In her sophomore film Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel paints a vivid portrait of an eccentric family and their profusion of uncertain desires, ambiguous intentions and an overarching need for change. Here, reaching adulthood does not mark the end of the process of growing up, but rather its messy and equally painful and fascinating continuation.

The German social drama I Understand Your Displeasure conveys how working in the cleaning sector is far from spotless. Up close, you experience the hellish workdays alongside the overburdened Heike (an impressive lead performance by 59-year-old debutante Sabine Thalau) as her breathing space shrinks ever further, like a ticking time bomb. Realistic and relevant.

In a village on the border between Lebanon and Syria, two women are forced to leave their home to help quell a blood feud in their community. They face an uncertain future, shaped by a legacy of revenge. This lyrical debut film, shot without a script and with a cast of untrained actors, incisively explores the role of women in times of tension and unspoken conflict.

French director Sébastien Lifshitz returns to Film Fest Gent with a portrait of 82-year-old Claude Loir, a former porn actor and early figure in the gay liberation movement. Drawing on Loir’s autobiography, the documentary traces a life shaped by his determination to embrace pleasure and freedom in France of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A mad genius or a genius madman? Director Mariano Llinás delves into the life of his beloved master, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, one of the greatest literary icons of the 20th century. But how do you capture a writer who could conjure entire worlds with a single sentence? Part detective film, part road movie, over five hours long and unmistakably Llinás.

Padraic McKinley’s gripping debut throws Ethan Hawke into a brutal fight for freedom. In 1933, convict Samuel Murphy must smuggle a fortune in gold through unforgiving wilderness to escape prison and save his young daughter from adoption. With a handpicked crew, he faces a nerve-shredding ordeal of distrust, betrayal, violence and exhaustion.

In Un bon petit soldat, Stéphane Brizé returns to one of his favourite battlegrounds: the modern workplace. Alba Rohrwacher is superb as Carla, the newly appointed HR manager of a major insurance company, tasked with reconciling employee wellbeing with relentless performance targets. When she uncovers a case of toxic management, her faith in the corporate playbook begins to crack. In a claustrophobic world of employer branding, happiness workshops and endless targets, Brizé dissects the human cost of a system in which even wellbeing is expected to deliver results.

The destructive nature of dementia has been a source of inspiration for many a filmmaker, but perhaps never quite as unvarnished, carnal and discomforting as in Lance Hammer’s Queen At Sea. Eighteen years after his lauded debut Ballast, the independent director returns with a gut-wrenching drama that questions our understanding of intimacy and sexuality, agency and care. In it, a family’s life is upended by the rapidly declining health of Leslie, a dementia-stricken artist. She’s tended to by both her husband and daughter, but the two caregivers butt heads over Leslie’s best interests. This deeply touching drama was awarded with the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlinale.

“Families can be complicated,” is heard at the wedding party in Dao. The latest film by Alain Gomis, Silver Bear winner for Félicité (2017) and a Berlinale regular, intertwines a wedding in France with a memorial ceremony in Guinea-Bissau within the same Afro-French family. At the heart of it all is a woman named Gloria, as both a mother and a daughter. More than ever, the French-Senegalese director drew from his personal experiences, before – primarily through improvisation – allowing his ensemble to explore for themselves the love and sorrow united in rituals. Gomis blends experienced actors with non-professional performers and fiction with a (‘behind the scenes’) documentary approach.

In Moscas, Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke tells the story of Olga, who rents out a room to a father and his nine-year-old son Christian while the father spends time with his hospitalised wife. As Olga and Christian grow closer, the film explores connection, loss and vulnerability through quiet observation, subtle humor and retro video games.

After acclaimed films such as Evil Does Not Exist, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi moves his camera to France for the first time. Virginie Efira plays a care home director whose understanding of dignity is transformed by meeting a seriously ill Japanese playwright. Through patient observation, silences and conversations, Hamaguchi explores chance, fate and life-changing encounters.

In 1858, Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House as governess to two precocious children. Her polished manners hide a gruesome appetite and a trail of dead bodies. Maika Monroe plays her with wicked delight, while the movie mixes gore, black comedy and gothic unease. The result is a playful horror flick where the Victorian facade cracks before us.

Born from the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, this immersive journey follows Kesuma, a castaway struggling to survive on a remote island. As isolation and nature reshape his world, reality gives way to something dreamlike and elemental. Rich in sound and atmosphere, the film becomes a sensory meditation on humanity’s fragile place within the natural world.

Summer beckons promisingly by the pool, where La Maestra and Paula are training intensively to be selected for a championship. Even when they’re not doing laps, the best friends are found spending their time together by going plane-spotting, waiting for a solar eclipse or colourfully chalking the sidewalks of Mexico City. Their friendship however transforms when Paula becomes the victim of sexual violence at a party. In her impressive debut film, Mexican filmmaker Fernanda Tovar focuses on La Maestra’s gentle but clumsy attempts to help Paula deal with her trauma. Tovar emphasises the colour in her characters’ lives and, despite the darkness, has them bathing in a sea of light.

Twin sisters Jean and Joan (Kate and Rooney Mara) speak in unison, dream the same dreams and love the same man… who is taking them to court. A strange but - mostly - true story, that’s tailor-made for Werner Herzog. Bucking Fastard premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where in 2025 the iconic German director was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

After the devastating plague epidemic, an English farmer refuses to accept the taxes he can no longer afford to pay. His resistance grows into a revolt that threatens to throw the entire country into turmoil. With Paul Greengrass, the director of the Jason Bourne trilogy, at the helm, you can expect plenty of hard-hitting action.

After her brother vanishes into the clutches of mysterious crows, Prue and classmate Curtis venture beyond Portland into Wildwood, a secret realm of magic, talking creatures and lurking threats. Their search collides with a ruler destroyed by grief. A dark fantasy turned into a visually dazzling adventure stop-motion animated film.

In Een familie (A Family), Mees Peijnenburg explores how a painful divorce affects not only parents but also their children, sixteen-year-old Nina and fourteen-year-old Eli. Told from both siblings’ perspectives, the film reveals their struggle between anger, loyalty and the need to be seen. A nuanced family drama built on intimate moments rather than big emotional gestures.

Resisting all types of easy categorisation, Syrian director Rand Abou Fakher’s full length feature debut Why Do I See You In Everything? is a disorienting hybrid documentary that contrasts violence with tenderness, and displacement with belonging. A poetic plaint that proves home truly is where the heart is, by focusing on the shared history of two lifelong friends.