Asia: regional and independent cinema
Cinema from across Asia, including Philippine independent and regional films, with no single country privileged as the default starting point.
Jallikattu — Lijo Jose Pellissery
A village’s hunt for an escaped buffalo becomes a feverish portrait of communal disorder.
Cure — Kiyoshi Kurosawa
A restrained, unsettling thriller in which ordinary surroundings become psychologically unstable.
Dust in the Wind — Hou Hsiao-hsien
A quietly observed story of young people leaving rural Taiwan for Taipei.
Dog Eaters — Kevin Piamonte
Kevin Pison Piamonte’s Iloilo-made short adapts Leoncio P. Deriada’s story of Mariana, a woman confronting violence and the limits imposed on her life; recognised at independent film festivals.
Film & director ↗
Salum official promotional poster · TM Malones · supplied by editor for identification; rights retained by original holdersSalum — TM Malones
A film set around coastal lives in Carles, Iloilo, and a consequential pearl discovery.
Tumandok — Salvadico & Sumagaysay
Docufiction made with Ati performers, engaging ancestral land and lived community concerns.
Dungol — Reymundo Salao
An offbeat crime short about a well-meaning but hapless policeman whose persistence, missteps and luck collide.
Film details ↗Mai Montelibano — Lumay
A Negros filmmaker and her film Lumay; further publication and production credits remain subject to verification.
Manny Montelibano
Bacolod-based filmmaker and sound/video artist working across cinema, installation and experimental media.
Türkiye: independent and regional voices
A distinct filmmaking tradition of rural landscapes, social tensions and formal experimentation.
Beyond the Hill — Emin Alper
A rural family drama in which suspicion and collective fear take on a life of their own.
Film reference ↗Oh, Moon — Reha Erdem
A poetic, surreal debut that draws on family memory and the Bosphorus landscape.
Film reference ↗Africa: independent cinematic voices
Filmmaking traditions and experiments that should not be treated as a single continental genre.
Le Franc — Djibril Diop Mambéty
A sharp, inventive short film about money, hope and everyday hardship.
Film reference ↗Atlantics — Mati Diop
A coastal story of migration, loss and haunting that crosses realism and the supernatural.
Film reference ↗Rafiki — Wanuri Kahiu
An intimate Nairobi-set drama centered on two young women amid social pressure.
Europe: independent and experimental cinema
Smaller productions, distinctive authorial approaches and films beyond dominant commercial industries.
Happy as Lazzaro — Alice Rohrwacher
A rural fable where social exploitation and the uncanny overlap.
Film reference ↗La Chimera — Alice Rohrwacher
An eccentric, earthy film about archaeology, longing and the pursuit of the past.
Film reference ↗The Americas: independent cinema
Independent and regionally rooted filmmaking from Latin America and North America.
La Ciénaga — Lucrecia Martel
A claustrophobic family portrait rooted in provincial Argentina and its social tensions.
Bacurau — Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
Genre cinema meets rural politics in a community resisting outsiders.
Beasts of the Southern Wild — Benh Zeitlin
A Louisiana bayou childhood rendered through an unusual blend of realism and myth.
Australia, Aotearoa and Oceania
Indigenous, independent and locally grounded filmmaking across diverse Pacific societies.
Samson and Delilah — Warwick Thornton
A powerful and intimate first feature about two young people in central Australia.
Film reference ↗Mauri — Merata Mita
A landmark Māori-directed feature exploring community, belonging and rural life.
Karrabing Film Collective
Collective cinema that uses filmmaking to document and rethink everyday social and political experience.
Other international selections
Additional works and collectives from different regions, presented without a national hierarchy.
Wakaliwood
Resourceful action cinema made by a Kampala-based community of filmmakers.
Explore ↗Karrabing Film Collective
Collective films combining storytelling, politics and community life.
Explore ↗
Touki Bouki
Djibril Diop Mambéty’s singular film offers another pathway through the history of cinema.
Explore ↗Embrace of the Serpent
Ciro Guerra’s Amazon-set film explores knowledge, extraction and memory across generations.
Explore ↗