It seems like eons since I’ve attended a film festival in person but thanks to Moderna and masks I will be back at AFI Fest this year! The festival is still a hybrid so I’ve packed my schedule with as many things as I can see in person and at home. I’ve always loved how AFI Fest blends the films it picks, from the Oscar hopefuls to some expansive world cinema and shorts choices. I’ve picked a few films to highlight below that I’m excited to see at the festival.

Thursday
Compartment No. 6
A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk. Forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a larger-than-life Russian miner, the unexpected encounter leads the occupants of Compartment No. 6 to face major truths about human connection. COMPARTMENT NO. 6 shared the Grand Prix award at Cannes in 2021 and has been selected as Finland’s official entry for the 94th Academy Awards®.

Paris, 13th District
Adapted from Adrian Tomine’s acclaimed graphic novel, PARIS, 13TH DISTRICT weaves a breezy tapestry of modern love stories. Beautifully realized in crisp black-and-white cinematography, the electrifying, multicultural 13th arrondissement sets the stage for a panoramic tale of four young lovers. Lucie Zhang delivers a breakout performance as free-spirited Émilie, who begins a casual relationship with new roommate Camille (Makita Samba). Noémie Merlant (PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE) plays wide-eyed student Nora, whose new life in Paris is complicated when she is accidentally mistaken for cam girl Amber Sweet (Jehnny Beth). Stepping away from his usual genre fare, Jacques Audiard, along with script collaborators Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius, brings to life the sprawling dreams of desire and human connection in the city of love.

Friday
Red Rocket
After 20 years working in LA’s porn industry, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) walks back into his oil refinery hometown of Texas City for a fresh start. With $22 in his pocket, Mikey begs, and eventually, convinces his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law to let him move back in. After he starts dealing weed from the local supplier to help them pay the rent, he takes the ladies out for a treat to the Donut Hole. When he meets almost-18-year-old Strawberry at the cash register, his eyes open wide as he sees an opportunity for redemption.

Rex gives a hypnotic performance of a charismatic narcissist in Sean Baker’s latest film following marginalized characters. Darkly funny, bold and provocative, RED ROCKET is a challenging portrait of exploitation in modern America.

Saturday
Parallel Mothers
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film follows two women Janis and Ana (both single mothers) from the moment they give birth to two daughters. Janis is thrilled by her accidental pregnancy, seeing it as perhaps her last chance at motherhood, while the adolescent Ana is scared and traumatized by the ordeal.

Almodóvar masterfully weaves the drama of these two women around the complexity, anxiety and passion that comes with motherhood. With the birth of their daughters, Janis and Ana have a unique link and are drawn closer by the lack of support from others in their world. But this bond unravels in complicated and surprising ways that neither of them expected. PARALLEL MOTHERS is a powerful exploration of how generations and families are held together amongst the greatest challenges.

Citizen Ashe
Born and raised in a segregated Virginia, Arthur Ashe rose to the top of the overwhelmingly white world of tennis in the 1960s to achieve many firsts as the most prevalent Black man in the sport. Reticent early in his career to address racial strife in America until the events of 1968, Ashe became an outspoken civil rights activist in the fight against racial discrimination, South African apartheid and later the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS. This insightful documentary includes exclusive interviews with Ashe’s family, Black activists and tennis cohorts Billie Jean King and John McEnroe. With striking archival footage and previously unheard audiotapes, FEST alum Sam Pollard (SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME) and Rex Miller’s latest film celebrates the inspirational life of this groundbreaking tennis champion and humanitarian.

Good Madam
South African auteur and AFI FEST alum Jenna Cato Bass (HIGH FANTASY) delivers a haunting, psychological thriller steeped in remnants of postcolonialism and apartheid. Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa) and her daughter must move in with her estranged mother, Mavis (Nosipho Mtebe), a domestic housekeeper who has worked for her “Madam” Diane since Tsidi was a young girl. While living in Diane’s large and foreboding house, Tsidi is appalled with her mother’s extreme dedication and servitude even after all these years. Gradually, Tsidi’s daughter and then Tsidi herself become submissive to the whims of the rarely seen Madam. Co-written and produced with collaborator Babalwa Baartman, Bass employs stylish imagery and an ominous tone to bring this chilling narrative to life.

Sunday
Memoria
While visiting Bogotá, Colombia, Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a Scottish orchid farmer grappling with deep existential unease, becomes tormented by a sound only she can hear: the heavy thud of a falling metal ball. But when a sound engineer recreates the noise, Jessica finds that communicating the unplaceable sound in her head does not mitigate her own intense feelings of displacement. Continuing to seek answers, she travels to the mountains to meet with an archeologist researching ritual deaths, but an encounter with a local fisherman instead suggests she look to the skies and the land for answers. Inspired by the filmmaker’s own experience suffering from “exploding head syndrome,” MEMORIA is confounding and transfixing, an intriguing addition to the filmography of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES) and a deserved co-winner of the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

One Second
Master filmmaker Zhang Yimou returns to the big screen with this year’s most charming celebration of cinema. During the Cultural Revolution in China, the film’s nameless hero is sent to a remote labor camp in the desert. After escaping several years later, he has one goal – to watch a newsreel screening in which his daughter was briefly captured on film. On this journey, he meets a young orphan who has her own schemes for a newsreel, as well as a small village’s much-loved film projectionist named Mr. Movie.

ONE SECOND is an enchanting and epic fable about the transformative power of film – an opportunity to rejoice as we return to our beloved theaters.