Being able to make the cross-country trek to the most important film festival in United States is an honor that I do not take lightly. The 64th New York Film Festival, which ran from September 25 to October 12, presented a curation this year of movies from more than 45 countries from around the world, including 75 feature films and 40 U.S. premieres.
I have put together a must-see, spoiler-free list from the 30+ titles I was able to catch. Hang this list on your refrigerator for these final months of 2026 and the beginning of 2027 to serve as a reminder to check local cinema listings, because theatrical releases are getting rarer and shorter these days.
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes (눈둘데가없네, South Korea)
If you’ve seen any of the 35 films that Hong Sang-soo has made over the past three decades, you know that he is the master of transforming what seems to be a mundane situation into a profound experience. Hong’s most recent treasure follows an experimental video essayist played by the legendary Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden) as she visits her mom, stepdad, and younger brother, who has settled on Jeju, South Korea’s largest island. Filled with awkward family interactions, drunken confrontations, peaceful pauses, and mesmerizing shots channeling Hong’s favorite impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, the film is yet another gem from the director. The movie was the winner of Best Director and Best Performance at this year’s Locarno Film Festival 2026.
The Day She Returns (그녀가돌아온날, South Korea)
The second Hong Sang-soo of 2026 consists of three separate interviews that took place during a press tour for a famous Korean movie star who has come out of retirement to act in an independent film. The middle-aged star is perfectly played by the alluring Song Seon-mi, a famous South Korean model-turned-actor and who methodically appears in a Hong film every five years: Woman on the Beach (2006), The Day He Arrives (2011), On the Beach at Night Alone (2017), and Walk Up (2022).
Hong received his bachelor’s degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and his master’s at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and I have been consistently drawn to his use of cinematic structuralism (ala Paul Schrader’s 1972 thesis Transcendental Style in Film). Those interested in taking the leap into this 84-minute minimalist manifesto exploring the pitfalls of identity politics should seek it out at all costs.
What Can’t Be Mentioned (US)
One of my favorite movie-going experiences at this year’s NYFF was the self-proclaimed “microbudget maestro Dan Sallitt’s sequel to his notorious-yet-gentle 2012 taboo-buster The Unspeakable Act.” It showcases another hypnotic performance by Tallie Medel as Jackie, now a 33-year-old social-worker-in-training who is stuck in a relationship that either needs a break or a breakthrough.
Medel’s deadpan yet layered delivery was already perfectly embodied by the time she was 17 in The Unspeakable Act (2012), and she was equally memorable as a frustrated teacher’s aide in Sallitt’s Fourteen (2019). The performances feel as important as those of the hyper-truth pioneers: Lena Dunham in her Tiny Furniture (2010) and Joanna Arnow in i hate myself 🙂 (2013), as well as more recent torchbearers: Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby (2025) and Betsey Brown’s Actors (2021).
Quite simply, Medel is the kind of actor who you just can’t get out of your head. After landing the role of Joy’s partner in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), the Brooklyn-based performer born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaskan stated their confusion (in this wonderful 2025 interview) as to what was to happen to them next, “I’m queer and mixed, but I pass as femme and white, (so) kind of a stolen valor mixed-identity thing.” The time has finally come for us to give the extraordinary actor and this 61-minute mini-masterpiece their due.
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d’une femme de chambre; France/Romania)
The radical Radu Jude not only delivered his first French language feature at NYFF64, it was punctuated by a refreshingly short running time of 94 minutes. The fascinating adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s transgressive 1900 novel The Diary of a Chambermaid follows a young Romanian woman (wonderfully portrayed by newcomer Ana Dumitrascu) as she does her best as a housekeeper in Bordeaux, all while acting in a local stage production and desperately missing her own daughter back home. Jude continues to churn out pertinent, personal cinema by brilliantly lacing it with the political wit of Lina Wertmüller, along with the heartbreaking hurdles of Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000) and Ousmane Sembene’s A Black Girl of… (1966). A Film Movement will release the movie Stateside.
DAO (France / Senegal / Guinea-Bissau)
Perhaps the biggest surprise at this year’s NYFF was French Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis’s epic 184-minute plunge into “two separate yet interconnected ceremonies of a memorial in Guinea-Bissau and a wedding in Paris.” Gomis’s cinematic rhythm has an incredible method to its madness that is still lingering in me, weeks later. It feels like a combination of John Cassavetes’s Faces (1968) and Zacharias Kunuk’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2000) in so far as deep familial history is achieved by just allowing the characters to find their way through a never-ending series of confusing life events. After the film’s euphoric conclusion, I immediatly thought, “I could keep watching this for another 184 minutes!” Janus Films will release the film Stateside.
Tender Loving Care (UK, 2026)
Mike Leigh’s self-proclaimed final film (he cited the medium’s physical difficulties), Tender Loving Care is an absolute return to form for the 83-year-old master. It presented four of my favorite performances of the year, and I was completely teleported into its uncomfortably real interactions between two best friends, Amy (Kate O’Flynn) and Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson), as they persevere through anger, frustration at their social services jobs, and a lack of any romantic love in their lives. Add to the mix the utterly sensitive performances by Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson as Amy’s aging parents, and I had tears welling up in my eyes. For more than 50 years, Mike Leigh has stayed true to his vision of caring about the working class, and you couldn’t ask for a better film to pass the baton on to the next generation. Bleeker Street will release the film in the United States on December 4.
The Unknown (France)
Arthur Harari’s mind-melting supernatural thriller had me anxiously shifting in my seat for nearly its entire 141-minute running time as it neo-sincerely spiraled into the absolute terror of losing oneself. As program notes put it, “After an impulsive hookup, a Parisian photographer (Niels Schneider) finds that he has somehow swapped bodies with a German actress (Léa Seydoux).” Director Arthur Harari, who was nominated for an Oscar for his cowriting credit on Anatomy of a Fall (2023), elevates the genre film to an absolutely bonkers cinematic experience. It must be mentioned that Léa Seydoux gives a career-best performance at the age of 41, proving that she will dive headfirst first into roles that most everyone else would steer clear from. NEON will release the film Stateside.
Fjord (Romania / France / Norway / Sweden / Denmark)
Romanian master Cristian Mungiu truly deserved his Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, having previously taken the top prize for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007. This layered 146-minute saga meticulously follows a Romanian married couple who have immigrated to Norway and find themselves flung into a whirlwind of extreme cultural differences. Showcasing two stunning performances by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve (reteaming them from my favorite film from 2024, A Different Man), the film leads audiences through a minefield of hot-button issues—and similar to Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Murder (2023), not a single moment is wasted. NEON released the film in the United States on October 23.
9 Temples to Heaven (9 วัดสู่สวรรค์; Thailand/Singapore/France/Norway/China/Hong Kong/Indonesia/Qatar)
This 140-minute contemplative spiritual journey will be near the very top of my year-end list. Succinctly structured by Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s longtime assistant director Sompot Chidgasornpongse, it follows a day in the life of a Thai family as they accompany their ailing matriarch on a pilgrimage to nine separate Buddhist temples, Chidgasornpongse was named Best Director at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival for good reason. This is a blueprint for anyone preparing for or experiencing deep personal grief, and as peaceful of a film since David Lynch’s A Straight Story (1999). When needing the ultimate cinematic hug, seek out at all costs.
