Vogue Theatre

Director expected2015 TIFF People's Choice AwardThis on-the-ground document of the Ukrainian civic uprising that resulted in the departure of President Viktor Yanukovych melds startling footage of events as they unfold with subsequent testimonials...

Ukraine/USA/UK | 102

Directors and special guests expectedPakistan’s Sachel Studios was founded in 2004 in an attempt to preserve and revive centuries-old musical traditions that faced extinction after the imposition of Sharia law in the ‘70s and more current Taliban ...

USA/Pakistan | 82

Director and special guest expectedAfter its glorious reception at SFIFF58, the Film Society offers another opportunity to see this extraordinary documentary on the big screen. A full biography filled with candid conversations, interviews, letters...

USA | 102

Director and special guest expectedThis bold film gives extraordinary access to dangerous and sometimes deadly skirmishes in the Mexico–US drug wars, following vigilante groups on either side of the border as they empower themselves to take action...

USA/Mexico | 100

Join Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim for an intimate onstage conversation about his documentary work and current film, He Named Me Malala, an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai and her fig...

70

Series co-creator expectedLaunched in late September, Field of Vision is a new film unit committed to artistically thoughtful documentaries, rooted in investigative journalism. Created by Oscar winner Laura Poitras (Citizenfour), AJ Schnack (Caucu...

90

Director expectedMost of us are familiar with the iconic Janis Joplin, troubled wild child of the San Francisco music scene of the ‘60s who died tragically of an overdose at the age of 27. Amy Berg goes beyond the legend to present an intimate por...

USA | 106

Directors expectedEbola in Liberia, LGBT rights protests in Cuba, a brave Nepalese couple seeking to regain their eyesight. HBO has long been the acknowledged leader in the documentary world, and never more so than now. These inspiring short films...

93

Directors expectedWhen video game developer Ryan Green’s very young son Joel is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, he turns to what he knows best to combat his family’s emotional upheaval—he creates a game. With great emotional power, co-direct...

USA | 82

One of cinema’s most influential books is brought vividly to life in Kent Jones’s enjoyable and expertly constructed documentary that illuminates the careers of and relationship between two of cinema’s greats, Alfred Hitchcock and François Truffau...

France/USA | 80

Director expectedLaurie Anderson’s playful essay film is nominally a tribute to her rat terrier, Lolabelle. In her inimitable way, Anderson takes this canine paean as her center and folds in a world of moving, funny and salient ideas about life, d...

USA | 75

In this lively adaptation of The Decameron, a group of young women and men hope to escape the Black Plague by journeying to the countryside where they tell one another stories, most of which center around the theme of forbidden love. The resulting...

Italy/France | 121

Following up his universally heralded The Great Beauty (NIC 2013), Paolo Sorrentino returns again to contemplate life, love, aging and man’s continued search for happiness in this English-language tale starring Michael Caine as retired orchestra c...

Italy/France/UK/Switzerland | 118

2015 David di Donatello Award for Best New DirectorA young man’s religious awakening becomes the fulcrum for familial upheaval in this playful comedy-drama. When Andrea tells his parents he has something to tell them, they believe he’s going to co...

Italy | 85

Delicately tracking how traumatic change can lead to newfound maturity and presenting a memorably defined sense of place, Cloro tells the story of 17-year-old synchronized swimmer Jenny who is uprooted by family misfortunes. Director Lamberto Sanf...

Italy | 94

SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant WinnerPutting a personal face on the plethora of stories about African immigrants trying to make it to European shores, Mediterranea details the perilous journey of a young man named Ayiva from Burkina Faso to the south...

Italy/France/USA/Germany/Qatar | 107

In this vibrant portrait of urban street life and adolescent angst, two sisters lose their mother in a car accident. Faced with separate foster care situations that will put them in different countries, the girls run away, pursued by a caring soci...

Italy | 95

Director expectedBased on a true story and a real dog, Italo focuses on a friendly golden retriever who displays an aversion to leashes and fences and prefers to roam the streets unguided, even though the Sicilian town he’s chosen has recently pla...

Italy | 104

Director expectedA successful talk show host named Paolo steps into his father’s performing shoes in this rich and heartwarming film set in the world of commedia dell’arte that playfully reinvents that theatrical tradition for the 21st century. Le...

