Bezinović’s meta documentary restages a bizarre episode in Rijeka’s historic previous, when it was positioned under nationalist occupation by the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. On 12 September 1919, a troop of some 300 troopers under the administration of the flamboyant wrestle loving poet D’Annunzio swooped into the port metropolis of Fiume, now Rijeka, desperate to annex city to Italy. Over the course of 16 months, all through what’s considered a few of the bizarre militant sieges of all time, his official footage group captured over 10,000 pictures. A century later, Rijeka-born filmmaker Igor Bezinović, along with some 300 residents, orchestrates a direct-action historic previous lesson centered on the siege and its modern-day implications.
The Wound (dir. Seloua El Gouni)
Leila, a youthful Moroccan girl who merely entered the workforce, tries to pursue her passions and ambitions whereas navigating the thorny societal constraints imposed on girls under the guise of customized and cultural normalcy. Winner – Most interesting Debut Perform Film on the Athens Worldwide Paintings Film Pageant, Greece
Reflection in a Ineffective Diamond (dir. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani)
John D, a septuagenarian residing in an opulent lodge on the French Riviera, is intrigued by his female neighbour who reminds him of the wild events spent there in the midst of the Nineteen Sixties, when he was a spy in a altering world full of promise. Sooner or later, his neighbour mysteriously disappears and leaves John to face his demons as soon as extra: are his former adversaries once more to sow chaos in his idyllic world?
8 (dir. Julio Medem)
Octavio and Adela have been born on the similar day, April 14th, 1931. All through the following 8 a few years, their lives will intertwine by intense encounters and misunderstandings in 8 episodes. A passionate love story between a brave and stopping girl and an individual confronted collectively along with his contradictions. They need to face coming from households on opposing sides of a country slowly heading within the course of a Civil Warfare, along with the historic previous of Spain and Europe as a background.
“Gloria!”
nikos nikolopoulos
OUT OF COMPETITION
Peter Hujar’s Day (dir. Ira Sachs)
Based totally on a richly cinematic rendering of a dialog recorded in 1974 between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz the film, starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, re-imagines their talk about that day in a single 24-hour interval inside the lifetime of Hujar, the great and famously uncompromising artist who was a few of the important figures in downtown New York’s legendary cultural scene of the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties.
Compulsion (dir. Neil Marshall)
On the island of Malta, two girls transform involved in an intense affair, a deadly sport of cat and mouse and a string of horrifying murders.
4 Letters of Love (dir. Polly Steele)
A heartfelt adaptation of Niall William’s bestselling novel, starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne. Nicholas (Fionn O’Shea) and Isabel (Ann Skelly) have been made for each other nevertheless how will they ever perceive it? As future pulls them collectively, family, passion, and faith drive them apart. They adjust to their very personal explicit particular person journeys of heartache and misplaced love, sooner than future contrives to pull the threads of their lives collectively. As soon as they meet, it will transform a miracle.
Time Journey is Dangerous
Precise-life best buddies Ruth and Megan run a traditional retailer in Muswell Hill. As soon as they stumble all through a time machine, they start taking temporary journeys into the earlier to ‘borrow’ distinctive objects to advertise inside the present. They’re not out to differ historic previous or rob banks — merely on the hunt for the suitable traditional lamp… all whereas attempting to avoid the terrifying time-space vortex typically referred to as the Unreason. Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson play themselves, with their exact traditional retailer, Cha Cha Cha, featured inside the film. The film choices an all-star British comedy solid, along with Johnny Vegas, Jane Horrocks, Sophie Thompson, Mark Heap, Brian Bovell, Tony Method, Man Henry, and Tom Lenk — and is narrated by Stephen Fry.
The Extraordinary Miss Flower (dir. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard)
The Extraordinary Miss Flower brings to life the excellent story of Geraldine Flower and the invention of a suitcase full of passionate, heartfelt letters of affection despatched to her inside the 60s and 70s that impressed acclaimed Icelandic singer/songwriter Emilíana Torrini to return to the studio and doc a whole album of newest songs. Half film, half theatre, half fever dream, the film takes the kind of a sequence of particularly designed performances of these songs by Emilíana and her band, combined with dramatic scenes and readings from the letters by well-known actors and musicians (along with Caroline Catz, Nick Cave, Alice Lowe and Richard Ayoade).
The Bridal ceremony Banquet (dir. Andrew Ahn)
Better than solely a remake of the 1993 hit movie, The Bridal ceremony Banquet is a joyfully loving and up to date reimagining of a conventional comedy of errors a few family navigating cultural identification, queerness, and family expectations as they keep, love, battle and make up as soon as extra. Pissed off collectively along with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and figuring out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their lesbian buddy Angela in change for her companion Lee’s pricey IVF. Elopement plans are upended, nonetheless, when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean bridal ceremony banquet… With a pitch-perfect multigenerational solid that options the great Lily Gladstone, The Bridal ceremony Banquet boils over with humour and coronary coronary heart and a reminder that being part of a family means learning to every accept and forgive.
Diva Futura (dir. Giulia Louise Steigerwalt)
In Eighties-Nineties Italy, Riccardo Schicchi’s firm Diva Futura turns free love into porn, making stars of Ilona Staller, Moana Pozzi and others. Their fame leads to Cicciolina’s election and Pozzi’s mayoral run.
