Rifkin’s Festival(2020)

The Bad Poet(it)

1936. Giovanni Comini, the youngest Federal in Fascist Italy, is summoned to Rome for a delicate mission: to surveil aging national poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose increasingly restless behavior Mussolini fears could damage his alliance with Nazi Germany. However, after spending time with D'Annunzio, Comini finds himself torn between loyalty to the Party and his fascination with the poet, who will put his burgeoning career at risk.

Sugar Cane Alley(fr)

Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José's studies easier...

The Queen of the Lizards(es)

A spaceship is about to come to pick up Javi, so him and Berta have to put an end to their summer love.

Music Hole(fr)

Francis, a little accountant officiating in a shady cabaret has marital concerns with his wife. After a violent argument, he wakes up to discover a surprise. It's the macabre and zany starting point of a burlesque thriller.

Picking Up the Pieces(en)

A small New Mexican village discovers a severed hand that is considered a miracle of God, when it actually belongs to a murdered spouse with a husband in search of it.

Sword of Trust(en)

When Cynthia and Mary show up to collect Cynthia's inheritance from her deceased grandfather, the only item she's received is an antique sword that he believed to be proof that the South won the Civil War.

The Sunday Woman(it)

Police commissioner Santamaria is investigating the murder of the ambiguous architect Mr. Garrone. The investigations soon drive him into the Torino's high society. Santamaria suspect Anna Carla and at the same time falls in love for her. Lello is the lover of Massimo, Anna Carla’s gay friend. He is following another direction in order to find out the truth, and his results are confusing the Policeman. But another murder happens...

Wondrous Boccaccio(it)

It's 1348. The plague has brutally hit Florence. A group of then young people, seven women and three men, rebel against the feeling of death that is about to swallow them. They flee the city and find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills. Here, between moral doubts and the tasks needed to survive, they kill time by telling each other stories until they will decide to return. The stories are varied - tragic, bizarre, funny or erotic - but common and central to all of them is the female presence.

Hidden Away(it)

The film tackles the life journey of Toni Ligabue, visionary naïf painter who used to draw tigers, lions and jaguars while living among the poplar trees of the boundless Po valley. A harsh life that is a fairy tale too, as a lonely and marginalized kid finds redemption in his art, and a way to express himself and be admired by the world.

Le vie del Signore sono finite(it)

Set in Italy during the 1920s, a barber is in a wheelchair because of a psychosomatic illness after he lost the woman he loves.

Crime Wave(es)

Leyre lives a quiet and comfortable life which ends abruptly when an act of rage of her teenage son leads her to protect him by any means necessary.

My Thoughts Are Silent(uk)

Twenty-five-year-old Vadym earns a living recording and selling all kinds of different sounds; nevertheless, he’d rather exchange his life in Kyiv for a better future in far-flung Canada. Thus, when he gets a generous job offer which might help him realise his dream, he jumps at the chance; he soon sets off to record the sounds of animals indigenous to Ukraine and also a rare bird native to the Carpathians. The situation proves somewhat more complicated when Vadym’s companion on the trip turns out to be his mother… To the sounds of a synthesized music score, debuting Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich unfolds a visually creative road movie, in which he demonstrates a highly unusual talent for constructing tragicomic situations.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her(fr)

As the city of Paris and the French people grow in consumer culture, a housewife living in a high-rise apartment with her husband and two children takes to prostitution to help pay the bills.

I Am Cuba(es)

Four vignettes on the lives of the Cuban people in the pre-revolutionary era. In Havana, Maria is ashamed when a man she loves discovers how she makes a living. Pedro, an old farmer, discovers that the land he cultivates is being sold to an American company. A student sees his friends attacked by the police while they distribute leaflets supporting Fidel Castro. Finally, a peasant family is threatened by Batista's army.

My Brother, My Sister(it)

When their father's will forces them to live together, siblings Nik and Tesla — and Tesla's kids — try to overcome their differences to become a family.