Italy | 90

Screening in 3-DMaster director Johnnie To expands his genre repertoire with this extravagant, witty and incisive musical about corporate corruption and intrigue featuring superstars Chow Yun-fat and Sylvia Chang. Adapted from Ms. Chang’s hit stag...

China/Hong Kong | 120

Director expectedSatirizing small-town life and politics while telling the touchingly comic story of friends at an impasse, this film follows two founders of a manufacturing cooperative who discover oil on their factory’s property. Noted Italian a...

Italy | 92

Filmed in the actual house, library and streets where 19th-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (played in an unforgettable performance by Elio Germano) lived, Mario Martone’s sumptuous period piece offers a scintillating depiction of the life an...

Italy | 137

Based on the real-life story of Lillian Lui, Little Big Master is at turns genuinely heartwarming and heartbreaking. When Lui sees a news report about an impoverished school that is scheduled to close and the dire plight of the six children who at...

Hong Kong/China | 112

In Nanni Moretti’s latest moving and comedic work, a filmmaker named Margherita is directing a social-realist drama about a factory sit-in when her mother’s illness leads her to confront her own past. Compellingly delineating the burdens of balanc...

Italy/France | 106

If you like your genre films bursting with dazzling action choreography and jaw-dropping melodramatic twists, this one is for you. Between numerous and thrilling botched arrests, nervy shootouts and pressure-packed car chases, a twisting story set...

Hong Kong | 120

Director expectedIn this (primarily English-language) sparkling romance, Ruby (Jamie Chung), a Chinese American toy designer from LA, visits Hong Kong for the first time on business. Finding herself stranded, she meets Josh (Bryan Greenberg), an A...

Hong Kong/USA | 80

Following their box office smash Cold War (SFIFF 2013), Longman Leung and Sunny Luk up the ante in this action-packed crime thriller. The eponymous Helios is an unscrupulous arms dealer who steals the DC8, the world’s smallest nuclear weapon, inve...

Hong Kong/China | 118

Hong Kong's Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language FilmDante Lam’s (Unbeatable, Beast Stalker) latest film is an epic sports drama that captures the visceral intensity, speed and tactics of world-class competitive cycling. With twists and turns bot...

Hong Kong/China | 125

In a throwback nod to the golden years of wonderfully goofy action films that has so often marked Hong Kong filmmaking, Two Thumbs Up follows four lovable losers intent on pulling off the (im)perfect heist. The bumbling gangsters decide to disguis...

Hong Kong | 102

China's #1 Box Office Hit of All TimeFormer Bay Area animator Raman Hui directed this box office–busting tale about a broken truce between the human and monster worlds. Blending brilliant live action with expertly rendered CGI, the action-packed a...

Hong Kong/China | 117

China's #1 Box Office Hit of All TimeFormer Bay Area animator Raman Hui directed this box office–busting tale about a broken truce between the human and monster worlds. Blending brilliant live action with expertly rendered CGI, the action-packed a...

Hong Kong/China | 117

In Arnaud Desplechin’s latest film, episodes from the past reverberate through the life of Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric), an anthropologist preparing to return to Paris from Tajikistan. Critical chapters from his troubled youth, including his fir...

France | 123

A rich and multi-dimensional portrait of a woman who both struggles with and is attracted by assimilation into a world different from her own, My Friend Victoria follows its eponymous French African protagonist through several key episodes of her ...

France | 95

A soldier (Matthias Schoenaerts) suffering from PTSD is assigned to protect the wife (Diane Kruger) and son of a shady Lebanese businessman in this taut character-driven thriller. Though everything at “Maryland”—the lush, private Antibes estate wh...

France/Belgium | 99

Director expectedThe latest filmic incarnation of the beloved French comic Asterix continues its winning tradition, going on 50 years now, of combining goofy puns and skewering social satire. Appealing to all ages, this French box office blockbust...

France/Belgium | 85

Gaby is incapable of sleeping alone. When her boyfriend figures out that she is keeping him around mostly as a sleep aide, he abandons her in the house where they are staying in the Burgundy countryside. Unable to endure solitude, Gaby invades the...

France | 88

Director expectedTwo French legionnaires survive an ambush while on duty in Afghanistan, setting off opposing forces of loyalty, nationality, ethnicity and identity that will test their friendship. Divided into chapters that reflect the shifting i...

