Christopher Zalla returns to Sundance (‘Padre Nuestro’, U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2007) thanks to one of Hollywood’s most innovative producers, Ben Odell and Eugenio Derbez, the top star of Mexico. Their company 3Pas has consistenly created entertainment for the Latinx community in new ways and now this powerfully inspiring story about a teacher deserves to be put to the test to see how it stands with a public along side with education classics as ‘Blackboard Jungle’, ‘Goodbye Mr. Chipps’, ‘Dead Poets’ Society’ and ‘To Sir With Love’. And yes, ‘Stand and Deliver’ as well, Edward James Olmos’ breakthrough and best film.

This unexpected film, which if anything might be a contemporary version of ‘Pumping Iron’ in which bodybuilding and celebrity-to-be meets Travis Bickle of ‘Taxi Driver’, shows a restraint and rechanneling of psychopathological leanings which redeem the film and its hero, a sweet but uncontrollable and, in the end, an invincible dreamer. — U.S. Dramatic Competition Surely the producer Jennifer Fox felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. The emotional depth of the filmic concerns her in both her docs and fiction features. Jennifer Fox and In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018)…

Two Bombay fishermen navigate the effects of modernization on their friendship and livelihoods. ‘Against the Tide’ directed by Sarvnik Kaur, World Premiering at 2023 Sundance Film Festival in World Cinema Documentary Competition, is a masterful vérité doc from India. The film is a moving portrait of a friendship tested by the strains of the modern world. …

The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the nonprofit, Sundance Institute, is the pre-eminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives. Since 1985, hundreds of films launched at the Festival have gone on to gain critical acclaim and reach new audiences worldwide. …

This is a saga of war but it is not a war story. We do not see the slaughter so vividly depicted in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. The center stage is not the bonding of men under the duress of war. Instead we see a love story fold, unfold, refold and in its midst, we see the bond between the two men who love the same woman. — Surely this film will make the Oscar Shortlist and I predict the Nomination as well if not the Oscar itself.

The genesis of ‘Darkling’ (‘Mpak’) was a letter in a newspaper written by a child during the war between Serbia and the Albanian majority living there. It was dedicated to her missing father and subsequently read at the United Nations. — The letter was so emotinally moving that the filmmaker Dusan Milić researched her family and subsequently wrote the screenplay. Today the girl is in her 30s and living in Kosovo to the south of Serbia. This enclave, with its Albanian majority, even in the time of Tito’s Yugoslavia was troubled, is still volatile though not so violent.

Voting on the shortlist of 15 international features that are vying for the Nomination was tight…I predicted that leading the pack would be Poland’s ‘EO’, So. Korea’s ‘Decision to Leave’, Norway’s ‘War Sailor‘,’ Belgium’s ‘Close’ and Morocco’s ‘Blue Caftan’. My pick for the winner is ‘EO’ or ‘Decision to Leave’ but ‘Close’ will be close in there as well. It’s a tough year this year because there are so many good films and some did not even get seen. Below you can read about the films I have seen though I have not yet found the right words to write about Canada’s ‘Eternal Spring’ about China.

Sure to be on the top of many people’s list as one of the best films of the year (including my own along with ‘EO’), at the very least it should be nominated for for best international feature Oscar. This melodrama keeps you in the tense suspense of ‘Double Indemnity’, ‘The Postman Rings Twice’ or ‘Gaslight’. — From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei). As he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself…

. ‘Victim’ (‘Obet’) is a suspenseful drama about a woman seeking justice in a racist society, torn between family and the truth. Blaško continues his focus on the plight of an outsider stuck in a complicated situation, carrying on the thematic focus he has developed in his series and short films. Irina is an immigrant single mother from Ukraine living in a small Czech town. When her son is assaulted and severely injured, the whole town stands up in solidarity with the mother and son and condemns their Roma neighbors, who are allegedly responsible. After Irina’s son wakes up in…