Programmers' Picks: Justine Barda on SIFF 2026

Promised Sky

This is a warm-hearted but clear-eyed feature about three Ivorian immigrant women in Tunisia and the fragile web of community that holds them together.

American Doctor

This is difficult but essential viewing, with information that's difficult to find elsewhere.  Documentary filmmaking at its most important.

The Friend’s House Is Here

As the US continues its bombing of Iran, I'm glad to be showing a film that is a potent, positive reminder of the full humanity of the people who live there.

Becoming Human

I found this quirky, quiet, beautiful film about the ghosts (literally) of the Cambodian Civil War unexpectedly moving.

Birds of War

This engaging and heartwarming love story also provides startling insight into what it means to live a life conditioned by the experience of war and exile.

Happy Birthday

Two of my favorite SIFF selections this year are films with lead characters who are young girls coming to an adult understanding of the world they live in (in this case an economically stratified Cairo), and their position in it.

Hijra

This is the other film with a young girl protagonist -- in this case, a Saudi girl who goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca with her sister and grandmother that throws into sharp relief the gendered constraints that shape their lives.

Amrum

I am a longtime fan of the director Fatih Akin and one thing I admire about his work is his willingness to take it in new directions, as he does in this intelligent period study of a young German boy and his family at the end of WWII.