The People Upstairs(es)

Julio and Ana have been together for more than fifteen years. They have become a couple who no longer look at nor touch one another, and who have made daily fighting the essence of their relationship. This evening, Ana has invited their upstairs neighbors to come round, Salva and Laura, a couple younger than them, pleasant and friendly, but whose noises are now an annoyance for Julio and Ana... or perhaps a stimulus? The upstairs neighbors will make them an unusual and surprising proposal which will turn the evening into an exaggerated and cathartic experience for all four.

A House on the Bayou(en)

In an effort to reconnect and mend their relationship, a troubled couple and their preteen daughter seek an idyllic getaway to a remote mansion in rural Louisiana. But when unexpected visitors arrive, their facade of family unity starts to unravel, as terrifying secrets come to light.

Take My Eyes(es)

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed(en)

The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

Deconstructing Harry(en)

Writer Harry Block draws inspiration from people he knows, and from events that happened to him, sometimes causing these people to become alienated from him as a result.

10(en)

A Hollywood songwriter goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy blonde newlywed.

Living in Oblivion(en)

Nick is the director of a low-budget indie film. He tries to keep everything together as his production is plagued with an insecure actress, a megalomaniac star, a pretentious, beret-wearing director of photography, and lousy catering.

Dying Young(en)

After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.

Medicine Man(en)

An eccentric scientist in the Amazon jungle rejects his research assistant for being a woman, but as bulldozers threaten their work on a potential cancer cure, they learn to collaborate and begin to fall in love.

John Tucker Must Die(en)

After discovering they are all dating the same same guy, three popular students from different cliques band together for revenge, so they enlist the help of a new gal in town and conspire to break the jerk's heart, while destroying his reputation.

Clandestine(en)

A hidden encounter between two high school lovers.

Hannah and Her Sisters(en)

Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.

The Astronaut Farmer(en)

Texan Charles Farmer left the Air Force as a young man to save the family ranch when his dad died. Like most American ranchers, he owes his bank. Unlike most, he's an astrophysicist with a rocket in his barn - one he's built and wants to take into space. It's his dream. The FBI puts him under surveillance when he tries to buy rocket fuel, and the FAA stalls him when he files a flight plan – but Charles is undeterred.

Dark Horse(da)

A young man spurs romance and helps his friend and himself go through the struggles of their ordinary life in Denmark.

Two Moon Junction(en)

A young Southern débutante temporarily abandons her posh lifestyle and upcoming, semi-arranged marriage to have a lustful and erotic fling with a rugged drifter who works at a local carnival.

Berlin am Meer(de)

Nana and Kaoru(ja)

Kaoru is a 17-year-old boy with an SM fetish, secretly dreaming of an SM relationship with his childhood friend Nana. One day Kaoru's mother asks Nana to hide all his SM toys so that he will study for a change. However, Nana finds the leather one-piece that Kaoru bought and tries it on, but she accidentally locks it and does not have the key! This is the beginning of a very strange relationship..

The Reader(en)

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

Wayne's World 2(en)

A message from Jim Morrison in a dream prompts cable access TV stars Wayne and Garth to put on a rock concert, "Waynestock," with Aerosmith as headliners. But amid the preparations, Wayne frets that a record producer is putting the moves on his girlfriend, Cassandra, while Garth handles the advances of mega-babe Honey Hornee.

Cloud 9(de)

A romantic drama about a woman who enters into an affair after 30 years of marriage.

A Small September Affair(tr)

A beautiful girl who has everything. A sudden car crash, and her heart stops for a few minutes. When she wakes up, everyone assures that everything’s alright. But she knows it isn’t. Because she cant remember her final month; a September of her life is missing.

Untangled(en)

Introducing, Untangled - a modern day fairytale that combs through the intricate threads of my decade-long artistic journey to reconciling with love. Starring the magnetic Nailea Devora who plays Baby Sarah, leading us through a labyrinth of spiritual, physical, and emotional discovery.

The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland(en)

Sparks fly between a famous model and a farmer with a young daughter when she visits her childhood home. The town is in danger of losing their beloved Santaland festival, but miracles can happen with a little love, family, and faith.

The Lobster(en)

In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into animals and sent off into The Woods.

My Lockdown Romance(tl)

Two male buddies are reunited amidst the pandemic lockdown.