Gloria! (dir. Margherita Vicario)
In singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario’s beautiful and rousing musical film, a bunch of confined youthful girls in 18th century Venice use their musical abilities to interrupt free. Gloria! is a hovering feel-good musical reimagining of historic previous a few group of youthful girls musicians who invent pop music in Baroque-era Venice. Set in a convent boarding school, the film follows Teresa who has visionary musical abilities nevertheless whose reward stays unsung. Ahead of a go to to the convent by the Pope, Teresa helps to create a musical rise up and leaps all through the centuries to defy the dusty outdated regime by inventing a rebellious, light, and stylish music: pop!
Love and Glory – The Youthful Deledda (L’amore e la gloria – La giovane Deledda) (dir. Maria Grazia Perria)
Screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Maria Grazia Perria’s narrative perform directorial debut is a fragile, intelligent and arresting biopic of the childhood and artistic struggles of Sardinian novelist Grazia Deledda. The first Italian girl to acquire the Nobel Prize for Literature, she is portrayed proper right here with no small amount of passion by Marisa Serra.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (dir. James Griffiths)
The Ballad of Wallis Island follows Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a distant island and wishes of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden & Carey Mulligan) once more collectively. His fantasy turns into actuality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private current at his home on Wallis Island. Outdated tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.
This Metropolis is a Battlefield (Perang Kota) (dir. Mouly Surya)
Isa, a taciturn school coach working for the resistance, is tasked with ending up an assassination with the help of Hazil, a fascinating rebel who finds himself falling for Isa’s partner, Fatimah. An stunning interval thriller that marries sensual romantic drama with propulsive movement spectacle, Mouly Surya’s fifth perform recreates life in Jakarta under colonial occupation in fastidious factor, unveiling it in all its seductive and brutal textures.
A couple of Hero (dir. Piotr Winiewicz)
After an space manufacturing unit worker named dies under mysterious circumstances, Werner Herzog travels to Getunkirchenburg to research his perplexing lack of life. Nonetheless Herzog, our narrator, is not going to be who he seems, and the film is not going to be what we depend on. A couple of Hero is an adaptation of a script written by AI, expert on Herzog’s physique of labor. Opening the distinguished 2024 Worldwide Documentary Film Pageant Amsterdam (IDFA), and co-starring Vicky Krieps and Stephen Fry, the documentary is paradoxically self-reflective. As a result of the thriller unfolds, director Piotr Winiewicz intertwines the narrative with a sequence of ‘precise’ interviews with artists, philosophers and scientists reflecting on the notion of originality, authenticity, mortality and soul inside the age of AI.
MARE NOSTRUM
How Deep is Your Love (dir. Eleanor Mortimer)
Scientists uncover the mysterious deep sea to assemble and title undiscovered species. As they uncover mesmerizing creatures and ecosystems thriving in darkness, a looming danger emerges: the prospect of deep-sea mining on this untouched wilderness. British director Eleanor Mortimer’s film weaves shock with urgency, tough us to stability the drive for sources with the intrinsic value of an ecosystem. As we journey by this breathtaking realm, we’re left to ponder – how deep is our love?
Transamazonia (dir. Pia Marais)
Inside the eerie quiet of the large, verdant Amazon jungle, a youthful girl stirs to life. Rescued by the native Indigenous tribe, the child, Rebecca, is the one survivor of a airplane crash. Years transfer, and Rebecca (Helena Zengel) has transform one factor of an space film star after her father (Jeremy Xido), an American missionary, has solid {{the teenager}} as a faith healer capable of miracles. Merely as Rebecca is beginning to have a will of her private, doubting her father and the place by which she’s been solid, one different catastrophe emerges when illegal loggers encroach on the land, threatening the livelihoods of the native tribe, and forcing emotional, familial, and racial reckonings. South Africa–born director Pia Marais has standard a mesmerizing, entrancingly photographed moral story with no easy options that will also be a singular coming-of-age fable.
Black Butterflies (dir. David Baute)
David Baute’s beautifully animated film tells the particular person tales of Tanit, Valeria and Shaila, three girls from very completely completely different parts of the world who face the similar disadvantage: native climate change. They might lose the whole thing as a consequence of worldwide warming outcomes and they’ll be pressured to emigrate to survive.
Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature (dir. Léo Favier)
A documentary exploring the life and influential works of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, acknowledged for motion pictures like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, specializing in his passion for animation and advocacy for the pure world.
Solely on Earth (dir. Robin Petré)
Spain’s Southern Galicia is probably going some of the wildfire-prone zones in Europe. Wild horses have roamed these mountains for tons of of years and play a significant place in fireplace prevention by sustaining flammable undergrowth low. Nonetheless their numbers are dwindling. Petré’s film takes the viewers on an immersive and visually placing journey into the most well-liked summer season on doc whereas inextinguishable forest fires rage for days. Solely on Earth is regarding the fragile stability of our pure world and the connection between folks and animals.
Lowland Kids (dir. Sandra Winther)
The film follows the story of the ultimate two children and their uncle—on Louisiana’s as quickly as thriving Isle de Jean Charles: their strikingly beautiful ancestral home that’s now being swallowed by the ocean. Part of the group deemed America’s First Native climate Refugees, they face an not sure future as a result of the U.S. authorities makes an unprecedented effort to resettle their complete group sooner than the island succumbs to the ocean. The film is directed by Danish filmmaker Sandra Winther and govt produced by Darren Aronofsky.
