Films

When a mining project threatens her ancestral lands, Sámi reindeer herder Maia calls upon her estranged uncle for legal advice, but his return opens deep familial wounds in indigenous Sámi filmmaker Elle Sofe Sara’s inventive, visually arresting musical drama.

Two soldiers fall in love amidst World War I in celebrated Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont’s (Close) latest work. Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne shared Best Actor at Cannes for this tender drama that mixes sensual sex scenes with stark combat sequences.

Julianne Moore is a suburban housewife who yearns to perform in her New Jersey hometown’s latest theater production and Paul Giamatti is the director who must coax out her inner diva in Jesse Eisenberg’s sharp, funny musical comedy.

Joanna Natasegara’s wildly entertaining documentary is essentially two films in one, the story of the Wu-Tang Clan’s notorious (and notoriously rare) 2015 album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and the man behind it, Dutch Moroccan rapper/producer Cilvaringz.

When his bass player dies in a car accident, grieving jazz pianist Bill Evans stops playing and retreats to his parents’ home in this stunning drama that unreels with the rhythm of improvised music.

A young boy navigates life from inside an iron corset in Wall-E and Up animator Louis Clichy’s tender, funny rite-of-passage story that honestly confronts the distress that every adolescent endures.

An unlikely setting for a groundswell of talent and creativity, Cameroon’s overcrowded New Bell Prison reveals incarcerated artists whose extraordinary music, dance, and performance may just offer a chance at redemption.

In AIDS-era New York, an artist throws himself into work, love, music, and desire, surrounded by people who challenge the boundaries of intimacy, loyalty, and the life he wants to live.

Five decades after director William Greaves invited the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance to Duke Ellington’s apartment to debate their movement’s legacy, Greaves’ son David completes his father’s passion project documenting a wealth of brilliant personality and bracing ideas.

Songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey add valuable insights to this energetic documentary that relates the history of The Who and Lifehouse, the ambitious, Townshend-penned rock opera that was supposed to follow Tommy.

MVFF partners with CalArts, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA and CSU Long Beach for a second showcase of animated work directed by female and nonbinary filmmakers. Films include kid-friendly topics like animals, family, friendship, big dreams, and outer space. Appropriate for grades 1-5 (ages 6-10)

“But go easy Step lightly Stay free.” As we grow older, we tend to abandon all inherent free spirit and audacity. This collection of short documentary films brings those feelings flooding back, allowing us to live vicariously through these bold, intrepid, and resilient characters. In THE RIGHT FIT (US 2025, 12 min), Max Mollring and Nicolas Collins introduce the owner of a one-of-a-kind small business in San Rafael. Intimate and observational, Hao Zhou's AT THE STAGE WHEN (China 2026, 15 min) follows a young urban couple experiencing societal pressure around parenthood. Composed of black-and-white 35mm photographs, A TOWN CALLED NEEDVILLE (US/Canada 2026, 5 min) traces filmmaker Audrey Lane's inpatient stay at an all-women’s mental health facility in Texas. A collaboration between Ukrainian painter Alla Hurenko and directors Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin, ROOM OF THE ABSOLUTE (US, Ukraine 2026, 18 min) is a time capsule and portrait of resilience in the face of relentless destruction in Ukraine. It is 1980 in Yuba City, California, in Reaa Puri’s HARVEST PARTY AT CAMP TWO (US 2026, 16 min), and a group of Young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers throw the biggest party their small town has ever seen. —Diana Sánchez Maciel

Desperate to escape her volatile home life, Ali takes a leap of faith and hops on a bus to Venice Beach where a vivacious band of unhoused young adults take her under their wing.

It is 1980 in Yuba City, California in Reaa Puri’s Harvest Party At Camp Two, and a group of Young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers throw the biggest party their small town has ever seen.

A little ballerina dreams big from the wings of a grand stage production of The Nutcracker.