Contemporary Cinema
Live in the moment with these movies from around the world. A comparative study of modern film, SIFF’s Contemporary Cinema program illuminates the diversity of the now across countries and continents.
40 Acres
Canada | 2024 | 113 min. | R.T. Thorne
A Black family in a starved, post-civil war near future must defend their farm from invading cannibals.
April
Georgia | 2024 | 134 min. | Dea Kulumbegashvili
A Georgian obstetrician is thrust into the harsh, investigative spotlight when she loses a newborn while on duty.
Auction
France | 2024 | 91 min. | Pascal Bonitzer
When a long-lost painting turns up in a cottage in Eastern France, it sets in motion a story of intrigue, deceit, and surprise.
Beef
Spain | 2025 | 85 min. | Ingride Santos
Lati turns to rap, learning how to tap into her frustration and anger to create empowering, liberating rhymes.
Beginnings
Denmark | 2025 | 96 min. | Jeanette Nordahl
Just as Ane and Thomas are about to finalize their divorce and tell their two daughters, she suffers a stroke.
Bitter Gold
Chile | 2024 | 83 min. | Juan Olea
A pulse-pounding neo-western thriller set in the cutthroat artisanal mining industry in the deserts of northern Chile.
Come Closer
Israel | 2024 | 107 min. | Tom Nesher
A woman and her late brother’s secret girlfriend embark on an intense and intimate relationship of their own.
The Crowd
Iran | 2025 | 70 min. | Sahand Kabiri
A vibrant portrait of a younger generation in Iran, determined to live life on their own terms.
Deaf
Spain | 2025 | 99 min. | Eva Libertad
A deaf woman’s pregnancy triggers fears about motherhood and how she will be able to raise her daughter in a world of sounds.
Diamonds
Italy | 2024 | 120 min. | Ferzan Özpetek
A lush, metatheatrical crowdpleaser about a Rome-based tailoring shop that makes costumes for the big screen.
Diciannove
Italy | 2024 | 109 min. | Giovanni Tortorici
Aimless 19-year-old Leonardo leaves his privileged world behind to bustle around Siena in search of identity and connection.
DJ Ahmet
North Macedonia | 2025 | 97 min. | Georgi M. Unkovski
Teenage shepherd Ahmet rebels against his conservative farming village when he gets a taste of electronic dance music.
Drowning Dry
Lithuania | 2024 | 88 min. | Laurynas Bareiša
Two families must confront lingering resentments when tragedy strikes during a lakeside weekend summer vacation.
Hanami
Switzerland | 2024 | 96 min. | Denise Fernandes
Nana lives on a remote volcanic island. She will spend her life trying to find the right answer to the lingering question: Should she stay or should she go?
Happy Holidays
Palestine | 2024 | 123 min. | Scandar Copti
About a middle-class Arab family in Israel and the impact of the country’s divisions on every aspect of their lives.
Home Sweet Home
Denmark | 2025 | 112 min. | Frelle Petersen
Sofie starts a career as a caretaker for the elderly, only to be humbled by the toll it takes on her physical and mental health.
I Am Nevenka
Spain | 2024 | 112 min. | Icíar Bollaín
A finance councilor reports her town’s lecherous mayor, turning her courageous fight into Spain’s first #MeToo case.
Idyllic
Netherlands | 2025 | 99 min. | Aaron Rookus
Three generations of one Dutch family contend with the various curveballs life throws at them in their search for a happy life.
John Cranko
Germany | 2024 | 135 min. | Joachim Lang
Sam Riley (CONTROL) stuns in this biopic about South African dancer and choreographer John Cranko.
Joqtau
Kazakhstan | 2024 | 71 min. | Aruan Anartay
Young Darkhan returns to his village to accompany his late grandfather on an imagined journey to his ancestral home.
Ka Whawhai Tonu: Struggle Without End
Aotearoa New Zealand | 2024 | 115 min. | Michael Jonathan (Māori)
A Māori-language epic about the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau, as an Indigenous tribe defends their land from invading British forces.
The Kingdom
France | 2024 | 108 min. | Julien Colonna
When an underground war breaks out between nationalist groups and crime families, a Corsican mobster and his daughter go on the run.