France | 107

It’s been 35 years since Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu starred together in a film, so this funny and touching metaphysical drama is cause for celebration. Here, they play a divorced couple reuniting in the transcendental setting of Death V...

France | 92

Based on an actor’s experience of working on Eric Rohmer’s final film, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (SFIFF 2008), Léa Fazer’s charming romantic comedy takes place on a film set and depicts the paternal relationship that forms between a young ...

France | 85

Best Actor, Cannes Film FestivalThierry Taugourdeau (Vincent Lindon) has been out of work for a year; one of hundreds laid off from his factory, he is struggling to make ends meet for his family on his meager unemployment. From the job center to t...

France | 91

Philippe Garrel once more delves into the emotional currents of male/female relationships in his beautifully modulated new film about a married couple who work closely together on documentary projects. When the husband meets a pretty young archivi...

France/Switzerland | 70

Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his spirited little sister Jashaun, live with their troubled mother on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While Johnny looks for ways to escape his nihilistic life on the reservation by moving to...

Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his spirited little sister Jashaun, live with their troubled mother on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While Johnny looks for ways to escape his nihilistic life on the reservation by moving to...

Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his spirited little sister Jashaun, live with their troubled mother on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. While Johnny looks for ways to escape his nihilistic life on the reservation by moving to...

Tallulah tells the story of young vagabond, Lu (Ellen Page), who lives in a van and is fiercely independent in her hand-to-mouth existence. When a chance encounter incites her to impulsively "rescue" a baby from a negligent mother, Lu, at a loss f...

USA | 111

Tallulah tells the story of young vagabond, Lu (Ellen Page), who lives in a van and is fiercely independent in her hand-to-mouth existence. When a chance encounter incites her to impulsively "rescue" a baby from a negligent mother, Lu, at a loss f...

USA | 111

O.J.: Made in America has been hailed by critics and viewers as a “masterwork of scholarship, journalism, and cinematic art.” Explore this epic documentary and its examination of race, celebrity, media, and the justice system in America with its P...

65

Directors expectedExplore the latest offerings from one of the most exciting producers of short-form non-fiction work. Op-Docs is the New York Times editorial department’s award-winning section for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with w...

80

Special guest expectedAva DuVernay’s widely researched and potent film draws a connection between the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and the subsequent methods used by the power structure to criminalize African Americans. With an ...

USA | 100

Director expectedThis moving study examines the emotional toll of the April 2013 Boston bombings by focusing on the experiences of those who were gravely injured by the blasts at the marathon finish line. Following events of that day and over the ...

USA | 112

The relationship between documentary filmmakers and their subjects is one of ongoing interest. Filmmakers, who have obligations to both viewers and subjects, face a number of pressures and ethical challenges, alongside many positive opportunities....

Director expectedSamuele, an anxious young boy and slingshot aficionado with a lazy eye, is among the memorable locals who take a turn in the spotlight alongside migrants in Gianfranco Rosi’s beautiful and moving neorealist documentary. Brilliantl...

Italy/France | 108

Directors and series producer expectedLaunched in the fall of 2015 with the aim of commissioning short-form documentary work that could respond quickly to global events, the visual journalism film unit Field of Vision commissioned 22 short films, ...

80

Directors expectedThree exquisite short pieces examine the role of art and tradition in a changing world. Taking the viewer from San Francisco’s Chinatown to northern Montana to New York City, this trio of films—two of which are from Bay Area film...

89

Director expectedIn the summer of 1979, James Baldwin was preparing to write about the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, but only set down 30 pages of notes and never completed the book. Taking these writings as a focal p...

USA/France/Belgium/Switzerland | 93

Director and special guests expectedFred Peabody's informative and impassioned film examines the work and legacy of investigative journalist I.F. Stone, who is posited as the spiritual predecessor of present-day independent outlets concerned with ...

Canada | 92

In this contemplative and insightful film, director Thomas Riedelsheimer shows artist Andy Goldsworthy as he works to understand the energy of the natural landscapes that nourish his vision. A superb musical score by Fred Frith deepens our sense o...

Germany/Finland/UK/Canada | 90

Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20x24 camera. For the next 35 years she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her Cambridge, Massachusetts studio: families, Beat poets, rock st...

USA | 76

Wind River is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past (Jeremy Renner) to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native Ame...

USA | 107

Combining a virtuosic performance by Peter Sarsgaard with director Errol Morris’s legendary interview style, Wormwood examines the case of military scientist Frank Olson’s death from every possible angle, bringing the viewer face-to-face with some...

