NEWCINEMA/PICKS+

NEWCINEMA/PICKS+

Some films stay with you long after the credits have rolled. These are ours.

NEWCINEMA/PICKS+ is our personal selection of films that have moved us, surprised us or simply reminded us why we love independent cinema. These aren't necessarily the biggest productions or the most awarded titles—they're the films we've recommended to friends, talked about over coffee and couldn't stop thinking about. If you're visiting NEWCINEMA/ for the first time, this is the perfect place to start your journey. We hope you'll discover a few favourites of your own.

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NEWCINEMA/PICKS+
  • Something Has to Give (United States) by Allison Fan, Fred Midgley

    Redemption, rebirth, and the desire for salvation in times of profound loss. Set in the haunting, atmospheric confines of a stark, empty warehouse, the space becomes a canvas where bodies move between tension and release, seeking the answer to whether this earth is a sanctuary or a sterile, white...

  • The Witchdoctor and the Windmill (Australia, France) by Robert Hamilton

    “The Witchdoctor and the Windmill” explores the life of the Pintupi artist, Linda Syddick Napaltjarri. After her father’s death in a revenge spearing, Linda came in from the remote Pintupi homelands and was taught to paint by her adoptive father, the famous artist Shorty Tjungurrayi. Her insisten...

  • Waiting for the End of the World (United States) by Jeffrey Hoyt

    A quiet mosaic of small-town America, tracing the subtle fractures in everyday life.

  • Portals (United States) by Kathi Hendrick, Benjamin Henretig, Cornelia Hodges

    PORTALS explores the body, nature, and heart as doorways into deeper dimensions of self and our inherent interrelatedness. Through movement, imagery, and original music, the film enters the liminal space between inner and outer worlds, where the body becomes a threshold into feeling, knowing, int...

  • Threshold (United States) by Jil Guyon

    Threshold centers on an unnamed woman confined to a castle rooftop in southern Portugal. Filmed in black and white with a texture that feels unearthed, the work moves fluidly between temporal registers—past bleeding into present, the real colliding with the imagined, danger shading into performan...

  • The Train (Canada) by Marie Brassard

    Quebec, in the sixties. Agathe, a gifted child, is asthmatic and lives in the suburbs with her mother Thérèse (Larissa Corriveau), a melancholy artist. At night, the whistle of a train fuels Agathe’s fantasy of a parallel world. As a teenager in the ’70s, she discovers the bohemian scene and meet...

  • Where Do We Go From Here (Italy) by Antonello Schioppa

    Synopsis: A woman's lifeless body is lying on a room's floor. A shocked man is staring at it. Beyond the closed door, someone is quietly trying to get in: he's a 9 years old child. These three are a family. Or what's left. Running time: 00:19:50.

    Selections/awards: Sulmona Int Short FF (Best Ab...

  • Breaker (2017/Japan) by Philippe McKie

    In tomorrow's Tokyo, the technologically-enhanced body of a young mercenary hacker is overrun by a sentient data weapon. Wanted, the parasitic A.I becomes her only ally as she is chased across the city by those seeking to salvage it.

  • Game (2019/Iran) by Ali Haddadi

    A father with financial problems is forced to pay compensation for the damage caused by his son. He tries to get out of this situation by keeping his dignity.

  • Naval Ode (Portugal) by Fu Le

    The poem Naval Ode - "Ode Maritima" - by Fernando Pessoa captures the movement of separation between the dock and the ship, and thus the distance – between the inside and the outside, between myself and the other. The text is embodied by a mysterious and suspended dance, imbued with nostalgic de...

  • Generation (UK) by Riccardo Fusetti

    A brief journey through the human experience as seen by the eyes of an Artificial Intelligence.
    Running time: 00:02:13

  • Down to the Bottom ( USA) by Carina Miller

    An unflinching, 13-minute look at alcohol use disorder and it's impact. The short documentary pulls from conversations between a father and daughter recorded in 2022.

  • The Storyless Land (Iran) by Mitra Roohimanesh

    The storyless land is about a far, ancient deprived village with no facilities, even hygiene, electricity, clinic, school, bathroom and ...
    Where most of the people are blind, mental retarded or disable and Golmah, their omniscient, who is an old 98 years woman, involved with their birth, marria...

  • Be my first (2017/Japan) by Philippe McKie

    A young Japanese girl riding the train posts a message from her phone to an online thread: 'I'm a high-school student and I'm a virgin, does anyone want to pay to be my first? It has to be tonight'

  • Stitch (United Kingdom) by Ailsa Madill

    May falls apart and puts herself back together.
    Running time: 00:02:12

  • Inside You (Ukraine) by Erik Sémashkin

    A grape gets eaten. He then begins a long and perilous journey within the human body.

  • The Italian Gaze (United States) by Sandro Del Rosario

    An Italian artist looks at his native country through an animated film made with thousands hand colored oil painted photographs. Created as a visual poem that bridges filmmaking language and visual arts, 'The Italian Gaze' portrays the intoxicating beauty of Italy that many visitors still get loo...

  • Loser (Taiwan) by Mali Chen

    In the heart of a decaying city, a discarded inflatable doll awakens in a trash bin—singing. Picked up by a homeless man and thrown into a rickety cart, it joins a band of broken toys and lifeless objects. As the cart rumbles through alleys and forgotten streets of Los Angeles, the trash begins t...