Manas
Brazil | 2024 | 101 min. | Marianna Brennand
An earnest and moving tale of Marcielle, who finds a way out of a hostile village that has resisted change for generations.
Mongrels
Canada | 2024 | 110 min. | Jerome Yoo
A Korean father and his two children move to the Canadian prairies to help a town deal with the feral dog population.
Moon
Austria | 2024 | 92 min. | Kurdwin Ayub
An MMA fighter heads to Jordan to teach a trio of wealthy sisters, only to learn they are confined to their home.
The Nature of Invisible Things
Brazil | 2025 | 90 min. | Rafaela Camelo
Gloria and Sofia meet during the summer holidays while spending the days in a hospital.
The New Year That Never Came
Romania | 2024 | 138 min. | Bogdan Mureşanu
Six lives intertwine in the days leading up to the 1989 Romanian revolution in this darkly funny film about living under Communist rule.
Odd Fish
Iceland | 2024 | 104 min. | Snævar Sölvason
Two childhood besties who co-run a seafood restaurant have their friendship tested when one of them comes out as a trans woman.
Paying For It
Canada | 2024 | 85 min. | Sook-Yin Lee
A Toronto-based cartoonist begins hiring sex workers when he and his partner decide to restructure their relationship.
Raptures
Sweden | 2025 | 108 min. | Jon Blåhed
A devout woman living along the Finland-Sweden border must protect her family from her husband’s newly formed sectarian cult.
Ready or Not
Ireland | 2025 | 84 min. | Claire Frances Byrne
Katie’s summer turns complicated when she and her friends push toward an adulthood they’re unprepared for.
The Safe House
Switzerland | 2025 | 90 min. | Lionel Baier
A nine-year-old boy and his quirky family experience the turbulence of 1968 Paris from the relative safety of their home.
Shepherds
Canada (Québec) | 2024 | 113 min. | Sophie Deraspe
A Quebeçois marketing executive gives it all up and moves to the French Alps to become a sheep herder.
Sons
Denmark | 2024 | 99 min. | Gustav Möller
A prison guard learns that a young man from her past has just been transferred to her post. From the filmmaker of SIFF 2018’s The Guilty.
Souleymane’s Story
France | 2024 | 92 min. | Boris Lojkine
A Guinean immigrant has applied for asylum in France and must figure out the right story to tell.
Sudden Outbursts of Emotions
Finland | 2024 | 97 min. | Paula Korva
A travel agent hesitantly joins her boyfriend in the wild world of polyamory, only to fall for another woman.
The Things You Kill
Canada | 2025 | 113 min. | Alireza Khatami
A surreal psychological thriller about the distinct identities that exist within us and the existential struggle between them.
Time Travel Is Dangerous
United Kingdom | 2024 | 99 min. | Chris Reading
Friends Ruth and Megan of North London use a time-travel bumper car to find and sell antiques at their vintage shop.
Tinā
Aotearoa New Zealand | 2024 | 124 min. | Miki Magasiva (Samoan)
A tuneful underdog story about a grieving Samoan teacher who finds a new lease on life when she forms a student choir.
To a Land Unknown
Greece | 2024 | 106 min. | Mahdi Fleifel
Two Palestinian refugees stuck in Athens try to figure out how to stay alive in the meanwhile, all without losing their humanity.
U Are the Universe
Ukraine | 2024 | 101 min. | Pavlo Ostrikov
A space trucker thinks he’s the last living person in the universe…until a call from a distant space station beckons him.
Under the Volcano
Poland | 2024 | 102 min. | Damian Kocur
A Ukrainian family on vacation in the Canary Islands find themselves stranded upon Russia’s invasion of their home country.
Undercover
Spain | 2024 | 118 min. | Arantxa Echevarría
In this Goya Award winner, a policewoman is recruited to infiltrate a terrorist group and dismantle one of their dangerous commandos.
The Wailing
Spain | 2024 | 107 min. | Pedro Martín-Calero
Three women separated in time and space are unknowingly connected by a disturbing wailing sound that nobody can explain.
Waves
Czech Republic | 2024 | 131 min. | Jiří Mádl
In 1967 Czechoslovakia, radio technician Tomás must either become an informant or protect his activist younger brother.