Great movies know how to play with one’s emotions. What separates them from average ones, is the way they achieve that. Danny Boyles latest horror-epos, 28 Years Later, is a masterclass in challenging your senses in just the right ways. In just under two hours, writer Alex Garland invites the viewers into a version of Great Britain so immersive and dreadful, that it feels like so much more than your typical horror-movie. Extremely quick cuts, breathtaking, highly experimental visuals and a soundscape I can still feel inside my bones.

The “28”-Franchise has been around for over 23 years. What began as an indie-movie production, filmed with a cheap camcorder and a budget of only 5 million GBP, turned over time into a revolutionary blueprint for modern zombie movies.

In 2002, a highly aggressive rage virus turns Great Britain’s mainland into an uninhabitable, deadly war zone. Zombie-like infected humans roam through big cities and rural countryside alike. 28 Days Later, as well as 28 Weeks later both deal with the first few months after the outbreak. The premise of the third film is a different one though. How did humans the span of almost three decades adapt to their new reality?

The movie follows twelve year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) and his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) on a journey across Great Britain to find a doctor who can treat Isla, who is really ill. No one on the small, protected island they call their home knows, what can be done to make her better again. Spikes father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) doesn’t seem to care much about the well-being of his wive and thus begins a long walk across zombie-infected lands.

The movie feels different than ones from the same genre, through its camera-work, editing and sound design.

In the original tale, the evil stepdaughter even cuts her foot to fit into the petite glass shoes. Most movie adaptions left out that brutal detail, „The Ugly Stepsister“ however, takes it to another level – turning the Cinderella Story into a body horror comedy. This time, the tale is told from a new perspective, proving everyone wrong who thought the story was done telling. Feel what the women felt you grew up thinking was pathetic and evil: the shame, despair, and the will to do whatever is necessary to possibly fit beauty standards. 

This movie is not only a feminist critic on societies manic obsession with women’s beauty, but also aligns with a recent wave of films that portray former villains as ambivalent antiheroes. Definitely worth watching. 

From May 13 to 24, the 78th Cannes Film Festival honored some of the most compelling new voices in cinema. The Palme d’Or went to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT, a quietly powerful film shaped by his own experiences with the Iranian regime. Joachim Trier was awarded with the Grand Prix for AFFEKSJONSVERDI (Sentimental Value), while German director Mascha Schilinski received the Jury Prize for her widely praised drama SOUND OF FALLING.

This year’s Palme d’Or winner is Jafar Panahi’s Un Simple Accident – a quietly devastating political thriller that unfolds with the precision of a moral parable. The story begins with a night-time mishap: Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), a driver traveling with his pregnant wife, hits a stray dog. Seeking help, he ends up at a remote garage, unaware that the man who offers assistance believes him to be the former prison guard who once tortured him. What follows is a tense and haunting confrontation, as past traumas resurface and the lines between victim and perpetrator blur. Shot in secret to avoid the Iranian government’s strict censorship laws, Panahi’s latest film is both deeply personal and unmistakably political. Having endured imprisonment, house arrest, and a decades-long filmmaking ban, the Iranian director continues to film in defiance – turning restriction into resistance. With its stripped-down narrative and restrained visuals, Un Simple Accident speaks volumes about justice, memory, and the fragile pursuit of freedom in a society ruled by silence.

Un Simple Accident will be released in French cinemas on September 10, 2025.

A standing ovation for the screening of a movie is a rare occurrence. Even then, it’s not normal for the applause to last over 19 minutes. And if it happens at Cannes, you just know you’re in for something truly special. “Affeksjonsverdi” or Sentimental Value is a dramedy by Norwegian director Joachim Trier which intimately explores family dynamics and the reconciliatory power of art through the story of a father trying to reconnect with his two estranged daughters, by offering his eldest a role in his upcoming film. When she turns him down, he decides to cast a young Hollywood star instead. This choice triggers a chain of events that deeply challenge the families already difficult ties. This soulful premise, paired with (as usual) stellar performances by Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Stella Skarsgård won the screenplay rightfully the Grand Price (Grand Prix) of the 78th Festival de Cannes.

Sound of Falling, a German feature film by director Mascha Schilinski, won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The drama follows four young girls and their lives, all living in the same rural farmhouse in the north German region of Altmark during different decades. What the film captures with particular brilliance is its handling of perspective across the shifting timelines. It drifts fluidly through time while slipping forward and backward without warning. The camera often peers through keyholes and floorboards, as if the house itself were bearing witness.

As the story unfolds, the boundaries between characters blur. Though we rarely see them share the screen, the performances of Hanna Heckt, Lea Drinda, Lena Urzendowsky, and Laeni Geiseler, all delivering a distinct yet interconnected portrait of youth, longing, and quiet rebellion. Sound of Falling weaves impressive imagery with immersive sound design to create something both harsh and graceful, an elegy for time, memory, and the women who carry it. 

Set in the small New Mexico town of Eddington during the 2020 pandemic, the movie unfolds as a modern-day western and sharp satire on American society, gripped by social media obsession, conspiracy theories, and misinformation.

At its center is the escalating clash between Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). Our main characters end up fighting over the control of the town in the election race, revealing a deep critic of the American political system. The film is a Western where guns have been replaced by smartphones.

The film opens in theaters on July 18.

These forces push him to reflect on freedom and isolation. Filmed during the 2020 quarantine, this playful series becomes a conversation with himself, as he summons his alter egos to debate and disagree – on philosophy, identity, and colonialism. Reflecting a time when isolation was at its peak, William learns to listen to himself, to grow his ideas and invites us into the heart of his creative process.

All nine episodes, roughly thirty minutes each, are available to stream on MUBI.