The inaugural edition of the North West Independent Film Festival in Preston used its second day to focus on the theme of ‘Shifting Grounds: Breaking Cycles, Seeking Truths’, showcasing films which hold a spirit of independence and creative ambition.
HARVEST is too tonally inconsistent and tediously obtuse to harvest any emotional substance from the ideas that it sows.
Uberto Pasolini ably converts the last half of Homer’s Odyssey into a single narrative by focusing on the trauma of returning home when you’re no longer the person you were when you left.
The premise of renting people to fill social roles resembles Werner Herzog’s FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC or Yorgos Lanthimos’ ALPS. Still, Bernhard Wenger, the film’s writer and director, takes the film in a different direction that feels very Östlund-esque but without Östlund’s satirical bite. As the film concludes, it feels like it has pulled its punches a little.
Though THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA alludes to broader themes around media production and how broadcast media edits narratives to cut out the messy humanity of people’s lives, the film focuses on telling an entertaining story and highlighting Hauser’s performance.
A tender and moving exploration of grief and art’s power to heal, GHOSTLIGHT’s performances, script, and tone are judged with expert subtlety and emotional authenticity.
BOYS GO TO JUPITER captures the fact that, with the future looming in terrifying, undefined finality ahead of you, the real world often feels like an absurd adventure full of dead ends and the never-ending grind. If only our world were this colourful and whimsical.
STATIONED AT HOME is a tale of community, discovery, dreams, and togetherness, bearing witness to everyday resilience and dreams.
Though at first THE END seems like a strange direction for Joshua Oppenheimer, the themes of repression, denial, and delusion soon make a clear connection between this and his documentary work.
O ÚLTIMO AZUL (THE BLUE TRAIL) is a heartwarming road movie from Brazilian director and screenwriter Gabriel Mascaro, which was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear Grand Jury award at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival.