USA | 240

What, if any, difference does our current political climate make in filmmakers’ decisions about their documentary work?

65

Join us for the third edition of our annual exploration of the year’s best short documentaries from the New York Times' award-winning series.

77

Tony Zierra's compelling and compassionate film is a portrait of Leon Vitali, who for many years served as Stanley Kubrick's devoted right-hand man, often at the expense of his own personal health and welfare.

USA | 94

While politicians and pundits wax hyperbolic about immigration, crime, and the opioid epidemic, ordinary citizens experience these issues on a more personal scale.

90

Following three key officials from the Obama administration, The Final Year provides a potent reminder that real diplomacy moves forward in baby steps rather than grand gestures or overheated rhetoric.

USA | 89

Observing a public persona that was vastly different from the man she knew, Rebecca Miller determined that she might be the only filmmaker that the celebrated playwright would let close enough to reveal his true nature.

USA | 98

Actress and filmmaker Sonja Sohn (The Wire) compassionately documents the events that unfolded in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death, following local activists, police, and community leaders.

USA | 93

Since the early 1970s, filmmaker Jon Alpert has been travelling to Cuba, filming the country and its people, gaining the trust of Fidel Castro and landing the chance to travel with him on a 1979 trip to the US.

USA | 113

Meet Nick Bollettieri, Tennis academy owner and coach to some of the game’s greats. Bollettieri treated his top players like family, and the drama of his relationships with them sometimes approached Shakespearean status.

USA | 89

This fascinating dissection of the story behind Gay Talese’s book The Voyeur’s Motel and its subject Gerald Foos examines the relationships between subject and author, and between the watcher and the watched.

USA | 96

I, Tonya is a darkly comedic tale of American figure skater Tonya Harding, and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history.

USA | 120

As a visual artist and filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles, Festival 2012) has obsessively documented the ultra-wealthy and the gulf between their extravagant lives and their fundamental dissatisfaction as human beings for over 2...

USA | 107

Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, three men from the outside participate in a four-day group-therapy retreat with a group of incarcerated men for a real look at the challenges of rehabilitation.

USA | 89

Chan Tai-lee’s debut film tells the story a young man with autism spectrum disorder and the two parents struggling to look after him while dealing with fractures in their own marriage.

Hong Kong | 91

Harking back to playful horror comedies of yore, this film features young protagonist Tim Cheung (aka Rubbish Bin) who is inducted into a secret organization devoted to eradicating a specific breed of Hong Kong vampires.

Hong Kong | 94

Renaissance man Yank Wong meets his match in director Angie Chen, an old friend who decides to make a film about him to try and uncover what drives him.

Hong Kong | 91

Ambitiously tackling the frailties of the Hong Kong educational system, Jevons Au’s moving and nuanced drama depicts the attempt of a special needs school to collaborate with students from other schools to put on a musical.

Hong Kong | 98

Based on the story of the beloved Hong Kong pop band The Wynners—and directed by its drummer, Antony Chan—this jubilant biopic is suffused with period style and rousing musical numbers.

Hong Kong/China | 100

After her parents’ bodies are discovered near a local reservoir, young Connie confesses without emotion to the crime. Thus, the question at the heart of this hard-hitting debut becomes not who did it, but why.

Hong Kong | 88

Chan Tai-lee’s debut film tells the story a young man with autism spectrum disorder and the two parents struggling to look after him while dealing with fractures in their own marriage.

Hong Kong | 91

After her parents’ bodies are discovered near a local reservoir, young Connie confesses without emotion to the crime. Thus, the question at the heart of this hard-hitting debut becomes not who did it, but why.

Hong Kong | 88

With remarkable underwater sequences and a femme fatale with a penchant for setting explosive booby traps, Jonathan Li’s pulse-pounding thriller is an immediate Hong Kong action classic.

Hong Kong/China | 100

'Private Life' is the bracingly funny and moving story of Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn), a couple in the throes of infertility who try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assis...

USA | 123

'Science Fair' follows nine high school students from around the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks and, of course, hormones, on their journey to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

USA | 90

'Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland' explores the death of Sandra Bland, a politically active 28-year-old African American who, after being arrested for a traffic violation in a small Texas town, was found hanging in her jail cell th...

USA | 103